Day 16: 6 Star Walkabout and the Bridges of Brisbane

I got up this morning around 9am to get ready for a big day ahead. Included in the to-do list were hopes of touring a 6 star Green Star rated building in Brisbane, finding a temporary structure case study, and a bridge tour as a group set for the early evening. All of this to accomplish in Brisbane - today!

To begin with, Reel, Jay, Professor Hein and myself left just after 10:00am to head towards 123 Albert St. - one of three 6-star rated buildings in Brisbane. We hopped on a bus and headed in the direction of the downtown area. Once we arrived in downtown, we took a look around and saw that we were quite close to the SANTOS building, which is also a 6-star rated building. We were not picky as to which of the 3 buildings to visit first, so we decided to try SANTOS instead of 123 Albert St. since it was just a couple of blocks away. Here are some pictures of the exterior of the SANTOS building (taken later in the day as I did not have my camera with me in the morning.):

View of the SANTOS building from across the river.

The colors of the building are derived from the colors of early homes in Brisbane.

The feature on the outside of the building is designed to look like the blade of a bulldozer and is simply decorative.

The top floor is the location of the tri-generation power plant and solar hot water heater, among other sustainable features.

We walked up to the SANTOS building and one of the first things I noticed was that the building had been designed so that the main building was set in the shade (at least on the lower levels). This made for a nice atmosphere and I am sure reduces the cooling load in the summer time. We walked inside on the ground floor and after spending a few minutes walking around the lobby looking for someone who might be able to help us, we spotted a property manager sign and phone number. (There was no receptionist at the desk.) Professor Hein gave the number a call and after a 5 minute conversation, a lady named Shannon Ormond, who was quite knowledgeable about the sustainable features of the SANTOS building was headed down the elevator (a lift as they call them here) to meet us.

She met us in the lobby and after an exchange of names, she provided us with some handouts that gave a good number of facts about the different sustainable features of the building. This handout was quite detailed and is not provided to the public - a huge advantage to actually visiting the building in person! (No way would we have been able to find all of this information just from online research.) Shannon was not able to take us up to the 37th floor (top floor) of the building to show us where most all of the features are located (including a tri generation power plant, solar hot water system, and 120,000 liter rainwater recycling system for the bathrooms - there was maintenance going on and so for safety reasons we had to keep out), but she was able to take us downstairs to the basement where tenants of the building can use cyclist facilities for $25 a month. In this air-conditioned area are 300 bikes, 350 lockers, and 60 showers (men and women total) that help to promote environmentally friendly methods of traveling to work. Most noticeable of all was that this space looked almost 100% used. I'm not sure how riding a bike to work (ferry, train, and bus options are also available) would go over in America (apparently it's big in the western U.S.), but the people here in Brisbane seem to love and embrace these alternate modes of transportation. Coming from the U.S. I think it might seem more like a burden to have to take public transportation everywhere and not be able to drive yourself wherever you need to go, but here in Brisbane the folks seem to actually enjoy these amenities. The public transportation systems are quite efficient and reliable, which I am certain are two must-have qualities that make the folks here enjoy the service.

Continuing our tour of the building, Shannon took us up to the 36th floor (which took only a 5 second elevator ride) and we were privileged to take in a gorgeous view of the city along the Brisbane River. We were able to see more features of interior fit-out of the building, which most noticeably included no light switches (motion sensors automatically turn the lights on and then back off a few minutes after no motion is detected). Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me and did not get any pictures from the top of the building, but Jay did, so hopefully I can get some pictures from him to post here in the near future.

We asked several more questions to which Shannon had many knowledgeable answers. We departed from the building, each of us with her business card so that we can contact her later on in the semester if we have more questions about the SANTOS building. Thesis success!!

We ventured down to 123 Albert Street, but when we arrived there, the receptionist was not able to set up a tour, nor were the property mangers who were listed on the outside of the building (out of town for the next week and a half). This was not a real loss though, as we are only looking for 1 building in each city we visit to use as a case study in our research and the information and tour we received at SANTOS provided enough information to perform the case study for Brisbane. Satisfied with our information, we returned to the hotel around 12:30pm.

I changed out of my nicer clothes in exchange for some shorts and a t-shirt before heading back out in search of a temporary structure to use as a case study for class. I spent a good bit of time walking around the South Bank area before finding a structure that I could properly observe its purpose and see the workers using it. (I ended up choosing a 12-story lift fastened on the outside of a building under construction.) I took several pictures and even a short video before heading over to the downtown area to grab some lunch and have devo over the phone with Brittany.

