We arrived in Brisbane two days ago, it is about a 3.5 hour flight from Christchurch. We didn’t realize it when we booked the flight, but we arrived on Australia Day, which is their equivalent of 4th of July. We arrived at around 5pm and by the time we got through customs, got our rental car, did a bit of grocery shopping and checked into our Airbnb it was dark. We are farther north, but I think it is mainly a quirk of the time zones that causes sunset in Brisbane to be more than two hours earlier than Christchurch.
We were a bit lazy our first day in Brisbane, slept in, and didn’t get going until after lunch. First we went to the Queen Street Mall.
It was basically just a big street mall with a good range of shops. We each bought a couple of things, but as usual we have to limit our purchases to what we can fit in our small bags. My plan this time was I brought mostly disposable clothes (like the plain white T-shirt in today’s pics) so I can throw them and replace them with new items I buy.
After that we walked over and took a ride on the Brisbane Wheel.
Also in that picture you can see their river ferry at the bottom left. After the wheel we took the ferry to Eat Street. The ferry is really nice, it is like a big water bus. Most ferries I’ve been on just go back and forth between two ports, but this one goes up and down the river making a dozen stops or so. The stops are quick, like 30 seconds, just enough to let people on and off. They had it down to a science, tie to the pier, lower the gangplank, open the gate, close the gate, raise the gangplank, untie and go. It was a powerful catamaran too so it got up to speed quickly, but was very stable.
Yanmei enjoying the fresh air and sunshine on the ferry. The main drawback to the ferry is it has to follow the Brisbane river, which isn’t straight, so it can take longer than alternative transportation. Here was our route:
Eat Street is another container mall, made from shipping containers, but it is almost all food. So it is like a giant food court but all independents, no McDonalds, KFC or other franchises. It was like a big gathering of static food trucks. They also had a few stages with live musicians.
Cool french fry on a stick made from a whole potato. Yanmei said she “wasn’t hungry”, but when I gave it to her to try this happened:
After dinner we headed back to our room.
David