Brisbane

Just a short 2 hour Greyhound ride from Noosa (accompanied by a bus full of seemingly 12 year old backpackers) through Sunshine Coast resorts we thanked God that we’d not considered staying in, we arrived in the state capital of Queensland. And an easy 10 minute downhill walk took us to our hotel for 4 nights – The Intercontinental Brisbane – an absolute steal at just over £100/night as IHG have recently acquired it from Hilton and it’s due a refurb this year, but it does have an executive lounge (Debbie had recently qualified for an annual lounge pass) with free breakfast, afternoon tea, evening canapés & booze! And a friendly parakeet living on the ledge outside the lounge, 24 floors up!!

We were right in the middle of the central business district (CBD), in an area similar to where Oxford Street meets Bond Street in London and sharing the immediate vicinity with Tiffany, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, and like Perth we found the city centre to be very compact and walkable. Initial impressions weren’t great though – lots of unsympathetic high rises crowding out the old buildings and no real must-do sights – but that all changed once we walked a few hundred metres to the river and crossed the bridge to the South Bank. That’s when we started to appreciate what Brisbane was all about – a relaxed and very civilised place, frequently ranked highly in lists of the world’s most liveable cities and Australia’s most biodiverse & greenest city. The South Bank was developed for the 1988 World Expo, and is now an leisure, culture and entertainment area linked to the CBD by the striking Neville Bonner Bridge and housing the iconic Brisbane sign, Queensland Cultural Centre, the Wheel of Brisbane, waterfront restaurants, delightful gardens and even the unique Streets Beach and lagoon. That biodiversity was evident when a large Australian Water Dragon sat quietly on a wall next to us!

The river is the lifeblood of the city and transport along it is by a fleet of 28 City Cat and 5 Kitty Cat ferries which run very regularly along the 23 km stretch from University of Queensland (upstream) to North Shore Hamilton (towards the sea). We hopped on a ferry at South Bank, initially travelling upriver to University of Queensland St Lucia, staying on the boat and looping back downstream to the other end of the line, and finally alighting at Howard Smith Wharves. Upriver is green and peaceful, with riverside mansions and dingy sailing/rowing clubs; coming back toward the CBD gives spectacular views of the skyscrapers and bridges; and the heading downstream towards the sea the river widens, yachts are moored, and the banks house luxury apartment blocks, old warehouses surrounded by new riverside homes, and Bluey World (Brisbane inspired the TV cartoon series about the Blue Heeler puppy and her family, which our grandson Carey loves!). Our ferry cruise took 2.5 hours and classed as a single journey so cost just $0.50 (25 pence!!!) – unbelievable and we dread to think how much an equivalent Thames Clipper ride would’ve cost. A nice lunch and a couple of prints at Felons Brewing Co near Story Bridge rounded off a lovely trip – £9.50/pint was shocking, but when happy hour started and the price dropped to £6 it was only natural that we’d stay for another to average out the cost to a more palatable level.

We ate near the river one evening too, on a balcony overlooking the illuminated Story Bridge at Madame Wu – an Asian-fusion place with the most ridiculous portion sizes. Debbie’s half a roasted duck with bok choi and soy & peanut sauce would’ve been more than enough for both of us. The waiter had a fake Oz accent and after Debbie enquired which part of England he was from, he admitted to hailing from Coventry!

We’d changed our plans to spend an additional night in Brisbane, as the upcoming Australia Day long weekend was leading to sky-high accommodation prices in Byron Bay, so we had the opportunity to be a bit lazy and catch up on some life admin (a luxury pedicure!) and have a long late lunch by the river. Debbie was determined to eat local Moreton Bay Bugs while in the area after enjoying them so much in Port Douglas, so we headed back to the South Bank and River Fish Quay, a restaurant that kept popping up every time we asked Chat GPT for the best places to eat Bugs in the city. It was right on the river front, overlooking the viewing area for the Australian Open tennis (which seems to be as big a deal here as Wimbledon is back home). Moreton Bay Bugs are a species of slipper lobster prized in Australia as a seafood delicacy and its easy to understand why – they are bloody lovely! We shared Bug bao buns, a whole Bug with seafood sauce and seared scallops to start – excellent and probably enough food – but then huge portions of fish’n’chips and Tasmanian salmon followed, and finally when we were fit to burst it was pudding time. Of course with a bottle of white. We waddled back to our hotel but still managed cocktail hour in the lounge!

