Welcome to Oz!

Welcome to Australia! 

Brisbane was our first port of call into Australia. We left the cool temps of Christchurch for 90+ F in tropical Queensland. Unseasonably hot, all the locals say, summer hasn't broken. The thermometer reached 104 F the first day we were here. Movie time, a nice air-conditioned cinema that serves cold beer in walking distance of our house... sign us up! Luckily it cooled off to 90 after that.

Queensland Art Gallery

Brisbane is a lovely city build along the Brisbane River. We stayed in Paddington, an up-and-coming neighborhood just a few miles from the CBD. Getting around was easy since Brisbane has the same bike share program that Paris has (and many other cities). It was an easy ride to the river and then dedicated bike highway along the river. Riding through the Botanical Gardens that grace the CBD along the river, it was easy access to everything we wanted to do. Across the river from the CBD is the South Bank Culture area with the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art, both fabulous with good examples of Aboriginal artists, current and historical.

If we didn't feel like riding, our other fun option was the City Cat, a water taxi service that cruised about ten miles from one end of the Brisbane suburbs to the other.

the deadly cassowary 

Our time here was highlighted by visiting with Jane and Bill Hopsick and their wonderful daughters Sophie and Emily. Jane was my sister's housemate in grad school and threw a traditional Aussie barbecue for us with heaps of local delights (lamingtons, lemon-lime bitters, tasmanian cheeses, and of course, vegamite!) along with heaps of meats on the barbie. We also met them for dinner at the historical Breakfast Creek Hotel. Thanks guys, hope we see you in our neck of the woods to return the hospitality!

We also visited the classic Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This low-key tourist attraction had tons of koalas, kangaroos and wallabies, Tasmanian devils, platypus, wombats, many great birds, crocodiles and, our favorite, the cassowary. We could get so close to this massive bird (a good six feet tall) that it was easy to see the stiletto claw that is reputed to slice open it's prey, or a human that's annoying it, disemboweling it's victim. Yikers. All the pens are very accessible pins where you could get quite close to them. Now we can pass on the Australia Zoo, the late Steve Irwin's major attraction.

Brisbane is a great gateway to Australia. Now we are just north of there in Pelican Waters doing the house exchange. Looks a bit like Florida here until a cockatoo flies over or you hear people talk. I'll post about this place as soon as I get done relaxing in this comfortable home and actually see something besides the coastal bike path and the beach.

City Cat makes getting around Brisbane easy, scenic and fun.

Feeding the roos at Lone Pine. 

Pedestrian bridge connecting the CBD and South Bank Cultural Park

Kookaburra, the largest of the kingfisher family and what a laugh!