Brisbane

Brisbane

As I said I, the last post, Brisbane didn't stand out for us as a tourist city, but rather as a real, somewhere to live in city. The main city area was not very big, but had a good shopping area and, as previously mentioned, some great places to eat and drink, especially around Eagle Street Pier.

Brisbane

Together with the proximity of decent neighbourhoods to live in, I could see this being a nice place to call home - if you can cope with the heat and those huge spiders, that at least while we were there, confined themselves to the garden. And it was quite fun to have a possum visiting the garden - albeit that I gather they have a mean bite.

Flood indicators, Brisbane

There is a large botanical garden on the city peninsula, and that was a pleasant place to walk around. We spotted a strange thing with bits of wood sticking up at different angles, and wondered what it was. It turned out to be the flood level indicators over the years . They do clearly have problems with flooding here, with 1974 being an especially bad year.

Wheel, Brisbane

The main touristy area is probably the south bank Parklands. This is a landscaped section along the river bank, which has the Wheel of Brisbane, the Nepalese Pagoda, and various boat trip opportunities. We decided to try out the wheel; it was OK, but I suppose we have been a bit spoiled with having the London Eye, which is bigger and has fabulous views. One nice thing about it though, was if you went during the day, your ticket was also valid for a second trip after dark, and vice versa; we thought this was a really nice idea.

Lagoon beach, Brisbane

Something we were surprised to see along the river, was a lagoon and beach, complete with lifeguard's hut. I guess that in a country where most if the population lives along the coast line, and even in the cities, people expect to have a beach on their doorstep, only having a river just isn't good enough.

Brisbane

Other areas of town are largely neighbourhood suburbs, and as we were staying with friends, we didn't explore too far. And of course there are museums and the like if that takes your fancy.

Nepalese Pagoda, Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane

Brisbane - Friends and furry things

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

In Brisbane, we stayed with some friends, which made a lovely change. We also managed to catch up with two other people, one that Nic had worked with, and one that we met while travelling in South America.

We rather liked Brisbane, and thought it would be a great city to live in. It doesn't have a great deal in the way of tourist stuff - I'll cover that in the next post - but it is a vibrant city, with some decent shops, nice residential areas, and good places to eat and drink.

Nic at Mr and Mrs G

A couple of favourites that we tried, were the 'Queenslander' style heritage listed Regatta Hotel, and the aptly named Mr and Mrs G. The former was a beautiful looking place out in Toowong, and had a number of different areas, some with live music.

Mr and Mrs G was a great cocktail bar in the fabulous Eagle Street Pier area. The cocktails were excellent, and the food was decent too.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

The people we were staying with also took us out to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which was founded back in 1927, and is the oldest one. This was a nice little place, with other animals as well as koalas.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Duck billed Platypus, Lone Pine

We spent ages watching the strange creature that is the duck billed platypus. It took a while to come out of its hiding place, but once it did, we enjoyed watching it swimming around.

Apologies for the lousy photo - my point-and-shoot didn't cope well with the darkened room and no flash rule.

Tasmanian Devil, Lone Pine

We also managed to see a few more indigenous species, with the little Tasmanian Devil, the wombat, and the dingo.

Dingo, Lone Pine

Wombat, Lone Pine

Wedge tailed Eagle, Lone Pine

They also had a very good birds of prey show, with various birds including a wedge tailed eagle. The birds do rather swoop across the top of your head - so maybe not for anyone who has a fear of our feathered friends.

Bird show at Lone Pine

Bird show at Lone Pine

Bird show at Lone Pine

Bird show at Lone Pine

Kangaroos at Lone Pine

Of course the other animal that you couldn't be without in an Australian wildlife park is a kangaroo. The enclosure here was great, with lots of them happy to take the food that you could buy.

Kangaroo with joey at Lone Pine

Some were especially keen, and when a huge grey male decided to hold my hand with both of its front paws to make sure I didn't take the handful of food away - I didn't argue with it! It was rather nice to see one of the females with a little joey in her pouch.

Kangaroos at Lone Pine