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We caught the shuttle for Cairns at 4:15am. We took the “back roads” route from Port Douglas, first up over the coastal mountains, south through the tablelands west of the mountains, then back over them again into Cairns. It took about two hours (twice as long as normal) but we got to Cairns at 6:30 for a 10am flight. Fortunately, the airport had a couple nice options for breakfast. After an uneventful flight, we arrived in Brisbane about noon. Our hotel was only a couple blocks from the Central train station, but once again the maps didn’t give us a feel for the elevation changes. What is it in the southern hemisphere with all these cities built on hills? Anyway, after checking in we were off on our own for a walking tour. The CBD of Brisbane is on the north side of the Brisbane River, but the city has redeveloped the south side with a number of public buildings; libraries, museums, performing arts etc. as well as “the South Bank Parklands” which is a long riverfront park with a number of gardens and spots where you can get a bite to eat. All very well done.



First we checked out the Gallery of Modern Art which had a number of interesting exhibits including one by contemporary aboriginal artists depicting aboriginal themes, very interesting. Afterwards we walked through the main Queensland Art Museum, again very interesting, but we were fading a bit so we continued walking to the South Bank Parklands in search of dinner. We didn’t have to go far before finding an outdoor pub. What a nice play on the idea of a pub. Shortly after we arrived, a lady folk singer started playing and the weather was pleasant, the food was good (the beer was very good) so we just had a very relaxing dinner. After dinner we continued our stroll in search of our major vice, ice cream. We found it at another little eating area, this one next to a little pond featuring about half dozen ibex birds. What we didn’t see till we sat down was that there were also some large lizards including one sitting under the next table over, had we picked that table before seeing the lizard we’d still be screaming. After desert we strolled over the river and up the hill to the hotel to get organized for the flight(s) home.



The next morning we took the tram to the airport for our flight to LAX. For some reason our flight had extra security, after the normal check-in, customs, and security maze before we could get to our gate we had another checkpoint specific to our flight. Before we boarded, the police came by and checked the luggage with a dog. Whether they were looking for drugs, explosives, or something else we never knew, but we finally boarded and headed east across the Pacific. Overall it was a reasonably pleasant flight. We were in daylight the first five hours or so and were able to spot some coral atolls as we flew over. South of Hawaii we had our first sunset of the day and most of the passengers settled down to watch several of the hundred or so movies available at each seat. Between us I think we watched five or six on top of the ones we’d seen on other flights. Early in the morning local time we landed at LAX. After doing the passport & customs thing in both Australia and New Zealand, seeing the US approach was embarrassing. Maybe it was early and the day shift hadn’t arrived yet, but while there must have been fifty possible lines for passport checks, only about 10 were staffed even though our 747 and another Qantas A330 arrived at the same time. We ended up standing in line for a good half hour. Fortunately we had plenty of time for our connection to JFK and got to the gate with time to spare.



As most of our flights have been, the LAX to JFK flight was almost full and we got the only really poor seats we had on the whole trip, the two in the middle of a 2/4/2 abreast set-up. Connie was able to get some sleep, but not Pat. Finally we got to New York ready to swear off flying for at least a while. After getting our luggage, we met our limo driver, experienced our second sunset of the day, and got back home in the unusual spring like weather in New England. Overall we had about 27 hours travel time (covering almost 10,000 miles) which was a few hours shorter than the outbound leg due to the prevailing winds.



We’re glad to be home, but wouldn’t have missed the trip for the world and hope you have enjoyed reading about it and seeing our pictures. The next trip…

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Photos

Outdoor art
with the CBD in the background

Aborginal style basket
made from the material of the "rabbit proof" fence.

A doubledeer
at the Galary of Modern Art

Indoor water feature
at the Queensland Museum of Art

A walkway in the park
see the Ibex in the corner of the picture, we ate ice cream just to the left.

Brisbane CBD
At dusk from Southbank

It was raining hard when we left Brisbane
but this is how we spent the next 11 hours.