A few hours in Brisbane

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C: Our flight arrived into Brisbane in the evening and after our airbnb host kindly collected us from the airport we headed out to explore what the city had to offer. It was really busy, very different from NZ cities, people everywhere. We found the main shopping street and a nice square dominated by the impressive city hall. After a bit more of a wander we came back to the square for a drink and a plate of an Aussie signature - potato wedges with sour cream and sweet chilli sauce. if you haven't had this, try it, it's great.

We only had the one night in Brisbane and our flight away was just after lunch so we got up early to spend the morning in the city. We walked across a quite impressive bridge to the southbank of the city and meandered through a pretty park and past a swimming lagoon. There were loads of restaurants in this area so I think it would be a good place to go in the evening. There was also a Tibetan pagoda which was inevitably surrounded by east Asian tourists and the whole area was full of Chinese lanterns.

We continued to walk along the river, crossing over and going through the botanical gardens. We wanted to find somewhere for a spot of brunch but as it was ANZAC day, which is a national holiday, a lot of places were closed. We eventually found a nice cafe overlooking the river and after a few minutes it was clear that a major event had just finished in the city as suddenly there were military personnel everywhere! We walked up to one of the main streets and came across a major military veterans parade complete with tanks and flyover. We joined the crowds and watched for a while. As we walked on we saw the best ever military machine - a sheep!! walking along with a soldier. It was clearly an official sheep, uniform and everything!

We didn't have a lot more time so after a bit more sightseeing including a very grand Italianate post office we went back to the Airbnb and then on to the airport for our flight to Proserpine.

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