As we drive along the roads of Queensland, we see many licence plates displaying the caption, “Australia’s Sunshine State,” reminding us that Florida is not the only place that lays claim to this designation. We landed in Brisbane on March 1st and have replanted our roots in this large city which boasts a population of over 2-1/2 million people. We’ve discovered that the average temperatures during the day, at this time of the year, in this part of the world range between 28ºC and into the 30’s most frequently.
On the Goodwill Walking Bridge Over the Brisbane River
For our new digs, we have moved into a unit in another long-term stay building, this one operated by the Quest Serviced Apartments chain which owns buildings throughout Australia and New Zealand. We originally booked a one-bedroom apartment; however, the Quest staff has upgraded us to a two-bedroom executive apartment on the 19th floor due to a water main flood that occurred in the original apartment we booked. At this Quest location, we find ourselves living in the heart of Brisbane’s Central Business District amongst office towers and tall condo buildings, a sharp contrast to the suburban location where we stayed in Melbourne. A short hop across the street takes us over to the Westin and Four Points Sheraton Hotels. If we continue walking for another few blocks, we find ourselves at the City Botanic Gardens, Queensland University of Technology and the Queensland State Houses of Parliament. In minutes, we can stroll easily to the Queen Street Mall, a bustling, open street shopping venue that we find is very similar to the Sparks Street Mall in Ottawa.
In the City Botanic Garden
An advantage of staying in an apartment as opposed to hotels is that we may shop in the stores with the locals, discover all the Australian products, and cook our own meals also. Two big supermarket companies, Woolworths and Coles, dominate the grocery chain market in Australia, as do Loblaws, Sobeys and Metro in Ontario back home. We’ve made an interesting discovery in that the operators of the downtown supermarkets close to where we are staying do not supply shopping carts (or trolleys as they refer to them in Australia). We could only find small baskets for shopping at the grocery stores downtown, and noticed that a lot of the people shopping in the stores were young, university-aged students in their late teens and early 20’s. We assume that shopping trolleys would disappear if they were provided, because many shoppers would probably use them to transport their groceries home to their apartments/condos in the neighbourhood. For major grocery expeditions therefore, we drive to supermarkets outside of the CBD which are geared more toward families, and where we can load up our shopping cart to our hearts’ content.
Thanks to our friend Alan Boughton who introduced us to the James Squire Orchard Cider brand while we were in Melbourne, we even made a trip to one of the bigger Australian liquor stores, Dan Murphy’s, to purchase this very addictive concoction. We have not tried Kangaroo burgers yet, although we did come across them at a food truck in the Sunday market at the Botanic Gardens.
James Squire Orchard Cider
While we may walk to many of Brisbane’s popular attractions and shopping venues downtown frequently, we also use our Camry hybrid rental car to explore areas outside of the city. On one such trip, we admired beautiful, lush, green vegetation on the scenic drive up to the top of Mount Coot-tha, where we achieved an amazing view of the city from above. During our drive, we also passed by the headquarters that are owned by a couple of the local television stations that broadcast from the top of the mountain. By the way, the City of Brisbane also maintains a much larger botanic garden on the mountain (as well as the one downtown close to our apartment) which we plan to visit soon.
Mount Coot-tha Lookout
We see a lot of hype about the Gold Coast region in the Australian travel brochures and literature. Travellers who are drawn to tacky beach resorts with hotels, time shares, casinos, amusement parks, and souvenir shops can fill their time at Surfer’s Paradise easily. In one of the DK Eyewitness Australia Travel Guides, we read that we would find a relaxed haven at Burleigh Heads in the Gold Coastal beach area. Indeed, we were awed by the stunning views of the coast as we walked along the trail at the top of the steep cliffs beside the ocean in Burleigh Heads National Park. We were very happy that we visited this spot during the week though, because while we explored Burleigh Heads, several crews were setting up stands for the Hyundai Australian Boarders Battle Grand Finale. The national surfing competition is being held at Burleigh Beach this weekend (March 9-10) and huge crowds are expected. Check out the link to this event at https://australianboardridersbattle.com
Soaking Up Some Sun on Burleigh Beach
For the duration of our stay in Brisbane during the month of March, we look forward to continued explorations of the city, Mount Coot-tha, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast and the green mountainous area away from the coast. Stay tuned for detailed reports of our upcoming exploits in Queensland.
