Australia is hot. I had always heard that is, but to tell you the truth I didn't really believe it. We landed in balmy Brisbane on March 3rd, coming from a rainy 16 degree Celsius Christchurch. I kid you not, as soon as we landed and walked out of the plane, I was sweating profusely. I can't complain, Australia is an amazing place, and I'm very fortunate to be able to travel around it.
Anyways, as soon as we arrived in Brisbane, we took the Airtrain to South Brisbane to meet up with Lewis, an English friend Brandon had met on Kiwi Experience who is going to Queensland University Tech. We were lucky enough to call his place home for the nights we spent in Brisbane, and him and his roommates also toured us around while we were there. It was great to have some residents give us an inside look at the city.
On the 4th & 5th, Brandon and I headed to Byron Bay for a couple days, where we tried out surfing with Mojosurf. Honest to goodness I can tell you that surfing is easily the most fun I've ever had in any type of water. We had a great instructor, named James; and he taught us how to read the tide, current and rips, how to get up on our boards and balance ourselves when up. Going into it, both Brandon and myself had no expectations of being able to even stand up on our boards, but after a few tumbles and mouthfuls of salt water, we actually started improving! I don't want to brag, but for beginners I think we did pretty well. We both got up on our boards at least 7 times, and stood up for a few seconds each time. Yup, the two Saskatchewan kids crushed surfing. Who knew?!?
Back to Brisbane on the 6th for another tour around a little bit more, we checked out Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary for an afternoon. It was absolutely splendid! We saw bats, possums, birds, dingoes, Tasmanian devils, echidnas, platypuses, kangaroos, wallabies, crocodiles, lizards, sheep, ponies, pigs and of course: koalas! Lone Pine is really neat, because it is very hands on. We each got to hold a koala (which, by the way, are as cuddly as they look!), as well as feed and pet the kangaroos and wallabies! It was a great time, definitely filled our need to see Aussie wildlife up close and personal!
That night in Brisbane we experience "Goon" for the first time. Goon is what backpackers, university students and otherwise cheap alcoholics drink because liquor and beer is so bloody expensive in Australia. After a few drinking games, we headed to a bar called Down Under (what a fitting name, I thought) for a night of real Brisbane partying with Lewis and his roommates. A bloody good time!
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