Brisbane-Australia's "Most Liveable City"

Off to Brisbane!
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Haere Ra!  Goodbye to New Zealand!

Imagine our surprise when our driver told us a 5.4 earthquake centered just 40km north of Napier and at a depth of 30km struck us last night, just before 11:30 pm! A moderate quake of 4.4 happened at 10am 20km northwest of Milford Sound at a 10km depth and a 4.7 jolted the same region on Thursday! So..now we can all say that we sleep so soundly that we even sleep through an earthquakes!

City Botanical Gardens, first cleared by convicts in 1828 to grow crops for the infant town of Brisbane, intrigued us all

Brisbane from the Story Bridge
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Depart Auckland 6:30am and arrive Brisbane, Australia 8:05 (local time).

DAY 1-BRISBANE

After depositing luggage at the hotel, we set our on foot for a brisk 20 min walk toward the Story Bridge to the Throckton St Ferry where for $5AZ we could ride any of the ferries all day.

We disembarked from the ferry in downtown Brisbane and lunched in a quiet cafe in the central mall area.

Brisbane from the City Cat ferry
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A walk to the City Botanical Gardens, first cleared by convicts in 1828 to grow crops for the infant town of Brisbane, intrigued us all.  Many locals seemed to enjoy the park area on their lunch break. Several species of birds  and plants were noted and will be identified at a later date.

Continued walking and another ferry ride brought us to the Queensland Museum. Here, we picked up educational materials and viewed an Aboriginal exhibit, pioneer women in the outback and other natural history and cultural exhibits.

The city cat ferry!
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A walk over the Victoria Bridge and a ferry ride back to Throckton St and a long walk back to the hotel meant a wonderful shower was waiting and a comfy bed to rest those poor tired legs!!