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Day 82 ctd - Arriving into Roma Street at 6pm we left the greyhound and bought our weekly train travel passes before heading out to Eagle Junction. At the station we were met by Caetlin and her son Felix who drove us to their home having kindly offered to put us up for the week. Soon we were in a lovely house and ate a delicious dinner of Thai food with Caetlin, Bruce, Felix and their other son Max before climbing into a nice cosy bed.
Day 83 - And so we ventured into Brisbane, catching the train into Central Station from Eagle Junction. We walked past the impressive Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square to find Olivia a hot coffee before bumping into the large St Stephen's Cathedral. We continued on, strolling past a huge variety of old and modern buildings, to the City Botanic Gardens where we saw lots of jacaranda trees (very pretty and purple!). QUT Art Gallery was sadly shut on Mondays so we happened to pop into Parliament House where to our suprise we were offered a tour and were led around the impressive building and its two Chambers learning about the old two house system and current one house system of Parliament in Queensland. After this we walked north and crossed a bridge over the river to Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, although sadly most of the exhibitions were shut until December except for a few good video pieces. Queensland Art Gallery had much more open as we admired works by Picasso, Rodin, Whistler and many more great artists. Getting hungry we headed for a hot dog and shake at Queen Street Mall before visiting Queensland Museum which had a huge variety of exhibits from turtles, to a carriage collection, Victoria Cross stories, the last days of Burke and Wills and information on various parts of Queensland. Back across the river we walked to the sandstone City Hall, currently being renovated, before a healthy snack of Krispy Kreme creme egg doughnut with honey caramel ice cream and a rocky road doughnut with chocolate ice cream for Olivia. Snack time over we caught our train back to Caetlin's and had our first barbie in Australia with steak and sausages!
Day 84 - First stop in Brisbane today was the Footsteps Gallery of aboriginal art; however, we arrived to discover it had become the Bleeding Heart Gallery of bicycle and bike polo art! Across the road we found the temporary Museum of Brisbane, we waited fifteen minutes for it to open only to find only one exhibition was on consisting of us sitting on a wooden pier watching canoes capsize. After buying wraps and baguettes for a picnic lunch and acquiring a tomato plant for the boys we went to the Commissariat Store where our tour guide showed us around the building and taught us about the history of Brisbane and the convicts who built the store - we saw a gruesome jar of convict fingertips too. Back in the Botanical Gardens we ate our lunch, narrowly avoiding a bird attack, watching lots of energetic joggers before finding the QUT Art Museum open where we admired an architecture exhibit and art involving pikachu! We walked through the Botanical Gardens to the City Ferry point where we caught a boat around the river to the Southbank to visit the nice lagoon swimming area, pagodas, the big wheel, The Plough Inn and lots of pretty plants. The City Cat boat took us back over to Queen Street Mall for hot chocolate and black forest gateau before we did a little food shopping and headed back to Eagle Junction. After spaghetti bolognaise Bruce spotted a possum in the garden and we watched the cute little animal huddle in the tree by the deck.
Day 85 - Olivia really wanted to visit Australia Zoo so today we caught the train the hour up to Beerwah and after getting the shuttle bus found ourselves meeting lots of lovely animals. We were greeted by a tiny little pig and a lama before wandering past all the crocs with friendly names like Daisy and Norman (but not so friendly teeth). First up was the Aldabran Tortoise Show where we learnt all about the creatures as Igloo and Goliath were fed. Olivia was keen to feed an elephant so at 10.30 she queued up and fed Siam some fruit. At 11am it was time for the big show of the day, the Wildlife Warriors Crocoseum Show where, after a tribute to Steve Irwin, we saw elephants, had lots of birds swooping over us, snake showings and lastly crocs jumping up to grab bits of meat - a very impressive show. Driving via Bindi Irwin's tree house we went to Zone 4 to see more elephants, watch red pandas clambering amongst trees (it topped Cotswold Wildlife Park there) and saw a tiger relaxing in the shade. On the walk back to lunch we got to walk amongst koalas and pat them on the back before strolling through a field of kangaroos, posing for a few shots with them. After seeing our first wombats we learnt all about the cutest ever fluffy creatures at the Koala Show. Following this we walked with more wallabies and roos, then saw echidnas, magpie geese and other birds - though sadly we were too tall for Bindi's pony rides. At 2pm Catherine got to cuddle a Koala (sadly she couldn't borrow him) before we saw cows and sheep, dingoes, komodo dragons, Tasmanian devils, otters, kookaburras, a cassowary, binturongs and pythons (and the random brush turkeys and water lizards), as well as a few more koalas! After a long day we caught the bus and train back and had a yummy chicken satay dinner with the family.
Day 86 - Olivia wanted a quiet day so we stayed at Caetlin's and packed our bags, booked up hostels and the trip down to Sydney, Olivia spoke with family and, as you may have noticed, we finally updated the blog a little! In the afternoon and evening we child minded Max and Felix and treated ourselves to some Indian food (it had been too long!) of cheese and garlic naan and vast quantities of butter chicken.
Day 87 - After a morning of more internet catch-up we went out with Caetlin and Max to Mount Cootha where we could look out over all of Brisbane with its high rise buildings, river and mountains. Lower down the hill were the Botanical Gardens where we had a tasty lunch of Thai fishcakes and a chicken caesar wrap in the brand new cafe. A stroll through the gardens followed as we admired lily ponds, fern gardens, palms, bonzi trees and a huge variety of birds before completing the Hide 'n' Seek trail with Max. With a quick stop at the Planetarium for a peek inside we headed back. That evening the family had friends over and Bruce cooked us all a delicious dinner of pork and chinese noodle salad.
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