Brisbane part 2

Today we got up at 9am and got ready before heading out towards the centre. We were booked on a tour at midday but had hoped to go to the travel agents we'd been booking stuff with at Byron Bay. However they were totally unhelpful and said that because we hasn't booked our kiwi experience bus pass with them, they wouldn't help us, despite the fact we would have probably booked more tours with them. So instead we went and got breakfast and then headed to the tourist info for the tour, via a suncream stop and some little shops.

The tour was a free tour run by volunteers and it was led by an older woman called Denise. It was quite short because it was so hot and not as informative as the one in Sydney, but she didn't have to earn her money. We learned that the bridge in Brisbane, which you can probably spot in the picture on my previous post, was designed by the same dude who did the harbour bridge, and carries the world's shortest highway. It starts at one end of the bridge and finishes at the other. We went into the church next to the unremarkable cathedral we looked at yesterday and saw a fairly impressive wood statue that was carved out of one tree. It's a carving of Australia's only saint, St Mary. Also on the tour we walked through and then round the botanic gardens and spotted these huge lizard type creatures just chilling. They weren't timid and didn't move as we got up close to take a photo.

After the tour we got the cityhopper boat over to south bank where Brisbane has a man made beach. It also has like a little river with really clear water leading up to it which Lauren and I sat with our feet in. It's 32° today so it was very nice to be sitting in the shade with our feet in the water.

After this we walked along the riverside to where the name of the city was written in giant letters, took a couple of photos and headed back via a travel agents where we booked some stuff for New Zealand. When we got back to the hostel we had a well deserved lie down as we had achy backs and feet. 

At half 6 we went for dinner at a place we had got a discount card for and I had schnitzel with chips and a pint of coke zero for $8.  We then returned to the hostel and spent some time planning the New Zealand leg of the trip.