Day 11 Monday 10th October 2016
We wake up at
7.00am as the ship is docking in Brisbane. It’s not a pretty
port as we are moored at the Grain Terminal, which is a 40-minute
bus ride from the city centre.
We dress for the day. Tam’s attire consists of a top and
long, loose trousers to cover the red sunburnt patches on her
legs. I take the opportunity to call her a ‘spanner’
for the 275th time,
not that I’m one to take advantage of the situation.
Breakfast is in
Blu, where we both have the Eggs Benedict. It’s nice, but
the muffin is slightly burnt - a little like Tam (276th). Still,
the eggs are perfect.
We fetch the things we need for the day from our stateroom and
exit the ship from the gangway on deck 2. A few minutes later we
are on the shuttle bus and heading to the city centre. We booked
the shuttle yesterday and it cost $22 (US) per person. 40 minutes
later we are dropped off in Eagle Street. From here we walk to
the shopping mall to find Queens Street bus station. This proves
easier said than done, especially as there are different
underground platforms and we go up and down the elevators and
escalators trying to find platform 2. When we finally find it the
machine will not allow us to buy the GoCard we require for easy
transportation throughout the day and we end up with single
journey tickets at $6.72 (Aus) per person instead. The bus pulls
up just as we finish.
We are travelling to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and the trip takes 45 minutes, arriving at 10.30am. Tickets are $36 (Aus) for an adult.
The first thing we come across is the free range feeding area for the kangaroos and wallabies. The ‘feeding’ part has obviously eluded us as we missed the place where you can buy bags of food. We decide to come back later and instead head for the Koala exhibit. There are loads of the cute little rascals snoozing in bushes just a few feet from you. Now, Tam has a peculiar smile that creeps across her face whenever she is exceptionally happy. The girls call it her dolphin smile as it is often on display when dolphins are around. I believe we may need to change this description to a ‘koala smile’ as she walks around grinning and saying ‘Oh, how sweet’ regularly. They are infectiously pleasant little creatures, that’s for sure.
We stroll around a few of the other exhibits including various birds, dingoes, wombats and platypuses.
We finally
manage to buy a bag of kangaroo food ($2 Aus and a lot like
rabbit pellets) and walk back to the kangaroo area. This is a
large field that you can walk freely around, feeding and stroking
the kangaroos. I believe at this point Tam’s koala smile
changes to a kangaroo smile.
I can’t really explain how much fun this is. The creatures
are obviously very used to being handled and are quite happy to
be stroked and fed. I look at one female and see a small head
poke out from her pouch. I call Tam over, but it’s gone back
into its snugly home by the time she gets there. Tam then spends
a few minutes suspiciously peering around the poor creatures
nether regions. The joey doesn’t reappear, but the mothers
belly moves and squirms in a quite alarming ‘Alien’
style way. Tam backs away quickly.
We have one more thing to do. You can pay $18 (Aus) to have your photo taken holding a koala. I think this finally puts to bed the ‘dolphin, kangaroo, koala’ smile debate. Tam is grinning from ear to ear as the lady hands her the creature to hold. I do believe that, with her life to live again and the choice between having children or a koala, the children might just win, but it would be a close run thing.
We’ve had
a really nice couple of hours at this lovely place and Tam
can’t stop gushing about how much she’s enjoyed it.
Well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in Brisbane.
We have limited ourselves to two hours at Lone Pine as we want to
ride the City Catamaran up the river as this is supposed to be a
good way to see the city.
We catch the
bus back to the city and walk to a 7-Eleven to get a GoCard.
Unfortunately they cost $10 each and you then have to load them
up with cash, so it’s not worth it just for a couple of boat
trips, we’ll just pay onboard instead.
We split a very forgettable sandwich and walk to North Quay ferry
stop where we catch the next catamaran through the city. This is
a really good way to see the buildings and skyscrapers from a
different perspective. We sail down to Mowbray Park (about 30
minutes) and then back again. Again, I would recommend this; it
must be lovely to do at night.
We catch the
shuttle bus back to the ship at 3.15pm (the last shuttle back is
3.45pm) and go to the Sunset Bar for a beer each followed by a
gin and tonic for Tam and a rum and coke for me.
The weather is beautiful. Not a cloud in the sky and 27°C.
Unfortunately the view isn’t quite so good as we look out on
container ships and general port machinery. At least we can see
Brisbane in the far distance.
We are joined at our table by a couple from Melbourne (Jo and
John) and we chat to them as the ship departs at 5.00pm.
Back to the room where we shower and change and are ready to go by 6.45pm. This is quite an achievement as Tam now has multiple creams and lotions to apply to various parts of her body for cooling, conditioning, moisturising, lubricating and generally maintaining a healthy skin condition. A small bucket of each one suffices.
We are trying
the Martini Bar for our pre-dinner drinks tonight and I have a
Tropitini and Tam goes for a Sunset Martini. To be honest, we are
not big martini fans in general and this bar is not our favourite
part of the ship. The electronic dance music they constantly play
here is not really in keeping with the general feel of the bar
and we soon move across to a table just outside Cellar Masters to
finish our drinks.
At 7.00pm we go to Blu to eat. We are seated by the window,
although you can’t see much as it’s dark outside. Not
long after I mention this to Tam we pass a container ship. We are
both surprised at how close this is, we must be passing through
quite a narrow channel to get that near to another large vessel.
We also start to see lights along the coast, which are quite
pretty, so our window table has been worthwhile.
Tam starts with the Tortilla Soup and I have Prosciutto with Fig
Preserve. Our main courses are Pecan Crusted Duck Breast for me
and Lamb Shank for Tam. Mine is pleasant enough, but I
wouldn’t have it again. Tam really enjoys hers, but it is
very big and she can’t finish it all.
There’s no room for dessert, so we get a drink from the
World Class Bar to take to the theatre. I have a Manhattan and
Tam has a Tan Russian.
The show
tonight is a bloke doing a tribute to Freddie Mercury. Now, Queen
were the first band I ever saw in 1975 and I followed them
through the years, seeing them 10 times in total including at
Live Aid and their final ever show (with Freddie) at Knebworth.
Given this, it was always going to be difficult for me to enjoy
this unless it was really good.
It starts off ok with the resident band, but the Freddie
impersonator (complete with false teeth) falls more into the
parody category than homage. He plays up the gay thing far too
much. Roger Taylor is the drummer with Queen and the impersonator
makes lots of jokes about rogering. Tam enjoys it though –
as she says, perhaps she’s easily pleased.
When the show
finishes we go to the Ensemble Lounge for a couple of cocktails.
We must both be rather squiffy as neither of us can remember what
they were called.
We take a walk around the ship for a while before finishing up in
Café Al Bacio where we both have a Mocha Coffee. The squiffy
thing takes over again as I’m sure we also have a little
pastry of some sort, but neither of us recalls what they were
either!
We’re back
in the stateroom and in bed by midnight. It’s been an
excellent day and we really enjoyed our visit to Brisbane.
Just before I turn off the light I glance across at Tam. I’m
sure I see just the briefest glimpse of a koala smile on her
face.