Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Brisbane
After collecting our bags we jumped in a taxi, with what turned out to be the most miserable git in the world. In the taxi i also noticed that i had lost my wallet, some how it had come out of my rucksack.I was extremely pissed with myself cos it was on top of all the food and stuff in my bag when i'd normally tuck it down in the pocket. We checked into the hostel and the chap wanted our id (at this stage i had all my bag out trying desperately to find my lost wallet and so wasn't really listening), Sam explained to him that i didn't have it cos had lost my wallet. Then she asked summit bout id and i snapped back 'hasn't he seen yours ?'. he wanted both of ours i hadn't realised ...i got really huffy having to get my passport out of the bottom of my bag and slammed it down on the desk. I think the people behind the desk must have thought what a moody b****!!!
We dumped our stuff in the dorm where we realised that people must have been living forever; stuff everywhere. Also there were two couples with bunk beds that were sleeping just in the bed on the bottom..GREAT!!! Any how after ringing round the airline etc to try and sort out the wallet situation we tryed to get on as normal ....having to live on Sam's money which was soon running out so felt really bad, we had to be quite carefull. We wandered into the City to catch a bus to a Koala sanctuary Sam had been reading about; hopped onto the bus eventually after trying to find a non existent bus stop, but realised we didn't have enough cash for the both of us!!!! The next bus was another hour so we called that idea a day; we could go tomorrow.
Instead we walked across the bridge to the South Bank, where there was a museum, two huge art galleries, a library etc.. We decided to have a look around one of the art galleries. It was a very large modernbuilding with an array of differing art. Besides a lot of the pieces they had written puzzles and information to involve younger children as well. They also had an interactice area for kids.
One of the pieces i particularly liked was a full scale (i would imagine) sculpture of an elephant with lots of white bindis all over it (i know this probably sounds a little naf but believe me it was very beautiful). It had lots of modern and contempary art; one piece a huge chandeler hanging above water (lots of beautiful colours reflected in the water).
Back at the hostel we made dinner and chilled. There were two nice dutch girls in our room who we chatted to about our travels. We got a reasonably early night though it was a bit of a noisy hostel.(it had its own bar). In the morning we were rudely awoken to the bars music blarring at about 8:30...what the bloody hell were they playing at, i buried my head in my hood and put my fingers in my ears (i was wearing my hoody as my bunk was directly under the air con and so i had got chilly in the night, which was probably a lot more pleasant than the previous three weeks of being to hot and sticky). Despite the music and the wallet situation i felt relaxed and had a nice lie in for a bit. Eventually after a late breakfast and some internetish we headed into the city again catching the bus we nearly caught the day before (after i had been into the sta travel to claim on my insurance only to be told that they couldn't help me cos the insurance were all different so i would have to call the uk!!!!!!!).
We arrived at the Koala sanctuary in spots of rain but they wasn't gonna bother us anyhow. First stop lorikeet feeding (oh...if you hadn't already guessed it wasn't just Koala's .....there seemed to be the whole of Noahs Ark there). Three o' clock one of the staff poured what appeared to be slop into many round bowls on sticks placed in a log just off one of the paths. Nothing happened ...probably a little bit inpatiently i had expected flocks straight away.....though it had been raining and i guess they needed a bit of time to dry off etc... A little while later still no movement towards the food though they were visible in the high trees above...maybe they just weren't hungry. a lot of people had given up by this stage but we stuck with it and low and behold ...there they came ...many of them. Such bright beautiful birds, all the colours of the rainbow on them. They were obviously used to alot of human activity as we were ableto pick up the bowls of food as they still ate from it. ( so touristy but what te hell ....got to see them so close).
We then walked through the area of park housing the Kangaroos, which were also very tame even more so than the ones in the National Park, people were hand feeding them. Still very much impressed me, such cute looking animals with lots of personality.
The Koalas again didn't cease to amaze and amuze me, we also got to see them really close up. There just permanantly stoned, they spend 19 hours of the day asleep; ' it's a bloody Koalas life'. They are so cute though thought s of smugglig them out under your clothes just can't e helped there like reall live teddy bears.
There was also many more great creatures; some boxing wallabes.. were bloody hilarious...i think it was all over a lady...who also seem to be in the fight too!!! There was a rather cocky cockatoo, who loved to be the centre of attention. a couple of beautiful dingoes that looked so much better fed than the wild scrauny thing we seen. They had such an array of animals there was even a small farm yard with a very naughty sheep who wouldn't get in the paddock. The wombats were flaked out inside logs so we had a lovely view of there snouts and arses. these and many more later it was time to catch the bus home!!
We sat under the shelter outside awaiting the bus, well i say shelter it only had a roof which is perfectly fine unless you in a in coming thunderstorm with orizontal rain!!! As you can imagine we were getting pretty saturated, there were also four other brits under the shelter two of which had a taxi going back to town; they kindly offered us all a lift as they had a large taxi coming.(they also wouldn't let us pay any money for it either which was really nice of them ...lots of good things happen to balance the bad ones). One of the ladies had won the holiday to Brisbane, they seemed very happy chirpy people and were enjoying there good fortune.
We went into the city in the evening to enjoy it at night, there were some gorgeuos buildings lite up and some fern ball sculptures also lite up. It all looked very pretty and had quite a chilled atmosphere about it even with the usual drunkeness on the street. One old grand looking building housed a casino and a nice cafe( cafe 21) which we didn't realise was part of the Casino and were almost not let into due to my lack of i.d. ( lost wallet issue). We only wanted tea and cake!!! He thought we were lying when we said our age..are we always destined to look 15???!!!! He did 'let us eat cake' though, we shared a yummy choc/nut slice, soo much nut it was great.
Next day 'Australia day', i'm ashamed to say i don't actually know what date it signifies but nevermind.( i shall look it up !!!..when i can be arsed). We headed across to the south bank as that was were all the activity was centred. We were there quite early just as it was kicking off in a nice laid back manner. We got lots of free sun cream a free australia flag which we flew, and sammy went the whole hog and got a tatoo of the Australian flag on her arm. (i hate to dissapoint you but i must say it was only a fake transfer one!!) never- the-less we were getting into the day.
It was a very chilled day and we have realised we have turned into two old women almost overnight. We sat and watched brass bands and big bands which were great and we enjoyed so much. The first band also had a strange accented guy conducting it; definetely not an aus( unless were both stupid), but most defineltely from the westcountry...lots of sorta ooo aarring (soo odd we couldn't help but laugh). There was also a girl guides perforance which we both were looking forward to....but it was a dissapointment, because it was obviously the older ones young leader age or up doing an extremely cheesey bad taste performance!!! We also watched a Punch and Judy show...which was bloody fantastc and took me back to childhood... so fuuny we joined in with all the ' its behind you etc'. (for a piece of useless information the puppetere was also the only australian that had a licence to perform punch and judy tin Covent Garden). Well a good day was had all round, though it had to be cut short as we had a plane to catch back to NZ( our new home). One thing i missed on the south bank they also have a replica beach; with sea, life guards, sand etc (quite i nice idea we thought), lots of people were enjoying it.
On the air train and home via a nearly missed brawl with the airport staff in aus!!!!( as they questioned us on what we were doing back in nz and we nearly had to get our return flights out pf the bottom of our bags!!!)
- comments