Brizzy

Our trip from Gold Coast to Brisbane, or 'Brizzy' as the locals call it, required three buses and a train. However, it was surprisingly painless and stress free due to Justin's excellent organizational skills (and he didn't even ask me to write that). We had picked up our rental car and checked in to our hotel by 1pm, and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves.

Brisbane sits on the Brisbane river, giving it a similar feel to Calgary. The primary difference being that Brisbane actually has liveable temperatures year-round. We could move here! Our first afternoon was spent checking out the South Bank, which is one of the city's cultural/dining hubs. Clearly, beachless Brisbane is a bit jealous of the surrounding Gold and Sunshine Coasts, because they have installed a man-made beach adjacent to (but not contiguous with) the river.

After having  lunch and nosing around a bit, we decided to take advantage of Brisbane's City Bike transport system. Like several other cities, Brisbane has several bike stations where you can rent bikes, ride them for a while, and return it to a different station. Brisbane also has the most bike-friendly urban setup that we've ever seen. We felt really spoiled by all of the excellent bike paths, and also very jealous that the Brisbanites (Brizzians?) can cycle to work year round.

We ended up cycling out to Mount Coot-Tha (which doesn't technically meet criteria to be considered a mountain, but we'll let the Aussies pretend that it is). The summit affords a great view of the city, and is a popular sunrise and sunset vantage point. After a gruelling (for one of us) bike up to the summit, we were rewarded with a nice sunset view.

We let momentum carry us back down the mountain, dropped off our bikes at the rental station, and then went for dinner at one of Brisbane's brew pubs: The Charming Squire. Here, we enjoyed a hearty dinner and some excellent live music.

Emma enjoyed Mt. Coot-Tha so much that she decided to hike up the following morning for sunrise (it only takes about 25 minutes to walk to the top). She was disappointed that no wallabies came out to join her for the morning walk.

We decided that the view was best at sunset, but the sunrise panorama was still a nice way to start off the morning.

We then travelled about an hour north of Brisbane for a visit to the Australia Zoo, which is owned by the family of the late Steve Irwin (the Crocodile Hunter). This was exciting for Emma, as the Crocodile Hunter was pretty much her favourite show growing up (challenged only by Full House, and Skippy the Kangaroo). She even tried to get in on an Irwin family photo at the zoo.

Justin was more interested in seeing the crocodiles.

We did get to watch a crocodile feeding, which was entertaining. However, this lazy little alligator really made us laugh. She somehow make it seem like her life of lying in the sun all day is quite rough.

Although this turtle was no more Australian than the alligator above, we enjoyed watching him get scratched by the zookeeper while eating his morning snack. Perhaps we could consider getting a pet turtle if the goat thing doesn't work out.

Now on to the Australian animals. We absolutely loved the stocky little wombats, who have tons of personality (they aren't particularly photogenic though).

We were able to interact with some wallabies, kangaroos, and their little joeys (!) in a walk-through area called 'Roo Heaven'.

Beware of photobombing ducks!

The koalas were a real highlight, especially for Justin. We learned that they aren't actually bears (so the term "Koala Bear' is a misnomer), and this beautiful species is struggling in the Australian wild. Koala's aren't very Darwinian in the sense that they're slow, lazy, and only eat one type of tree (Eucalyptus), but we were shocked nonetheless to hear that Koalas are unlikely to exist in the wild in 20 years time. Habitat destruction, dog attacks, and disease are really taking a toll on population numbers. The upside is that the species is unlikely to become completely extinct, as Koalas tend to thrive in captivity (at least that's what we were told).

This one reminded us of our friend Frank, who often falls asleep at social events. At least it's socially acceptable to sleep 20 hours a day if you're a Koala.

This one was a bit more alert.

We spent ages watching this mom and her very active little joey.

Aren't they just the cutest?!?!

After our day at the zoo, we drove back into Brisbane and caught up with some of Justin's friends for dinner. The next morning, we started the road trip down the coast. More to come on that later.