Day 4: Meeanjin, pt 2
Nau mai
Inanahi, I te okioki mātou (yesterday we were resting)
It was a fine morning in Meeanjin. Clear kikorangi skies and a warm sun that took the edge off the early spring chill.
Tristan and I started our day with a walk to a nearby café, Felix for Goodness. We were seated on a lovely balcony and shortly the waitress came over to take our order, commenting that we were a mood. I ordered the Scotch Hēki – edamame scotch egg, sauteed brussel sprouts, broccolini, bok choi, whipped mapo tofu, and dukkah.
We took our time eating and reading our books before heading to rur next appointment, a pia with Oli and Jonno from Hans Pucket, who were hanging out with a few hours to burn before their flight home. On the way there we stopped by our hotel room so Tristan could perform an emergency spot-clean on my shirt which had received a small splatter of red sauce while I was tasting his meal. All he needed was a bathroom tap and a bar of soap and he had my shirt looking brand new.
We walked to Meeanjin’s South Bank, crossing the Maiwar River as my shirt air-dried in the warm spring breeze. Jonno and Oli were already well into their first pia and we pulled up next to them, ordering quickly in an effort to catch up. We had a fine time reminiscing about events of the past three days, going into great detail about who played the best drum fills, and who has the coolest-sounding guitar pedals. This is not even me being whimsical, we really do talk about this stuff.
While this was going on Jon and Liz had gone on an expedition of their own. The Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, founded in 1927, is the world’s first, and largest Koala sanctuary. It provides visitors with the opportunity to hold a Koala as well as other animal encounters like ‘Owl Encounter’, ‘Platypus Encounter’, and feeding Kangaroos. The promo ‘A team’ were making the most of their day off and enjoyed some lovely moments with these wild animals which thankfully were captured on camera for the rest of us to appreciate.
Later in the day the temperature was dropping with the approaching dusk and Tristan and I took the opportunity to go for a run in the gentler conditions. We set off along the Bicentennial Bikeway, an active transport superhighway that runs alongside the Maiwar River. The setting was tranquil. QuickCat ferries passed us every few minutes as we jogged along slowly, enjoying our proximity to the water and passing many bridges that were silhouetted beautifully by the erupting colours of the sunset. Toward the end of our route we passed through the South Bank Parklands and bumbled right into the middle of the Brisbane Festival, the three week celebration that is Brisbane’s most anticipated event of the year. There was food, live music, a party boat, and some confronting sculptural works, all of which we absorbed while skilfully jogging through the large crowds of revellers.
The Bicentennial Bikeway.
Some of the Brisbane Festival sculptures.
The author pictured under one of the festival lighting displays.
Back at the hotel we cleaned up and headed downstairs for a quick cocktail before getting an early night in preparation for our 4.10am lobby call. I lay in bed setting my alarm and realised my earliest alarm preset was 4.30 am - I hadn’t had to wake up this early since owning this phone, which I’ve had for at least a couple of years now.
Using the precision scroll of the apple alarm clock I dialled in a couple of new alarm times and lay back for a few hours of precious sleep.
Kupu o te rā is mīharo, which means amazing.
I kai mātou te parakuihi mīharo. We ate an amazing breakfast.