Home Safe and Sound

It was a really early start to the morning for our trip home from Oz.  The alarm was set for 4am on Monday morning, and the shuttle collected us just after 5am to take us to the airport.  After offloading our cases, we went through Customs and I was selected as a “random” for testing for explosives.  You never joke when in this sort of situation, just stand quietly and let them do their thing.  Then we walked up to find our gate where we would board our flight, and waited, and waited, and then more waiting.  Till finally we were called onboard, and settled down for our 3 hour trip to Wellington.  We were flying with Virgin Australia and if passengers don’t want to purchase any food, only a drink of tea, coffee or water is available.

That’s our plane

The flight back home went smoothly, although I did take my duty of checking to make sure the wing hadn’t fallen off very seriously.

Yes, the wing is still safely attached

With my nose in a book, and Robin snoozing, the time soon went by, and before we knew it, Wellington came into view.  It was a nice fine day of 13 degrees, we were told.  Brr - that’s much cooler than the 29 degrees we left behind in Brisbane.

Wellington City and harbour

While we were waiting to collect our bags the sniffer dog came by.  The handler asked another passenger if he would allow a bag containing food to be placed on the floor beside him, as training for the dog.  And what a happy dog he was to find something, sit down, and receive his praise.  A family group were also stopped, and the mother explained that the children were carrying their school backpacks – seemed there was a lingering smell of fruit from the school lunches which the dog picked up on.

We collected the car from the Long Term car-park, loaded the bags and headed for home.  We had a great holiday, but it’s always nice to return home safely.

Our Holiday is almost over

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?   Our wonderful Aussie Adventure holiday is winding down, and we did a little more exploring  here in Brisbane – a very, bustling,  diverse city indeed.  Our first stop today was at the imposing City Hall.   The building was officially opened on 8 April 1930 by Lord Mayor of Brisbane William Jolly. Brisbane City Hall was built on swampy ground - this has caused the iconic building to start sinking.   The Brisbane City Hall closed on 31 December 2009, for the three-year restoration project which cost  $215 million.

Frontage of City Hall

There is a glorious pipe organ in the auditorium.  The 4,600 pipes organ was built in 1892 by Henry Willis & Sons Organ Builders in Liverpool, UK, for the Brisbane Exhibition Building at Bowen Park. It remained in the Exhibition Concert Hall until it was moved to the Brisbane City Hall in 1927.  When City Hall closed for restoration,  the organ was totally dismantled and now is back in all it’s splendour. 

Pipe Organ at City Hall

The auditorium is a large circular hall that can seat up to 2,500 people and is covered by a large copper dome.

Dome in the auditorium

Outside of the dome viewed through the museum shop

After checking out the City of Museum, we went downstairs to lunch at the lovely Shingle Inn, which looks for all like a little slice of England.  The original fixtures had been donated by the Bellchambers Family and installed into the City Hall by the Brisbane City Council.  Full of beautiful golden paneling, chandeliers, and old English style pottery and decorations, it was a lovely lunch experience indeed.    The table was set with engraved silver, together with the named crockery – so we enjoyed playing ladies and gents for a while, not slurp our coffee or spill lunch down our fronts!  We ordered waffles (with berries for her and bananas for him)  and coffee and enjoyed every mouthful.

 

Lunch at the Shingle Inn

After lunch we walked the short distance to Anzac Square  dedicated to Australia’s military heritage.

 

The Shrine of Remembrance, with its Eternal Flame, forms the focal point.

Memorials to South West pacific Campaign and Vietnam Memorial

Memorial to Korea, Malaya and Borneo conflicts

As we wandered back to the hotel we noticed that the city of Brisbane has been taking steps to protect pedestrians.  With cars being used as weapons overseas, concrete bollards have now been placed across the entrance to pedestrian malls.  Most of the concrete blocks seem to have colourful covers.

Protection for pedestrians from vehicle attacks

Today is the last day of our holiday so it will be another indecently  early morning wake-up call tomorrow.  We have a shuttle booked to get us to the airport for our trip home.   It goes without saying that we’ve had a great time, experienced all sorts of adventures and seen some interesting places in this huge country.  But like all travelers, it will be great to return home to our own beds again.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

It was “all aboard” the Mirimar 11, a catamaran built in 2009, which took us up the Brisbane River to Lone Pine.  She is 22m in length, 6m wide with a draught of 1.3m, and is powered by a couple of 330HP John Deere Motors.  Our Captain Matt gave us a very pleasant cruise at 10 kph.

 

An interesting commentary told us of the history of the river, the various floods over the years which have done so much damage, the interesting bridges, all quite different, and the mansions worth a fortune which boast a glorious river view.  Such as the Walter Taylor Bridge, a heritage-listed suspension bridge.  The bridge is unique among Brisbane bridges in that the two towers of the bridge house residential accommodation, which were occupied until mid 2010 when the last members of the original toll master's family moved out

The Walter Taylor Bridge, with living quarters in the towers

Several references were made about the terrible floods which caused so much damage over the years.  We were told that the water rose right up to the upper balcony of this lovely building, the Regatta Hotel.  A customer tied his boat up to the balcony rail and ordered a beer – hard to imagine, by quite true!

