I attended another MAANZ Symposium! Mosaic Association of Australia and New Zealand is an organization of mosaic artists who welcome international members. I’ve been a member for many years, encouraged to join by an Australian mosaic artist who I met years ago online, and in person at several SAMA conferences (Society of American Mosaic Artists.) Bob and I went to Australia for the first time in 2024 for the symposium and loved the country and people so much it wasn’t much of an arm-twister to go back this year. For my post on that trip, check the Australia 2024 link, above.
We drove down to Mom’s again before going to the North Concord BART station to take the train to SFO. Nonstop flight to Sydney was long (about 13 hours) but we managed to sleep enough to negate and serious jetlag. The quick flight up to Brisbane is around an hour.
We arrived on Sunday, October 4, and had almost a whole day to get settled in.
Brisbane is a beautiful city! The river snakes through the city, and a great way to see it and get around is to take the ferries. They call them City Cats and City Dogs—fun graphics and great rides. The best thing is the fare is only 50 cents— Australian! It’s basically a free ride.
We had 4 days before the symposium began so Bob and I could explore the city together. On Friday and Saturday when I was in sessions, Bob was able to log many miles on foot discovering more of the city. We had evening activities with symposium people each evening during the symposium. It was a busy and fun week!
Day trip to Stradbroke Island
On Tuesday we joined a small guided tour to an island off the coast. North Stradbroke Island, also known by its Aboriginal name Minjerribah, is the world’s second-largest sand island, located in Moreton Bay about 30 km (19 miles) southeast of Brisbane.
We met the group and got in the van with our guide. It was a fun trip. It rained (hard at times!) all the way to the ferry terminal. When we got to the island it was still drizzing, but soon the clouds broke and we had a lovely day.
A crazy small world thing happened. While we were walking along the cliff walk overlooking the sea I thought I spotted my friend and fellow mosaic artist from San Diego, Kim Emerson. I knew she was attending the symposium and was in Australia already but didn’t know she was going to this island. Sure enough, when we came back to the village for lunch, there was Kim having a gelato! Such a fun coincidence! Unfortunately we didn’t take a picture of us there on the island.
We did take pictures of kangaroos! click this to see a video.
It’s hard to get good photos of koalas in trees with just my phone camera. But I took a fun video of a sleeping koala. Check it out!
