I slept in until 9 am, and then went into the CBD to buy replacements for kit that broke in Japan! I then had just about enough time to explore the rest of downtown Brisbane. I visited the botanical garden and did the river boardwalk before collecting my bags and returning to the airport for my flight to Auckland.

Saturday 19 July Evening I flew back from the Whitsunday islands to Brisbane from a tiny airstrip in Proserpine. The airstrip was in the middle of sugar cane and kangaroo country, and so after check in, some of us went out into a field next to the airfield to try and catch one! Unfortunately, we failed, but it was so infested that the control tower had to fire a canon before we took off to clear them from the runway. I arrived into Brisbane fairly late and took...