Day 13: We’re driving on the wrong side of the road!

Brisbane Airport’s International Terminal is amazing. Lots of light, lots of space, and very comfortable and functional furniture, this is an airport I wouldn’t mind being delayed in for awhile. Our flight today was aboard Air New Zealand which was a nice respite from the no frills Virgin Blue and Jet Star. Even though the flight was only a little over three hours, they still served us breakfast and I’m still kicking myself for not getting a mimosa like all the other women. Don’t judge me, they looked delicious!

Wellington’s airport is ridiculous. It’s a single runway and taxiway between two hills with houses crowded up right next to it. We could see the control tower up on stilts, on one hill, in a neighborhood. Not only is it narrow but it’s also bracketed at both ends of the runway by Wellington Bay. The terminal itself is nice and functional and we breezed right through customs and got our rental car with no problems at all.

Being a passenger on the left side of the car and riding in the left lane is dizzying enough but actually doing the driving is REALLY disorienting! It’s really like learning how to drive all over again. Nothing is where it should be and you have to visualize each turn before you make it. Remember to check your new blind spots, your mirrors are not in the right place and neither is the gear selector or the turn signal. When I went to move out of park I rolled down the window. When I meant to indicate a right turn I turned on the windshield wipers. But eventually we made it to the hotel incident free.

The Mercure hotel is very nice and Kirsten was happy that we have a bathtub here after shower loving Australia (where water conservation is extra important). We went for a long walk around central Wellington which is very compact and manageable. The geography is a lot like Pittsburgh but the architecture is more modern. The harbor seems to be everywhere the hillsides aren’t, and aside from the downtown area there doesn’t seem to be any flat land here. Also, the New Zealand accent is much thicker and I finally feel like I’m in a foreign country.

We also rode the incline cable car up to the botanical garden and walked around up there. We were quite taken with the R2-D2 birds up there that we later learned from a postcard are called Tui. They have a bullfrog like balloon on their throat and they make all sorts of R2-D2 sounds, telephone rings, fax machine beeps and buzzes, laser beam blasts. It was hilarious! There were also a flock of what looked like ducks that were screeching (not quacking) away as they flew by – they turned out to be parrots.

From there we meandered our way back through downtown back to the neighborhood our hotel is located, Brooklyn, and had a pizza at Hell (thanks to a recommendation from our wonderful friend Phaedre). I had the Lust and Kirsten had the Greed. We even had some lust and greed leftover for breakfast tomorrow morning. How devilish.

Day 12: An ambitious day

Today we went a little crazy and made plans to go to not one, but two, major theme parks. Since they were both on the small side and only a mile from each other and connected by a bus service, it IS possible to do it. But the fact that they are both only open until 5 makes it pretty tough. Plus the Australian ride capacity mindset works against you as well.

We headed to Dreamland first because they had fewer rides that interested us. We weren’t real sure what the unifying theme was for this park but there were sections associated with the American west, surf culture, Nickelodeon, Australian animals, and tigers. Upon entering we were greeted with a sign indicating that one of the roller coasters, the Tower of Terror, would not be running that day so that was a bummer. Scratching that, we headed to their second biggest coaster, Cyclone, which interestingly was moved to Dreamland from Luna Park Sydney.

Cyclone is a steel coaster that after several twists and turns, goes upside down twice for the big finish. The loading operation of only running one train, only using one side of the station for loading and unloading meant that the line for this moved pretty slow – even first thing in the morning. The ride itself was pretty rough and uneventful as well. Once was enough.

We then walked over to their motorcycle themed coaster which had cars that you rode in like a motorcycle. The restraint closed over your back as you hunched over the handlebars. It then launched the train into a series of high speed figure eights. It was a bit short but a lot of fun and was the best ride we rode at Dreamland. We debated on riding again but decided to continue riding other rides instead.

We also rode their family friendly coaster, Runaway Reptar which was tame although it had a few speedy bits. Then I rode (and Kirsten declined to ride) the Giant Drop which is attached to the side of the Tower of Terror and uses the same structure. The Giant Drop is one of the tallest freefall rides in the world and it hoists you up in a chair with your feet dangling to a height of 390 feet before letting you fall back to earth. At the bottom a set of powerful magnets bring you to a smooth stop. Yay technology! The view from the top was pretty incredible and once I brought myself to actually look around I could see the tall towers of Surfers Paradise along the coast off in the distance. The drop itself was a hoot and lasted a good long time.

I also wanted to try to get on the log ride but after standing in line for a bit and barely moving, we gave up and made a run through the Australian animal exhibits and saw the tigers doing tigerly things. We got to see a couple of cassowaries, dingoes, saltwater crocodiles (they are so freakin big), and wombats. Kirsten found a Tasmanian devil although I missed it. They also had a petting area for kangaroos. The one that I was scratching seemed pretty happy until some Japanese tourist came up and yanked his ears. I hope something bit him later. And if something hasn’t, I hope something will. The park was also overrun with ibis and little water dragons (lizards).

