Brisbane - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

BEWARE OF EXTREME CUTENESS
The morning of my flight to New Zealand, I had planned to get a $10 haircut at the Brisbane School of Hairdressing. But when I woke up, I felt truly compelled to hold a koala before I left. I think I may have been trying to grasp at anything distinctly Aussie that I couldn't do in New Zealand. So I took a bus to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary and saw and held some koalas.


The koala on the right is a southern koala. Same species, but the ones in southern Australia have darker, thicker fur.





The one on the right is the one I held. So cute! Check out the lady holding the one to the left. How precious is that!


Koalas do make noises, too. The male ones make loud growling noises for mating. This one was a kiddie koala, only a few years old.



This is a mother and a baby koala. I probably disturbed them with my flash. The baby crawled back inside the pouch after I took the photo. The baby was actually eating from the mother's butt. The mums produce something in their faeces that is rich in digestive bacteria the babies need.


On to the roos!
This place also had an area where you could feed and pet kangaroos and wallabies. I was lucky enough to see this mother and joey. Baby koalas and roos all in one day!

Brisbane - Matt Costa

I headed to Brisbane a day before my flight to Christchurch so I could catch Matt Costa at the Zoo. I stayed at Bunk Backpackers because it was only a few blocks from the venue. I had booked an 8 bed female room, but I ended up in a room with 7 other dudes. Oh well, I actually preferred the room to the one Aileen and I stayed in last time. They have walls between the bunks, and the room didn't smell like toilet like the last room.


Matt Costa at the Zoo in Brisbane, April 6th, 2008.

Goodbye Noosa

This was 3:00am. Kate had to catch the shuttle to Brisbane for her morning flight back to Japan. James was determined to make pancakes before she left.



This is a few hours later when I left to go back to Brisbane.

Mt. Cooroy and Cooroora

I'll try to get more on this later. I'm trying to catch up on my blogging.

Noosa - At the beach!

Saturday morning we all got up early and headed to the beach with James to go surfing. Well, James and his dad surfed while the girls sayed on the beach.


This is James taking me out for my first wave. So far it's been my only wave. I rode the wave back on my stomach. Great fun, too bad I had to leave the next morning.


Afterwards, we had a nice brekkie


This is actually a different day, but it's the same beach.

Noosa

We got back to Noosa on Friday and cooked stir-fry noodles and baked banana bread. That night James took us out in his boat on the Noosa River. We stopped in town to get ice cream. I borrowed some of photos from Aileen's blog because I don't have my disc with me. thanks A!

Fraser Island

Hervey Bay is usually the launching point to go to Fraser Island. I didn't have the time, but I'd love to come back and spend a few days there camping and exploring. Fraser Island is a great big sand island off the southern coast of Queensland where there are no roads and dingoes roam free. Only 4x4 vehicles are permitted on the island, and the 75 mile beach is both a highway and a runway during the day. The beaches are too dangerous for swimming, but the lakes and creeks are magnificent! I wanted to go to Lake McKenzie, so we chose the least expensive day tour to Fraser Island that included Lake McKenzie. This is Eli Creek. I walked in the creek while Aileen and kate kept their shoes on and walked along the path next to the creek. The water on the island is super clean and clear. I'd love to ride down this creek with and inner tube.

Eli Creek





Maheno Shipwreck




The Pinnacles



Lake McKenzie
This lake was absolutely gorgeous! It's a freshwater lake created from rainwater. The sand here is so fine and the water so clean, it's great for exfoliating! It's like a giant spa pool!

Hervey Bay

Kate and I took a bus to Hervey Bay which is a few hours north of Noosa. Our bus dropped us off in Hervey Bay in a place I call little America. It really could have been any shopping area back home; subway, McDonalds, Blockbuster... Anyway, it was pretty late at night and too late for a courtesy bus from our hostel. So we started walking...we'd been walking for about 10 minutes when a white van stopped along side us and asks if we need a ride anywhere. The driver, a youngish man, says something like, "I've got six kids. I'm not an axe-murderer." We hesitated for a few seconds, and then opened the door and hopped in. In the back of the van was a soccer ball and a chainsaw. Hmmm....anyway, the guy was actually from San Diego and now lived in Hervey Bay with his wife and kids. He was really cool and even offered to let us do our laundry at his grandmother's house. We didn't, but it was nice of him to offer. The ride saved us a good deal of walking. It would have been a loooonng walk, especially with our packs. After he let us off at Woolshed Backpackers he saw the chainsaw in the back and said we must have thought he was crazy. Apparently he'd been cutting trees earlier. Well, it really was funny.

That night there were possums on our roof. The roof is corrugated metal, so we could hear these really loud footsteps. Then there was this loud hissing, like an angry cat. Maybe they were in the roof, I don't know. But it was loud enough that it sounded like they were in the room. Also, funny.

Next day, we checked out Fraser Island tours and checked out the "town". Aileen drove up from Noosa and joined us. We had a 3 bed room all to ourselves and a TV and DVD player!



The owners have a puppy named Dora. She may look mean, and she does have a set of teeth on her, but she was so cute!



The beach at low tide had ripples in the sand. And some bizarre sand nests. They looked gross, but they were just sand being squeezed up from below.

Australia Zoo

The Australia Zoo!!! Steve Irwin's pride and joy! One of the things I really wanted to do in Australia was to visit the Australia Zoo. This is the zoo that Steve Irwin started with his father years ago as a reptile park. Now its a great park where the animals have lots of room to roam. Instead of tons of animals in small spaces, this park has a few animals in larger spaces. There's a strong emphasis on conservation and Steve Irwin's presence is still pretty strong in all the signage. This zoo is pretty interactive. You can feed elephants, touch and hold some of the animals. They try to give people the chance to get close to the animals and fall in love with them. Then you might be more compelled to help them.

This was a show at the Crocoseum.



Feeding elephants...I really liked doing this even though elephants eat with their noses and make snot. You might not be able to tell, but I had a big smile on my face. This elephant was 50 years old or something. Her name is Siam. I fed her a piece of watermelon.




Wombat out for a walk.



There were enclosures where roos and wallabies roam freely. They're all friendly, so you can go right up to them to pet and feed them. Roos are really really soft.


Koalas, wombats and a tasmanian devil. Wombats and tasmanian devils are nocturnal, so you're more likely to see them at night. This was the only devil I saw here.





I touched one of these things. Wierd. It's like an Australian hedgehog.