Crikey... mate

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We've been in Brisbane for the last few days. Although this city doesn't hold a lot of sightseeing attractions itself (other than the typical museum, art galleries) we've made the most of our time here. Saturday, we checked out the south bank of the city and watched a free aerobics class going on in this artificial lagoon created (complete with beach and lifeguard) on the site of the former Expo 88. We also checked out the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. Most australians would say they havn't been there since the age of 5 but I figured since we came down all this way, I was determined to see a live koala before my very eyes. random koala fact - baby koalas are called joeys.
We weren't done with australian fauna as sunday, mom and I went to the Australian Zoo up the Gold Coast 1 1/2 hr from Brisbane. This is the infamous zoo home to Steve Irwin, the crazy crocodile hunter on the Animal Planet Channel. I must admit the whole thing was over-the-top and highly commercialized (there were steve irwin action dolls and their own line of clothing) but it was all very exciting and we got to see carniverous salt water crocodiles leaping into the air for that tasty piece of meat in front of our very eyes in the Zoo's Crocoseum. Today, we went on a rainforest hike to the Kondalilla Falls a bit north of the Glass Mountains near Brisbane. I think most people chalked mom up as a crazy canadian for bringing a rain coat (after all, it was 20 degrees and only a few clouds in the sky) but surely enough, we got caught in a thundering downpour - where would my mom be without goretex?
We set off from Brisbane tomorrow catching a cheap virginblue flight to Newcastle where we'll stay long enough to do a wine tour and sample some famous Australian shiraz... and then its back to Sydney for a few days before catching our flight to Singapore.
ciao!

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