Since we started planning the Australia trip, I've been looking forward to this one day. I mean, who wouldn't want to visit the Great Barrier Reef, Ayers Rock, Tasmania, and Sydney. But even in a land of amazing things to do and see, there are rarities. Day 8 was the day we were going to cuddle with a koala!
The morning started much as the night before ended in Surfers Paradise, wet and grey. We had gotten tickets to the observation deck of the Q1 as part of our stay the night before, so we decided to go up. Unfortunately, the weather was bad so we couldn't see much. But we have been to the top of the tallest building in Australia, so check that off the list.
We drove up from Surfers to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. In Australia you can pet koalas pretty much anywhere, but only in Queensland can you actually hold one. We knew that there were other things besides Koala-cuddling at the sanctuary, so we informally scheduled a couple of hours there. Boy were wrong!
Lone Pine is one of the great hidden gems of the Gold Coast. If you are in Australia, you must go there. Koalas are one thing but they've got other animals like wombats, crocodiles, kangaroos, dingos, and more. The park itself reminds me a lot of Gatorland in Florida with it's informality and low walls and also that it appears to be a working park that happens to let visitors in. Outside of the obvious Koala fun, Jill and I both really enjoyed the Kangaroos, Wallabys, and Wallaroos. We each got a bag of 'roo food, and headed into a large pasture. In this area there were 40 to 50 Macropods of various kinds. We got to hand feed them and had a blast of a time. By the time we were done, we'd been there 6 hours and taken like 350 pictures.
(fun fact: I thought a Koala would feel like a Chinchilla, but they're actually coarse and woolly)
We eventually left the park and met up with one of Jill's high school friends in Brisbane and had a great dinner. At the end of the night we went up to Mount Coot-tha and looked over the city lights.
Jill Update:
Jill won't let me cuddle with her, so I've sought satisfaction in the arms of another koala, Sprite.
4 comments:
That's a great picture!
What an AWESOME picture! I want a koala!
If you like the picture, you'll love the video I shot of Jill being handed the koala. It's pretty funny stuff.
I sincerely hope that your Jill Update comment means that "koala" is your pet name for Jill! That's awesome! :)
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