haha, andy, took me 10 hours to the gold coast, from MY house.... i'm 45 minutes north of thornleigh, BUT i'm goign to start down there... i just love the drive!!
and yes she does have friends... she also reads the forums!!! umm yeah, its her friends, plus some of mine, so yeah, we jsut need to grab our gear in the morning before leaving my house, and either take it to her house (round the corner from thornleigh) or travel with it....
option B is to grab it on the way out (probably the best really)
i would suggest you don't get up that early, you'll be rat s*** on saturday!!! if you leave at 6 you should get here at 5pm local time... (remember we are an hour ahead of you)aim for 8pm... so this means a departure of 9am brisbane time