Brisbane/Gold Coast Part 1

In the last set of posts we answered the question, "Why Prague?"

So now we answer, "Why Brisbane?" We experienced lovely autumn days in Prague so naturally we thought we needed to explore spring in Australia. We are working our way across Australia and decided the next stop should be Brisbane- and we decided to visit Spring in Brisbane about 3 weeks after we returned from autumn in Prague.

We really enjoyed ourselves. We first spent a couple of days in Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast- Surfer's Paradise is the name of the town and Gold Coast is not named for gold but for sunshine.

Then we moved on to Brisbane for the rest of our visit. They are situated about 1.5 hours apart.

Views from the hotel in Surfer's Paradise. and a couple of beach views. There are 35 km of beaches. (B note: we had a relaxation suite so the room was curved and had heavily blue tinted windows. Take our word for it, the view was gorgeous!)

Lots of tennis courts!

It got a little cloudy on this day but it was still fun to walk along the beach.

We found an interesting restaurant: Pancakes on the Rocks. They serve mostly pancakes all day long. We had one "entree" and one "dessert." (B comment: can you guess who got which?)

Surfer's Paradise draws a lot of people. It is a haven for surfers, but it is also filled with a lot of bars and clubs and there is a significant nightlife here. We were there on a Saturday and Sunday night. Saturday night at roughly 2 AM there were very large crowds of people out and about. Beyond the surfing, etc., there is every type of theme park: water world, movie world, dream world, sea world...

Our room overlooked the main drag. We had a noisy window we had to get fixed. It was windy and every time the wind kicked up there was a really noisy whistle. We didn't think it matched with the "relaxation" suite theme. After the all night noise the first night, on day 2 we stopped by the hotel desk to tell them about the whistling. They came and sealed the window. Yay!

Our hotel offered free shuttles to a few places so we took them up on the offer to travel to the
Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.

It was an interesting place to explore. Lots of acres of eucalyptus and rainforest. It was started by a beekeeper. He started feeding wild rainbow lorikeets to distract the birds from eating his prized flower blooms. The feedings got popular and the place turned into a sanctuary.

I'm not a big fan of hands-on photo ops with wild animals but they had quite a few here - for an extra fee, naturally. The most popular venue seemed to be the "cuddle-a-koala." Large queues to get a photo next to a Koala. I don't think there was any actual cuddling.

Hopefully the animals are not stressed. Is it worth it to raise money? It's a not-for-profit with all revenue reinvested back into the park, in conservation-based research, public education and caring for sick and injured wildlife.

We did a Segway tour of the place first. We've done Segway tours a couple of times but never in a crowded place like this. We were there early so that helped but our guide had to ring her little bell quite a few times. I don't think most people were disturbed by having to move out of our way, but they may have thought us a little odd. The ranger who led the two of us around was very knowledgeable so it was fun. I will say, however, we had to keep both hands on the Segway so the only time we got to take photos was if we stopped and got off the Segway.

After our tour, we roamed the park a second time. At that point we could take photos. There are all sorts of shows and even a zipline added into the mix here. Such a great sky! Remember it's Spring so there were lots of trees in bloom.

Wonderful snake sculpture!

 Black-necked stork.

 Australian Brush Turkey

The on-site hospital takes in over 9500 animals a year!

We stopped by the hospital and were able to watch a small carpet python undergo surgery to amputate part of his tail. The vet and tech explained that he had been hit by a car and the injury had become life threatening so they decided to amputate. After a recovery period at the hospital the snake would be released back to the wild. A few other visitors stopped by this very interesting place but we were the only guests to hang out and watch the surgery. Cool!

We tried to donate money for the hospital but we couldn't find anyone who would take our money. We were shifted around the park by several helpful folks, but ultimately, the place we needed to go was closed on that day, inexplicably.

Once again, the food court at the sanctuary was a draw for wild ibis. Despite the multiple signs on each table, folks tend to just walk away and leave the remains of their meals sitting on the tables. I guess the Ibis don't read the signs either.The ibis show up in seconds and rip into the scraps. Workers try to pick things up quickly but I wish more folks would bus their own tables as the signs suggest. I stood up long enough to take a photo of the birds with only a drink on the table and one of the birds hopped up onto my chair ready to attack whatever was on the table.  We thoroughly bussed our table when we were finished!

As I mentioned, rainbow lorikeets were critical in the establishment of this wildlife sanctuary. The birds are still provided food 2x a day. Large numbers of wild birds know to fly in for food at these times. We were there too late for the early morning feeding and too early for the late afternoon so we missed seeing the huge flock. At times of the year when wild food is available to the birds, fewer lorikeets show up at the feedings.  We did, though, see a few of the lorikeets in the trees so we didn't miss the lorikeets entirely.

Such pretty skies.

We received an unexpected gift at check-in for our stay at the Gold Coast --a $100 gift certificate. I opted for a 1-hr  Hands, Feet and Scalp Rescue at the Spa. Fab! They also let me use a 15% off coupon I found for the spa. They were very nice. A win-win for me- a great massage for free. B didn't feel like a massage that day or we could have 2 massages at 50% off for each.

Brisbane/Gold Coast Part 2

We transferred to Brisbane for the rest of our time in Australia. In Brisbane we visited several museums and three parks/gardens.

We did a lot of walking here as well. Our first walk was to the old city garden of Brisbane. They have a new official city garden but it's way outside of town. We saw this interesting building on the way.

The old city garden was really interesting and pretty. This is the first Eastern water dragon we saw while visiting Brisbane and Queensland on this trip.

We saw eels in the small ponds within the park. I read after our visit that you need to encourage them to be seen by slapping the water with your hand. I guess we didn't need to do it, the eels were right there to be photographed.

 Lovely water features.

