It’s raining again…

[S] It’s taken us all week but we finally made it to Southbank on the other side of the river. Shame they were predicting a month’s worth of rain to drop today! It did rain fairly persistently but it wasn’t unpleasant.

They have done an amazing job creating tropical gardens full of colour and greenery that winds for some distance along the riverside.

[A] Sue was delighted (not!) to see all the birds. And the warnings that the "birds in this area may swoop passers-by".

[S] One part I loved was called Epicurious which was designed to introduce people to growing herbs. They had dozens of different herbs growing (as well as fruits) and everyone was welcome to pick and taste what they wanted. Brilliant idea.

All up we walked about 7 kms so I was ready for a rest by the time we got back.

At the start of our journey this morning, we visited the Queensland Museum and the Gallery of Modern Art. Both were spectacular buildings but the volume of displays was undersized for the size and grandeur of the buildings in my opinion.

There was one piece of art (which Allan will probably tell you about) which had a grand piano balanced on the nose of seal – it had a NZ connection and was quite stunning.

[A] "The piano [of course!] could be seen as the culturally and politically top-heavy North Island, whilst the South Island is playfully represented by a seal, evoking a wild and uninhabited place". And of course (!) "addresses the precariousness of nationhood... and toys with shifting ideas of State and culture". It was also pretty cool!

[S] We finally managed to have a lighter lunch so we would have room for a nice dinner to celebrate our last night in Brisbane. We went back to Eagle St Pier and chose a lovely restaurant whose specialty was steak – once we had read the menu they brought over a selection of all the steaks they had and explained their flavour, where they were from and how marbled they were. They also recommended the degree of cooking that was best for that meat – surpisingly, a lot of them were recommended to be cooked to medium. Top of the range was a 150 gm striploin which cost $110 – ouch! I wasn’t tempted to that but I did eat one of the best steaks I have ever had. The service was brilliant and I am now officially fit to bust!

Will have to walk that off because we have booked a chocolate high tea for tomorrow afternoon before we head to the airport.

The reason we came

[S] Allan was off early to his conference which of course was the reason we came to Brisbane.

[A] The venue was about half an hour away. As far as public transport is concerned, while I prefer Melbourne’s trams and Sydney’s trains/underground, Brisbane’s system is not too bad. Fares are reasonable, and the buses on routes out of town have dedicated bus lanes, often in their own tunnels – meaning that the general traffic doesn’t slow them down so much, particularly at peak times.

[S] So this was my chance to shop – one of the reasons I came!

There was a little bit of drama to start my day. I was just out of the shower after a bit of a lie in, and there was a beeping noise which escalated until it penetrated my consciousness that it was a fire alarm. Panic – what could I throw on before the firemen came?! I made myself semi decent and was about to leave the room when the announcement came through the alarm system that they were investigating the cause of the alarm and we should stay put in the meantime. That gave me time to make myself fully decent and even run a comb through my wet hair and gather up the valuables. Then they announced it was a false alarm thankfully. The alarm continued for quite some time and the fire brigade attended, but fortunately no fire. By the way, there are no photos to accompany this story!!

Anyway, after the rude awakening, it was a pleasant day pottering through the shops and then trundling home with a few bags full!

Groundhog day…in a nice way

[S] So today we got on the same train, to the same station, and were picked up by a different sister and brother-in-law, who drove us to the same restaurant. Great minds, huh?

Had a loooong lunch in the sunshine, catching up with L&K. The promised bad weather hasn’t arrived yet although there is some heavy rain predicted over the next few days.

On each of these days out, we have arrived back at Central Station at rush hour for pedestrians at least. There is a bus station underground at Queens Mall so everyone is heading there. When we wait for the green man, there appears to be masses of people at each of the four corners, so when they all meet in the middle, it is pretty chaotic. Allan’s advice was to pick a person and follow them – is that why he was behind me, do you think?

Family day

[S] Today was our chance to catch up with one of Allan’s sisters and her husband who live north of Brisbane, about half way to the Sunshine Coast. We jumped on a train and had a 50 minute ride for the grand total of $4.30 – pretty cheap considering the 25 minute ride in from the airport on Saturday cost $18.