I returned to the hotel around 4:00pm to shower and was ready in plenty of time for the bridge tour that Professor Hein would be leading at 5:00pm. We took a bus to the Cultural Arts Center along the South Bank where we started our tour of several bridges that cross the Brisbane River. Professor Hein, who designed bridges in his professional career before becoming a professor at Auburn, provided us with a brief history and synopsis of the type, use, and method used to transfer and support the load of each bridge that we came across. I had my camera with me, so instead of going into great detail about each of the bridges, here are some photographs of the bridges we toured:

Victoria Bridge

Kurilpa Bridge - "tensegrity" design used for pedestrians and cyclists

William Jolly Bridge

Merivale Bridge

Story Bridge

We ended our interesting tour at the Story Bridge, above. It was fairly late in the evening, so we all parted ways in search of dinner. A large group of us (trying to avoid paying for a taxi) started walking in the direction of Woolloongabba (we were a couple miles away) looking for a bus stop that would take us back to the hotel area. After walking a good ways we finally found a stop, but the next bus was 15 minutes away. After quick look over the top of the next hill we saw McDonald's, which we knew was a couple of blocks away from our hotel, so we decided just to continue walking. It took us some time, but we made it back to the hotel safely and managed to get some great exercise! The restaurant under the hotel only had 2 burgers left ($10 burger night), so they could not accommodate our large crowd. The majority of the group continued on down the street to the Brisbane Brewery, but I just ran in Coles next to the hotel and grabbed a sandwich, as I was fairly tired and needed to get some laundering done before the flight to Melbourne in the morning.

Sandwich in hand, I went back up to the room and started my first of two loads of laundry to wash and dry. I did some blogging and work over the next several hours while my clothes were in the machine. I took the last load out around 1:00am (high efficiency washers and driers take a long time) and quickly fell asleep, excited to be heading off in the direction of a new city - Melbourne!!

Day 15: Bubba - "Roo" and Koala Bears

The beginning of yet another beautiful day Down Under! I woke up around 8:00 to eat some breakfast and have devo with Brittany before a short group meeting began at 9:15am, immediately followed by my meeting to discuss thesis research at 9:30am. Needless to say, my morning started off much quicker than previous days!

My discussion with Professor Hein concerning my thesis went quite well. He was excited about the possibility of getting the chance to visit a 6 star building here in Brisbane, though we both agreed that the chances of getting a tour with only a day and a half left (and no prior planning) was pretty slim. I had already located several buildings in other cities that we will be traveling to during our time abroad, so we spent some time mulling over options and further understanding not only the topic of innovative energy systems, but also ways that I can present the topic in written form. Overall, the meeting lasted about thirty minutes and I left excited about upcoming opportunities!

I spent the next bit of my morning calling my mom and dad (it was early evening of the previous day in Texas) to do some catching up over the past several days’ activities. My dad (who has worked off and on in the oil and gas industry during his professional career) and I ended up talking about the pros and cons of adding sustainable energy design to buildings and cities throughout the United States. This conversation helped to give me various questions to ask while I am here in Australia concerning the impact constructing buildings with clean, renewable energy has on different areas of the economy (most notably the consumer’s dollar).

After talking with my folks, I returned to the room and talked with Reel and Jay about our thesis topics. We are each performing research that in some way concerns sustainable building design. (Reel is looking at different types of innovative water recycling techniques while Jay is researching how the performance of the sustainable features are monitored in sustainable buildings here in Australia.) Altogether, the three of us will be teaming up on case studies (each looking at the building in the aforementioned areas) and hopefully end up with some top-notch research papers by April 20^th!

We spent a good 30-45 minutes researching our options together for building visits here in Brisbane before we had to meet as a full group again at 1:15pm. We were hoping to contact someone to plan a visit to one of the three 6-star buildings, but there was very little contact information available for the three buildings we needed. In the end, we decided the best plan would be to simply drop by one of the buildings tomorrow morning (our last day in Brisbane) and see if a facilities manager or some other building operator might have a few free minutes to show us around their building. For the time being (and remainder of the day), we were headed to visit another Brisbane attraction – the koala reserve!

