Hey Folks!

On our first full day in Brisbane we headed over to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary which was about a 40 min bus ride out of town. We saw lots and lots of koalas which were all asleep - very cute but not really doing much at all! After listening to a very informative talk about koalas (where Jen and Sam found out that they are not bears at all but in fact marsupials) we went to feed some kangaroos which was lots of fun apart from all the slobber and a particluarly scary male kangaroo who was massive! Other highlights of the day included a sheepdog show and seeing dingoes, crocodiles, wombats, emus and cassory birds. The best bit though was being able to hold a koala although it was a bit uncomfortable due to it having really sharp claws - we will try and get the pics on here asap and we also have videos of the event! In the evening we decided to make full use of our travel pass and so jumped on a ferry down the river to a place called Riverside which turned out to be the business area of Brisbane. We had a few G&T's in a trendy bar overlooking the waterfront - very classy indeed!

Saturday was St Patricks day so we started the day with free champagne and green pancakes. Spent the morning lazing by the pool but after lunch the Irish drunkan rowdiness in the hostel bar was a bit too much so we headed off to the man made beach which is just on the river front. It was really crowded as it was the weekend but we managed to find a spot to work on the tans. That evening we went out for dinner in an area of the city called Fortitude Valley which is the trendy part of town, and managed to bag a 4 quid steak! We also sampled some of the bars in the area however we were slightly limited as we were wearing our thongs (Aussie for flips flops) and so we weren't allowed into any clubs. We did however find a cool little bar which had a band playing a kind of funk/soul/rap/jazz fusion music and so chilled in there whilst enjoying 2-4-1 drinks.

We started Sunday with a big breakfast, and Becki had a fry-up that she'd be craving all week, then went to the beach for the day. We also wandered round a market that was nearby and spent the evening in the hostel - so not a very exciting day really! We're heading off to Rainbow beach today which is just a bit northwards up the coast from Brisbane and where we'll be starting our Fraser Island adventure on Wednesday, so will let you know how that goes and if we have any scary experiences with the local wildlife whilst camping!!

Hope you are all ok and not missing us too much.

Lots of love,

Becki, Jen and Sam xx xx xx