Sat 23rd: Exploring Brisbane
Our travel now always kicks off with the hop-on-hop-off bus. Do one circuit to find our bearings and then round again selecting our points of interest.
The most UNBELIEVABLE story of the circuit was a block  with an artistic shade canopy along the curve of the road. Why? Because since the building was opened in 1990, windows have been popping out and smashing on the road in amongst all the traffic. I mean, 200 windows 😲 so how did the builders solve the problem?  Why, erect this all-encompassing shade to catch the glass. We actually drove under it twice.
There was little of interest that jumped out at us so we hopped off at the Queen Street Mall and found the Information Centre. What a building that is!!!! It's a restored theatre from yesteryear. If only our city father's had preserved His Majesty's theatre and arcade we could have had something equally magnificent.
I then discovered some of Brisbane's outstanding architecture and started making a collection of photos to rival my Kimberly rock collection. Again it showed what extraordinarily boring architecture we are showcasing in Auckland. Dull grey boxes.
By the time we left the I-site girl, we had our three day plan mapped out for us. It started with lunch in this new Queen Street Mall (I could swallow 3 days in there alone) and then hop back on the bus and ride to the North Quay on the Brisbane River.  This is a magnificent 21st century waterfront development displaying stunning innovative architecture. The area was throng in with Brisbanites partaking of long lunches, watching the aqua-tourism on their beloved River.  We enjoy our little cruises but the only slot left on any of the weekend trips was the high tea today on the Kookaburra Showboat.  That's it then. That's that decision made for us. We're starting to get into high teas this year and this was certainly up to standard. An appropriate way to celebrate 21 years together.
We were thrilled to be able to find our way back to our apartment in the early evening, so we must be learning the lie of the city.