The group left the hotel around 1:15pm and embarked on a fairly lengthy bus journey out to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. This was probably the least enjoyable bus ride to date (for me at least) during our time abroad, as the bus driver enjoyed a steady combination of hard gas, immediate let-up on the gas, and hard brake over hilly and bumpy roads. All of these elements affected the acceleration of the bus, which in turn affected my internal inertia and balance of stomach fluids and left me feeling rather queasy. When we finally arrived at the sanctuary, I was thoroughly relieved to get off and get some water at the small café outside the entrance.

Before going inside the sanctuary, I was not quite sure what to expect. I knew that they let you hold the koalas (for a fee), but other than that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. The place turned out to be a sanctuary not only for koalas (though there were TONS of koalas), but also for several types of interesting birds, reptiles, mammals, and kangaroos! The trainers at the sanctuary host many live shows with all the different animals, but we were not there at a proper time to see any of these shows. However, I did pay to hold a koala and also paid for a small bag of kangaroo food. Both of these purchases are by far the best I have made in Australia to date. The following are a conglomerate of pictures taken throughout my time at the sanctuary:

The Koalas aren't dead, though they completely relax when they sleep.

Me holding Fin the Koala Bear!!

I touched the Emu, though it seemed a bit edgy.

Dingo!

Kookaburra

Tasmanian Devil - "The Tassie"

Pictures are wonderful tools that work well to convey experiences, but I feel that video evidence is needed to properly retell my adventures with the kangaroos. Thanks to Professor Hein for the camera work while I fed the kangaroos! (Click the link below)

Kangaroo Encounter - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Overall I felt like the visit to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was a huge success. I almost purchased a small didgeridoo in the gift shop (it would have easily fit inside my suitcase), but because it was so small, it had little volume for resonating sound and therefore was practically useless as a musical instrument and more for display purposes only. I was also tempted to buy a genuine kangaroo leather Australian hat, but Anoop was able to purchase a similar style for a few dollars cheaper elsewhere, so I refrained from buying souvenirs. Professional photograph of me holding a koala in hand, I boarded the bus back towards Woolloongabba. This bus had a different person in the driver’s seat, though he must have learned how to drive at the same institution as the driver who brought us to the sanctuary, because the ride back to downtown Brisbane was complete déjà vu of the early afternoon ride out to the sanctuary.

Upon returning back to the hotel, I laid down on my bed to take a quick 30-minute power nap before a group of us were planning to leave in search of some Mexican food. Rejuvenated by the nap, I set off with the group to find Tuckeria’s Fresh Mexican Food. We eventually found the establishment (just outside of the “China Town” area – of course!), and after some debate decided to stay and eat. We thought it was going to be a nice sit-down restaurant, but it ended up being similar to Moe’s, except it was completely authentic Mexican food without “Southwest” flare and the seating was entirely outside. The place was quite packed and they had some difficulty handling the large number of orders, but we ended up having a nice meal sitting outside as the cooler (relative to the 95 degree afternoon weather) evening air settled.

After dinner we walked down the street a few blocks to a place that was having a trivia night outdoors. We were too late to join in the game, but we enjoyed listening and half-participating in the fun. A few members of our group bought some drinks while I went in search of a Dr. Pepper. There was pretty much only one convenient store within sight, so I went over to see if they carried Dr. Pepper. Lo and behold – they did! After spending a few seconds disgusted by the dominance of Coke products, I found a single row entitled, “American Drinks,” which held not only Dr. Pepper bottled in Plano, TX, but also Cherry Dr. Pepper and A&W root beer and cream soda. The “American Drinks” were on sale 2 for $5, so I got a DP and a cream soda and headed back to join the group at trivia.

We spent the next couple of hours hanging out and enjoying each other’s company and watching some very weird people around us before deciding to head back to the hotel. We didn’t really know where we were relative to Woolloongabba, but thankfully Brisbane has an extensive bus system that will take you most places in the city as long as you know the correct bus number. Without too much difficulty, we found a street with buses and after a 10-minute bus ride, we were back at the hotel.

I went up to the room to set my camera down and shower; but before going to bed, I walked down the street a few blocks and got some bottled water (I felt slightly dehydrated after the soda). I walked back to the hotel and pretty much went right to sleep, foregoing the possibility of doing any more work. Today had been a really fun and adventurous day, what with the experience of holding a koala and feeding a kangaroo, and I was excited to see how tomorrow – our last full day in Brisbane – would unfold!

