Australia Zoo

Australia Zoo is a short drive north of Brisbane near the beautiful Glass House Mountains and the Sunshine Coast. It had been a long time since I had last been there (about 15 years) and I remembered it as being not that great, but I wanted to take Jihyeon there so she could see and touch Kangaroos and Koalas. Well, I'm happy to say that a lot has changed at Australia Zoo in the last 15 years and for both Australians and international visitors I can't recommend it highly enough. As they say in the TV advertisement, "It's one hell of a day out". 

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It is a little expensive (around $100 per adult), but if you are an RACQ member you can get a small discount. I was expecting to only spend a couple of hours at the zoo, but we ended up spending most of the day there. I recommend taking your own snack with you because the food is expensive and the queues can be long. 

After walking through the gate, we started wandering around the zoo with no precise plan other than to go to the main stadium (or crocoseum as they call it) to see the lunch time crocodile show. First animal we saw was this giant 100 year old tortoise. 

This crocodile is plastic, but was cast to the size of an actual crocodile that was captured in far north Queensland. Far out. Stay out of the water!

All around the crocodile enclosures these little water dragons were on the footpaths, enjoying the warmth of the concrete. 

An endangered cassowary from far north Queensland. 

Koalas!

There was an shed filled with baby farm animals. For $1 you could buy some pellets to feed the animals. The kids were going nuts. lol. 

Bahahaha, feed me!

Before we knew it lunch time rolled around, so we made our way to the crocoseum to enjoy the show. 

More Koalas. 

An Echidna.

And, some Kangaroos. 

Make sure you see the Kangaroos in the morning. By the afternoon they are full of pellets and not particularly hungry (and therefore friendly). 

Emu.

Australia Zoo also has an Africa exhibit. It is still fairly new, but they are off to a good start. 

You can feed the elephants too. 

More Koalas. 

And one last feeding of the Kangaroos before we go home. 

There are a lot more animals that what is pictured in my blog. I highly recommend checking out Australia Zoo next time you are in South East Queensland. 

Yatala Pies

Today was an exciting day. We went to Yatala Pies, the best pie shop in Brisbane, if not the world. It is located south of Brisbane right next to the Pacific Motorway on the way to the Gold Coast. If you are in the area, it is an awesome place to stop for breakfast, lunch or dinner. 

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I went for a plain beef pie while Jihyeon decided to go with beef and mushy peas. We also ordered some chips to share and a couple of drinks. All up it was under $20. 

You don't have to eat at the pie shop, most people will get their pies to go. 

We decided to buy a couple of dessert pies to take home with us ^^.

Yum ^^.

Christmas Lights - 2012

Every year in December many people in Australia decorate their homes with vast arrays of coloured lights to celebrate Christmas. Some of the displays can be pretty awesome. Since the weather is really warm in Australia in the month of December, it is a lot of fun to go for a drive around the streets and stop to see some of the displays. 

This house looks good right? It didn't even get 3rd place. 

This house got second place. 

Snow... well.. almost. It is spraying foam. Way too hot for snow. 

Merry Christmas ^^.

I think this house below won first price in the Christmas light competition.

River Fire - 2012

For 3 weeks in September, Brisbane throws a festival to foster the arts and put on a bucket load of free entertainment all along the Brisbane river. The festival culminates with a fireworks extravaganza which around 1 million people attend. 

Jihyeon and I arrived at south bank early to find ourselves a seat where we could enjoy the fireworks spectacular later that night. You can get a good view of the fireworks anywhere between south bank and the story bridge. There are fireworks placed on barges all up and down the river, and also on top of sky scrapers in the CBD. 

We arrived around 4PM, and as you can see it was already really busy with people jostling for a place to sit. 

We found some space to sit. Pro tip. Take a pillow or something soft to sit on. Sitting on concrete for hours is not fun...

To keep everyone entertained while we waited for night to fall and the fireworks to start, the military flew helicopters up and down the river to entertain us. 

Night time arrived and the city turned on its lights. 

And then the fire works show started.

After the show everyone slowly made their way to bus and train stations where transport workers were working flat out to get all 1 million of us home as quickly as possible.