Mount Cootha Summit Lookout and Botanical Gardens

Yesterday, Yunyun, Syimsyim, Nabnab, Sa'dy, Fathmee, Rahmat and myself spent the day sightseeing at Mount Cootha Summit Lookout and Mount Cootha Botanical Gardens. I have been to the summit before at night, but never been to the gardens. We met at the bus stop outside of Nandos at 9:30am. It rained unexpectedly. I have checked the weather forecast the day before which have stated that it was going to be a hot day. Hmmm.. I guess you cant 100% trust the weather predictions here, hehe. So anyway, we took the 412 bus to city, with hopes that the rain will stop pouring. We reached the city, and waited for 30 minutes at another bus stop, to catch the bus that will take us straight to the look out and botanical gardens. We decided to just go ahead with the initial plan anyway despite the rain. The trip to the top was about 30 minutes. By that time, the rain had stopped, thank God! :)

We reached the Mount Cootha Lookout Summit, which is the highest point in Brisbane where we could see the city and surrounding areas clearly during the day. It was such a beautiful sight, post morning rain.

The beautiful view of the city and surroundings from the summit

Sa'dy, me, Fathmee, Yunyun, Syimsyim, Nabnab, enjoying the beautiful and scenic view

Looking through the telescope? hehe

The lookout area

After staying at the lookout, we boarded the bus which then took us to the botanical gardens, about 6 minutes away from the look out point. The sun was starting to peek behind the clouds. After getting a guide map of the Botanical gardens, we started on our walk. The Gardens was huge and very beautiful. There were many exhibitions to see, from the fern house, to bonsai house, to the bamboo walk, palm tree lawn, fragrant plants and herbs, fig collection, fruit trees including cocoa and many types of rainforest and so forth.

Outside the Tropical Display Dome

At the Cacti and Bromeliad House

Huge and strange looking cacti :)

Inside the Tropical Display Dome

Beautiful landscaping area

Beside the lake

Duckie duckies

Surrounded by beautiful flowers on bloom

The beautiful Japanese garden

Visitors

After visiting the garden for almost 2 hours, we visited the nearby planetarium.

Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium

With my astronaut :)

While waiting for the bus to take us back to the city

The city..

After sightseeing, we went to Southbank to catch the 2:20pm showing of "Bride Wars" at the cineplex. The movie was good. I'd rate it 7/10. After the movie, we had a late lunch at Seafood Express in Southbank. We went home after the day outing. Fun and exhausting day indeed. :)

PS. I will post up more pics on facebook soon. :)