Day 14: Meeting a Fellow Texan Down Under!

This morning I was able to sleep in until 9:30am or so at which time I got up to get ready for the coming day. Today’s agenda includes a meeting with FLUOR Enterprises, Inc. For those who have never heard of them, FLUOR is one of the largest international construction companies! They have offices in numerous cities around the world, but today we would be visiting their office in Brisbane.

After ironing and putting on some khaki pants and button-down shirt (Got to look sharp!), I headed downstairs with my laptop to the small coffee shop next to the hotel in hopes of doing some research about FLUOR before our visit in a few hours. I ordered a muffin and a coffee, then sat down and tried to connect to Gloria Jean’s (the coffee shop) Internet. After several attempts, my computer finally connected, though the connection never lasted longer than a couple of minutes before having to reboot, so I really got nothing productive done over breakfast.

I packed my laptop up and went back upstairs to drop it off in the room before we departed for the meeting. The group left soon afterwards and we were able to take a bus most of the way there. After hopping off the bus, we made a short walk over to the Christi Centre where FLUOR rented a floor (wow those words are almost the same). We got to their front door and were met by a man who said “Auburn - Welcome!” This man’s name was Joe Harris, who, judging by his accent, I could tell was a fellow American living in Australia. (Later he would tell us he had only been in Australia since last May and is usually stationed in FLUOR’s office in Sugarland, Texas. He also mentioned that he has a farm in Panola County, Texas – not too far from Tyler! The world gets smaller and smaller every day!)

We signed in and put on visitor tags, then proceeded to a conference room where chairs had been sat out in front of a screen, with some refreshments off to one side. Another man, Ralph Gunnis (not sure if I spelled his name correctly), joined Joe and they introduced themselves. Come to find out, Ralph is a professor at 4 Universities and is an Environmental Manager at FLUOR. Joe, from Texas as previously mentioned, is the Director of Construction Support at FLUOR. Joe and Ralph were curious as to what we (the 18 Auburnians) were interested in, so each of us (including the professors) took turns giving our names, where we were from originally in the U.S., and also the topic of our thesis research papers (or title and teaching responsibilities in the case of the professors.).

With introductions over, Joe and Ralph took turns telling us about FLUOR as a company and also went into a detailed presentation about the SANTOS Gladstone LNG Upstream Project. Basically, LNG stands for Liquefied Natural Gas and FLUOR was part of the construction team building two hub stations to develop a coal seam gas production expansion for SANTOS. They provided many details about coal seam gas, but perhaps the most interesting is that coal seam gas is the world’s cleanest burning fuel, as it is a form of natural methane gas trapped in coal beds. A fraccing system is used here that is different than the technique used in the states. In the U.S., a fraccing fluid that has chemicals in it is used in a similar process. In Australia, sand is used in the fraccing process to break through the coal formations and pump pure coal seam water and natural gas to the surface without any potential to harm the coal or any naturally occurring acquifers.

Ralph, a native Australian, provided commentary about several interesting legal and environmental pieces of legislation that are in place in Australia. He went into great detail, though I found two things particularly interesting about his presentation. The first is that a construction company has 3 months to show the government how a project will comply with every single one of 1,100 items in order to get a social license to build. Once underway with a project (social license in hand), the public regulates whether or not the construction company continues to comply with the 1,100 items. It seemed super tedious and complicated, especially the part about how the public enforces what the government licensed. Stuart made note of this in a question he asked Ralph, to which Ralph thoroughly agreed! Another interesting thing Ralph mentioned, which I think reflects and helps to explain the cultural mindset of Australians (and how it differs from Americans), is that each project has what is called “triple bottom line reporting.” This method of reporting shows how the community, environment, and business (or dollars spent) all win within the confines of the project. He went into much more detail, but I thought it was intriguing that the folks here are concerned equally with other costs of a project outside of the overall dollar amount; which I think reflects a general cultural awareness and agreement that projects have costs (both positive and negative consequences) that must be addressed, for which the Australian people are more than willing to spend a few extra dollars.

After a great meeting (which lasted several hours – the exact timeframe during which the national championship was played), we shook hands, making sure to get a business card so that we can keep in touch with Joe and Ralph once we return to the states. Shortly after leaving the Christi Centre, we learned of Alabama’s apparent annihilation of LSU and could not help but be thankful for several more weeks in Australia and New Zealand. However, congratulations to Alabama for a great season, but, most importantly, War Eagle!!