After that we left Dreamworld and caught the first bus over to Warner Brothers Movie World which is themed like a movie studio park such as Universal Studios. The rides here approach Disney in their thematic level with the notable exception of the Lethal Weapon roller coaster which was so brutal it may possibly be the worst I’ve ridden. Fortunately Kirsten did not ride because she has me to warn her of these things. I knew it would be rough but not that rough!

The other two big coasters were a lot more fun though. Scooby Doo’s Spooky Coaster was an indoor coaster that had a lot of great surprise drops and turns and may have been our favorite coaster of the trip. Superman Escape is a very high speed coaster that is themed to a subway system that becomes trapped underground due to an earthquake – the ride actually does have a long twisting tunnel at the beginning past subway stations that are collapsing around you. Finally you stop and Superman shoves you out of the ground and straight into the sky and then takes you on a short, but very speedy whirlwind tour of the front entrance of the park. Superman was Kirsten’s 100th coaster and her favorite part were the Pocket Police who made darn sure that there was absolutely nothing in your pockets (note: this is sarcasm - she was actually very cranky, annoyed, and swore to never ride it again). They had a person standing at the end of the line assigning seats and having everyone turn their pockets inside out out. Nothing may go on, not even if your pockets button, snap, zip, or weld shut, you cannot bring anything aboard, not even tissues or pocket lint.

After the coasters we also rode the Looney Tunes River Adventure which involves leaving Australia and going to Hollywood and then going back to Australia in the ride. It was tricky logic to follow but a fun ride with a little twisty slide at the end. The Road Runner Roller Coaster was their family friendly coaster which was very similar to the one at Dreamworld. The Wild West Falls, which was a very well done log ride with a huge drop out of a very tall Disney style mountain, and a float through a ghost town. The detailing on this ride was really well done, as was the detailing on the next ride, the Batman Adventure. This was a simulator style ride where we piloted hovercrafts and engaged in aerial battle with Batman and Batgirl against the Joker, Catwoman, and Mr. Freeze. The ride itself was standard fare but the preshows in Bruce Wayne’s library and down in the Batcave were very well done.

Finally we capped our day with two additional rides on Scooby Doo and Superman and took in the Shrek in 4D movie. Shrek was an excellent show and all the 3D and 4D effects (tactile effects such as spraying water, puffs of air, seat cushion buzzers, etc, to enhance the movie) were well done. All in all it was a very fun day and Movie World more than made up for Dreamworld’s disappointments.

After the park closed and we caught the long train ride back to Brisbane we decided to head to Verve again for dinner because it was so good and we didn’t feel like doing any additional walking around. They did not disappoint either.

Tomorrow we catch the early flight to Wellington, New Zealand where we have a rental car waiting. Yep, wrong side of the road driving for us. I’m nervous but that seems silly, right? I mean, just last week I was jumping off huge slippery rocks into a river potentially teeming with saltwater crocodiles. Driving on the left should be a cinch. Knock on wood. . . .

Day 11: The rain in Brisbane falls mostly on our manes

Not much action today because it was another travel day; this time from Sydney to Brisbane which is our last Australian stop. The trains and planes were uneventful if not expensive. It seems that in Australia it costs around $15 to get downtown from the airport no matter which city you’re flying into. In Sydney and Brisbane the trains run out to the airport and the process is pretty easy. Melbourne and Cairns has bus service and it’s a bit tougher and requires some pre-arrangement – hence all the cab travel there.

Anyhow, Brisbane is quite different than the other three cities we’ve traveled to in that it doesn’t seem to be a tourist spot. Aside from the train from the airport things have been noticeably cheaper and the pace much less frenetic. It seems to be a sleepy Midwestern city to the vibrant Sydney and Melbourne which both have a much busier feel. It probably has a lot to do with all the tourists heading south to the Gold Coast and Surfers Paradise rather than staying in Brisbane proper.

After settling in at our swank hotel The Portal, we took a late afternoon/early evening stroll. Since it is only spring here, the sun sets early so it’s dark by 5:30 or 6. We first strolled along the Brisbane River along a walkway that was quite popular with joggers and bikers and had lots of little cafes and bars along the way. We ended up eating at a place called The Verve which was a new age-y Italian place in the basement of some office building. It was actually quite nice and cozy with all exposed brick and dark lighting. The food was great, we hadn’t had food this good since that Mexican place in Melbourne, and it may have even been better than that! I had a chicken and bleu cheese risotto and Kirsten had a chicken and goat cheese gnocchi. Excellent. It also may have been the cheapest meal we’ve eaten this whole time that wasn’t fast food. Australia has a minimum wage of about $15/hour and it really drives the prices up in the service industry. But you can’t complain too much because at least the workers are actually making a living wage.

