Blogs from Kangaroo Point, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Oceania - page 2

Remembrance Day was truly a day to remember! The previous Sunday evening we caught the Jet Star red eye special from Perth to Brisbane for Marg’s niece’s wedding. The flight was over 2 hours late leaving, but was as good as you will ever get with only the odd pothole. Four hours flying time as against 14 days when we drove across in the motorhome, both cheaper and quicker! The wedding day was fine and warm, the ceremony and celebrations very family and intimate. We all know that brides scrub up pretty good, and Maree was no exception. Our niece has always had pretty eyes, and today they really sparkled. The ivory silk dress shimmered under the lights and was really quite glamorous. Corey, groom scrubbed up well too and glowed all evening, but I suspect ... read more

Ankunft in Brisbane Highlights: Brisbane River, Mangrove walk im City Botanical Garden, Possums, River Dragons (Bartagamen), Nach einem anstrengenden, aber ruhigen Flug (mit Pilzfund im Flughafen Dubai –siehe Foto) und einer kurzen, aber schlaflosen Nacht quälen wir uns bereits um 9 h aus den Federn noch nicht ahnend, dass bereits unser erster Tag in Australien einige Überraschungen für uns bereithält. Schon beim Frühstück im Cafe auf den Klippen des Kangoroo Points haben wir einen fantastischen Blick auf die Skyline, den Fluss und auf das Sozialverhalten der Brisbaner, die mit schier unendlicher Geduld wieder und wieder die steilen Treppen in den Klippen hinauf- und hinunterlaufen. Während wir noch auf unser Frühstück warten, hören wir am Fuß der Klippen seltsame Gesänge – eine Gruppe Aborigines gibt eine Vorstellung für eine Klasse Schulkinder – Jagd, Gesänge und Bumerang werfen ... read more

We got up at about 06:40 and had some breakfast. We then spent the morning relaxing and watching the boats go past on the river outside. We saw the resident kookaburra on the balcony opposite, but he didn't want to come and say hello to us. At about 10:30, we packed a picnic lunch for ourselves and headed off towards the city. We walked all the way along Southbank, looking at the flood damage and the markers showing how high the water came to. We also saw lots and lots of water dragons, some of them were HUGE! We saw ibis to and pigeons that have spiky bits on their heads. We took lots of photos of everything. We walked across the Goodwill bridge and witnessed lots of people attempting to raise an old steam ship ... read more

So, we left Heathrow an hour late on Wednesday evening. Our first flight was about 12 hours and I managed to sleep most of the way. We landed in Hong Kong an hour late, which left us with 5 hours to wait at Hong Kong airport before our next flight to Brisbane. The next flight went quite quickly and we landed in Brisbane about 10 minutes later than scheduled. We got through passport control quite quickly as the queue was not that long. We then got our bags from the baggage carousel and I got the bike box from oversize baggage. We then went through customs and because we had nothing to declare we were allowed to go through the K9 channel which meant we did not have our bags x-rayed, but were just sniffed by ... read more

So, what have I been doing since Sunday? Well, lets do this in a sensible order. Monday- Monday morning I spent sunbathing a reading a book. At about 11:50 I started walking along the boardwalk towards the Goodwill Bridge and it took me about half an hour to get to the Botanic Gardens on the other side of the river. I met Dad and John and we went for a walk through the gardens and Dad showed me where the swimming pool is. Then we dropped John back at work and Dad and I walked along the boardwalk past Eagle Street and nearly to the end where Dad turned round and went back to work and I carried on across Story Bridge. It didn't take me long to get back to the unit, and when I ... read more