Unfortunately our time in Australia had to come to an end eventually. Here is the last week in Oz and the first day in New Zealand! Brisbane
Tuesday Sam and I decided that we wanted to go watch the newest James Bond, “Spectre”. Plus, the Victoria movie theatre has a deal on Tuesdays. Quick movie review: It was not bad, had quite a bit of Bond action/chase scenes. I’m not sorry I went to see it, but it wasn’t as good as “Skyfall”. We went out to dinner afterwards for because there was a place that had buy-one-get-one main courses. All in all, very good evening. We almost didn’t make it back home though. After dinner, we looked up the bus timetable and it said we either had to get on the bus that left in 10 minutes, or we weren’t getting another bus until 4:30 in the morning. So that was a close one. On Wednesday we headed up to the Mount Coot-Tha lookout that we hadn’t gotten to the last time. The view was pretty neat, you can really see how expansive Brisbane city is. There are a few trails leading up to the lookout so we decided to walk one of them back down to the bottom before catching the bus back home. We wanted to go on the one that said it lead to a waterfall, but we got there and were super confused because there wasn’t one. Apparently there’s one only if it rains a lot and the moons of jupiter are in a straight line during their orbit. Okay, not the second one. But you get the point. It was disappointing to say the least. But other than that the walk was nice! Once we got to the bottom, we had about 20 minutes before the next bus, so we walked around the botanical gardens that are at the bottom. They were very pretty and well worth a look. They also offer free walking tours if you’re there at the right time. And then we got ice cream. Because it was hot. And we had hiked to a non-existent waterfall. And we deserved it. The next day we went out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary via the Mirimar River Cruise. This is a great day trip. The ferry starts near South Bank and takes a little over an hour to get to Lone Pine. Once there, you have two and a half hours in the sanctuary before the return ferry leaves, which is plenty of time to see all that Lone Pine has to offer. We walked all around taking in all the animals, which include dingos, wombats, and a platypus! The platypus was so cute. They are still one of my favorite animals, and I’d never seen one in person before. Naturally we spent a lot of time looking at the koalas and a few broke the lazy stereotype and were quite active. I held one, which makes it even better. His name was Cinnamon and now we’re friends for life. And yes, I’m aware that he was held by a thousand people before me, but I really think we had a special connection that overrides all that. (Say nothing. Let me have my dream.) Our last stop of the day was to the kangaroo enclosure, where wallabies, kangaroos and a few emu are just strolling around. And you can feed them! Obviously this made a few of the kangaroos quite lazy. They’ve learned if you lay there and look cute for long enough, you will invoke the sympathy of the tourist and they will come feed you and you don’t have to move at all. Out of principle, I did not fall victim to their scheme. I only fed kangaroos that came to me. Because then we’d have a special bond (see koala story above). All kidding aside, it was super fun. We took the ferry back to South Bank,where we got on another ferry and went under Story Bridge, which is a heritage-listed steel bridge and is the most iconic one in Brisbane. Sam and I went out for thai food for dinner, and then she headed home while I stayed out. As it appears to be standard on this trip, I meet people right before I leave their city/country. Anyways, I met up with Pat Thursday night and he took me up to Mount Coot-Tha again, and I’m telling you right now the view from up there is amazing at night. The city is all lit up and you can see how expansive it is; it’s just gorgeous. It’s my favorite part of being in cities, how they look at night. If you’re in Brisbane, I think that might be the one thing I highly suggest doing. But you need a car because the bus doesn’t run up there past 3:30pm. Friday was spent relaxing for the most part, and Cuzaunt Trish took us up to the winery which she is a member of, Sirromet. We drove around looking for kangaroos and Trish did a little bit of offroading to find one. Thankfully, the car didn’t get stuck and we didn’t get in trouble, even though this guy on a lawnmower seemed concerned. We had a wine tasting while we were there, and it was all so good. Not that I’m a connoisseur or anything, but compared to the cheap wine i usually buy, this stuff was impressive. The winery has a lookout at the top of their building, so we went up there to take in the surrounding area and see the expanse of the winery lands themselves. It was so cool to see. Saturday Pat invited me down to the Gold Coast, which is a coastal cityabout an hour or so south of Brisbane. It’s a popular place to go to the beach, and there is shopping in open air malls around as well. It reminded me a lot of Huntington Beach, but with more highrises. It was super fun, but we stayed away from the main beach, which is Surfer’s Paradise, because this weekend was the start of “schoolies” which is two weeks where everyone who has just graduated year 12 goes to celebrate and relax. Remember, the southern hemisphere is headed into summer, so now is when they have there long break from school. As you can imagine, it was starting to get a little packed. After the beach we went back into Brisbane for dinner at Eat Street Markets, which was super neat. This is thing number two on the must do Brisbane list. It’s at Hamilton Wharf and a lot of food and other stalls are in old shipping containers organized into little alleyways with live music. It was sweet. And then on Sunday I was challenged to around of mini golf and I never back down from a competition. Okay, maybe I’m the one who turned it into a competition, but let’s be real, it’s more fun that way. And naturally I lost, but in my defense it was only by one stroke. Auckland Annnnnnd now we’re in Auckland! We landed yesterday (Monday) and were picked up at the airport. We’re staying with a kayaking family here, which is great for Sam because she’s been out on the water already this morning! And I went for a run with Rochelle yesterday afternoon to the top of One Tree Hill (not the tv show), which is actually a volcano! And there is a working farm there as well, with a lot of sheep around. It was a really nice run and exactly what I needed after getting off the plane.
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Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
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