Early hours of this morning our ship entered the mouth of the Brisbane River where we sailed up the winding river past industrial estates of natural gas and oil refineries where tankers were anchored and past riverside residential units, parklands with the sight of the city’s tall skyscrapers in the distance. An interesting part of the morning was being on the top deck and watching our ship’s mask and funnel pass just with a couple of metres clearance under the Brisbane River.
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| Sailing up the Brisbane River |
We have looked forward to today as we were being met by our eldest son who we have not seen for 18 months, to take us to his family home ( a 30 minute drive out of Brisbane) to spend the day with his family which includes our two young granddaughters and daughter-in-law.
Upon arriving the house was quiet and we soon found out why. The girls were hiding behind the lounge chairs and jumped out to surprise us. Hugs and kisses galore, we settled down to a cup of tea to catch up with all the family news. Playing Barbie dolls, swimming in the pool, playing WII games, chatting and eating the day soon passed too quickly and we were saying our goodbyes and back in the car for the ride to the cruise terminal. Hugs and farewells we were back on board, nearly the last passengers again.
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| Dad and Dave |
We stood on deck 7 to wave our final goodbyes to our son and eldest granddaughter who had to head back home.
We spent a few hours on deck and watched the sail away up the river and again under the bridge which was now alight with blue lights.
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| Made it – Phew! |
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| Healiners Show |
Seeing we only had 3 nights left aboard we thought we would make the most of watching the live performances on board so attended the evening show which was performed by the ship’s dance troupe, Headliners, which was a tribute to Abba. We moved on to the Theatre Royal where we were entertained by Will Martin, piano and singer artist.
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| Headliners Show |
We spent time up on deck 13 until the early hours of the morning taking in the night views of the coastal Queensland towns and the disembarking of the pilot onto the pilot boat. Time to retire for the night; we headed back to our cabin.
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| Steven Checking out the Oriana’s New Rear End |
Brisbane is situated in the middle of Australia’s east coast in the state of Queens and located in and around the South Bank Parklands by the Brisbane River. Brisbane has a warm subtropical climate most of the year and mild winter months.
On to Sydney, our final port of call………..