I returned that afternoon to do some more blogging and research at the State Library of Queensland. I had not taken any photos yet today (I left my camera at the hotel for the meeting), so I decided to snap a few shots inside the library. The inside is quite nice! Here’s a look:

2nd Floor of the State Library of Queensland

Great outside seating for after-hours Internet usage!

I finished up my work for the evening just after 7:00pm, and took the benefits of the early evening hour to take a stroll back to the hotel instead of riding the bus. I stopped about halfway and bought dinner at a Subway along the South Bank area and ate next to a fountain and pool. Properly nourished, I continued walking back to Woolloongabba. The walk was quite nice (the temperatures had cooled down significantly from their 90 degree onslaught) and I made it back safely to the hotel. I took a few pictures along the way. Here's a look!:

"The Wheel of Brisbane" - Nighttime

The Treasury of Queensland

Asian Temple

Brook where I sat and ate dinner

Back in the room, I used a 2-hour internet code Anoop gave us and did some research on the website of the Green Building Council of Australia. I found many wonderful case studies on buildings that have great innovative energy saving techniques that would work perfectly in my research paper. Three such buildings are here in Brisbane! The only drawback is that I am looking to incorporate case studies of buildings I actually visit, not just read about online (There has to be a reason to actually visit Australia evident within the paper), so not just any selection from the Green Building Council website will suffice. I reached my maximum data usage fairly quickly, but I was looking forward to my 9:30am meeting with Professor Hein to further discuss my thesis topic. Hopefully tomorrow will bring good tidings and great joy!

Day 13: Free Internet Does Exist in Brisbane!

I woke up around 8:00am to get my bags all packed and ready for checkout and departure at 10:00am. I finished about 8:45, with enough time to head back around town and take a few pictures of the town and have devo by the beach over the phone with Brittany. I got back to the room about 9:30, in time to pick up my bags and head out with the rest of the group. We departed in the reverse fashion that we arrived at Surfers Paradise, and found our way back to the same hotel we had previously stayed at in Brisbane by 12:45 - 15 minutes before the scheduled 1:00pm group check-in time.

We met briefly as a group, with Anoop calling another meeting in an hour (at 2:00pm in the Cinema Room). A group of us used this time to grab some lunch across the street at Thai Rosa, which was my first ever Thai food experience! When I made my order, I had no idea what I was ordering until it arrived at the table. The main dish was Pad Thai Chicken, which turned out to be diced chicken in a bowl of noodles with a delicious sauce. I'm not sure what all was in the dish, but I would definitely recommend this establishment!

Bellies full, we walked back across the street and then went up to meet the group in the Cinema Room on the 6th floor. We had just begun to share stories of the past weekend (The professors went to a World Heritage Site along the coast while most of the Environmental Design students went to Cairns, pronounced like the word "canes," and went to the Great Barrier Reef to snorkel and scuba dive) when the fire alarm went off (for at least the second time of the day so we were told) and we had to evacuate via the fire stairs. Nothing was on fire, so within a matter of minutes the "all clear" sign was given. We decided not to go back up to the unairconditioned Cinema Room, but instead went up to the 7th floor to Caitlyn and Brooke's room that turned out to be penthouse suite, handed out randomly. (There was plenty of room for our 18-person group to gather around in the living room and kitchen area) The room also provided a great view of a building I had been trying to capture on camera since arriving in Brisbane. Here's a look:

We finished sharing stories of the weekend, thankfully without having to evacuate again. At the end of the meeting, Anoop gave us a forecast of what to expect during our remaining days in Brisbane and then we adjourned. A good number of people (including myself) headed out to the State Library of Queensland where we were told that we would have access to free public WiFi until 5:00pm! It was already 3:00pm, so we took a 5 minute bus ride over to the library instead of a 30 minute walk to maximize our time. Once there, I was able to quickly connect to the internet and began catching up on blogging and posting several hundred pictures to Facebook and the blog. I made a couple of videos using iMovie and then (after some difficulty) uploaded the videos to Facebook, to which I was able to create links on the blog. If you haven't already, feel free to check out the videos on the "Video" page of the blog!

The library ended up not closing until 8:00pm, at which time I walked down to the ground floor and found several people sitting around using their laptops. Intrigued, I opened mine and found that the internet was still working! I was not quite done with the work I had set out to do, so I happily sat down on the concrete benches and was able to continue working! Finally - free 24-hour internet in Brisbane!!

