sensory overload

Having never lived on a coast, I feel a little strange going through the motions of day to day life in front of a backdrop that can sometimes just floor me... we live very close to some spectacular scenery. I have taken a few hundred pictures in our first month here, most of them just of Kate in various locations. I will only post a few of the better ones here:

Kate in the hills above Sunshine Beach near Noosa.

Alexander Bay in Noosa National Park.

After a two hour walk into the rainforest in Lamington National Park.

One of our neighbours on the rocks near our apartment.

Kate, testing the water at Burleigh Heads beach, not far from the town of Surfer's Paradise (visible in the distance).

where are we?

I'm going to try to post a few things today. The first one is for those who like maps and those that have not visited this part of the world.
Brisbane in is the state of Queensland in eastern Australia about a thousand km's warmer than Sydney.
It sits between two popular tourist coastlines: sunshine coast (north) and gold coast (south). It is bigger than we're used to: 2 million and growing. The Brisbane River is pretty notable; it weaves through everything and spills out onto Moreton Bay. We live in a suburb called Kangaroo Point right beside the river across from the Brisbane City Center where Kate has just found a sweet job. I work about 10 clicks south in Nathan suburb. Kate gets to work by river ferry or a walking bridge, I bike. We don’t have a car, and don’t have much need for one day to day but we have rented (‘hired’) one almost every weekend thus far to go sight seeing.