A place to Call Home

We arrived in Noosa Heads late in the afternoon without any plans as to where we were going to stay. After calling multiple places we found out that it was apparently high season and that many places were all booked up. Although we did find an apartment available at Dolphins Beach House for only $35 a night! We though why not and decided to book in for 5 nights. Being able to cook in our own kitchen and share a double bed instead of a bunk seemed too good a deal to pass up.

Sunshine beach and the Noosa National park were a short walk down the street from us. The park is home to lots of native wildlife, including Koalas. We didn't get to see much more than a bush turkey and some butterflies on our hike through the forest.

The weather in Noosa wasn't the greatest while we were there. We even ended up staying inside all day when it wouldn't stop raining. I almost finished an entire book that day and went a little bit stir crazy in the process. Lucky for us the morning we chose to go surfing for the first time was a beautiful one. The sun was shining and everything was calm. Unfortunately calm isn't the best for surfing and we were finding it hard to catch waves. Even so, after two hours and lots of encouragement from our instructor Sabrina and I were both standing up. As we're heading further up the coast this was out last chance to try our hand at the sport. Surf beaches become a rarity further north, mostly because of deadly jellyfish and the great Barrier Reef.

Noosa was very relaxing if nothing else, and a nice vacation away from hostel living (as much as I do enjoy it).

Brizzy

Having not been in a big city for the last months trying to orient ourselves in Brisbane proved to be more difficult than we would have thought. Our new home was the XBase Central and was only a short ten minute walk from the transit center. Our backpacks weighed us down a fair bit and we arrived at the hostel sweaty and ready to crash.

Brisbane is the only city we've stayed in that hasn't had a beachfront, although there were rumors of a man made oasis somewhere nearby. The image of the Oasis in Winnipeg was stuck in my mind so we managed to steer clear. The city itself is pretty small and very walkable, they also have a river transport system that takes you up and from side to side of the Brisbane river. We took one of these ferries over to Kangaroo point on Saturday for an afternoon of rockclimbing on the cliffs that are in the park. Having never climbed on a real rock face it was harder than it looked. Not to mention being put on the hardest part of the whole wall! Sabrina and I only made it about a meter up the wall before falling off. We both had a ton of fun trying though.

Saturday night I met up with Jake, another friend from ISV, and he took us out on the town to an area called "The Valley". The two blocks are home to trendy night clubs, pubs and fancy restraunts. This area might be the reason the city is often called "Brisvegas". We met up at a club called Cloudland and my jaw hit the floor. The two level lounge reminds me of something out of Night at the Roxbury and was apparently designed by a nineteen year old girl for the meager amount of ten million dollars. With the waterfall, the immaculate bathrooms and the giant statue of jesus in the middle it felt more like stepping into someones dream rather than a club. We felt classy for the first time in a while.

Easter Sunday and a long way from home. I can almost smell the amazing brunch that's being cooked up for everybody back home. Missing family celebrations is strange and brings about some pangs of homesickness. To ease the pain Sabrina and I bought some chocolates and made ourselves and Easter picnic! We sat in a small park in the middle of the CBD and felt as if the city had shut down momentarily. Nobody was around and the quiet amongst the usually busy buildings was almost eerie.

We took a day to checked out the Queensland Art Gallery, seeing as we hadn't done anything culturally enhancing in the last month either. The gallery was really nice with lots of contemporary Australian art and an exhibit that was dedicated to a master hat maker Stephen Jones.

 

We decided that we hadn't done quite enough climbing yet and met up with Jake again for an indoor climbing session this time. We spent a solid four hours scrambling up and down the walls before our muscles finally gave out on us. I have to say its a lot of fun and I might be going to vertical adventures more often when I get home!

Our last day in Brisbane was spent at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary a forty minute ride out of the city. We got there just in time to see a sheep herding and shearing demonstartion. From there we wandered around and found ouselves face to face with Kangaroos, Wallabies and a couple of Emus. We got to pet the Roo's but the Wallabies were to skitish to get close to. As for the Emu's I'd have to say I wouldn't touch one of them if you dared me. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around taking in all of the 130 Koalas in the sanctuary, in all of their uniquely comfortable poses amongst the trees. With the opportunity to get a picture with one of the cuddley animals, we couldn't resist. Sixteen dollars later "Wisely" and I were posing for the picture. Koalas are heavier than they look but just as soft and cuddley as a teddy bear. They're also not bears but marsupials. We also got the chance to see a platypus at feeding time. The beaver duck like animal is strange to watch and I also learned that it is venomous. Right before we left the wild Lorikeet feeding was taking place. The sanctuary worker explained that we could hold the feed bowls for a photo-op once the oatmeal like food was placed in them. We got some pictures and after being swarmed by the colourful birds we walked to the bus stop covered in what we hoped was oatmeal.

Here's a shot of Wisely and I:

http://i.koala.net/0804116891.htm