Australia - Part 2. | Travel Blog

Oceania
August 9th 2009

Published: August 11th 2009

BRISBANE
We arrived in Brisbane on Sunday afternoon after a very short flight from Sydney. Ideally we would have taken the time and driven up the east coast to Brisbane with stops along the way but unfortunately for us we only had 2 weeks to fit everything in so we flew directly with the intention of using Brisbane as a central point.

It was nice to arrive in the afternoon because it gave us some time to get settled in the room and then take a walk into the city to see what it had to offer. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was nice to just stroll further in to down town to see the restaurants available and pedestrian only shopping area. Then after a quick snack at Starbucks we set off for a walk along the river which winds through the city. I have to mention something about Starbucks here and the fact that it is so much better than any Starbucks I have been to back home in the US. I’m not a coffee drinker so I will be honest and say that in terms of drinks it may be exactly the same. The difference

Brisbane River

The sun was just beginning to go down and it looked so pretty standing on the bridge and looking down the river with the ferris wheel in the foreground

is with the food (always thinking of my stomach!!!) and the vast choices they have to offer from savory sandwiches and snacks to the variety of muffins, slices of cake, bagels…and much more!!! While I’m mentioning the convenient “food” differences I will quickly mention that MacDonald’s has a “Mac Café” for drinks and snacks like Starbuck’s. Now I don’t know if they have them in the US but they certainly don’t or didn’t (since we haven’t been home in 7 months) have that where I live in Massachusetts. It’s a real shame because it would be nice to have a decent drink and a snack other than fries when I take the kids for their McDonalds treat!!!!!

Anyway, back to Brisbane. We had a nice walk along the river watching the boats sail by. The walk is well maintained and picturesque as you walk under or over pedestrian bridges, through wooded or park areas and past restaurants and a big Ferris wheel. Brisbane may not be in the same league as Sydney but we were pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. We had dinner in an Irish Pub eating steak sandwiches and big fat chips while drinking beer

Jumping Kangaroo

Sophie was jumping next to the iron Kangaroo on the street. The camera captured her at exactly the right moment!!!

and listening to an Irish girl sing familiar pop songs.

WHALE WATCHING -
One of the big reasons we had wanted to come to this area was because my research had told me that this area was the best if you wanted to go whale watching at this time of year. I had booked us with a company called “Brisbane Whale Watching” who are based out of a town called Redcliffe just 40 minutes north of the city. We had hired a car when we arrived and it was so good to be able to get in the car and drive to our destination without having to rely on buses, trains and taxi’s. Kevin was loving being in control behind the wheel and surprisingly he had no trouble doing it after so long without any driving, especially since it was on the left hand side of the road!!! (I’m dreading having to do it myself when we get back!!)

The boat was a huge Catamaran with 2 indoor seating areas (on different decks) with tables for eating and then there were 6 outdoor areas with seating. The indoor areas had floor to ceiling windows and the middle seating

Whale Watching

Megan and Kevin enjoying an Aussie sized piece of Banana Bread before setting sail

area was slightly raised so that you could see the whales at any point. The boat had been specifically designed for whale watching and provided perfect viewing from any location.
We found some seats on the 2nd deck right by the edge so that we could enjoy the sunshine and also to stop any of us getting sea sick. We had all dosed up on pills before getting on board so we were confident there wouldn’t be any problems, but why tempt fate by going indoors where you can’t focus on the horizon! Cake and drinks were served for morning snack and then we began our trip out to sea. It was so nice sitting there with the wind blowing in our faces. All of us excited by what we might see out there but at the same time a little nervous that we may not see anything at all.

Finally we started getting close to the point where I think some Whale Pods had been spotted the day before. By chance I stood up and shrieked out for the girls to look as a whale swam literally 2ft from the boat. It was fabulous but he was gone

Whale Watching

It was a bit windy and chilly on the top deck!!

so fast. The boat came to a halt and we could see the whale moving around us a little further out in the distance. I think the boat probably scared him when he got so close, because he decided to view us from further afield after that.

From then on in we bobbed around a lot and followed 7 pods of whales. At one point one of the pods had 4 whales in it and there were a few dolphins with it also. They would surface one after the other as if playing “follow the leader”. It amazes me how they can get those huge bodies out of the water. When their tails come out of the water it is a beautiful sight!! The boat offered a buffet lunch but we didn’t want to go inside to get it because we didn’t want to miss anything with the whales. Eventually we did eat but took our food to the upper deck so we could watch them while we ate. What could be better than watching these incredible animals while you eat!!!!
Before heading back in to the harbor we managed to spot a mother and her baby. When we

Whale watching

Humpback Whales surfacing

got close we noticed that the baby was actually playing and entertaining us and another boat in the area. He was “breeching” meaning he was trying to get is whole body out of the water. Baby whales or pups cannot hold their breath as long as the adults so he needed to come up a lot more often than his mom but he was having fun playing instead of just surfacing enough for a breath. His mom was close at hand all the time. Periodically she would surface and as our guide explained she was letting us know that she was close by!!
It was again a very relaxing boat ride back to shore and we added yet another memorable day to our list.

