World Tour Stop 12 - Brisbane, Australia
Updated: Aug 17, 2019
Brisbane - May 18-21st
This stop was added for two reasons. First, Queensland is the only state in Australia that allows you to interact with the wildlife at their sanctuaries, and I really wanted to meet and hold a koala and pet kangaroos. I read about the different options and Lone Pine Sanctuary was listed as the closest to Brisbane and the best. Second, we really wanted to try surfing and run into Chris Hemsworth, so the gold coast/Byron Bay are renowned as some of the best places to do those activities.
First Day in Brisbane we arrived super early due to our early flight and the time change, but we had a friend flying all the way from Atlanta to meet us and unfortunately her connection in Sydney was delayed a number of hours, We didn't want to do too much before her arrival so she wouldn't miss out on things she wanted to do, but there was a mulled wine festival in town so we parked and walked over to that and enjoyed a couple of glasses of wine and then we walked over and stopped at a couple of breweries. I don't think she minded that we did these things without her.
After picking Sammie up back at the airport we drove to Kangaroo Point and walked around the cliffs for a pretty view of the setting sun.
We then went and checked in to our place and took some much needed showers and did some much needed laundry. We had another frisbee contact in the Brisbane area who reached out to give us ideas on what to do, so we met up with him for dinner and drinks at Netherworld. It is a game bar built for arcade junkies and it was super nerdy, but fun.
We then went to Fortitude Valley for some dancing and more drinks and enjoyed a fun filled evening.
The next morning was the big event of visiting Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I don't even know how to put into words how cool this experience was. The price is ~$30/person but you have to pay another ~$20 to be able to hold the koala which obviously we did. Then you can buy food bags for feeding the kangaroos at $2 each so definitely do it so they will like coming up and saying hi to you. We also saw a Tasmanian Devil, a dingo, a platypus, lots of colorful birds, bats, sheepdog and more. This should be a bucket list place to go if you are traveling to Australia.
After an amazing several hours of hanging with the cutest animals ever, we headed on the road down to Byron Bay. It is about a two hour drive from Brisbane and is pretty boring, so bring some good music.
We went straight to the lighthouse which is the most easterly point in continental Australia and walked around everywhere. So many beautiful views.
In Byron Bay we ate on the beach and then it started raining a little. I have to admit we crashed early that night because we had stayed out way too late after getting up way too early the prior day. Then on the 20th we were able to go surfing all morning. This was surf was a little rough and so much harder than we thought it would be. Also, no pictures because we locked our phones in the office before heading down to the beach, Glad we did it and all stood up and rode some waves all the way in, but it was a quite a humbling experience about our level of athleticism.
After surfing we showered off and headed back for our last night in Brisbane. We took the free ferry down the Brisbane river and took pictures of the setting sun again. FREE FERRY! Directly down the middle of the city. This is a must do.
We got off a little down the river and then walked along the pier to Felon's Brewing where we got dinner and a couple beers before walking back to our place and binging on some Bachelorette episodes.
Brisbane was a whirlwind, off to Cairns.
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