03/02 - Australian creatures!!!!

Early morning, had breakfast and got ready to go to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary! We bought tickets from the hostel (discount) + 1photo with a koala!! We headed to town around 11am, took the bus (ouch, pricey!!!) and arrived at 12pm, right in time for the 12.15 Koala presentation.

I learnt a lot of things such as: they are not drugged just have a diet with really low energy intake, they are 2 main types of koalas (north and south), the baby is the size of a jelly bean, it needs to eat its mummy's poo for a special enzyme... + at the end we got to meet and pet one of them. It is not soft at all (which I was expecting).

After that, we went to the 12.30 raptor show. It was impressive but excruciatingly hot! Especially for the birds. They were not too keen on flying around. We saw some beautiful birds of prey!

We then walked around the sanctuary, going in, out and around various enclosures: Koalas, turtles, tortoises, lizards, owls, possums, sleeping dingoes, kookaburra (they are SO big!!!) and platypus!

possum

kookaburra

dingo

Finally it was time for my photo with the koala! It was a young female called Rosé (like the wine)! The animal is small, a bit heavy but SO SO CUTE!! D. took pics also (which is good because the official one is super shiny...).

While collecting the photo, we bought a $2 bag of kangaroo food. We headed to their enclosure that they share with wallabies and emus. We first met emus. Their orange eyes are quite creepy! I saw a wallaby (they are small and brown/black).

There were grey kangaroos and red ones. Most of them where in restricted area that was in the shade (off limits!) I don't blame them, it was too hot! Some of the kangaroos came to us to get some snacks. They ate from our hands! One of them even grabbed my arm!

emu

wallaby

kangaroo!

D. feeding the beast!

hanging out in the shade

look at this tiny one!!

that one actually grabbed my hand and would not let go!

When it was too hot we hid in the platypus room (cool/dark aquarium type of room). It was nearly time for the bus, so we went to see a wombat, more koalas, crocodiles and lizards and even some lorikeets! Most of the animals were now asleep (too hot? wrong time??).

Rainbow Lorikeets

sleeping wombat

platypus

 

wide awake koala

crocodile

We took the bus home at 3.30pm and it rained strongly pretty much the whole way back (1h). Once in town we hid again in a shopping centre! After that we walked around central and headed back to the hostel where we met Jo&Al (another couple we met in Yamba).

For the rest of the afternoon, we rested, had dinner & went to bed. I finished OUAT on Netflix....

 Walked 6km today.

Slept in a mixed dorm, in Brisbane YHA

02/02 - Arrival in Brisbane

The alarm rang at 7am, but I was awake long before that, but stayed in bed listening to some music. 7.05am I was out of the room with bags, greeted by D. We had breakfast and got a local bus to the Greyhound bus stop (if we took the shuttle we would be too late...). The normal bus was pricey!! We arrived early and while waited for the bus we talked.

The bus arrived and we managed to get 2 seats each. D. was writing and I listened to some music and read. Looking from time to time at the scenery. The bus stopped at Surfers, it is pretty ugly! Nearly everyone got out and not many came in.

view of Surfers from Coolangatta

We arrived in Brisbane a bit before 11am. We went to the YHA on foot. We checked in but could not access the room until later in the day, unfortunately they gave us day passes to access the common areas.

pretty cool elevator floor!

We relocated ourselves to the top floor and sat outside. It is a nice new hostel with good common areas. I worked on the journal and planned our Brisbane stay while D. went food shopping and cooked. I met Jan, a French guy that gave me loads of tips and told us what to do and where to go.

We ate lunch around 3pm, checked in and then went for a walk in the centre of town. Around 4/4.30pm it rain, we hid in a shopping centre. I bought postcards (cheap) and stamps in the post office (super expensive!!). We then walked in the Botanic gardens; it kind of rained but not really.

very ugly looking iguana

bird trying to scare the iguana

We walked back to the hostel along the river on a cycle path. It has great view at night! We showered and went straight to bed. I watched Netflix for a little while (Once Upon A Time).

my "slow" boyfriend

Yoda?

 Walked 10.8km today.

Slept in a mixed dorm, in Brisbane YHA

01/02 - Becoming pros in Coolangatta

Alarm at 7.30am, to see if we felt like surfing again. We got ready and had a big breakfast. We decided to go surfing! (I had already made my mind up: mind over body!!). We took the shuttle at 8.30am, got some cash out and walked to Rainbow beach.

The surf lesson started at 9am, doing it on a Monday morning was a good idea because it was just the 2 of us with Dave!! So a private lesson at the price of a group one (good deal!)!! The current was really strong today! plus there was a lot less people in the water so we moved closer to the centre of the beach (near the lifeguard area).

Just the two of us for 1h30, I can tell you, you improve A LOT! but we had a lot less down time (while waiting for your turn) we were: SO SO TIRED!! We can now: head towards left and right, do the pigdog position and change position during the same wave! D. got a bit frustrated at times but did really well!

On the way back to town, we took silly pictures on "surf" benches to immortalise the new learnt positions.

We looked around the hill and the pretty view of Surfer Paradise. It looks like a fake/movie/futuristic city. We met some local wildlife: lizards and brush turkeys

We came across that sign: 1st of February, we are surfing and it is 33°C. We still can really get our head around the idea!!! On the way to town we walked by a "lagoon" really nice and quiet place. The water is protected from wind and waves.

We went back to the shopping centre, this time we went to Lindcraft, Target & got D's English SIM card punched (but not sure if it is working anymore...). I bought some Australian stencils for our future scrapbook albums and for my journal. We went to a chemist for D.'s wounds that got infected (the ones from Yamba...) and finally had a treat: chocolate muffin for me and date cake for D.

2.15pm we were in the shuttle bus and by 3pm it was raining really badly and it barely stopped. I was on the computer working on photos, the blog, emails + booked out Greyhound bus and Brisbane hostel. We had dinner/lunch around 5/6pm (surfing is making us famish!). We had a movie night (chosen by me) : "Jumper" + packed our bags. I went to bed early (around 10.30pm) with my book.

 Walked 3.8 km today and surfed!!

Slept in a separated dorms, in Coolangatta YHA