AUSTRALIA ZOO
WOW!!! This zoo is amazing!!! We wanted to go to the Australian Zoo because we had all been fans of the Crocodile Hunter before his death and knew that his zoo near Brisbane was supposed to be superb. It certainly was!
Our first stop in the zoo was at the Crocoseum where we were shown displays of different flying birds and snakes. One guy was even swimming in the shallow pool with a

Whale Watching

The camera wasn't fast enough, but you can just see the tail before it goes under the water!

python (cool but scared me a little to see its long body swimming in the water! They brought in some elephants and then finished off with a visit by a huge crocodile called Goliath. Before he was lured in all the gates were bolted shut and anyone other than the “crocodile team” stood outside the enclosure behind 2 chain link fences. Slowly they managed to get the croc to come in along the shallow man made river that came in to the arena. The trainer (although they say crocs can’t be trained!!) was stamping her feet near the water’s edge to get him to move along. They apparently have very poor vision and so follow sounds. They can hear you coming from a very long distance away!!! When they got him fully in the arena she started to dangle some meat and kept stamping. Suddenly he was out of the water lunging at the meat. He moved so fast I could not believe she managed to get out of the way!!! She lured him to another area and was able to get him to come out of the water vertically to get what he saw as “his prey”. Scary!!! Throughout

Whale Watching

Kevin and the girls keeping a watchful eye on the water for a whale

the whole show the trainers gave everyone a lot of information about safety around areas that crocodiles might live. We have of course decided we won’t go walking around any river banks or swimming in any water holes during our stay here in Australia. Better safe than sorry!!

The rest of the zoo had some amazing animals to look at or touch. We walked around an enclosure that had loads of kangaroos just hopping around. You could buy food and feed them or just go over and give them a cuddle. We couldn’t believe how tame they were and we were so excited to see a mom with her baby roo in her pouch.

The koalas were just adorable and there were so many areas that you could stand and look at them either eating or sleeping. Do you know that they sleep between 18 and 20 hours a day? We stroked a couple but weren’t able to hold any of them. I must have taken a hundred photo’s of these cuddly animals.

Walking around the zoo we met a trainer taking her Tasmanian Devil for a walk and then saw Wombats, Enchidna's and Dingo’s. It was

Whale Watching

A "together" moment

so nice to see some animals that we had never seen before. We moved on to see an Elephant display where they washed, scrubbed and checked the animals. The Elephant just rolled over to be hosed down and lifted her legs up to have her feet scrubbed and her head down to have her face washed.

The best display was the tiger display. I have never seen 6 tigers in a zoo at one time and when there trainers came out to play with them they actually had them jumping into a pool to catch toys. We could see everything through a full glass fronted viewing area. I didn’t even know that Tigers swam. Cats hate water so it was a great surprise to see these huge cats loving the water.
Our entire stay at the zoo was memorable. There is an area full of letters, picture and other beautiful things like scrapbooks, clothing and much more. The area is a memorial to Steve Irwin and it makes you feel sad when you look at it all. I was pleased to see that it wasn’t in a huge area and it wasn’t tacky. It was very tastefully set up

Whale Watching

Our boat, "The Eye Spy"

and it was a nice way to remember a fabulous man.

SURFERS PARADISE
For our last day in Brisbane we decided to have some time relaxing on the beach. The Gold Coast of Australia is famous for its beautiful beaches and we were not disappointed. Surfers Paradise had the most beautiful soft white sand and the beach was huge. We spent a couple of hours sunning ourselves and enjoying watching the surfers lessons going on close to us. Megan and Sophie spent a long time looking for shells. We weren’t able to go swimming because the waves were too big and the “No Swimming” signs were out but we didn’t care. This was the first day on our vacation that we were actually sitting and doing absolutely nothing!! Bliss!

On our way back to Brisbane we took a detour to Mt. Coot Tha so that we could see if the view of the city was as good as everyone said it would be. When we reached the top we couldn’t believe how far we could see. The view allowed us to see Downtown as well as all the suburbs and the surrounding area for miles and miles. We

Australia Zoo

sat and drank tea and hot chocolate while we admired the view and chatted about what else our vacation would have in store for us . We’re off to Cairns tomorrow……….

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