Family Trip VII Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary & Mt Coot-tha

Hello, yes I'm a Koala...

Second day at Brisbane, we headed to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary*****. It is not far from the city, about 20 minutes drive. They advertise as being the largest koala sanctuary and we understand why! It is a place worth going, $28 for YHA members, normal price is $33.

There are so many koala enclosures here, and if you join the koala presentation, at the end of the talk you can take picture with them up close. Or you can buy a photo pass where you can cuddle the animals! It's quite expensive so we just pass. 

Bird of prey show.

Erm..... 

Our picnic lunch inside the sanctuary...

 

Smoked salmon sandwich =)

Little Goatie

The Cassowary, known to be very aggressive and can bite! 

Tasmanian devil... the carnivorous marsupial.. only found wild in Tasmania.

CUTE.. A good sleeping position, saves the hand and leg cuddling energy...

Baby joey... 

This Roo looks like an old uncle..

First time seeing two kangaroos fighting! They are like kick boxing, and women fighting at the same time, pulling each other faces...

Nice ONE!

After playing with the animals, we head to the nearby Mount Coot-tha for sunset views. Can't see the sun set around here but the skyline of Brisbane city quite clear.

Ice cream again... 

Had dinner at Fishmonger's Wife restaurant located in East Brisbane. Specializing in fish, they do really good fish and chips! We ordered the family pack for $36.90 (4pieces of hoki fillet) and chips. Then a greek salad, which makes all 6 of us so full! Their beer battered chips is really GOOD!

Since we had a good time at GC's casino, we thought we might pay a visit to Brisbane's Treasury Casino. Oh no, no membership benefits this time cause it's the same company as GC's. No free dinner =.= LOL. Anyway Ricky had a go at the pokies (slot machines) and then all of us jumped and take turns again. Lol. Yay won some $$$ ;) Oh there's no free parking at the casino for normal members, unless you're a platinum or something. But street parking near the casino is FOC after 7/8pm if not mistaken.

NEXT: Relaxing at Mount Tamborine

Brighton Bath Box & Healesville Sanctuary

 Brighton Beach**** in Melbourne

Cute bath boxes which is sold at a high price! Owning one of these huts means you have at least AUD$50,000 extra! Using it for changing beach wear and etc!

  
Healesville Sanctuary**** entrance fee $25, with YHA discount of 10%. The main featured animals are kangaroos, koala, platypus, lyrebird, tasmanian devil and wombat. It showcase the native animals of Australia.

 Birds of Prey show.

Black-breasted Buzzard shows us how it breaks the egg  using a stone. Other than that, the cockatoo, wedge-tailed eagle & barking owl made appearance as well.

When the time of wedge-tailed eagle show out, there is another wild eagle flying up at the far top of the showground and try to chase away the park's eagle to mark its territory. That reminds us of the seagull, even though they are small but they are also the bird of prey and always try to scream at another seagull, especially if someone is feeding them! This happens everywhere in Australia seaside.

Lyre Bird, is the bird of Mimic and owns an extraordinary ability! It sings beautifully and mimics the voice of other birds like the Laughing Kookaburra. They can even mimic the dingos, koalas and humans!! It also fans out its tail (like the pic above) to court the female.

Zebra Finch

Cockatiel, the smallest of the cockatoos

Tawny Frogmouth, it's not an owl! It looked so grumpy =.=

Black -Winged Stilt, very long legs, looks like a pretty girl. Fact: They live on inland lakes and swamps but they can barely swim!

We have almost seen most of the animals in this sanctuary throughout our trip from Western Aus to Melbourne. But for Francis dad or any other tourists coming to visit for the first time, we think this sanctuary is the perfect place to go, to know more of the Australian animals!

For $10 extra for the ‘Magic Moment’ ticket, people can get upclose with featured animals such as the tasmanian devil, koala, and wombat. We think it is quite worth it to pay the $10, to have a special guide telling you about the animals, and maybe a chance to touch them?

Our last dinner with John, at his house. It was a good Australian meal, roast chicken, meat pie and chips&salad! A simple meal, but it brings lots of pleasure and satisfaction. It also lets P’s dad found out that his favourite food is Meat Pie! The Four n Twenty brand is the best!

We spent quite some time in Melbourne city alone before and after going Tasmania. Overall we think Melb is quite a relaxing place to live cause it is multi racial (means lots of good food =P), with convenient public transport and beautiful old buildings. And it is not as crowded as Sydney.