50-cent Fun - Gatton about!

Most of our 50-cent adventures so far have been toward the Coast, usually along the one train line. Today's was a bit trickier.  We caught an 8:24am train to Rosewood, then a 9:03am bus through to Gatton.

We've been to Gatton a number of times previously but always by car, so it was nifty to see a bit more countryside when travelling by bus.  One of the highlights was spotting so many Whistling-ducks at the University of Queensland campus!

We arrived in Gatton very close to 10:00am.  There was an agricultural supply store adjacent the station, with chooks for sale!

Gatton has three opshops in a row along the main street, so we checked for bargains before strolling further. 

I'd checked for geocaches before leaving home.  We enjoyed walking over to it, before stopping in a park for some morning tea - and pondering what to do next.

It was a bit of a walk back to the station, or up to the Cultural Centre - which had a nicer outlook for our lunch picnic.  

There was a bus stop about 800m from where we were but a long delay before the next bus.  We opted to walk up to the Cultural Centre, with Nick carrying my bag most of the way.

The Cultural Centre houses the library, art gallery and a transport museum - as well as a cafe.  We looked through the current exhibition and decided to save visiting the museum for another day.

Lunch was necessary by that stage and we found a picnic table looking out over the lake, with some purple swamp hens for company!  There were so many birds - and the lake was a lot more full than it had been on our last vist.  There'd be some upgrades to the paths and other tables, which became evident when we walked around, before catching the 2:37pm bus back to Rosewood station.  We got home a bit after 4:30pm, very pleased with our bargain day out!

Morning tea and lunch were self-catered.  Drinks and snacks are bought on special, especially for our 50-cent adventure outings. Our 200ml insulated bottle is a new purchase, spotted at Kmart for $6.00.  It's just the right size for milk and now has extra can cooler insulation.

We walked about 6.5km in total.  The distance from home to Gatton is 58.5km. Local diesel is $1.76 per litre today. A return drive would have cost around $18.90.

I've checked my GoCard history and it seems the total cost for my journey was 50-cents!  I made sure to tap on/off at all the changes but was expecting to pay 50-cents each way, not in total. Bargain!

50-cent Fun - Happy Queensland Day (and Night)!

Queensland Day is celebrated on 6 June, being the anniversary of the state's separation from New South Wales in 1859.

To date, our 50-cent adventures have been day trips, departing our local station about 8am and heading back home from the city around 2pm.

Our Queensland Day adventure was prompted by a free ticket offer to the Croc! exhibition - and we do love a freebie!  I booked 2pm tickets and we set off from home after a quick toasted sandwich lunch.

Please note how appropriately attired we were for our Croc! appreciation!

The exhibition was very interesting and we spent an hour or so there, as well as more time in the general access museum exhibits.

We travelled a lot lighter for this adventure, having decided to dine out using a First Table discount offer.  

Afternoon tea was necessary and we sourced that at Southbank, sharing some sweet potato fries with our tea and coffee.  (We closely guarded our chippies after an ibis pinched someone else's battered fish fillet)!  

We had a couple of hours before our dinner booking, so walked down to the river and cruised on a CityCat - always a favourite activity.  We thought there was enough time to do a full river loop but we were wrong!

Even though we changed ferries as soon as we realised our error, we were well and truly late for our reservation - fully expecting the discount offer to be invalid.  The staff were so lovely and happy to honour our bargain offer.

We dined very well, then headed back down to the river for another cruise, for full appreciation of the city lights. 

Landmarks across the state will light up maroon on QLD Day to celebrate.

Neither of us had consciously worn maroon but were a bit chuffed with ourselves to be very on-theme for the day! I'd put on an extra thermal top before dinner, and thought to include a wool wrap for cruising.  I used it as a knee rug for some extra warmth, cos we sat outside most of the time. The lights were so pretty and it was fun to see the maroon-lit landmarks.  

It was close to midnight when we started heading back to Central Station - and we arrived home after 1am!  What an excellent bargain adventure!

How much of a bargain was it?  Our inbound fares were 50c each. The exhibition tickets were free as part of QLD Day - saving us $58.00.  We spent $25.00 for afternoon tea.  The pre-dinner ferry cruise was 50c each (for about 2 hours).  Dinner was $102.00 for booking fee, two courses and two glasses of wine - saving $57.00.  Our post-dinner cruise and train ride home was just another 50c each!

We spent a total of $3.00 for fares and $127.00 on dining - after saving $105.00, all up.  $130.00 for 13 hours of fun - hooray for us!

Edited to add notes regarding fuel and parking cost comparisons - the return distance from the Museum is 77km. Local diesel is currently $1.99, so the fuel cost would be just over $15.00. 

We often pay a flat-rate of $18.00 to park near the Museum but that carpark closes at midnight. (A 24-hour access carpark would have charged $35.00).  So there were additional savings of  $33.00 or $50.00, depending on carpark choice.