Isn't it everyone's dream to hold a koala one day?! Well it was mine, 100% (I'd like to hold a panda, too, but pretty sure that's a pipe dream). I was so happy that we added a couple day visit to Brisbane at the front end of our trip because it meant a visit to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was possible. Holding Koalas has been banned throughout much of Australia, but Queensland still allows it. After reading about this it got me thinking that maybe it wasn't a practice I wanted to support, but at Lone Pine the Koalas "work" for a maximum of thirty minutes a day and are never forced to be held. If they're not feeling it, they get to go back to their tree. Pretty cool!
Being Christmas Eve, many places were already closed, especially in the CBD. But a little walking around and I found a breakfast spot for sandwiches to take back to Will in the hotel since he was on a phone call with a colleague. I was anxious to get going and finally we were on the road! 20 minutes later, we arrived!
We walked past a few koalas, but our first destination was holding koalas of course! My first try was with this guy, but he wasn't really having it. So instead of forcing him, they took him back to his tree and I got another chance.
Utopia was pretty go with the flow. This experience definitely confirmed my prediction that holding a koala is essentially holding a big Ava. Is there really much difference at all?!
Next up was the free-range petting zoo. Will was all about the roos!
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| We stopped to see this guy first. |
They're so goofy! Look closely and you'll see they're both sticking out their tongues. This picture just cracks me up every time!
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| Kanga selfie! He was definitely the coolest guy in the field. |
In the back of the petting zoo was a fenced off area where the Kangaroos could go if they wanted to rest and not get touched or fed. This kangaroo was sleeping just like Aurora. It was even twitching and moving around as it was dreaming!
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| Look closely and you'll see the roo coming out of the pouch! So bizarre! |
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| This one was really soft. |
This was a very useful and informational chart showing the heights of the various species of kangaroos. We didn't realize it at the time but it would come in handy out in wine country!
The roos were getting pretty full, so it was time to explore the rest of the sanctuary. I can't even begin to explain how many koalas are there. They are all in their own little open air habitat groups with a full supply of fresh eucalyptus.
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| These were the babies. They were doing all sorts of silly things. |
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| I didn't realize there were two types of koalas, but this explains why some look so different. |
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| This is Utopia, who we held earlier. I saw a koala handler put her back in her tree. |
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| More Utopia |
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| Will is ready to take on the croc. |
It wasn't easy but we had to leave at some point, so when our tummies started growling we figured that was the time! Again, it's Christmas Eve so we didn't have a lot of options, but we stumbled upon a Balkan restaurant. It was similar to Greek food, but a little more oily which I didn't love, but was still tasty. We had grilled bread with a variety of dips (think hummus and yogurt dips), a spanakopita type dish, and more bread with roasted red peppers.
I had asked Will to save a few of his trees in the area of Lone Pine to go to today so I could tag along and see what it was all about. These trees literally are on the grassy medians between people's sidewalks and the street! I couldn't believe it. Will had always said they were in residential areas, but I just didn't realize it was quite so close to their homes!
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| Ta-da! The pongamia tree. |
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| Being stealthy. We are snooping on these people's property afterall! |
We got done with "work" pretty quickly and still had some daylight left so Will had the great idea to drive up to Mount Coot-tha, which is the highest point in Brisbane. I had read about it but really didn't think we'd have the time to stop by. Much to our delight the cafe was still open, too, so we had a little glass of wine and enjoyed the spectacular view.
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| A little windy and really bright! I look like I just rolled out of bed, I promise I'm ok! |
We ended our night as the locals do, hanging out at the Eat Street Markets at the old wharf in Hamilton. We enjoyed perusing the variety of food available, people watching, and listening to live music.
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