Brisbane

The next morning after our Cairns adventure, we got up early and went to the airport to fly to Brisbane. It is ironically pronounced Brisbane even though it is spelled like Brisbane. We found that out by listening to all the Australian locals and the flight crew. The flight was relatively quick, about 1 and a half hours  but it spared us 30 hours of driving.

When we arrived in Brisbane, we rented a car at the airport then drove to our hotel in the city if Brisbane. The hotel looked beautiful as we drove up to it. But it wasn’t as great as it looked inside, but it was good enough. It was very windy that day as the pilot had emphasized. After we relaxed in the hotel for a bit, we drove into downtown Brisbane to eat and walk around the shopping center. We planned to go to Springbrook National Park that day, but it wasn’t in the location that Google maps told us (dad was very mad about this and proceeded to say “that is why Google maps is stupid, you should always use mapquest” his passion for this was very entertaining). So, we just walked around the outdoor mall. After, we ate dinner in the mall at this good Mexican place. The outdoor mall was nice. We went to a bunch of stores, but they were high-end stores, so i didn’t buy anything. That part of Brisbane was a hopping place. There were many people, who I assumed to be locals, walking around with friends, family, or just alone. I felt like a local that night. It was a nice change from all the tourist attractions we were going to. Being in the city gave me a little taste of home, the few times I go to NYC. It was also hard to find a parking spot, especially a reasonably priced one. We went around the block many times before we decided to try a parking garage. But we ended up leaving that garage because is was $48 AUD (Australian Dollars) for two hours. Good thing we left because after going around the block a few times the nightly rates came up and we found a parking garage that was $15 AUD for as long as we wanted to stay. The lovely lady who drove us to the airport in Cairns did say that parking in Brisbane was ridiculously expensive. That lady also refused a tip from my dad. I thought that was very kind of her.

We fell asleep that night without dinner since we were both still full from a late lunch. Before we fell asleep, we tried to watch the series finally of 24: Live Another Day, but the internet wouldn’t let us because of the sound and our geographical location. That was very upsetting but I got over it haha.

The next morning we drove to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was in/near Brisbane. This Koala Sanctuary wasn’t what I was expecting, I don’t remember what I expected to be honest, but it was more like a zoo with a lot of Koalas. I loved it though! The Koala sanctuary was a major tourist attraction and very busy, I was a tourist so I fit right in, Dad and I went to the reptiles, then koalas. We went to the main enclosure for a presentation about a few of the animals they have there. After that presentation, we stayed for an interesting koala presentation which we got to pet and take a picture of us petting the Koala. Koalas are one of the only animals that survive on a certain kind of leaf. when they are born they eat their mom’s poop to build up enzymes to be able to eat that leaf they survive on. This specific type of leaf has low energy so that is the reason that Koalas sleep all the time. Anyway, we also saw birds, reptiles, more koala’s, platypuses, and many other animals including kangaroos. I pet some of them, took selfies with them and just observed them in their natural habitat. After someone with food for the kangaroos left, that same kangaroo came over to me and kept looking up at me waiting for me to give him/her food. It was adorable! But I felt bad that I didn’t have food for it. I saw a kangaroo hop and jump over to people. I even saw a joey pop its legs and head out of his/her mom’s pouch it was so cute that I took a picture!

After we left the Koala Sanctuary, we went to Spring Brook National Park, the correct place this time. As we were driving to it (or in it i don’t really know where it started) it was really hilly and curvy so Dad was having a fun driving up those roads! The first stop was a waterfall lookout. About 100 meters walk from the car was the lookout. It was pretty with mountains and a city in the background. But the falls were wimpy, there wasn’t much water. Maybe I just thought that because I am spoiled with Niagara Falls. We then went to a Canyon lookout which was 10 steps from the car and it was absolutely breathtaking. I just stared at the scenery forever. I couldn’t stop taking pictures too, I was attempting to be artsy with my pictures but I failed. The next lookout we went to wasn’t that great because trees grew in to block the view. But off to the side was a nice view of the sunset in the clouds, my pictures looked like paintings. We ended up passing the last lookout we wanted to see, but we saw plenty of beautiful views that we were satisfied. I had a great time in Brisbane.

Next Stop: Byron Bay

Stay awesome <3

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