Peppard Blog: Tourism Made Easy

Brisbane at Dusk

What a great first day! Amy's parents George and Denise picked us up from the airport with Leona and then we returned to have a short break and learn more about 'proper' coffee from Denise. We then set out to a park called Daisy Hill, which is a koala sanctuary. In a matter of just a few minutes we were able to see koalas, wallabies, and a kookabura!

I was sleeping a minute ago

The koalas were pretty cool - docile and really only woke up to scratch themselves (extensively). This particular sanctuary had no hold-the-koala photo ops, but we got some good pics of the little guys. This was a cool facility with lots of kid-friendly activities, an observation tower, and ample opportunity to see and photograph the koalas.

After the koalas, we took a little walk in the park out behind the facility, and the kids borrowed some stale bread from a stranger and got up close to a wallaby!

Austin ready to tackle the wallaby, Alyn ready to tackle Austin

As this was all happening, we looked up and what else would be sitting in the tree but a Kookaburra. Sweet, this tourism thing is a snap!

After the park, we went up to Mt. Gravatt where there is a lookout and I took the shot at the top of the blog. Very cool.

After that, made it back to home base, met up with Amy's brother Simon (hello again), and got to work on this first proper Australian post. Thanks again to George and Denise for a great start to our vacation.

Not content to let Australia's nature steal the show, George made up a batch of beer-batter to go with the fresh barramundi we had for supper. We enjoyed the rest of the evening with some fine refreshments as evidenced below! The kids have been troopers, although they are now heading to bed as basically just little shells of their former selves, it being 3:00am according to our internal clocks. Maybe another hour or two for Coralee and I and we'll have to turn in as well.

The next few days we're heading to Stradbroke Island - stay tuned!