Then we walked outside and got across the street before the sky opened up without warning and began raining in a torrential fashion so we ducked into a Belgian Beer Garden to keep dry. This was a very nice bar, quite affordable, and very spacious. After a beer apiece and after the rain had passed we continued walking down to the historic end of Brisbane. As I walked past the old parliamentary buildings and rowhouses I got to wondering how much of this was around when my Grandpa spent time here during World War II. Something to ask him when I get home.

At one point we left downtown and walked onto a university campus that wasn’t on our maps, but directly across from the campus was the botanical gardens. Now, because it’s well after dark at this point we got treated to some nocturnal life that seemed completely uninteresting to all the students leaving their night classes but was very interesting to us. We first saw some sort of marsupial climbing around on the trees with a youngster attached to her back. She eventually made her way down to the ground and walked along the path completely oblivious to the college students who were likewise oblivious to her. Basically I think we saw the Australian equivalent of a squirrel. But it was exciting! [update: later we discovered that these were possums - which are not the same as American opossums.]

But even better than that, the botanical gardens also has a LOT of flying foxes. We stood under the trees watching them flapping around from limb to limb and out over the park, squawking at each other, and generally being exciting to us (again, the college students didn’t care) for at least a half hour. Flying foxes are the world’s largest bats and as the name implies they look remarkably similar to foxes with reddish fur on their heads and distinctly canine faces and their wingspans looked like they were around five feet. They eat fruit and see quite well because they don’t rely on echolocation. It was amazing watching them fly overhead because they’re SO big and watching as they crashed into the trees as they landed because they’re SO big! Graceful and birdlike they are not but they are ridiculously cute and I want one.

So that was all very very exciting to us and we walked back to The Portal and found that we had paid the price as our shoes were just caked with bat poop. So we washed our shoes off and cleaned out our treads with a q-tip and ended up plugging up the sink with poop which we had to clear out and dump into the toilet. There are still lots of little undigested seeds all over the bathroom that just sort of went everywhere. Maybe now I don’t want one so bad. Perhaps just a plush toy version would suffice.

Day 10: Road Weary

Well it happened one day earlier than we wanted it to. We were hoping that tomorrow would be the resting day. We would arrive in Brisbane in the early afternoon and have the rest of the day to vegetate and rest up but we didn’t make it.

The morning started productively enough with some laundry being done for the second half of the trip and then we headed off to Luna Park to ride the rides we didn’t get to do last night. This time we took the train over the Harbor Bridge rather than walking it and it was much faster.

Luna Park was fun. The views of the bridge, the opera house, and the skyline are great and the atmosphere is really wonderful. It’s a great caricature of the Coney Island of old which it was always emulating. We rode the Wild Mouse first, my 211th and Kirsten’s 95th. It was fun and one of only a few left in the world that are made of wood. The cars were placed high up on their suspensions and would tilt outward a little on each hairpin curve but aside from that it was a pretty standard wild mouse. From there we went into their funhouse appropriately named Coney Island. In it they had the usual funhouse gags like a mirror maze, shifting floors, a rotating barrel, and some very steep slides that you rode down on in a sack. They also had a social mixer, or a joy wheel which basically acts as a centrifuge and riders sit on the wheel and the wheel rotates at greater and greater speeds and throws riders off and into the padded walls that ring the wheel until there is only one left. I’m not sure what usual operations are like but kids had taken over on this one today and we didn’t dare try to bully our fat American selves onto it. I’ve seen videos of them running with adults on them though and they look like a rough and tumble (and completely fun) time.

We also rode the ferris wheel with a twerpy little kid who ran ahead of us as we were getting onto the gondola and jumped in. The ride operators were as befuddled as we were but sent the three of us along even though we made it clear that he was not our child. Kirsten was annoyed and I just ignored him. He just ignored us too and instead shouted down to his PaPAA! PaPAA! The entire ride. I don’t know if they necessarily knew he was up there either.

After Luna we took the ferry back to Circular Quay and that’s when we unraveled. We poked around in the Rocks some more with every intention of heading back to the Quay and catching one of the ferries that left for Manly Beach and walking around in the Botanical Gardens looking for the flying foxes. We even canceled our dinner reservations for a steak place that night after getting hamburgers and deciding we needed a break from eating out. So instead of doing all of that and getting a feel for Sydney outside of the downtown area we found a supermarket and bought a kangaroo steak and a bottle of wine and took it back to the hotel to cook in our kitchenette. The kangaroo is a little gamey and tastes very similar to venison. Good, but not the best steak I’ve had. Very tough though, you’re gonna need some jaw muscles to chew it up. Kirsten would like to note this may also be her fault since it was her first time cooking kangaroo and may not have done the best job but I think it turned out just fine.

Tomorrow we leave for Brisbane and what was supposed to be our resting day. We’ll see if we stick to that or if we find something to do while we’re there. We definitely have to surrender to Greater Sydney though; we’ll have to save any outer activities for a different visit far in the future.