Brisbane dinner

While hiking the Routeburn Track in New Zealand we met a group of Australians that were hiking together as part of a high school parents outdoor program. One member of the group, Geoff, was kind enough to offer a lot of advice about Australia over the few days that we spent with them on the track.  He invited us over to dinner whenever we ended up in Brisbane.  We emailed with him a couple times to set up a good time for dinner, and met him at the train station around 5:30.

Geoff is a principal at a private school and his wife Jackie is a teacher at a public school, but to make extra money, they flip houses.  In Australia if you buy a house and live in it and then sell it for a profit, there are no taxes on the profit you make from the house.  They currently live in a large Queenslander house, which is similar to a colonial house, but no grand staircase in the front and the outdoor porch only covers two sides, not three. It was gorgeous!

We had brie and quince with olives and crackers for hors d'oeuvre with champagne (that's what they called it, who am I to argue) from South Australia. We talked about politics and the difference between Australia and America.  We talked about the differences in immigration and philanthropists and we discussed the immense amount of flooding Brisbane and Australia received earlier this year.  It was incredible to hear about how the flooding affected everyone around them (they luckily lived on high land so weren't as affected). We opened up a pinot gris from New Zealand once we finished the champagne.

For dinner had Australian barbecue - rump steak (the name of the cut from the cow) and chicken, eggplant and zucchini, and Jacky made smashed potatoes. When Andy asked Geoff what the difference between Australian and American barbecue was there seemed to be a general agreement of "not much". However, it does seem like butchers cut meat differently in Australia than they do in the U.S. The meat was then drizzled in a yummy mushroom gravy.  With dinner we opened a bottle of pinot noir from another area in Australia but I just don't remember where from.  The food was excellent as well as the company.  It was so nice to feel like we were more than just tourists in a country.

After dinner we had some tea and then dessert.  Jacky had made rum soaked plums topped with whipped cream she whipped after dinner and a sprinkle of cinnamon.  I asked if they actually skinned the plums themselves, but Jacky said they bought them in a can pre-peeled.

We hooked up our laptop to their tv and showed them our pictures from New Zealand and Australia.  Jacky didn't go on the hike with Geoff and the others but she met up with him afterwards and they traveled through NZ together.  It was a nice way of talking about each others trips and a pleasant way to end the night.

Geoff graciously gave us a ride back to the city (only about 15 minutes) so we didn't have to catch the train. Thank you Geoff and Jacky!

On to Brisbane

We caught a morning bus down to Brisbane which put us in the city around 2pm.  After checking into our hostel and situating the rest of our travel in Australia, we headed out to explore downtown a little bit.  It's a decent sized city, situated on a river and we spent a couple of hours just wandering through.  For dinner we bought soup from the grocery store and brought it back to our hostel, added the rest of the rice and some couscous and ate it with some rolls.

In the morning we made scrambled eggs with green pepper and onion, then took the bus to Mount Coot-tha. The bus drops off at either the summit or the botanic gardens/planetarium at the base.  We stopped off at the summit first which had sweeping views of Brisbane and the surrounding area.  There were signs to J.C. Slaughter falls, only 1.7 km, and we decided it would be a nice hike. The falls were laughably disappointing. There was hardly a dribble flowing over the rocks.  But there was a picnic area and we ate lunch there.  We hiked back up to catch the bus down to the base. There was a 1:30 show at the Planetarium called Black holes and we decided to watch it.  It was interesting, as I find most planetarium shows are, and was narrated by Geoffry Rush.

After the show we had about an hour to kill so we lazed about in the grass outside the planetarium. We headed back into the city to catch a train to Indooroopilly (pronounced indro-pilly) where we were meeting people at 5:30 PM.  I am going to end this post here so I can talk in depth about the people we were meeting and dinner.