Brisbane: Day Fifty (8 December)

Our last day in Brisbane and we have a very early start tomorrow so we made the most of exploring this beautiful city.

Can you see the Australia Zoo water bottle in the picture on the right? Green and yellow are the team colours for Australian cricketers and rugby players.

I also got to enjoy a chocolate milkshake :-).

Barnaby

Australia Zoo: Day Forty-Nine - Afternoon (7 December)

After lunch we went to Kangaroo Heaven, where we could feed and stroke the roos. Then it was onto the shuttle again to explore the rest of the zoo.

The rainforest aviary was amazing: fine water sprays created a mist like in the real rainforest and there were lots of parrots. We also saw wombats being fed and had our photo taken with a koala.

Barnaby

Brisbane: Day Forty-Eight (6 December)

Another early start as today was the date for our free City Sights morning tour, including a visit to Queensland's oldest residence - Newstead House. After lunch on the South Bank, we had a relaxing afternoon on our hotel balcony.

Barnaby

Byron Bay: Day Forty-Seven (5 December)

We had to get up early this morning as we were going on a tour to Byron Bay, just over the border in New South Wales. We travelled in a minibus similar to the one that took us around Kakadu.

The weather was very different though. We drove through a massive rainstorm and, as you can see from the picture, it remained overcast and damp all day. The lighthouse at Byron Bay marks the most Easterly point in Australia.

A few brave people were swimming and surfing but we did the British thing when at the seaside and had an icecream.

Barnaby

Brisbane: Day Forty-Six (4 December)

Today we explored more of Brisbane on foot including visiting the Goodwill Bridge and the City Botanic Gardens.

I can't believe it is only twenty days until Christmas Eve. Christmas in the summertime feels very strange but there were still lots of decorations in Brisbane.

We even found a special box to send our postcards from.

Barnaby

Brisbane: Day Forty-Five - Evening (3 December)

The CityCat Ferry was included in the price of our hop on/hop off bus ticket so we got on that after we had been to the end of the bus line.

First we went upriver towards Brisbane University and then back down to Bulimba, which was the stop for Oxford Street. (Yes, there is an Oxford Street in Brisbane. It's quite a popular road name in Australia - there's one in Sydney too). We had dinner in a Thai restaurant and then got the night ferry back to the South Bank. We walked along the Boardwalk and along a flower scented path back to our hotel. Brisbane is really pretty by night as well.

Barnaby

Brisbane: Day Forty-Five - Morning (3 December)

Today we explored Brisbane on a hop on/hop off bus. First stop was the City Lookout with more fabulous views. We also saw Story Bridge (Brisbane's equivalent of Sydney's Harbour Bridge and designed by the same person) and visited the little Chinatown.

Then we got off at Anzac Square, where there is a flame of eternal remembrance for the Australian soldiers killed, to explore St Andrews church and St John's Cathedral, the oldest church in Brisbane. We discovered a service of Holy Communion was about to take place in the Chapel of the Holy Spirit so we stayed for that and then got back on the bus. This time we took it all the way to Mount Coot-tha Lookout where the views were even more spectacular.

Barnaby

Whitsundays: Day Forty-Four (2 December)

We took the ferry to Hamilton Island, which is much larger and more developed than South Molle. It even has its own airport and we flew from there to Brisbane, the capital of Queensland. It turned out to be a longer walk to our apartment hotel than we thought but when we got there it was very nice, with wonderful views.

Barnaby