Down Under Day Eight

We began our last full day in Brisbane AUS at a much more leisurely pace than the day prior. And there was not going to be any ghosting by fictional (prove me wrong!) adventure tour companies, because we had planned our own day of adventure. To wit, a ferry ride along the Brisbane River out to a Koala Sanctuary. We were to catch the ferry at the same pontoon (aka, jetty) where we had boarded the Sunset Cruise ferry the night before, near the State Library, Cultural Center, and Modern Art Museum, at 9 AM. This gave us ample time for a leisurely breakfast at the Ovolo The Valley hotel cafe before we caught a taxi down to the pontoon.

We arrived at the pontoon well in advance of the boarding time for the Mirimar ferry that would take us up river to the Koala Sanctuary. None the less, a cue was already forming, and we got on it. We secured less than ideal indoor seats on the boat for the ride to the sanctuary, but jockeyed for much better seats on the journey back.

The ferry ride to the sanctuary was a little over an hour and we had about three hours to kill at the sanctuary before the ferry was slated to push off for the return trip to town. It was more than ample time to see everything we wanted to see (koalas, kangaroos, emus, dingos, etc.), get some lunch at the sanctuary cafe (vegan veggie wraps, fries, and dairy free ice cream bars), and purchase a couple souvenirs for the grandkids (stuffed animals...a kangaroo and a koala). We returned to the sanctuary earlier than scheduled, in order to secure better seats on the ferry back, which we did. We sat next to a chatty Melbourner who gave us some good tips for the upcoming Melbourne leg of our vacation and encouraged us to check out the Brisbane Star Tower outlook, visible from the Cultural Center pontoon as a balcony high up on one of the city's nearby skyscrapers, and accessible by way of a pedestrian footbridge from our side of the river to the other (where the Star Tower was located).

The Star Tower excursion comprised crossing the footbridge (a fair walk) and following signs to a lift (Aussie word for elevator) that ascended up to the 23rd floor of the Star Tower building. We did not have long to wait for the lift and were soon privvy to some spectacular views of Brisbane from the 23rd floor of the Star Tower. Deborah's akrophobia was somewhat triggered by the elevation, so we stepped away from the edge of the balcony and enjoyed cold drinks at one of the many establishments on this popular floor of the building before descending back down to the ground floor.

Already on the bank of the river opposite the Cultural Center Pontoon, we located a suitable place from which to call an Uber and called one to take us back to the hotel.

Unsure what to do for dinner and somewhat spent from the day's adventures, we got a simple meal of cegan pizza at an Italian restaurant neighboring the hotel.

Then we slumbered, by way of watching an episode of Prime Target, a new TV series, on Deborah's tablet.

Fin.

Down Under Day Six

To start our first full day in Brisbane AUS, we descended to the restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel for our complimentary breakfast. Unlike the all-you-could-eat continental breakfast we were privvy to at the Sudima Hotel in Auckland, the Ovolo the Valley hotel in Brisbane only offered us a single meal and a beverage, chosen from their limited menu of options, very few of which were fully vegan (although several of which were veganizable). I chose a fruit bowl with an assortment of fruit and some vegan yogurt (which is spelled yoghurt here), with coffee as my beverage choice. I also added on a side of tofu scramble, for protein, and a green smoothie. It's possible we'll be charged (aka, nickeled and dimed) for these add ons when we check out, but it is what it is. Deborah got a muesli bowl, which also had fruit and vegan yogurt, with a green smoothie as her beverage choice. It was a decent breakfast, despite the portions being a bit skimpy.

After breakfast, we took a walk up the road a few blocks from our hotel to check out a plant based hot dog stand that our travel agent had shared with us. It wasn't open when we got there, but a nearby coffee shoppe was, so we ordered some beverages (soy hot mocha for me; iced oat chai latte for Deborah), and by the time we had finished those, the hot dog stand was open. The hot dog stand was not exclusively plant based as we had been led to believe, but it did offer many plant based options, and we ordered some of said options on the electronic ordering menu boards beside the stand. Despite the technology, the very human person working the stand managed to f**k up our order, forgetting one of the plant based hot dogs we had ordered. We did not discover this until we were back at the hotel and it was too late to do anything about it (despite Deborah having her doubts about the accuracy of the order when we received it, which I erroneously dismissed, largely because I was in a crappy mood due to still fighting a head (and increasly chest) cold).

Most of the rest of the day we spent poolside at the rooftop pool of the hotel. They also had a sauna next to the pool, which I indulged in with hopes it might clear up my chest cold. It very well may have helped eventually, but I was still feeling pretty crappy, so we sought out another chemist (aka, pharmacy) and got me some more OTC meds, including a Robitussin-like cough medicine called "Chesty Cough," a moniker I loved because it was so perfectly descriptive of the malady it was purported to alleviate!

We also found a grocery store and scored some fruit, nut milk, corn chips, and hummus, as supplemental nutriment.

Unsure what to do for dinner, and it being a Friday, although we did not care, because we were on holiday, we chose a nearby Italian restaurant to try, mostly because they were willing to accommodate our vegan way of eating. It was satisfactory and the staff were very friendly. As we were leaving (with boxed leftover vegan pizza, because the portions were non-skimpy) the owner/manager bent our ears for what seemed like an egregiously long time.

We returned to the hotel and slumbered, but not before I polished off the leftover pizza.

Fin.

Down Under Day Five

Today was a travel day - from Auckland NZ to Brisbane Australia (AUS) via airplane. However, our Air New Zealand flight to NZ did not leave until 4 PM, which meant our limo ride to the airport did not pick us up until noon, which meant we had some time to mill about Auckland in the morning.

We ended up milling to a bagel shop called Ugly Bagels that had intrigued me. I had high hopes that they might have vegan bagels, but those hopes were dashed when the bagel shop manager said all their bagels were made with (albeit free range) eggs.

So then, we milled to a pharmacy (these are called "chemists" in this part of the world) for some OTC cold remedies for the cold I had been fighting for the better part of the week. One of these remedies was a bottle of oxymetazoline nasal spray, to clear my clogged sinuses. It worked, but almost too well. For the rest of the day, I had a nonstop runny nose and frequent sneezing fits.

Not much else to say about today except that Air New Zealand is an exceptional airline. They don't nickel and dime you on everything. They even served us a vegan meal on the three and a half hour flight, which is unheard of on American-based airlines. When we landed in Brisbane, the passage through customs and immigration was a bit of a cumbersome ordeal, but we made it, and met our limo driver near the airport exit for transit to our Brisbane hotel, Ovolo - The Valley. The Valley, in this case, is a Brisbane suburb called Fortitude Valley, a rather ritzy area full of high end car dealerships, like Mazerati and Mercedes-Benz. It was actually not an ideal location, because it was quite a distance away from the river that runs through and in many ways defines Brisbane. I have fond memories of my 2014 trip here, when my family stayed at a hotel right on the river.

We had dinner at the hotel, which offered a vegan menu. The food was tasty, but the portion sizes were not as large as those we had come to expect thus far on our journey.

Then, we slumbered.

Fin.