Currency:
Australian Dollar

Highlights:
Coming back to Queensland to check out the Gold and the Sunshine Coast

Our Adventure:

We jumped on our 10h05 flight from Sydney to Brisbane and arrived just over an hour later in Brisbane - the capital of the sunshine coast of Queensland.

Brisbane is an ideal base for exploring all of Southern Queensland from the holiday spots of the Gold Coast to the south and the Sunshine and Fraser coast to the north but unfortunately due to our time constraints we would be bound to the city of Brisbane for a day and night of exploring.

We jumped on the Airtrain from Brisbane airport and got off at Roma Street which is where our hotel was located for the evening. The friendly Holiday Inn front desk assistant found out that we were on honeymoon and upgraded us to a suite which was really nice touch and another great example of how friendly the Australians are and how they always want to have a chat with you and seem generally interested in you.

After dumping our bags in our suite we decided to head out and about and do some exploring around Brisbane.

As our hotel was located just to the west of the City on the North Bank and most of the action happens on the South Bank, we walked across Kurilpa Bridge and admired the views up and down the Brisbane River.

We then followed the path to Brisbane City and walked all along the South Bank of Brisbane which included sites like the all new Gallery of Modern Arts (which as you know by now is not of too much interest to Lara and me), the Brisbane Wheel, the Nepalese Pagoda and then we stumbled across Streets Beach.

Streets Beach is a man made beach just off of the river that consists of pools lined with actual beach sand and it is a great way to cool down in the humid Brisbane climate. I guess you are wondering well why don't people use the real beach and that is because contrary to popular belief there is no beach in Brisbane and the closest beach is over an hour away hence Streets Beach.

We then strolled through Stanley Street which is lined with bars and restaurants and decided to stop for some lunch in the Stanley Street Plaza as we sat watching the Ibis birds and watched the world go by.

After lunch we walked along The Boardwalk and decided to do some Brisbane exploring from the water and we jumped on a ferry at South Bank 3 and headed up the river on the City Cat, a very popular mode of transport in Brisbane.

We headed Cross River and took in the views of the City and we jumped off at Holman Street which is right under the Story Bridge. We thought we could walk across Story Bridge and get over to the other side of the river to Fortitude Valley but we soon found out that the only way to get up to Story Bridge and onto the pedestrian path was to walk all the way to the beginning of the bridge which was a good way away. So in the sweltering heat we did the next best thing and hailed the first cab we saw and headed across Story Bridge by car rather than on foot whilst enjoying the lovely air con of our Brisbane cab.

We jumped out the cab in Fortitude Valley and grabbed a yummy chocolate milkshake and explored the Brunswick Street Mall and Chinatown - which actually looks as though it is all being rebuilt as there is mass construction there at the moment - and that wrapped up all of the must see areas of Brisbane and our whirlwind city tour.

We strolled back to the hotel for some well deserved chill time and decided to have our first room service on World Tour for dinner that evening. After devouring our last steak for a while we hit the sack ready for our next adventure in the morning: Tokyo, Japan.

It was a very short yet enjoyable trip to Brisbane but Sydney was definitely our favourite Australian city. We do however know that we will be back to lap up both the Sunshine and the Gold Coast of Australia.

You can view our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=361038&id=713415257&l=17ec73d215

Cheers,
Leise + Lara