It was another glorious day and very warm again. R&P picked us up and we went on a little tiki tour to their home, and around their local area which is riverside.

We ended up at a beach on Bribie Island which was just glorious – white sand, cool water (only paddled though) and to top it off, a pod of dolphins frolicking outside of the shark nets. Being a week day the beach was pretty deserted and looked pristine. Beach and sunshine – my happy place!

[A] Lunch was at Sandstone Point - amazing fish'n'chips with a view of the bridge across to Bribie Island.

[S] Great to catch up with family – another sister and brother-in-law to come tomorrow.

The sun is out…yay!!

[S] And 26 degrees with it. There was enough of a breeze to keep it comfortable which was nice.

Brisbane is well set up for tourists with a free bus and a free ferry to get around town. We started with the bus, not really having a clue where we were going. We came across Roma Street Parklands which had been recommended by a lady at the airport, so we jumped off the bus at what was (luckily!) the top end of the park meaning that our wanderings though the 16 hectares were all downhill. It was just beautiful – garden after garden with all sorts of tropical plants and water features. Even the grass was exquisitely green.

The area was previously railyards which were developed and opened as gardens in 2001 – amazing and well worth a visit. We did see heaps of big lizards – a bit creepy for me since I am a bit of a wimp with wildlife.

From there we ambled down to the riverfront. Brisbane is interesting in that a lot of the motorways are built over the water’s edge – I imagine that they were ‘retro fitted’ so it would have been less intrusive than going through town.

We found the City Hopper free ferry and went all the way to the end of the line and back.

It was very pleasant sitting on the top deck in the sun watching the world go by.

[A] I hopped off the Hopper and found an elephant.

And walked back to the hotel via a very impressive pedestrian/cycle bridge. Musta costa lotta!

[S] I am trying not to fill this blog with food stories, but we had a lovely lunch at the park so we were looking for a lightish dinner when we happened upon ‘Grill’d’ who advertised healthy burgers so we thought that this would be a good choice. Well it was, in that they were delicious, superb even, but following the legal requirement in Australia to disclose the number of kilojoules in fast food at 3,430 for the burger alone, I think this was a ‘yeah right!’ moment.

A bit of a dawdle today

[S] It was grey and a bit showery so we’ve not seen Brisbane at its best yet.

This morning we ambled down to a Sunday market (a bit underwhelming) and then through the Botanic Gardens which were very lush and beautiful. Actually, the whole city is very green with trees right through the CBD.

We then walked to the river front on the other side of the city centre. This was the Eagle St Pier which seems to be quite a new development. I would liken it to Darling Harbour in Sydney or Southbank in Melbourne – it had a similar vibe with lots of restaurants and a lovely walkway.

We sat and watched the world go by while we ate a very pleasant lunch. I love being able to eat outside which is not usually an option at home. Even though the weather is not great, it isn’t cold and it isn’t windy so it hasn’t detracted at all.

For dinner, we discovered a gorgeous and authentic little Italian restaurant, just around the corner. Pasta for Allan and Risotto for me, and Allan indulged in a Tiramisu, so we rolled back up the hill very replete.

Sights and lights

[S] Out of bed at 3 am – ouch! – for a 4.30 am check in to catch a 6 am flight to Brisbane this morning.  A bit of a challenge but we both caught up a bit of sleep on the flight.

We haven’t had more than the occasional night here before so it is good to have time to explore the city this week.  It’s such a pretty town, lots of art and live entertainment on the street, and the river winding through it.

Walked for miles and had reached 8,000 steps before lunch when my pedometer finally reset itself from 1pm NZ time to 11am AU time.  All fine and dandy but it thought it was tomorrow so it reset the counter. Robbed.  I would have had 14,000 on the clock if that hadn’t happened!

We found a lovely little Irish pub down the road for dinner with live music – it was LOUD!  No chance to talk over that but a great atmosphere and lots of fun.  Good practice for when we eventually get to Ireland. Allan ate a spectacular beef pie – it was huge!

By the way, he swapped my baby beer into the photo instead of his daddy beer for contrast!

[A] Finished the day with a walk admiring the sights and lights