 

After a very pleasant hour’s cruising we arrived at Lone Pine.  There was just the matter of the 28 steps and a steep path to negotiate (we had been warned) and we were there.  With our pre-paid tickets clutched in our hand, we bypassed the queue and walked straight in the door.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was established in 1927 with only 2 koalas; now with over 130 of these cuddly creatures as well as a variety of Aussie wildlife, it holds the Guinness World Record for the first and largest koala sanctuary in the World.  But before we got to the koalas, we checked out the platypus – those cute little egg laying mammals which took the world by storm when they were first discovered by the early settlers.  We saw them, but with flash photography not allowed, didn’t manage to photograph them at all.  These little creatures are so quick, they zipped under the water, behind a log, up to the top for a quick breath, then back down again.  There were snakes in this area too – Australia has many deadly snakes.

Glass painted sign at the platypus enclosure

Taipan and Diamond Python

Lone Pine Sanctuary started with just two koalas, and with a dedicated breeding programme now have about 130.  They are sleepy little creatures and spend their days eating for a while, then sleeping soundly.  The koalas make rather fierce grunting noises at each other, which seems rather loud coming from such a small animal.  And can you see the baby cuddled up with Mum in the final picture?

The wallabies and kangaroos were in a large open enclosure and the public were allowed to get up quite close to them.  The kangaroos in particular were very relaxed with all the visitors.  People were walking right through the group, and young children were trying to put food in their mouths.  I had always thought that large kangaroos could be quite dangerous with their strong legs and sharp claws, but these are obviously well used to being the centre of attention.

Wallabies and kangaroos

The Free Flight Raptor Show was a real hit with the visitors too.

Sea Eagle and Peregrine Falcon

Barn Owl

Sign on the way back to the boat : Auckland and Wellington, where’s Levin?

Ice-cream time

Another leisurely hour’s cruising took us back to the big city.  Even the yachts were out on the river.  And there goes the Mirimar, after all the passengers had been dropped off.  It was a great day, and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Yachts on the river, and the Mirimar

Riding the City Hopper

It was a lovely day in Brisbane, warm and sunny, the first day of Spring we were told, and the river beckoned.  And just a short walk from our hotel, conveniently situated in the CBD.  We passed a golden hued statue glowing in the sunshine, and across the river, the Wheel of Brisbane slowly turned.

Down by the waterside

Brisbane is blessed with a wide river curving through the city, with ferries and pleasure craft all plying the waters, together with people having fun on jet skies.  We waited at North Quay terminal to board for  one of the little red City Hopper Ferries – this is a free service. 

There’s something rather surreal about criss-crossing the river, picking up passengers from stops on either side while surrounded by huge towering hotels and apartment buildings right on the edge of the river.  And we passed under the many bridges, all quite different,  crossing the river.  The Story Bridge is a heritage-listed steel cantilever bridge spanning the Brisbane River that carries cars, bicycle and pedestrian traffic between the northern and the southern suburbs of Brisbane.

The Story Bridge

We were lucky to get a seat upstairs so had great views over the river – here we are, just chugging along.

The Kookaburra Queen paddle Boat was setting off for a lunchtime cruise – and doesn’t it look glamorous!  Perhaps we could do that one day, who knows.  Meanwhile, we’ll just enjoy our free river ride.

The Kookaburra Queen

Back on dry land, we passed a group from the Army performing to raise funds for the charity Legacy.  This worthwhile charity provides services to Australian families suffering after the injury or death of a spouse or parent, during or after their defense force service.

Army musicians performing for Legacy

There were plenty of options for dinner close by and we decided on Café Mondial – a Greek restaurant we had passed by earlier in the day and the choices looked interesting.  We decided on the Hot Plate specials, Sea Food for her and Lamb BBQ for him.

And what tasty meals they were.  Two plates each, one with salad and flat bread, plus the sizzling hot plate with the most glorious aromas filling the air.  Robin declared his lamb superb, and I made short work of my seafood.

Except for the baby octopus!.  There was no way I could eat these and put those little wiggly legs in my mouth – ugh. I’m sure they are a delicacy, but I just couldn’t bring myself to try them.

I couldn’t eat the baby octopus

It was Friday evening so the streets were crowded. A group of Hare Krishna's walked by, chanting and ringing bells, then another group of Indian people celebrating something.  Large groups of friends and workmates, plenty of couples out for a night on the town, it was a lovely mild evening and people were out socializing.   There was plenty of time for “people watching” as we ate our meals – or in my case, most of it, except for those octopi.