THE EASTER BUNNY CONUNDRUM

April 3 – We left Cairns today and flew to Brisbane for the last leg of our Australian adventure.  Brisbane is just a short stopover (1 day) before we head back to New Zealand.  We arrived this afternoon to discover that Brisbane is pretty much shut down over the Easter weekend.  Everything was closed – including our hotel!  There was no one manning the front desk when we arrived and that did not change.  We were starting to make contingency plans for the night when we were finally able to call the hotel manager who gave us the code to a lockbox to get our key.  That information would have been just dandy to have before we got there, let me tell you.  Naturally, we were all starving and wanted dinner but it was pretty much a ghost town in the neighbourhood around the apartment.  Seriously, I saw tumbleweeds going by.

However, intrepid travellers do not allow little details like complete business closure to stop them on their journey so we set off into the center of town hoping for a bit of life.  We were rewarded when we found the Queen Street Mall (a few really cool pedestrian-only streets) which had some restaurants open.  While we were considering our options, the heavens opened for one of the only rainy portions of our stay here.  It was perfectly all right, however, because the mall had a very cool structure over top that kept out the rain (it looked like an enormous palm frond).  We just got to watch all the water coming off the roof in waves (there was a LOT of rain!)  Honestly, we have been so lucky with weather on this trip – they have repeatedly forecast lots of rain and (relatively) cold days on this trip but we have just managed to miss it all.  We have had wonderful weather virtually the whole time on this trip.

Anyway, after a somewhat dubious burger at Mos (apparently the #1 burger chain in Japan) we headed back to the apartment for a quiet night in.  I hope that there is something open in Brisbane tomorrow or this could be a most awkward visit.