Australia

It took almost 11 days to sail from Fiji to Brisbane. At first we had lots of wind and waves which battered us and made us feel seasick but then it settled down and the wind died away until we were left drifting in a millpond. We checked the weather forecast and found that there were major winds heading our way, we turned on our engines and rushed to safety into the river that winds it's way through Brisbane. Unfortunately we arrived after sunset and were unable to disembark and stretch our legs after 11 days of immobility.    

The next day we were welcomed to the marina by a family who lived on another boat there in the marina, they had been in the same marina and lived on the same boat for 4 years and had grow used to living in Brisbane city. They showed us around and we picked up some bread from the guy who lived on the house boat at the end dock. He owned 9 guinea pigs and he washed and exercised them everyday on the lawn in front of the docks. After we had explored our new environment (the marina), we got on the ferry and went to downtown Brisbane. 

The ferries were small and red and went up and down the river like a water bus for free. There was a dock at the marina and every half hour a ferry would show up there. It took us maybe 15 minutes to go from the marina to the center of the city on the ferry. The city looked like any other but it was surprisingly cleaner than most cities, there was not much litter on the sidewalks and every building gleamed in the sunlight. There were restaurants and shops everywhere and skyscrapers made from windows and office buildings with thousands of cubicles. We walked across the big bridge with lights running down the sides and stepped into awesome gardens with paths throughout the flower beds and fountains in the middle of pruned hedges and a public pool that looked like a natural pond and stretched the length of the park. Everywhere we looked we saw picnic tables on the lawns and children waiting in front of ice cream shops with their hair still wet from the pool. We walked under the enormous trellis with vines and flowers growing over it, we found a wooden boardwalk winding through a tiny forest and we saw birds floating on the stream that chuckled along next to us. 

I love Brisbane.