kangaroos and koalas

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Hi everyone!

I can't remember what I told you about on the last blog entry so if I repeat myself then sorry! I think we were in Byron Bay and making our way to Surfers Paradise the last time I update this. So I'll start from Surfers.

Surfers Paradise was not really what you'd call paradise. But for surfers the waves on the coast wipe you out even if you're standing in the shallows so I suppose it is aptly named for them! The beach (part of the Queensland stretch of coast named the Gold Coast) is lovely though as are all the beaches in this country! Only its impossible to sunbathe because its so unbelievably windy (hence the ideal surf conditions) after 20mins of lying on the beach, you realise the wind and sand are slowly burying you alive so then its time to leave! But our hostel was pretty good because it had a small pool and sunbathing area so we still had plenty of sunbathing opportunities - its very important when in another country to embrace the local customs!

The town itself was surprising - more like Benidorm (remember it there, Mum?!). Just full of high rise apartments and hotels but still, not surprisngly, it was nowhere near as tacky! It still held onto this australian sense of "cool and chilled out" that every coastal town/city/village seems to have out here.

After 3 nights in Surfers we're now in Brisbane. We really like it here and although it doesn't have its a beach (its not directly on the coast) it has improvised by building a Beach Lagoon on the river bank. On friday night they have a small lantern lit street market down the South Bank area (where the lagoon is) and all the bars round this part were playing live music and everyone is sat out on the street drinking. It was pretty nice! We wandered around the market, had a drink in one of the bars over looking the river and the city on the other side, and then sat on the lagoon beach with our feet in the water for a little while before going back to the hostel. Best of all though - all the museums and all that sort of stuff are free so we've got plenty to do to not spend money while we're here!

Yesterday we went to Austrlia Zoo. It was amazing! I'm not usually a huge fan of zoos just because sometimes you feel although they're apparently "all about the conservation and well being of animals", they've clearly just collected as many different kinds of animals they possibly can into the zoo just to keep visitor numbers up. But Austrlia Zoo is by far the best I've ever been to. Its massive and only contains about half or a third of the kinds of animals you find in others. Which some might say isn't worth the money if they don't have everything. But all the enclosures are perfect, there's so much space and the whole place just has such a better feel about it as if they do actually put more into animal welfare and conservation than attracting visitors. And because its Steve Irwin's zoo, there are SO many crocodiles! And Because its Australia - there are koalas everywhere! We got to stroke them and everything! But the best part was going to "Roo Heaven" where you can walk through the kangaroos' enclosure (but its more like a huge acre of land with a bit of forest and stream running through it), buy feed and actually feed them yourselves! Some of them were just lazing about under the trees not interested, but some come upto you and feed from your hands and others just sit grazing while you stroke them! It was amazing! Needless to say we spent a fair bit of time with the kangaroos and koalas that day!

While you wait for the next update, I'll put up some pictures from some of the stuff we've done so far in another blog entry!

Love Sarah and Paul xxx

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