Brisbane

It has been a super busy week and we have officially been in Tasmania for over a week now. Our last stop before we flew to Hobart, Tasmania was Brisbane (pronounced Brisbin). For our Brisbane adventure we actually didn’t have to say in a hostel! Alex’s friend from Australia came to the United States for his summer break. He offered to let Tanner and I stay at his house while we were visiting Brisbane, which was beyond nice of him! The first day we got there we just got hung out and relaxed. Later that night we went out to eat with Chris and then he drove us around different parts of Brisbane for a while. He is an excellent tour guide. J Our first stop was a park by the Brisbane River and Story Bridge (we also got to drive on it). It was lit up orange and the only way it could have been better was if it was lit up pink! While we were at the park we saw a bunch of flying foxes. They are the biggest bats I have ever seen and they were just hanging out in a tree and flying overhead. I felt like I was in the Australia house at the zoo! Tanner and I were completely amazed and spent large amount of time watching the bats and trying to take pictures of them. Poor Chris was just quietly standing there… he probably thought we were crazy! Tanner also found some possum in the tree and they are much cuter then the opossum we have at home. While we were looking at the cute little possum Chris and I got a nice shower from a bat. I can now say I have been peed and pooped on by an Australian flying fox! I can’t remember the name of the next place we went to, but it was beautiful. We got to take awesome pictures of the city and see where some people like to rock climb. On our way back to his house, Chris pointed out other places in Brisbane.

Story Bridge

Brisbane

The next day we got up super early to drop off our rental car/home on wheels! Then we went to Lone Pine Sanctuary because I couldn’t leave Australia without holding a koala! When we got to Lone Pine we noticed that it looked like it was going to rain. We didn’t even make it out of the parking lot before it started to down pour! We sat under a tarp in a café in front of the sanctuary and watched the rain come down. It was super loud and it was pretty incredible how hard it was raining. Once it started to rain a little bit less we braved the weather and went into Lone Pine. We saw a bunch of different kinds of birds, which were all beautiful. We also saw some more flying foxes, but this time we actually got to see what they looked like in the daylight. Then the rain started to pick up again, so we rain into the platypus house. Chris was beyond excited because he finally got to see a platypus and they both were swimming around/super active. Tanner and I were really excited to see them too and this time we got better pictures. Then we went and saw the dingos, wombats, koalas, and Tasmanian devils. Tasmanian devils are a lot bigger than I had imagined. I was kinda stunned! Then we finally got in line to hold the koala… it was my turn to be beyond excited. They gave me specific instructions on how to hold the koala and then they let her latch on to me. He name was Cocoa, she was two and half years old, and she was absolutely adorable. Got to check something off the bucket list. It was like three minutes of perfection! Cocoa didn’t cooperate as well for Tanner though and they almost had to get a different koala out for him… he must have smelled bad or something. Just kidding! After a bunch of tries she finally latched on to Tanner and he got his koala cuddling time! Then we went to got to go see the kangaroos and emus. Here they let you walk around with the kangaroos and emus, so we got lots of pictures with them. I thought it was amazing and I couldn’t believe I was so close to such incredible animals. I was definitely in heaven with all the animals around <3 That night Chris’ mom made dinner for us and it was delicious!

Day three in Brisbane was the day Tanner and I had been waiting for and a big reason we choose to drive north from Sydney. It was finally time to go the Australia Zoo, the Home of the Crocodile Hunter!!!!!! Words can’t describe how excited we were walking into the zoo! I’ve been waiting/wanting to go to Australia Zoo since I was a little kid. The first thing we did was watch the big show in the Crociseum, which was awesome. The big ending was showing the public a huge crocodile and educating people about being safe/avoiding crocodile encounters when people are in places where crocs can live.  It felt surreal that we were actually at Steve Irwin’s zoo looking at his favorite animal. We walked around the whole zoo, which was a lot of walking. My legs and feet were exhausted by the end of the trip. It was TOTALLY worth it though! I could write forever just about the zoo, so I’ll just put my highlights.

1.     Kangaroo Heaven--- There I got to take more pictures with kangaroos, but this time I fed them too! There was a little joey too. He was too cute.

2.     Crocodiles—You can’t go to the Australia zoo and not see the crocs! It was kinda weird reading their names and recognizing them. A lot of them appeared on the Crocodile Hunter show and seeing them in person was amazing. We also got to see Casper get fed, which was an amazing experience.

3.     William the Cheetah--- Not many places have cheetahs, so it was awesome to see one. They are beautiful animals!

The zoo was everything I hoped for and a perfect end to our 10 day Australian mainland adventures. :0)

There are pictures for Steve Irwin all over the zoo, which is a little sad! They do a really good job honoring him and his work at the zoo though! 

Casper

My cute joey friend!

Bindi also has a treehouse!

William the cheetah was going for a walk when we saw him!

That night after the zoo we went out to eat with Chris and his parents. It was wonderful and Tanner and I both had a great time. It was so kind and generous of Chris and his parents to let us stay at their home. And it was super nice of Chris to drive us around and hang out with us! We couldn’t be more thankful. It was so nice to be with a family even if it wasn’t our own and they were such kind and loving people. We had an amazing time in Brisbane. It was really hard to leave the Baker’s and the city!

During our walk in Southbank in Brisbane. It was beautiful night and it was great to see that part of the city with such amazing people!