Moreton Island

The most popular excursion from Brisbane is to cross Moreton Bay and visit Moreton Island. We’d read about the Tangalooma shipwrecks and wanted to snorkel on them, but weren’t interested in the other adventure stuff that most tours include and that is geared towards the young thrill-seeking backpackers. We are too old to be sand surfing! Eventually we found a cruise with See Moreton which seemed ideal, if a bit pricey, and again thought ‘oh well, we won’t be passing this way again, and Jonny shouldn’t worry too much if his inheritance ends up being a few hundred quid less!’ We were collected from Brisbane and driven out to Rivergate Marina nearer to the mouth of the river before boarding a very luxurious new A$10 million catamaran for our day trip. After morning pastries and fruit, and with champagne available for purchase from 10am (don’t worry Jonny, we weren’t that frivolous), we made a very smooth and comfortable 90 minute crossing to the island travelling at over 20 knots once outside the river speed limits.

Moreton Bay is the world’s 3rd largest sand island at 37 Km long, we’d already been to the largest (K’gari), but has the highest stabilised coastal sandhill on the planet. Like K’gari it also has freshwater lakes and 4WDs arriving by car ferry to drive down the spectacular beach, but it was the sea rather than the island itself that we were interested in here

The Tangalooma Wrecks are a group of 15 differently sized ships deliberately sunk to mimic a reef and provide a barrier between the beach and the force of the ocean, allowing boats to anchor in an otherwise too rough location. Not only did boat owners thrive from the effects of the wrecks, so did the marine life as the corroding metal surfaces became the new home for barnacles and algae, and the government initiative for safer anchorage became a popular snorkelling spot. The rusty brown ships contrast beautifully with the vivid azure sea and white sand – a beautiful spot and an interesting 45 minutes in the water, drifting across the wrecks in the current and spotting a variety of marine life along the way – a huge stingray, parrot fish, the usual subtropical suspects, and Steve duck-dived down to see a Bamboo Shark asleep on a ledge. Debbie didn’t see that one as she can’t duck-dive! Underwater pictures captured on Debbie’s iPhone were a bit rubbish and, as we’ve already reported, someone couldn’t be bothered dragging his Go Pro around Australia…

After a delicious lunch of giant prawns and salad, and later a beer, we could’ve swam or used stand up paddle boards but preferred to watch people doing daft things like chasing & touching the green sea turtle swimming near the boat. The boat cruised North to the Cowan Cowan seagrass area and we saw lots of turtles when they briefly surfaced for air, but not the elusive dugongs, and on the crossing of Moreton Bay a large pod of dolphins joined us. A lovely day and made up for the weather being a bit sh*t when we went to K’gari. And it was THE day to get out of the city as Brisbane baked in 33 degree heat, whereas Moreton Island was a more manageable 27 degrees (mainly due to the F5 winds) but still had the highest UV level we’d experienced so far – Extreme 14 – factor 50, rash vests/leggings while snorkelling and some time in the shade was non-negotiable for any sane person.

After a lovely, and surprisingly relaxing for a city, few days in Brisbane we headed for somewhere we expected to be far more full-on….

Gold Coast – Surfers Paradise

Not originally on our itinerary as it’s not our type of place but, given the need to re-jig things a little over the Australia Day long weekend, we thought it might be fun to take a look – just for 1 night though. Just over an hour on the Greyhound from Brisbane we arrived to find that our hotel was literally 100m from the recently relocated bus stop – perfect. The Voco Gold Coast hotel is part of the IHG stable, so naturally we got a decent upgrade to a premium ocean view room – well, you could see the sea but the views might have been a tad better before Australia’s tallest building was constructed directly in front of the hotel. We had hoped to go up to the SkyPoint observation deck at the top, but it was cloudy and not worth the money to get a picture of skyscrapers on a dull day. Instead we hired Lime Bikes – electric ‘Boris Bikes’ – and had a little ride up and down the promenade, successfully avoiding the throngs of holidaymakers having a nice walk. It was the first time either of us had ridden an electric bike and they are fabulous, although perhaps Devon roads are too narrow/winding/hilly for us to realistically get the use out of one. Surfers Paradise unsurprisingly has a good surfing beach, which is probably 5 miles long, and skyscrapers cram the narrow strip of land between the beach and the waterways a couple of blocks inland. Bars and restaurants abound and we guess it appeals to some people – a bit like Benidorm does. The benefit of this type of resort is that there’s usually something for everyone, and when Steve said he fancied Nepalese momos for lunch, there they were just around the corner!

We confirmed our assumption that it wouldn’t be our type of place, but at some point Surfers Paradise might show up on a ‘random places you’ve been to’ list and we’ll be glad that we can tick the box.

Now, after almost 4 weeks in Queensland, we were saying goodbye to the ‘Sunshine State’ and heading into New South Wales……