We had a few days in Brisbane, with Stephen and Jayne Gale, while Sue and Stephen attended the 2017 Australian Regulatory Conference, and Jayne and I drank lots of coffee and designed her new computer game. We had an expansive view from the sixteenth floor down onto the city centre, including the old General Post Building on Post Office Square, surrounded by towering office blocks.
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| Post Office Square in Brisbane |
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| Dawn over Brisbane |
After the conference we had a day wandering around together, including a visit to the GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art) which was hosting a popular Marvel superheroes exhibition. It was very reminiscent of Weta Workshops stuff, with lots of meticulously made costumes and weapons. We returned home via a ride on the river ferry downstream to the Riverside pier. Stephen introduced us to the delights of shopping at Uniqlo, a clothing store.
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| Lunching at GOMA |
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| Passing under the Goodwill Bridge on the river ferry. |
On our last morning in Brisbane we picked up our rental car, and took the opportunity for a group outing up to Mount Coot-tha overlooking the city, then to the nearby Botanic Gardens.
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| From the top of Mount Coot-tha. |
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| Dragons fighting on the path while tourists stepped over them. |
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| The Japanese garden. |
We said goodbye to Stephen and Jayne and drove north to Caloundra, on the Sunshine Coast, looking forward to some quiet "down time". That's a drive of just over one hour, and is the closest part of the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane. It's an uninteresting drive up the motorway, although you do pass the weird Glass House Mountains, which are the remnants of volcanoes active about 25 million years ago. They provided an interesting skyline from the balcony of our accommodation.
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| The Glass House Mountains, looking west from Caloundra. |
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| Tandem skydivers landing on Kings beach at Caloundra. |
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| Grooming the beach early in the morning. |
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| It is a nice walk along the coast to Kings Beach and back. |
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| Our room looked over the little Bulcock beach |
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| There are quite a few pelicans around the harbour. |
We liked Caloundra, because it is a nice little town with everything in easy walking distance, and with people always out and about but not too busy. The climate was great in August, with sunshine every day, cool mornings and warm evenings. Might go back there sometime!