 Another dragon.

 Wild ibis in the trees.

 Yep, another dragon or two.

A gorgeous sunset with Brisbane City Hall is lit in red on this night. The color scheme seemed to change nightly.

We had a good time at the Queensland Museum. We explored the natural history parts of this museum. They also have special changing ticketed exhibits but none of those appealed to us.  The natural history part was great. The Wild State gallery highlights the remote outback, coastline and ocean environments showing the beauty but also the fragile state of these environments. The exhibit also suggests how we can preserve this natural world.

Beyond that, we learned a very important thing. As background, we occasionally catch episodes of Master Chef Australia. We have repeatedly watched episodes where they are passionately cooking something they call "bugs." We had guessed this was a lobster. Nope! Not a true lobster but is somewhat related. Doesn't look much like a New England lobster. Other common names include slipper lobster or flathead lobster--even though it's not a lobster. Some might call it a crayfish. They also have something in Australia they like to cook is called a yabby. This might be a freshwater crayfish but might be saltwater. It's all very confusing. At least now we know what a "bug" looks like.

We also actually saw "bugs" on a menu.

We saw all sorts of cool insects, birds and other critters. But in another area of the museum we saw this old Singer sewing machine and a Mother Pott's iron circa 1939.

Another spot we visited was the Queensland Maritime Museum.  The hotel concierge didn't even recommend going there as he said every time he passed by the Museum it appeared to be closed.  Of course we went anyway. As we got closer to the place we understood why someone would assume it was closed all of the time. You approach it from, say the south, but you need to walk practically all the way around it to find the entrance which is hidden under and bridge.

This is a small place but the highlight is the Royal Australian Navy's WWII Frigate HMS Diamantina. Built in 1945 it is the only remaining River Class Frigate in the world. The ship had 2 types of radar, the cavity magnetron Type 271 radar and for aircraft detection  radar Type A286Q.
The Japanese forces at both Nauru Island and Ocean Island signed surrender documents on board this ship at the end of WWII.

The ship was recommissioned in 1959 as an oceanographic, meteorologic and hydrographic research vessel. In February,1960, the ship discovered the 1200-nautical mile Diamantina Fracture Zone, then the deepest known part of the Indian Ocean. Approximately 150,000 square nautical miles of the Southern and Indian Oceans are named the Diamantina Zone in its honor. The research of the East Australian Current conducted aboard the ship changed the face of dynamic oceanography.The ship was very long but here is part of it.

The ship sits in dry dock. We could freely roam through most of the entire ship. Interesting.

Near this ship we also toured Southbank Parklands- another park/garden. I noticed this which I thought was really helpful to cyclists. Cool! You are free to use the station but please don't chain your bike here and walk away!

At Southbank Parklands there is a manmade lake and beach as well as a pool. I imagine this place is pretty crowded on weekends this time of year, but it was pretty quiet on this day.

It was a pretty warm day and we stopped for refreshments a couple of times. Both times B enjoyed a Coke. In version one he got a huge bottle with a small glass. In version 2 he got a huge glass and a tiny can (200 ml). Funny!

There are all sorts of gardens and plants to see at Southbank Parklands, but apparently we didn't take any photos of it we just enjoyed walking through and looking at the gardens.

Brisbane/Gold Coast Part 3

One day we hopped on the free waterway public transportation system just to take a tour of Brisbane from the water. We just got on and stayed on until the boat finally reached our real destination. In doing this we were able to make a big trip out and a return to a spot we could have gotten to on foot but the boat trip was interesting. No photos though. We were too busy looking around I guess.

The third park/gardens we visited was ROMA Parklands. This is considered a contemporary display garden and was fantastic. Lots of photos. To get here we walked across a very long elevated pedestrian walkway that passed a main transportation station. We didn't encounter any "swooping birds" but they must sometimes be a problem.

 If anyone knows what this plant is, I would like to hear from you. It is really striking.

 For the ibis.

 Yes, another dragon.

 They hadn't yet planted the annuals in these beds.

 These are ponytail palms.

You know what this is by now, right?

Parks are great to visit in the Spring.

We tried to visit the Museum of Brisbane inside Brisbane City Hall one day but we arrived so late in the day we had only minutes to glance around. The next day we returned for a better look. The small museum tells the story of Brisbane. It also had an Origami station with directions on how to create several Origami critters. 

They had a display on diversity. In it, they posed questions and then answered them by demonstrating how many people out of 100 were the same. One started by taking an ethnicity quiz, i.e., answering questions about your sex, where you were born etc. Then they showed how you shared so many characteristics with others. Very interesting and we sat and watched it for along time. 

I really liked this painting (though I would probably frame it differently if I owned it) in the Museum. "The Veranda" by Miles Evergood, Brisbane, 1931.

I also liked this mural painted by Karla Marchesi in 2014. Titled "Thresholds," the artist painted it as a memory of her family's front yard as she grew up. Her home seems hidden in the mysterious jungle she remembers from childhood.

Last, but certainly not least, I was able to meet a friend, Joy,who moved to Brisbane very early this year. She is from Australia and I think is the only person I've ever heard use the expression of shock or amazement, "Crikey!" that you hear in movies sometimes. We met for a very long lunch one day. It was great to see her after so many months. Another friend also lives in Brisbane (she moved away in 2016) but she was in New Zealand with her mother at the time B and I were in Brisbane so I wasn't able to see them both. Both ladies were part of my Needle Nomads stitching group.  Here we are after lunch. This pedestrian walkway area was filled with giant Christmas decorations and some store windows had been decorated. It felt odd on the one hand because it's late spring in Brisbane. But it was November so it made perfect sense on the other hand. They had just gone up a day or two before. Notice the teddy bear! We both tried to do selfies and neither of us are very good at it.