We took the bus in, because parking is ridiculously expensive all over the city (up to $24 a day in some parts), and because we have monthly public-transport tickets. These allow you to take any bus, train or ferry within the 5 zones we have bought them for, as many times as you like, to and from wherever you like, within those 5 zones (we live out in zone 5, CBD is zone 1). The fact that there's two major bus stops, one at the beginning of South Bank, and the other at the Cultural Centre at the other end, doesn't hurt either.
True to form, like every other park and promenade on this city, it's clean, well maintained, and a pleasure to visit. There's a paved walkway that meanders through South Bank, framed by a bougainvillea-draped fence of sorts
Walking a bit further down towards the river...
...and ignoring the tourist-looking folks who're grinning for no good reason (hi mom!), you'll see the Brisbane CBD in the background.
We are standing at one of the piers where the trans-river ferries (aka "CityCats") drop off and collect passengers. We haven't been on one of these yet, they get pretty full, and time during the week doesn't really allow for it. We have a citycat tour (where you hop from pier to pier) of the river and city planned tho.
Just a side note: Listening to some Brisbanites talk about it, Brisbane public transport is apparently notorious for bad service, rude bus drivers, always being late, you name it, they'll bitch about it. It amuses me no end, because all of these people here complaining about it have no cooking clue about what it would be like to have no public transport at all. I've tried to explain to some of the guys at work that it's all relative, that I am really impressed with how well it works here, considering we had none to speak of back in ZA. Well, none we could really use anyway, without taking your life literally in your hands. The only people who seem to understand are the other saffers and immigrants. I dunno. Maybe I'll be complaining about it myself in a few years, when I've forgotten how bad it was where I came from. I guess we'll see...
Notice how none of those bikes has a bike lock on it? Not necessary (tho it's probably not a good idea to leave them there overnight).
Another shot of the river, there's always someone in a canoe or on a jetski zipping up and down:
We walked a bit further down, towards the cultural centre, and came across the artificial lagoon, complete with artificial beach, tanning beach bunnies, and the usual attendant life-guards.
Here's a more panoramic shot: it's actually bigger than it looks when you first come across it. There's a kiddie's paddling area, on the left, a much deeper adults section, and then another kiddie paddling area on the right. The water is absolutely freezing, but there's always someone willing to risk hypothermia, there were a few brave souls in the water, but most were just tanning on the beach.
The other end of the lagoon (right hand side of panoramic shot above), another kiddie paddling area.
Stunning day, no wind, perfect for the insurance folks to get a skywriter up there (we had a bet going as to whether he'd be able to line up the slash on the bottom of the 'Q' properly). The plane was actually so high up we couldn't see or hear it.
Back on the bougainvillea path, heading towards the cultural centre (not that building in the background, not sure what that is)
Then a sharp left into the South Bank Market. A complete tourist trap, everything from leather hats to didgeridoos. And at least three psychics and palm readers. Lost M for a bit in a sweet shop that sold all sorts of the sweets we used to have when growing up... in fact this photo was taken from outside said sweet shop :)
Left the market and walked on a bit further, past a silver-painted mime on a little silver stool. Told M to put some coins in his little box, to make him move...
...he gave her the thumbs up and a bit of a wave. I guess it's all you get for 50c :).
A bit further on, we got to a Nepalese peace pagoda, that had been hand carved for the '88 expo, held on that site, before it was cleared to become the South Bank area people know today. We're not sure if they carved it on the site, or shipped it over - Ikea style - in a flatpack and assembled it here. Stunning artistry tho, and this photo really doesn't do it justice.
From there we took a short walk through a mini tropical rain-forest, back down to the promenade running next to the river, and ambled back to the lagoon to stick our feet in the water and cool off a bit (didn't take long, that water was cold!)
All the walking had made us hungry, so we hit one of the little takeaway places that are all over the place, grabbed some calamari and chips, and ate it while fending off the ibises (they're like the V&A Waterfront seagulls, but about the size of a hadeda. Those things skrik vir niks and won't take no for an answer).
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