Our last day in Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane at about 6am after an overnight flight from Perth. We were on a mission, so went to get our hire car and asked the fastest way to Mount Cootha. The hire guy reckoned we'd be up there just after sunrise, but by some amazing fluke we had green lights all the way. We shot through the centre of Brisbane which was busy even at that hour. We took a wrong turn but just as we realised this there was another sign for Mt Cootha and we got up there just before sunrise.

There was a German couple cuddling in the sunrise and a woman also watching, along with several birds. It was beautiful, even if we did miss the bird's dawn chorus. We had brekky at the cafe, and there were a couple of business groups having coffee at the time. Seems like a nice rendezvous.

Afterwards, we killed a bit of time in the Botanic Gardens at the foot of Mt Cootha. We also discovered that this is where the main TV channel are found. At 9pm we made our way to the Lone Pine Koala Park.

This is a great place for families. The entry fee is reasonable and if you go on the river cruise it's not much more to cruise and spend an hour and a half at the sanctuary. They have different shows on at different times of day. We saw most things (wombats, kangaroos, echidna, birds) and I had my photo taken cuddling with a koala. So cute. I want one!

Dave decided to get his photo taken with a crocodile, thinking it would be a Steve Irwin pose on top of a croc. Alas, the croc was a baby, about 30cm long with its sharp little mouth taped shut as even a baby can bite your finger off.

After travelling overnight from Perth, we were really shagged so we drove through Brisbane which is also beautiful, but has more construction going on than Perth. We drove beside the river and crossed the bridge to South Bank. This is a great place for families.

At South Bank there is every type of food place to fit your taste buds and your pocket. There are galleries and shops. Streets beach is a man made sand beach beside the river with depths from 0.5m - 1.8m. There are life guards and everything.

Dave was falling asleep, so lay down on a grassy bank while I explored. It was school holidays and for $5 per half hour your kid could be taught circus tricks at the Flipside Circus, while parents did their own thing. The City Cat (river bus) seemed to run regularly from the city.

We had lunch at Amici's, by the river. We had just sat down when we noticed a large lizard under the chair. I lay down to photograph it, and the waiter arrived and said, "I knew you were tired, but..." He told us that there are two lizards. Charlie, the other one, is three times as big and begs like a dog. We had the female, who came running for scraps of ham and chicken and eventually lay down beside us like a replete pup, sunning herself on the deck. Good food and service here by the way. A really nice place to spend a few hours. This was midwinter and it was in the low 20s and people were swimming and sunbathing. What more could you want?

Eventually, we made our way to the airport. It was like another world. We were too tired to blog, so drank coffee until boarding. We left Brisbane at about 20 degrees, and several hours later, as we were about to land in Christchurch, the pilot announced that it was -1 in Christchurch, NZ. Everyone cheered and yelled, "I'm home!" It got to -4 that night.

We got home at 2am and the kids woke us at 7am. We decided to give them the day off seeing as they hadn't seen us for ages and we spent the morning presenting gifts, showing photos and videos, until it was time to take Heather's folks to the airport. They had flown down from the North Island to look after the kids. Still can't find the cheese grater!