Good-bye surfing - Hello KOALAS!

So to get back to our surfing adventure... Picture it - Australia 2009, two young American school teachers get off a bus in Mooloolaba for a surf trip that they essentially have no information about. Fears of a creepy man in a white van pulling up to take them away to his parent's basement run through their heads as they wave good-bye to their Fraser Island friends still on the bus...

Indeed, a white van did pull up; however, it did look very legit with surf safari logos covering it and it was driven by a smiling tan surfing instructor- Adam. Things were looking up, until we arrived at his home and realized that we were his new roomates! He gave us the grand tour showing us the kitchen, bathroom, and shower we would be sharing with him, his girlfriend, and Doris (more on her later...). We were surprised he didn't offer up his toothbrush as well! This was all a little too close for comfort! We went out to dinner in an effort to escape the awkwardness and then returned to fall asleep on sheets of questionable cleanliness. As we drifted off to sleep, we heard Adam and his girlfriend Shawn giggling away in the next room.

We woke bright and early for an awkward family breakfast with our new roommates before heading out to surf. Surfing was challenging, but fun. The weather was not ideal and our feelings of awkwardness continued to linger... Though we were supposed to regroup for an afternoon surf session and a full day of lessons the following day, we made an executive decision at lunch to put our surfing careers on hold and high tail it back to beautiful Noosa!

We returned to the house after lunch and broke the news to Adam. He kindly allowed us to leave without paying for the remaining days we had already booked with him. He dropped us at the bus and we parted with hugs (AWKWARD!). We happily returned to the Halse Lodge in Noosa late in the afternoon.

Thrilled to be back in Noosa, we treated ourselves by putting on clean clothes and having a nice Indian dinner. We had hoped for a beach day on Tuesday, but the weather didn't cooperate. We still enjoyed walking the streets of Noosa, relaxing and reading for a bit on the lanai, and hiking through the National Park in search of koalas.

On Wednesday morning, we took the bus to Brisbane and checked into our beautiful and spacious hotel room at the Holiday Inn. We enjoyed yet another outdoor market at the top of the Queen St. Mall, strolled across the river through the Southbank neighborhood, and wandered through the beautiful Bontanical Gardens. We grabbed a bland dinner at JoJo's and met our new friend Clare (from our Fraser Island tour) for a Bulmer's (shout out to Kelly!) and a Cooper's at the Pig and Whistle on Queen St.

Day 2 in Brisbane began with a relaxing morning in our luxurious hotel room. We enjoyed lengthy hot showers with excellent water pressure and then headed off to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to hug some adorable koalas! How jealous are you?! Check out photos at http://photo.koala.net/0907029990.htm (Marie) and http://photo.koala.net/0907029396.htm (Maura).

We're about to grab a train to the airport and head further north in search of warm weather! Magnetic Island here we come!

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Part of trip: Australia

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