First stop: Brisbane (Queensland)! (June 17-23)

And we’re off! PDX —> YVR —> BNE! We left on June 17 and thanks to the international date line, we landed on June 19!






We landed in Brisbane (BNE) on a lovely sunny day. We headed straight to our airb&b, checked in and began exploring the city. The fresh air and sunshine is a perfect cure to jetlag!

Day 1 (June 19):



View from our condo, overlooking the river and the botanical gardens:


Botanical Gardens:



C’s favorite bird: the Ibis, aka “bin chicken”



Then back for a quick nap before pool time and more exploring!






Day 2: more exploring! We started out going to back to Felix for Goodness, a wonderful breakfast spot the kids and I discovered in 2024. It was still delicious!







Our condo complex had an amazing outdoor area so we watched live US basketball NBA finals!


Then we walked over the brand new pedestrian bridge to the Queensland Museum of Modern Art, then the State Library. 







Day 3: we took an Uber to the Mt Coot-tha Botanical Gardens (https://www.brisbane.qld.gov.au/parks-and-recreation/botanic-gardens/brisbane-botanic-gardens-mt-coot-tha). Wow!









The elusive curlew:




Day 4: a quiet morning at the pool and then we took the City Cat (renamed “City Dog” for this ship) to Suncorp Stadium to watch the Brisbane Broncos rugby! It was brilliant!









Day 5: that’s a wrap on BNE! We flew to Exmouth, via Perth - long day (5.5 hour flight, layover, 1.5 hour flight) but absolutely worth it!



Somehow, despite landing at 12:10 and our next flight leaving wheels up at 12:45, our luggage made it!





















Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Second stop: Exmouth, WA (Western Australia (June 23-July 3)

Image
After a 5.5 hour flight to Perth, a very short layover, and a 1.5 hour flight to Learmonth (Exmouth), we arrived at our second destination: Exmouth, Western Australia! We were here in early 2019 and hoped to come back! Day 1: we checked into the Osprey Holiday Villas ( https://www.exmouthholidays.com.au/accommodation/osprey-holiday-village-unit-118/ ), hit the local IGA (grocery store) and the pool, then went out for veggie burgers, mostly to force ourselves to stay awake as Exmouth is 2 hours behind Brisbane and we didn’t want to go to bed at 6pm! We made it and fell asleep almost instantly.  Day 2: Exmouth sites We saw a ton of cockatoos, Ibis and a DINGO!!! Early morning adventuring has its advantages.  A young dingo pup chasing birds!  After some breakfast, we went to the Ningaloo Discovery Center ( https://www.ningaloocentre.com.au/ ), then to the library, where we got a temporary library card so we can check out books! The kids were thrilled!! A well recommended sp...
Read more

Fourth stop: Darwin (Northern Territory) (July 4-12)

Image
Day 1: We left our Perth hotel at 7am and had some breakfast at the airport.  (Yellow = kids pillows! On these long trips, we  bring their pillows!) None of us have ever ever been to the Northern Territory, but today, we landed in Darwin! Darwin is the capital of  Northern Territory (NT), and the NT is one of Australia’s 7 states. Darwin is also one of the most northern cities in Australia and this area is referred to as “The Top End” or “Australia’s Top End”. It took us a little under 3 hours to get here. And - wild - Darwin is on its own timezone. We are 30 minutes - yes, 30 minutes - behind Brisbane and 90 minutes  ahead of Perth and Exmouth! We checked into our apartment hotel - The H on Mitchell - and the kids went straight to the pool while I got my bearings while walking around. Then we made dinner and started a Guess Who and Crazy Eights competition.  Day 2: we had do much fun! Being 90 minutes ahead in time, we all slept in and we’re finally all up at ...
Read more