Our first stop in Australia is the city of Brisbane. Initially we selected Brisbane as a launching point for accessing the Great Barrier Reef with our travelling companions for this leg of the trip. Lisa and Pete were due to join us from Ontario in nearby Gladstone along with Aussie Ian and Aussie-Canuck Sarah. We thought, “Why not arrive a few days early and check out Australia’s third largest city (thanks Wikipedia)?” Having a couple of days to fight off the jet lag sounded sensible as well!
Well it turns out Auckland is a lovely alternative.
After escaping the “absolute chaos” of Auckland airport we arrived in Brisbane late Friday night on Robin’s Birthday, a little too late to do much about seeing the city or exploring the Gold Coast. We cancelled the quaint B&B and booked one night at the airport Ibis Hotel. An improvised birthday dinner of fried pakora and halloumi salad turned out much better than anticipated!
With a 1:30 departure to Gladstone on Saturday Sarah and Ian convinced us to meet them downtown for a quick visit to Brisbane. The flight from New Zealand found us 3 hours behind local time, so a planned 9 am meetup turned into 7:30 when we sprang awake at 5! Off we set on the Airtrain- an amazing service that runs from the Brisbane Airport through the city all the way out to the Gold Coast.
We were really taken with Brisbane, it’s only “flaw” being the sub-tropical humidity. This is a city built to support and encourage activity: the network of walking/ biking/ scootering trails was really impressive as was the effort to shade pathways and build places for families to enjoy the water.
Brisbane doesn’t hide its convict colony history but it is also a modern, vibrant place with the mangrove-brown tinted river at its centre.
One of the things I was most looking forward to was the chance to see wildlife in Australia in its natural habitat. You can imagine my excitement when I captured this photograph of a bird I would later discover is a white ibis!
I was soon informed by Ian and Sarah that this is Australia’s most reviled bird, better known by its sobriquet “Bin Chicken”. Imagine going to a fast food restaurant parking lot in Ontario and excitedly snapping pictures of a scavenging seagull. You get the idea. Still, a pretty cool looking bird.
On our way back to the train station Ian led us through the grounds of the Queensland University of Technology (Ian’s alma mater) which is adjacent to the botanical gardens. A beautiful campus right on the river.
After training to the airport we caught a short flight to Gladstone which is our jumping off point to our Heron Island trip. There we met up with Lisa and Pete who had just arrived having enjoyed a blissfully uneventful trip from Newmarket. No cardboard mattresses for those two.
On the recommendation of Ian’s brother and sister in law we went to the world’s most unpretentious yacht club for dinner. The Gladstone Yacht Club felt like a combination of curling club and Legion Hall in the very best way. Beautiful views, cold drinks and simple, fresh and delicious sea-food.
A great way to end a busy day.
Tomorrow we head out to Heron Island for three days of exploring the Great Barrier Reef. No cell or wi fi guarantees so the plan will be to provide an update on our way to Adelaide.
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