Brisbane

Finally, I've cuddled a Koala – yeah! More on this later...

After the party antics of Suffers, it was with some relief that we arrived in Brisbane which at first impression appears to be a civilised, relatively sophisticated, city. We were staying in the New Farm which is a peaceful area with many attractive old wooden Queenslander houses and a smattering of trendy cafes and wine bars. We started with a delicious French inspired lunch at Continental Café – possibly the tastiest food I've had since being in Australia (except of course Glen's cooking in Sydney). This was followed the next day by dinner at Anise, which although on the pricey side, serve up great food with the additional plus of having knowledgeable staff personally recommend excellently matched wines.

Unfortunately the weather was pretty miserable, surprisingly not because of cyclone Hamish which was pottering along the coastline further north and threatening to cause major damage, but thanks to a low pressure area moving in from the south. Despite this, we were determined to get a river trip in, so duly jumped on one of the many river ferries. These very conveniently criss-cross the Brisbane River around which the city is built. This gives a great opportunity to spy on the luxury apartments and houses that are sat on the river banks and get to a feel for the layout of the city.

North of Brisbane lies the much hyped Australia Zoo, out on Steve Irwin Drive (he is Australia's Diana). This is the pet project of the late Crocodile Hunter and his presence is certainly still felt from the statues to the videos of him and his mini-me daughter (Bindi) played on the large screen in the Crocoseum (yes it really is called that). The ultimate homage is of course the plastic dolls in the gift shop. All this said, the zoo does have an excellent reputation for its range of Australian wildlife, which you are able to get up close and personal with, and for promoting conservation.

We started our visit in the Crocoseum for the main show of the day. Whilst the stars, the salt water crocodiles, were pretty impressive, in general the show was far to long on not very funny attempts at comedy. We then moved on to feed the kangaroos. I could do this for hours on end, but Rich got bored quickly as although the enclosure was superior to Featherdale (which we visited near Sydney), the experience was much the same. The rest of the zoo was not that exciting, but perhaps this was because we had to huddle under our umbrella to shelter from the pouring rain.














After lunch, finally the moment I had been waiting for arrived – my chance to cuddle a Koala. After pushing all the kids out of the way I secured my place at the front of the queue. Soon a keeper appeared carrying the lucky ball of fluff. Rich was somewhat disconcerted by the fact it didn't seem to be able to control its bowls, but was nothing was going to put me off. My turn arrived and the sleepy creature was placed in my arms. A few snaps of the camera later, I reluctantly handed the surprisingly soft bundle of fur back to the keeper. A sadly short experience but very sweet.