I got back to the hotel around 10:45 and took a quick shower before falling asleep to gear up for another day!

Day 12: Pave Paradise, Put up a Parking Lot

The sun dawned bright and glorious - the beginning a beautiful Sunday morning! I slept in until 10:30(ish) and got up to find a good number of folks headed down to the beach for some sun and waves. Since I had just gotten out of bed, I did not immediately run down to the beach. Instead, I was able to enjoy a nice devo with Brittany over the phone and then get ready for the day listening to some Hillsong worship!

I ventured out of the condo around noon and called Steele to figure out where the group had set up down at the beach. After a quick stop at Subway and another phone call later, I was sitting down to a nice lunch right on the beach. Looking out over the ocean, there was no doubt that this place was aptly christened "Surfers Paradise." The sun was shining and waves were rising a few feet out of the water before crashing onto the sandy shore. Check out the view!

I let my food digest some while I applied some sun screen, then it was time to catch some gnarly wave action! And was it ever gnarly! These waves were by far the best that I had ever experienced. We had to be careful though, because the great waves also created a tremendous rip current (undertoe as it's known in the states). After a good 20-30 minutes of pleasure, I retired to the shore to dry out (I had no room for a beach towel!) and to let the ocean water evaporate from my ears. Sitting there on the beach, Sydney seemed ages ago. It was hard to believe we were in Australia.

Before we took in more sun than we needed, we left the beach to browse the local shops down the streets of Surfers Paradise. It was quite hot, so I went and treid a small chocolate mint gelato cone at Gelatissimo (which is an Italian ice cream shop). I had never had gelato, but it was quite tasty! However, it was definitely not Blue Bell, but then again, what is?

I came back to the condo and, exhausted from being out in the sun all afternoon, took a long nap. I woke up to find that a few members of the group had run over to Coles (the grocery store chain here) and picked up some burgers and fixings for dinner. (Just A$6.50 a person!) We had another lovely dinner as a group out on our balcony as the sun was setting and we determined at this point that every chance we get to cook out as a group, we should. Not only for price reasons, but also because having everyone at the same table makes for some great dinner conversations. We hung out in the living area for the rest of the evening and went to bed kinda early (before 11) to get ready for our morning departure back to Brisbane.

All in all, the weekend in Surfer's Paradise was a wonderful break from a structured schedule, but I was ready to get back to Brisbane and start chipping away at my thesis!

Day 11: Just Another Day in Paradise

Today began the first of two free days during our stay here in Brisbane. As of last night, we (the building science group) had decided take a train out to the Gold Coast to the town of Surfers Paradise. Surfers Paradise is the actual name of the town, though it was changed from its original name many years ago to attract tourists. (It has worked!)

We had to be checked out of our accommodations in Brisbane by 10:00am, at which time we proceeded to the bus stop across the street to catch a quick ride to the South Bank Bus/Train Station. We took the train to the outskirts of Surfers Paradise, then a 20 minute bus ride into the city. We got off the train in the middle of the city (a few blocks from the coast), then used a map on Jay's iPhone to determine which direction we needed to walk in order to find our hotel. We walked a good 15 minutes down the streets and finally came to the Trilogy at Surfers Paradise where we had put a deposit down on a couple of large condo style rooms earlier that same morning. Accommodations for the entire two day weekend totaled to A$108 per person, which we thought was a pretty good deal. The good deal was confirmed shortly after entering our rooms. Here's a look at the inside!

 

Hard to beat a full kitchen, living area, three bedrooms, and a balcony with a pretty cool view of the city! (We were on the 11th floor) Here's a look from the balcony (afternoon and evening):

After we dropped off our luggage, we walked down the street in search of some lunch! (Finally, since it was already close to 2:30!) Lunch would not normally be a noteworthy event, which is the case here, except for what was showing on the television (muted though):

Yep, none other than "War Eagle, Roll Tide" (As it should rightly be called) ESPN special was playing! Except for the fact that we were some 8,000 miles away, it felt like we were right at home!

We walked down and saw the beach (didn't stay because it was quite overcast) then headed back to the condo for some relaxing. For dinner we used our kitchen and pulled our monies together to have a nice dinner of lasagna, salad, and sweet tea (Reel's making) for around A$5 a person. Not too shabby! We enjoyed chewing the cud and being away from organized events for the evening, ending in a wonderful night's rest, with more relaxation coming tomorrow!

