Australia - Brisbane - The Tourist Extravaganza

The week after our trip to Fraser Island was spent furiously touristing Brisbane with a vengeance (pictures link to be found on the side bar under Illustrated Version). I had tried to save the "tourist" activities for when Mehron arrived, only to discover that there were fewer than we'd imagined. Better yet, I am singlehandedly curing the drought in Australia. Of the 9 weeks I've been in Queensland, it has rained for 6 of them. This in a state whose weather motto is "beautiful one day, perfect the next". So poor Mehron has gone from the paradise islands to damp chilly wet city living.

Our first fun-filled day was spent toodling around the Botanic Gardens (like NZ, every Australian city has some of these). We were very much looking forward to our tour of the Commissariat Stores Museum, which was advertised as a history of the Brisbane penal colony. Misrepresentation of the facts, let me tell you. Although the building itself was constructed by convicts, the museum actually outlined the separation of Queensland from New South Wales as its own state with artifacts completely unrelated to the storyline. Example: the dialogue between the governors here and Queen Victoria over the name of the new state was above a printing press. What??

As we left, it of course started raining again (if there is one cloud in the sky, it's a safe bet rain is coming) so we decided we would wait it out with a leisurely lunch. We happened upon the famous Pancake Manor, a restored manor that serves 24 hour pancakes and other breakfasts. We considered that to be a heritage site and very much enjoyed our ten dollar tour of buttermilk pancakes and syrup in the dank old mansion. We braved on through the light mist of rain that was continuing to ANZAC square, a rather picturesque plaza near Central Station. However as we approached the center, torrential rains picked up and we had to duck for cover in the subway tunnel. We conceded defeat at that point and hopped on the train back home.

Day Two we had a very late start getting out of the house at three p.m. (the morning rain was a factor) and made it to the Museum of Queensland about an hour before it closed.



Fun fact: Australia had its own dinosaur: muttaburrasaurus. We then wandered around South Bank, which is quite pretty at night time as the city lights come on. I have decided Brisbane is much better looking at night. We were due at a friend's place for 7pm to watch the State of Origin rugby match, first in a series of three games between NSW and Queensland teams (it's a big deal). Because I'm hopeless with estimating distance, we of course were late, but luckily didn't miss the beginning of the game. I made an effort to explain some basics of the game to Mehr before it started, but also gave her the fallback option: "when in doubt, imagine a complicated version of Red Rover".

Day Three was our ambitious journey to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which literally took us almost three hours each way to get to on the south side of Brisbane. Lone Pine made good on its promise; there were TONS of koalas everywhere.

Mehr also got to frolic with kangaroos and wallabies, which she has decided are not as cute in real life. Also, they smell suspiciously similar to skunks. We meant to get back to the Queensland Cultural Center as well to see the Art Gallery or the Library, but by the time the incredibly slow bus got us back downtown it was after closing time. Plus we still had to take the train and do the half hour walk home. Oh well. Next time right? ;)