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| View from Southbank side of the Brisbane River |
Brisbane was… AMAZING. I did so many unique things and had so much fun. My gorgeous and snarky travel partner, Savannah (also known as Sav, Savvy, or Savage), flew the hour and a half flight to Brisbane on Thursday the 16th. We arrived around 1, got settled in the hostel, and then caught the shuttle to Roma Transit center and from there walked over to Southbank. Southbank is on the other side of the Brisbane River, so we went over one of several pretty bridges. We went to the museum of modern art, and enjoyed laughing at all the horrible exhibits. We did like the Douglas Kirkland gallery—I especially liked his Marilyn Monroe pictures. We went up the ferris wheel right as the sun was setting, and got a great view of the city. Brisbane is a great city, picturesque, clean, modern, and fun.
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| View from Ferris Wheel |
We hadn’t eaten all day (common theme on this trip, we were too busy packing in the experiences to do mundane things like feed ourselves!), so we treated ourselves to dinner at a Greek restaurant. Yummy yummy kebobs! We sat outside and had a good view of the lagoon, which is a man-made salt-water pool. There were some lights under the water, and children playing nearby. Before leaving we walked around the lagoon. Savvy spotted a fruit bat in a tree, and while she was pointing it out to me, a bat nearly flew into our faces from a nearby branch! It turns out the tree was full of fruit bats. I thought of Narea and tried really hard to get a picture with limited success. We walked all the way back to the hostel, through Queenstreet Mall, basically a pedestrian-only shopping center.
The next day we went to Moreton Island, which is the 3rd biggest island made entirely out of sand. Only 4-wheeled drives are allowed on it because the roads are all made out of sand. We saw one car get stuck at a sharp turn that was particularly soft. Our tour was in a 4-wheeled van, and it was awesome! The tour consisted of me, Savannah, and a girl from Holland, and 7 stereotypical Asian tourists, 6 girls and one guy. They took pictures of EVERYTHING and had the funniest, happiest reactions. After arriving on the island from the ferry, we went snorkeling at a shipwreck. There were 15 retired ships that had been sunk to make a harbor for small boats. We fed the fish, that was quite fun. They were very tame and got close and followed us around. The highlight of that was catching a glimpse of a boxfish, my favorite ever since one nibbled on my ear in the aqurium.
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| Shipwreck on Moreton Bay Island Beach |
After a delicious picnic lunch we went sandboarding down a big dune! We went to a place called “the desert,” one of the places on Moreton Island where natural erosion has left sand dunes. I loved it, what a rush! I went the furthest on the flat part at the bottom then anyone else. While sitting on the ferry before leaving, I looked out at the beautiful bluegreen water, and I could see schools of fish the water is so clear. Savannah pointed out a sea star. And then we realized this large blob was a stingray! We could see this 6 or 7 foot ray swimming up close to the beach. On our way back we saw dolphins!
We met up with the other three girls, Alicia (Hi Alicia!) and Zel, and Alicia’s friend Alysha. We walked down towards Southbank, getting dinner and doing some shopping at Queenstreet Mall. There was a lot of performers out, a guy doing that spray paint art, and a group of people salsa dancing. Eventually we made our way to Southbank and caught the tail end of a market. That part of Brisbane felt like it had a fun active community.
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| Brisbane at night |
The next day, Saturday, we went to Starbucks for breakfast. There are no Starbucks in Townsville so we were thrilled to find one. Then we caught a tour bus to the Australia Zoo, home of Steve Irwin! First was the show at the Crocoseum. There was Bindi and her jungle girls, some reptiles, a bird show (one of the birds landed on a guy a row back from me and Sav.. oops!), little Bob Irwin came out and sang the Australian national anthem, and there was an impressive croc feeding. After that Sav and I went into the echidna enclosure and were able to play with the echidnas and feed them! Echidnas are monotremes like platypus, which means they are mammals that lay eggs. Unlike the platypus, they have spines and eat ants. They were so ridiculously cute. Really tubby and such adorable waddling! A lot were hiding out in their box, but one of them, Fatty, was really curious and came out to say hi immediately. A couple more wandered out to get fed too. Fatty almost climbed all the way into my lap while I was feeding her.
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| Echidna!!! |
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| Gorgeous tiger |
Then we wandered around the zoo, trying to see as many of the animals and feedings as possible. Bob Irwin ran right past us at one point, clad in manpris (capris for men. I was obsessed with them as Savvy will tell you), security guard chasing after. We saw a really awesome tiger show. They convinced the females to jump into the water and swim around a bit. The whole zoo was really amazing, I felt like I was really close to all of the animals, and the tiger enclosure was no exception, with floor to ceiling windows. One of the tigers leaned right next to the window. We also fed an elephant, it wrapped its wrinkly trunk around my hand. We saw a baby koala. And one of the dingos was right up next to the cage and totally licked Savannah. We also hung out with the kangaroos for a bit. I was trying to get one to take a picture with me, but they kept hopping away or moving their heads. Finally I walked up to one and said “Excuse me, I am an American tourist, can I please take a picture with you?” And immediately one posed perfectly for me and I got this great shot. We didn’t eat lunch that day, Sav and I were too busy packing everything in. We had ice cream. Later that day, we went to a pancake manor for dinner and I had waffles with ice cream, so not a nutritious day hahaha.
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| "meh, tourists" |
Sunday was whale watch day. Unfreakingbelievable! We saw a lot of pacific humpbacks and their calves. They were very calm, just floating there for long periods of time at the surface. I really got a sense of what huge creatures they were. One of them went under the boat and surfaced right next to it! The captain (the only female whale watch captain of the southern hemisphere) played Elvis for them, which really cracked me up. That boat is only one of two that is able to go into that park, so it was just a really special whale watch. Defintely the best I've ever been on.
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| Mother and Calf |
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| Humpback in front of Moreton Bay Island |
That afternoon Sav and I went to starbucks and did some schoolwork and had dinner at subway. Monday morning we flew back to Townsville, and I had just enough time to shower before class.
After that week of classes, it was lecture recess, but Kathy, Alicia, and I had a field trip for our animal adaptation class on Maggie Island.
I have a blog about that written up, so I'll post that in a day or two, I PROMISE. Its just too much to throw at y'all at once, you'd get bored haha.
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