My co-worker and I flew from Melbourne to Brisbane on an early flight. We grabbed a rental car, Subaru Forrester (yes they have them here), and drove the 70 km to Surfer's Paradise. On our way to Surfer's Paradise we stopped at the Lone Pine Sanctuary. This Sanctuary is known for its Koala's and the ability to get up and close, personally with the animals. I was surprised to see that they were all decorated for the Halloween festivities! Totally for those under 10 years old, it was quite out of place for us older folks. Halloween is not celebrated here as it is in the states, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Lone Pine Sanctuary is known worldwide for its Koala cuddling...as you will see many famous celebrities have cuddled (held) a koala. (The Pope, Taylor Swift...etc...) I got the chance as well! Ill post the photo soon, its on my co-workers camera, in the meantime go to the provided link to see it online. http://i.koala.net/2710603762.htm
Not only did we get to hold a koala, but we also were able to feed and pet kangaroos and other animals. It was an exciting yet very touristy thing to do. All in all it was the best part of our weekend.
After this fun animal experience, we headed to our main destination, Surfer's Paradise near Gold Coast. Known for its Las Vegas tackiness and entertainment, we were set to hang out on the beach and worship the sun. However, as we soon learnt, the weather forecast changed and high winds and rainy weather dampened our experience and expectations.
High rise hotels, dance clubs, bars and beaches are what Aussie's come here to do, Party!
The winds were blowing at 30 mph and it was blowing so hard that the sand was like sandpaper. So, no sun worshiping or hanging out on the beach. Instead we took refuge near the beach and watched Net Ball. Net Ball is the Common Wealth's sport of basketball. A women's only sport, essentially similar to basketball, but the baskets have no backboard, you don't dribble the ball and you can't run with the ball. We attempted to learn the rules during our hour long observation, but still we left without seeing why they just play beach volleyball or basketball instead.
Our time at Surfer's Paradise soon turned to rain and we headed for shelter and walked around the small tourist town. As what my managers would say its very cheesy and tacky. It is a tacky sorta place but its where you go for partying, surfing, sun bathing, and shopping. Since the weather was a disappointment, that left us with partying or shopping. Shopping was out of the question so we tried to party, but that too became old and after a few hours in several bars we turned in. This place was crawling with uni students (University) who go out for fun. The drinking age is 18 in Australia and this is the place where they all come for spring break. In addition, Buck parties (Bachelors Party) and Hens parties (bachelorette parties) come too, which there were plenty of them around, they all seem to dress up in uniforms too. Highly entertaining.
After our evening in the party city, the next day we drove to something less known and highly a tourist activity, glow worms. Only native to Australia and New Zealand, glow worms are highly endangered and are related to the firefly. Their bio-luminescent bodies glow in complete darkness and are only found in deep dark wet caves. The place where we went here was at a winery where they are breeding the special bugs to help produce more and help maintain the native colony found in the Springbrook national park caves. On our way to this winery which has the unique critters, we drove through the rain forests of Queensland and wound our way up a tall mountain and mountain town of Tamborine. There was a small Sunday market where we stopped for a quick coffee. The cave that we went into was man made and our expectations were low as we thought this was going to be very tacky....however, after the 15 minute video explaining what they are and what they do, we walked in complete darkness through the cave where the ceiling literally lit up like the night sky! It was very amazing and worth the 11 dollars...even though it was a man made habitat.
We continued our drive through the rain forests of Queensland which were all full of Eucalyptus trees and koalas. We drove to Brisbane for the rest of the remaining time before our evening departure home to Melbourne.
Brisbane, Australia's third largest city seemed super sleepy compared to Melbourne. With roughly 2 million it didn't seem as bustling but very laid back with flip flops and shorts as the norm, where as Melbourne is all about the fashion, slacks, dress shoes and sport coats.
Once we were done here, we returned the rental car and flew back to Melbourne with a late arrival back into town. Hopefully my trip to Singapore will be more eventful and succesful with teh weather; however, temperatures there are in the high 80s with 70% humidity....should be a good time!
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