Brisbane, Australia

Brisbane is a medium sized Australian city in the state of Queensland. It has quite a few sites to see but at the top of the list is the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

 

 

 

Places to Stay

We stayed in the suburb of Hamilton while in Brisbane. (This is because Dave was actually "working" this trip.) But we recommend that you stay downtown if you are visiting Brisbane.
The public transportation is pretty good in Brisbane. We used the "City Cat" to travel downtown from our hotel. The cost is $6 USD for a "day long" pass. The city cat was reliable and fun.
	Brisbane is also known as "Bris Vegas" because in almost every hotel and pub are "pokies". "Pokies" are short for "slot machines". We played the pokies numerous times and fortunately came out ahead!
Mt Coot-tha is a great place to see an awesome view of the city of Brisbane. We were there in the evening and it was spectacular.  There is an outdoor cafe where you can purchase various drinks and desserts. We each had a nice glass of Shiraz and we split a piece of Lamington.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

The highlight of the trip for Carroll was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. She took the Miramar Boat Cruise which leaves downtown Brisbane and travels up the river to the sanctuary. The trip is narrated and serves food and beverages.
The Koala Sanctuary has LOTS of Koala's that are up close and personal. These furry little creatures are within arms reach.
	Koala's spend 90% of the time sleeping, so it is quite difficult to get "Koala action shots". This is probably the best place in Australia to be up close to Koalas!
The park also has kangaroos which also seemed to be pretty sleepy. I was able to see some hopping kangaroos which was pretty special. There was even a mother kangaroo with her Joey.
There are also a few Emus.
No park would be complete without a Wombat!
The picture to the right shows catfish in the river. The Miramar people throw bread crumbs into the water and these fish go nuts. The "locals" frown upon this because they view catfish as "pests".

Breakfast Creek Hotel

The Brekky Creek Hotel is a must see if you go to Brisbane. It is an historic establishment that is not only fun but has great food.
	The back of the property has a large outdoor patio. (Almost like a beer garden). It is usually quite busy and for good reason.
This is one of the only places in Queensland where you can still get "beer on the wood". The bartender was specially trained to pour the "perfect" class of beer. I saw times where he had just a little too much head and he dumped the beer. Those Aussie's take their beer seriously!
	The Brekky Creek serves its food traditional "pub style". This means that it is somewhat self-serve. You will need to go up to the meat counter to order your meal and then go to the bar for your drinks. If you wait for a waitress you will be sitting at your table for a very long time.

Carroll's Brisbane Blog (2008)

Sunday, April 6, 2008

We left Dixon, CA at around 5:30 PM to drive to SFO. Since we were flying international we needed to arrive 3 hours early for our flight to Australia. We zoomed through security and then had a few hours to wait before boarding.

We were quite fortunate not to have a full flight so we were able to have an open seat between us. Service during the flight was top-notch. We were able to get a good nights sleep and arrived in Sydney fourteen hours later. 

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 (day change)

Immigration and customs took much longer than we expected in Sydney. While we were waiting for our luggage they had the cutest little beagle that was sniffing carry on baggage. When she found an apple in one of the passenger's bags, she was so pleased with herself. Her handler praised her and gave her a treat. She really knew her job.

Once we picked up our luggage we had to go through customs. Australia has very strict standards regarding food and wood products. The form and video on the plane said that you must declare any wood or food products so I checked those boxes on the form. We lucked out and an agent pulled us out of line to hand search our luggage. We had brought some snack bars which he passed through. He then asked me about the wood products. I had some pencils in my backpack that I showed him. He chuckled at me and told me that they were fine. We passed through just fine.

We then needed to make our way to the domestic terminal to catch our flight to Brisbane. We had to take a bus over to the domestic terminal and then recheck our bags. By the time we made it over there we had missed our flight. Luckily Qantas has numerous flights to Brisbane, so we got on a flight 30 minutes later.

Once in Brisbane we were met by Matthew from Healthworld. He had a car ready for us, phones and drove us to our hotel. Dave freshened up and headed over to get acquainted. I hung around the room and unpacked, rested, and stuff like that.

