Get a Koala Hug On in Lovely Brizzy

Hello again everyone - K and J reporting from yet another Australian city - Brisbane (pronounced "Briz bun") or Brizzy as most Australians nickname it.

We arrived here Sunday night.  The weather is perfect (upper 70's to low 80's) and we have found the city to be delightful.  K has done another wonderful job in booking accommodations.  We are staying in the Meriton Serviced Apartments Hotel in the Infinity Tower on Herschel St. in Brisbane - the tallest building in Brisbane.

According to the hotel website, this building is actually still being worked on, but we haven't seen any evidence of it.  It seems done to us.  The views (day and night) from our hotel room are a sight to behold.  We look out over the Brisbane River which is the dominate feature of the city.

I'll report more on Brisbane tomorrow as we plan to do many of the city sites here today.

Yesterday, we spent most of our day at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  This is the oldest and biggest of the Koala sanctuaries in the world.  It was started back in 1927 with 2 koala.  Today, they have over 130.  The sanctuary is about 6 miles outside of Brisbane.  At the sanctuary, you are allowed to hold a koala and have your photo taken with one.  K was all over this when we read about it in the guides.  She could not wait to get out there and get her hug on with a koala.

That's one happy camper there folks.

In addition to koala, they had all sorts of Australian animals and presentations on them.  Wombats, kangaroos, wallaby, dingoes, echidna, emu, Tasmanian devils, cockatoos, parrots, crocodiles, reptiles & snakes.  You name it, if it comes from Australia, they had it.  In many cases, the animals they had were familiar enough with people that you could get close and not feel threatened.  Kangaroos, for example, were in a large open yard and you could feed and pet them.  We have been lucky enough to see many of these animals in the wild (koala, kangaroo, wallaby, dingo, echidna, cockatoo, emu), but here we got to see many more up close and learn about these indigenous animals too.

 lorikeet

 Tasmanian devil looking nothing like its cartoon counterpart

 platypus - suckers move too quick to get a good picture

 dingoes - looking much plumper than the ones we saw in the desert

 wombat - another type of marsupial in Australia

 cassowary - big flightless bird that lives in Australia and Papua New Guinea (they have been known to kill people when their young are threatened)

 Crocodile

 Kelly gets a hug on with a kangaroo

 emu

Another wombat - a face only a mother could love

 bearded dragoon - face no one could love - not even its mother

 

 

 wallaby 

 fruit bat - we actually saw a lot of these in action in Cairns (not K approved)
 

Well, we are off for Brizzy now.  So more from this lovely city later.