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Published: January 3rd 2011
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The flight to Brisbane was relatively uneventful, although we were shocked by the automatic check-in, not speaking to a real person until we reached the boarding gate, and we didn’t have to show our passports once. Steve and Tess gave up their Qantas gold card lounge to slum it with us in regular seating while waiting for the plane. When we got off the plane, we were hit instantly with the high humidity. Sydney had a very low humidity so it was a bit of a shock. Then we headed to Steve and Tess’s house and got settled in. They have a gorgeous house with a big kitchen, living room, diner area, 3 bathrooms, a jetski, an indoor and outdoor spa and thankfully good air conditioning. There have been lots of floods in and north of Brisbane. Steve’s house hasn’t been affected too badly, only the garden has been flooded so far.
Yesterday we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is about 11km south of Brisbane, which turned out to be the best zoo/sanctuary/animal park either of us had visited. We caught 2 buses and went 20km each way and it only cost us $8 each for a day pass.
It cost $30 to get in the park for an adult and it cost me $24 dollars with my ISIC student card. The park itself is sat within acres of woods on the edge of Brisbane river and had some great views. It has 130 koalas, but is also home to lots of different Australian animals. As soon as we got there we headed off for the main reason I had travelled half way across the world, a cuddle with a koala. It’s illegal to cuddle a koala in New South Wales and therefore Sydney, but not in Queensland. It cost $16 to get your picture taken and then you got a few minutes to take as many as you like with your own camera. Mine was called Finn. The koala handler was a bit anxious about putting him on me as I was wearing a strapless top and they have big claws, but it wasn’t as bad as Suzy’s (my cat) claws when she decides to unleash them. It had really thick soft fur and was quite heavy, around 6 to 8kg. After I had held it Oli got to hold it for a minute, but it started getting
a bit restless so she took him off. Each koala only comes out for 15 minutes cuddling a day and has every third day off to give it a rest.
Then we bought some kangaroo feed and headed off to the kangaroo reserve. It took us a minute to realise we were actually allowed to walk amongst the kangaroos, so I started by throwing the feed near them, which they ignored. We realised you actually feed them it from your hand, so we spent some time mingling with the kangaroos giving out dinner. One young rude boy decided to help himself to our kangaroo feed, not once but twice.
Next, we had a walk around the koala retirement home, where all the koalas over 10 years old live, the Kindergarten bit with the 1 to 2 year old koalas and the mummy koalas. We also saw platypus’s, dingos, Tasmanian devils, wombats, snakes, turtles, crocodiles, bats, lizards and various species of birds, including a cockatoo that talked and Oli managed to get a video of him saying hello.
Lots of animals seem to just roam around the park, we saw loads of lizards walking along the path and while we were
eating lunch a massive peacock cruised through the seating area.
We watched the python talk and the koala talk in the koala shelter. Just as we got sat down there was a rumble of thunder and from nowhere it started to chuck it down! It lasted all of 10 minutes but managed to soak anyone who was outside in it. After the python talk we got the chance to touch the python, I thought it would be slimy but it was very dry. Then we had the koala talk and she brought out a koala who only had one eye and we got the chance to stroke him too.
We went in the snake hut after that and got up close to the world’s most venomous snake, the inland Taipan, whose venom can kill 100 humans with one bite. We had a really great day at the park, especially as it wasn’t very busy at all and the weather was hot. When we were waiting for the bus I went off to find the toilet, only to find that above the walkway to the toilets was a giant spider web with the biggest spider I had ever seen in it,
so I decided to wait until we got home to go! We caught the bus home and had a Dominoes pizza for tea and then went off the bed. Today we are off to Wet and Wild water park to go on some slides and I finally get to go in an outdoor swimming pool!
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Matt Sheehan
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This has improved my day no end.
Thank you! Pictures of animals make me happy - the climate is vile here. The Koala retirement home sounds like the nicest place that ever existed. Except perhaps the Oraung-Utan orphans home. Enjoy!