Day 10: Crickets Aren't Just For Fishin'

Today we got up nice and early in preparation to experience what many tourist guides say is the #1 thing to do in Brisbane – climb to the top of Mt. Coot-tha! We walked across the street to the Woolloongabba bus station to start a chain of bus rides that would get us across the city to the base of the mountain.

Eventually we made it to our starting destination and began another trek across the rugged Australian terrain. Actually it was a steep ascent on a nice paved road that wound round and round the mountain up to the lookout at the apex. Today’s weather was much more humid than our previous days and it was not long before everyone had worked up a nice sweat. As we journeyed on, you could look out on the occasion and tell that beyond the trees existed a great view of the city, but we had to wait until the lookout point to get a clear picture unobstructed by trees and other vegetation. Here are some pictures taken from the top of Mt. Coot-tha:

We spent some time walking around the peak and taking a few ganders at the merchandise for sale in the gift shop (I bought a neat boomerang at the best prices seen to date!). Without tarrying too long, we decided to walk back down the mountain on the trail-side since our walk up had been somewhat of a letdown. This trail was more like the trail through the Blue Mountains, though thankfully not as steep and definitely not as lengthy. We had heard tales of a “falls” along the trail, though soon after starting our trek we saw a dried up riverbed and with incredible accuracy predicted there was no “falls.” Here are some pictures as we descended the mountain on the trail:

                                                               Aboriginal Art Trail

We exited the trail at a park area and went in search of a bus stop that would take us back down to the city. Thankfully Anoop had a GPS on his iPad and after a mile or so walking beside the road, we found a suitable bus stop. (Nothing like technological navigation!) A couple of bus rides later, we were back at our hotel in Woolloongabba. In retrospect, I think Mt. Coot-tha is receiving a bit too much attention. The view was pretty neat, but not exactly what I was hoping for out of the #1 Brisbane attraction. However, it was definitely worth the trip!

I took a good nap in the afternoon before getting up to do some blogging (Anoop had purchased several 2 hour codes to use in our rooms). I blogged until about 5:30 when we met in the Cinema room on the 6^th floor for a meeting. In this meeting, Captain Anoop gave us a detailed description of how to play cricket. Why? At 6:30 we were headed directly across the street to “The Gabba” to our first ever cricket match – Brisbane Heat vs. Hobart Hurricanes! Here’s a look at the cricket class:

After learning all of the rules, we ventured over to the stadium and joined the other 15,134 fans that attended the match. I won’t go into all of the details about how the game is played, but there are a few things that are important to note. First, there are several versions of the game, the longest lasting 5 days. Tonight’s match would not go that length (though there is currently a 5 day match underway in South Africa), but instead would be capped at 20 overs, or 120 pitches (or bowls, 6 per over) for each team. One other interesting fact about cricket is that many of the formats include a 30 minute break for tea – no joking. To say that cricket is like baseball (which is what I’ve always heard) is far from accurate. Apart from the fact that someone (a bowler) throws a ball that a batter hits and the team who scores the most runs wins the game, there really are very few congruous elements between the two sports.

The scoring in the match started off quickly, with Brisbane batting first. But first, let’s see what Captain Anoop predicted:

Beginning of match - Anoop's Prediction

Brisbane ended up scoring 201 runs with their 120 pitches, including 4 on the last pitch which turned out to be the difference in the game. Why? Well, after several mind-numbing overs, the Hurricanes finally started hitting and scoring runs. For the last few plays of the game, lets take a live look at the action:

End of Match - Blow-By-Blow

(Note that the last pitch was caught, though it would have been worth 4 runs and the win had it gotten past the Brisbane player. Brisbane won the game, 201-198. Anoop said it is very rare that a cricket match comes down to the last pitch!)

What a match! I was pretty bored in the middle, but the beginning and end were actually pretty exciting. The crowd’s excitement definitely created a fun atmosphere! The game lasted about  3 ½ hours, so it was fairly late by the time we got back to the hotel. I got a shower and hit the hay not long after getting back to the room. Tomorrow was the beginning of two free days for the group, which had been planned over the last few hours (nothing like the last minute!). We would be heading to Surfer’s Paradise along the Gold Coast of Australia!