When Dave got back we went to the store and stocked the fridge with stuff for breakfast. We ate dinner at Lido's on Racecourse Drive. Dave had a nice salad and I had a pasta entree. Both were very good.

By the time we returned to our room, we were both exhausted. We stayed up as long as we could but only lasted until 7:30 PM.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

We woke up quite early due to our early bedtime. This gave Dave plenty of time to check email, have breakfast, and relax before going to work.

I took the City Cat Ferry into downtown Brisbane. I walked to the Queen Street Mall, which is a walking promenade with numerous stores and shopping venues that line the street. As I was browsing I spied the Brisbane School of Hairdressing down one of the side streets. I was in dire need of a cut and color so I decided to chance it. I went into their "advance" salon and was able to be seen right away. The students are supervised and the girl who worked on me did quite a good job. Four hours and $100 later I looked much better!

I met up with Dave at Racecourse Drive and we walked to "That Thai" to have dinner. He finally asked me if I had done something with my hair. I laughed and gave him a hard time for not noticing right away! We shared Pad Thai and Curry. The restaurant was quite busy and they seemed to be a bit understaffed but the food was great.

We were able to stay up a bit later but still turned in early.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

We woke up early again. (5 AM) This allowed us to have a leisurely breakfast and check email. (Brisbane is 7 hours behind the West Coast and a day ahead. So in the early morning it is the afternoon of the day before in the States.) 

Once Dave was off to work I cleaned up and headed off for the day. I took the City Cat to downtown and walked over to the Cultural Centre Pier to catch the Miramar Cruise to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.

I had been looking forward to this trip for weeks. We arrived at Lone Pine at 11:30 AM after an hour and one half narrated cruise up the river.

The koalas were the main attraction but they had other animals also. Animals such as kangaroos, emu, wallaby, crocodiles, dingoes, etc.

I cuddled a koala and had my photo taken. I was amazed how dense his fur was. He was also much heavier than I thought he would be. The whole experience was quite amazing.... Something that won't be forgotten.

By the time I got back to our apartment I was quite tired. Dave and I took the City Cat back downtown for dinner. This was Dave's first time to see downtown Brisbane. We got off at North Quay which is the upper end of Queen street. We walked past the Treasury Casino which is housed in the former Treasure building.... quite ironic.

Even though it was 6:30 PM the mall was still quite busy. We ate dinner at Mickey O'Malley's Irish Pub. Dave had the fish and chips and I had the Guinness Pie. They also have a small casino, which is called "pokies" down here. We each put in $5 and Dave walked away with $10 and I walked away with $15. It is always good to walk away a winner!

Friday, April 11, 2008

Today was to be my last day in Brisbane. I really hadn't explored much of the Hamilton area. So I decided to stay close to the hotel. I walked around the area for a few hours and discovered that there really wasn't much to see or do I walked back to the hotel and did nothing. I actually did some packing since we were leaving for Sydney the next day.

Dave picked me up at 5:30 as we were to have dinner with the people he had been working with. We went to the Breakfast Creek Hotel or Brekky Creek as the locals call it.

Brekky Creek was much larger than I expected. It had 3 different bars and a beer garden. One bar was the working man's bar. It was pretty much still dominated by men. The next bar we saw was much more ornate and it was the original saloon. There we were served "beer on the wood" which is beer right out of the wooden cask. We were told that the bartender had to go to school to learn how to pour the beer perfectly with just the right amound of foam.

We went to the meat counter to order our dinner. The Australians love their steaks. We also got to try the Kilpatrick Oysters which are bbq'd with bacon, barbeque sauce and Worcestershire sauce. After dinner we drove up to Mt. Coot-tha lookout. This is the highest point in Brisbane and has spectacular views of the city. We had a Lamington, which is a little sponge cake that is coated in chocolate and coconut. This is a very traditional Australian treat.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

We awoke early and finished packing for our weekend jaunt to Sydney. We easily made our way to the airport and checked in for our 8:45 AM flight. Once in Sydney we took the train into town to Circular Quay and we were checked into the Marriott in no time.

This blog continues on the Sydney page.....