Australia Tourist

When I arrived in Australia, a 10 year drought in New South Wales ended. When my friend Elena, also from Vancouver on the Wet-Coast of Canada, arrived, it started raining each day and crops were getting destroyed by flooding.  Flying was out of the question most days, so we played tourist.

Brisbane central business district (CBD)
or simply downtown.

Kangaroo point cliffs.  Including
top roped climbing routes.

First we explored Brisbane, a car-centric city on a river (16th on world livability scale).

A big Australian spider in Brisbane

There are cockroaches in Australia, but they do not build huge colonies inside of houses because it's warm enough outside. So instead you just see them wander in and out of restaurants when they are hungry. Makes them easier to like. And finally I met a big Australian spider --- though I was told that this one is just a baby.

White-capped Noddy Terns
on Lady Musgrave Island

A coral...dead one.

A must see on the Australian tourist list is the Great Barrier Reef with its tropical sea life, so we went on a tour boat to Lady Musgrave island, a coral cay that is part of the GBR southern islands. I tried snorkeling only to be reminded that I can not see anything without my glasses, so all I recall was blurry big fishes, blurry little fishes, and blurry coral. The cay started as just a collection of ground up dead coral bits and birds would stop there for a rest and leave behind droppings. After many years the bird droppings got thick enough to support plants and by now there is a whole forest of Pisonia trees filled with birds. Walking through the island without a hat is a risky activity.

Barking owls

Rainbow Lorikeet feeding.  They are
too wily in the wild for me to have
captured them on film yet.

Then to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where we petted koalas, fed kangaroos, talked to parrots, and met various other animals.

Meeting a local lizard

Big python at Purling Falls while
hiking

Kangaroos are not that lazy in the wild (left; including brush turkey). This is the result of being fed all day long by generous zoo visitors (right).

Koalas!

Awwww.  Elena and Koala.
Note the two thumbs.

While koalas are possibly the cutest animals in the world, they make a quite ugly noise, try this: Koala Grunting.  They also have two thumbs, and their pouch for the young faces downwards to avoid getting branches and twigs stuck in it.  Yes, they are soft (and heavy).

Scenic Rim --- you can make out the
volcano rim here.

Purling Falls; a nice several hour
hike.  Saw a big python too!

Found out through hiking and viewing various waterfalls and viewpoints that the Canungra  mountains I was flying from are just part of the rim of an extinct huge volcano!

We went shopping for opals.
I gave this one a pass at $60500

Glow worm cave... you have to go to
see the glow worms.

Australia is known for opals, so we had to go and get some.  And finally, we visited the world's largest glow worm colony in a cave close to Canungra.  I completely recommend it --- it's a special experience (and almost impossible to capture on camera).  You see a constellation of tiny glowing spots in the cave.