This is a close-up of the manger scene in front of the temple. Notice the palm trees.
This is looking towards downtown Brisbane from across the street from the temple.
As we walked along the South Bank towards downtown, we stopped to look at these pelican statues made from parts of machines. We watched a family paddle their kayaks past us.
We walked under a beautifully flowered canopy. Many people, including lots of families, were enjoying this scene which made it seem as if we weren't actually in the heart of a city of 3 million people.
We were amazed to find a FREE splash park a little further along on our walk. It was neat to see children and parents having such an enjoyable time together.
We were even more amazed to find a FREE swimming pool complete with sandy beaches just past the splash pool.
One more view of the FREE swimming pool in downtown Brisbane. You can see the Wheel of Brisbane Ferris wheel in the background.
We did NOT ask the kids to climb up on the "B" and the "S" of the "Brisbane" sign. They were just there already, posing for their families, we guess.
We walked across the bridge to the North Bank where we found a kind of farmer's market. We had a laugh at this booth touting fruit grown to classical music and pollinated by native bees!
After being in Kiribati for over a year, it was overwhelming to see the variety and affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables available in Australia.
One of the highlights of our trip was going to see a professional performance of Les Mis. When we first inquired about seats and costs, we were dismayed by the prices ($135 for decent seats). But we found out that since the performance was not sold out, we could go to the ticket office 2 hours before the performance and ask for "rush" tickets. We got two seats together on the end of row 10 for only $45 each! It was a wonderful performance.
On the way home from Les Mis, as we walked toward the City Cat ferry boat dock, we walked past the Wheel of Brisbane which we were able to ride twice, the second time for free.
This picture is taken from the City Cat boat of an illuminated bridge. What you can't see from the picture is that the light patterns are constantly changing.
Here's a daytime shot of the Story Bridge taken from an earlier City Cat boat ride. By taking the City Cat from our motel by the airport to downtown Brisbane, we avoided having to drive in heavy traffic on poorly marked and confusing roads and then having to find a place to park. The ferry rides were really quite pleasant, even in the rain.
One last picture in Brisbane, taken from in front of the Science Museum, looks back toward the Queensland Performing Arts Center (QPAC) where we saw Les Mis.
While we loved the 4 days spent in Brisbane, we actually spend 5 days on the Gold Coast in Coolangata at the Beachcomber Resort. This is a view from the balcony looking north.
We walked up a very steep hill to the Captain Cook monument located at Danger Point. To get a feel for the size of it, if you look very carefully, you can see Sister Sumner standing at the base of the "west" pillar. She's wearing a blue blouse with a black skirt. Walking around town was one of the many activities we enjoyed there.
Not far from the Captain Cook monument is Danger Point itself. We enjoyed watching the waves crash against the rocks. Captain Cook recorded the discovery of this place in his ship's log in the late 1700's and called it Danger Point, although there remains some controversy about whether this was the exact place or not.
We enjoyed bicycling up the Gold Coast on what turned out to be a nice cool summer's day. Elder Sumner also enjoyed body surfing in some of the big waves coming in on the beach until one of the waves caught him and slammed him into the sand. The abrasion to his left shoulder is healing nicely. The Gold Coast attracts surfers from all over the world because of its favorable surfing conditions. A resort location north of where we stayed is called Surfers Paradise.
We drove up to Mount Tamborine and took the Skywalk through the rainforest jungle canopy. We were amazed to learn that Australia was once nearly all rainforest, but that much of it had been destroyed by logging.
We ate most of our meals in our apartment, cooking the wonderful food we purchased in the local markets. We did eat out a handful of times, however, and the BBQ ribs we had at Hog's Breath was the tastiest meal we had there.
These 22 pictures hardly convey the wonderful time we had together on our trip. Despite the fact that Sister Sumner came down with a cold at the start of our trip and Elder Sumner came down with a cold half way through the trip, we still loved everything we saw and everything we did. We came back to Kiribati with a profound sense of gratitude for the blessings that are ours. There is such a contrast between the simple beauty of a very poor 3rd world country and a modern 21st century city like Brisbane. We have been privileged to experience the joys of both, for which we give thanks to our Father in Heaven. We hope we can continue to show our gratitude to Him by serving the people of Kiribati during the last 2 1/2 months of our mission.
Sorry for the lateness of this blog. Upon our return to Kiribati on Monday, December 14th, we discovered that our phone and internet were not working. The internet was out until today, Wednesday, December 16th.
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