Brisbane Encore

Zoe and Tristan in front of a fountain in the Southbank Parklands (Brisbane river in background)

On Friday, June 26, we drove from our home in Macmasters Beach to New Castle airport. We left at 5am to catch a 7:50am flight. I had driven the route provided by "Where Is" a week ago and almost gave up finding the airport on several occasions. I drove back from the airport following the signs set up for new arrivals and found that much easier. We made it to the airport without incident!



Brisbane CBD, as seen across the Brisbane river

We arrived in Brisbane at 9am, collected our luggage, dropped it off at the hotel, and took the train to Southbank Parklands. What a different place in winter! It's lovely! Not steaming like we had experienced when we visited in November. We walked along the Brisbane riverwalk then got some lunch. We had intended to find a ferry that would take us to the Lone Pines Koala sanctuary, but found that it can't be done. We caught a cab.


This koala is in Kindy

The Lone Pines Koala sanctuary is fairly small, but nice. There were many internationals visiting.

Clara holding a chick

There was a small farm with sheep, goats, guinea pigs, and small horses. It was really raining when we were in the barn. There were demonstrations by sheep dogs in the paddock. We each cuddled a koala. Each of the older children had the opportunity to hold the koala and have their picture taken with it.

Zoe and Tristan at the Lone Pines sign.

We bought food for the kangaroos and wallabies. One kangaroo was forward enough to rip Tristan's food bag open.

The red kangaroos had recently been included in the enclosure and were still wary.


The emu was happy to eat out of my hand.


Here's a joey in his mother's pouch. Funny, with his hind leg sticking out too!

We really enjoyed the rainbow lorikeet feeding. The Lorikeets began gathering at 2pm for the 3pm feeding time. These lorikeets are WILD! But they come right up and are happy to sit on your arms, shoulder, or head!

Neo with with Wild Rainbow Lorikeet perched on his head!

The food was in a milk - and the Lorikeets used their tongues to lap it up!

We took the bus back to the Queen Street mall, this was a new experience. We grabbed a couple of sushi rolls, then went out onto Queen Street to make our way to Central Train station. We arrived back at our hotel a little before 6pm. We had a full apartment - two bedrooms upstairs, a living room and kitchenette. For the price of a standard hotel room. It was really wonderful.


Jo Laws, Oliver, Zoe, Clara, Tristan, Zoe, Neo and Me.

Jo Laws (from British Expats - they were also April applicants) and her family (Jon, Zoe, and Oliver) arrived a little while later with pizza. We chatted while the kids played. Zoe and Clara became friends in that short time. Amazing the wonderful people we have met on this journey.