RacetruckRon
RacetruckRon GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/4/24 9:53 a.m.

I'm traveling to Australia in at the end of the month for a two week work trip.  Our parent company is located in Brisbane so I won't be completely on my own but since the Hive knows all is there anything I have to check out when I'm in Brisbane?  I'll have at least one full weekend to kill and probably half of a Friday.  My flights are booked, I'm still trying to nail down where I'm going to be staying exactly.

Colin Wood
Colin Wood Associate Editor
10/4/24 10:36 a.m.

I've never been, but I'm certainly interested to see what others mention on the off chance I get to visit someday.

Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos)
Brett_Murphy (Agent of Chaos) GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/4/24 11:13 a.m.

I know a couple from the area, but they're in the USA now. 

I think Australia Zoo (of Crocodile Hunter fame) is kind of nearby-ish.

If you like seafood, go somewhere and eat some bay bugs (slipper lobster). Then please report back and let me know if they are the best kind of shellfish in the universe or not.

Rons
Rons GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/4/24 11:20 a.m.

2Girlsracing(Steffi) lives in Ipswich which is a suburb of Brisbane a pm might get her

RacetruckRon
RacetruckRon GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
11/9/24 12:12 p.m.

I'm back stateside now, I have a nice long layover in Dallas before I fly back into Milwaukee so I figured I'd unpack this a bit.  On my way to Brisbane I managed to wind up on the inaugural flight from DFW-BNE for American Airlines. There was a person in a koala bear suit handing out cookies at the gate in DFW and then a TV news team interviewing people as they exited custom on the Brisbane side.  I barely slept on the 16 hour flight so I was just looking for my Aussie counterpart who was picking me up and some coffee.

After I recovered from jetlag on the second day I was given a spare company van to use as transport while in Oz.  I can just imagine the smugness of the French product manager for naming such a mundane work van the Trafic.

Thankfully, Le Van had the lights and signals on the American side of the wheel so that minimized confusion. Le Van had a small turbo diesel that was surprisingly spunky.  It was also an enormous vehicle for downtown Brisbane parking garages, the garage my hotel had a parking deal with had a 2m max height and the antenna on the van scraped on the ceiling just about everywhere.  Even in a very large city with city traffic the Australian drivers were immeasurably more patient and polite than American drivers which made driving on the wrong side of the road a bit less stressful.

I went up to the Australia Zoo on the weekend with a couple guys from the office. Lots of Koalas, Roos, Australian and African Wildlife. We also got to see the Irwins doing Steve's old crocodile show routine which was pretty cool.

I went exploring in Queensland, North of Brisbane on my Sunday I had free.  I spent some time on Marcoola Beach which was beautiful and very peaceful.  I didn't bring swim trunks and limited my time on the beach so I didn't get totally sunburnt.

And then I drove through the Glass House Mountains on the way back to the hotel.

Queensland is absolutely beautiful and Brisbane was a fun city to explore.  Looking forward to whenever my next trip over there is.

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