Downtown Brisbane

We had a day in downtown Brisbane, first visiting the Queensland Museum. I learned about the huge coal and cattle industry in this state of Australia, the golden bikini meter maids in Surfers Paradise (didn't remember seeing any), and some of the dinosaur fossils they’ve found here, including the only known record of a dinosaur stampede. 

how cool are these dinosaur and animal pillows?!

Next we walked across the Victoria Bridge to the Queens Street Mall. It was actually a bit difficult to find where it started, but we eventually did. We met with our host's family and had a drink (red creaming sarsaparilla) at the Red Cross Coffee Shop and then she took us to the City of Brisbane Museum which had some nice photos and paintings of Brisbane back in the day. We got really good gelato at Gelatissimo (macadamia caramel and peanut butter fudge).

City Hall had a beautiful interior room

psychedelic ceiling too!

cool contrast between old and new

Abbey Medieval Festival

We had a fun day at the Abbey Medieval Festival, advertised as the biggest annual medieval festival in Australia. It's a great concept for a museum fundraiser (supporting the Abbey Museum which is about an hour north of Brisbane). We arrived right as it opened so we could see the parade of all the reenactors, and then the rest of the day was spent walking around to the various booths, watching fights and archery tournaments, eating fried bread (cinnamon...mmm), going to the adjacent Abbey Museum (full of artifacts from most major civilizations for some reason), then getting our photos taken in medieval costume. D bought a fleur-de-lis pin for the upcoming conference and I bought a medieval magnet poetry sheet. The weather was quite windy early on, but it let up by the afternoon. It was cool seeing all the people dressed up in a variety of costumes and styles and learn some more about medieval times.

obligatory Magna Carta exhibit - it's the 800th anniversary so Australia & NZ are obsessed

Gold Coast and Springbrook Mountain

We drove down to the Gold Coast and went to Springbrook Mountain which was inland a bit. It was covered in rainforests with several waterfall lookouts within easy driving distance from little parking lots, as well as the "Best of All Lookout" at the top with great views of everything. It was a bit freezing when the fog was rolling through, but otherwise not too bad. On the way in, we stopped at the visitor information center and the old man guide told us what sights to see. He was perpetuating the koalas-are-drunk-because-of-eucalyptus-leaves myth, but we didn't correct him. 

 

view of Surfers Paradise from the park

When we had our lunch at a picnic bench, I took some "artistic" photos of my strawberries against the foliage. They must be in season somewhere in Australia because they have been on sale at every grocery store so I haven't been able to resist buying them. 

After the park we headed to the famous Surfers Paradise on the coast. It was like a smaller Vegas or Miami with huge skyscraper hotels lining the beach and lots of shopping and restaurants. We walked along the waterfront where there was a classics car show and then through the mall before driving back to Brisbane.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Last major animal excursion for the trip: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. It's a smaller wildlife center than the other ones we'd been to, but they had shows and demonstrations going every half hour or so which made it feel like there was a lot to do, and we actually ended up spending most of the day there. 

I really enjoyed the wild lorikeet feeding. The staff put solutions of nectar into little containers and we got to hold them up for the birds to land on. They were fierce, loud little creatures and gobbling up the food like a storm. Sometimes something would spook them and they would all fly away together and swoop back around in a loop. 

Next we went by the barn to see the baby chicks and guinea pigs and sheep and goats. They allowed little kids to hold the babies and they were so adorable! The chicks would cheep and the guinea pigs just sat there looking sad and not moving. I didn’t know they could stay so still. Afterward was the sheep dog and shearing presentation. The border collie was super fast and herded the sheep around the obstacles quite well. The other dog was used for rounding them in at the end to the enclosure. And then he could stand on top of the sheep to keep tabs on them. Seeing a sheep get sheared was an interesting experience. Poor sheep. 

We pet some kangaroos and took pictures of the wallabies that didn’t want to be touched. Then was the wildlife encounter with birds and a dingo, the birds of prey show which was fun because there were real, wild birds overhead (called kites) that were scaring the birds in the show, and a koala presentation where we learned some facts about koalas. We had to get the photo holding a koala -- at least the money is going to a good cause. It was heavier than I thought it would be and the smell of eucalyptus was quite strong (the trainer was feeding it leaves to keep it pacified). Finally, we saw the platypus and Tasmanian Devil presentations and checked out the rest of the animals. It started raining just as we were headed to the gift shop.