Among koalas and kangaroos

Coming back from K'gari I left the Dropbear Adventure column in the town of Rainbow Beach. Here I was picked up by an old friend of mine, Bobo and together we drove down south to the town of Alexandra Headlands, a beach town melted together with its neighbors along the Sunshine Coast. Here I spent a couple of days catching up and telling stories about the good old days when we had met back in Europe. We even found the tallest rock in the area and climped it for a nice view of the coast. 

View from Mount Coolum

Bobos appartment right on the beach, not a bad life...

Before coming to Australia I kinda got the impression that everything were out to kill you, but so far only a few non lethal critters had crossd my way so I thought I better come to them then. And where else to go than the home of Steve Irvin! So while Bobo was working I ventured inland to the Australian Zoo. 

Now a big focus of this was of course the crocodiles and alligators. And the rest was pretty much koalas and kangaroos. I liked the atmosphere of this zoo, sometimes it can be very depressing being in a zoo because of the conditions for the animals but this place was great. Visitors and animals lived almost side by side. Koalas were hanging from the trees as you walked through the park and kangaroos were sunbathing or being hand fed by little kids with a huge smile on their faces :) Elsewhere birds are flying freely around and you are passed by wombats out for their daily stroll around the park. 

Luzy a very determined wombat lady out walking her keeper around the park. 

Red Panda 

Emilio a split tail eagle showing off for the camera. 

Before I left the Sunshine Coast there was just one thing I had to do...

I grapped a surfing lesson and had a really good time with a lot of local aussies   Something I will definitely have to do again. Then it was time to say goodbye and jump on a train to Brisbane. 

Thank you so much for your hospitality Bobo, I hope to repay you again some day!

Arriving in Brisbane it was time for another catchup with an old friend of mine. I was picked up at King George Square by Trent and his girlfriend and they showed me around the city center and the southbank area, where we met up with his parents for dinner and storytelling. I had a great time and hope to see you all again on your next euro trip!

   Suckling pig lasagne!

Futuristic icecream bar using nitrooxcide to fast freeze your dessert

  Icecream and caramelized macarone on the top!

 Brisbane southbank, a great area to socialize and relax

The next day I returned to Melbourne with tiger airways of which I should by now be a frequent flyer. Here it was time for one last social weekend with lots of gaming before leaving Australia. 

Making new friends and meeting up with old ones

It was amazing traveling half way around the world for then to be taken in by the local gaming community as if it was the most natural thing in the world! Everyone where so friendly and helpfull and I really enjoyed this weekend, where I got a chance to make a lot of new friends and catch up with yet an old one! 

So this was a month in Australia... By far not enough to do this place justice, could have easily spend another just continuing up the coast. 

Thank you to everyone I met along the way, you all made me feel so welcome and showed off the Australia I was hoping for!

Now it is time to go, the time machine is fully fueled and ready to cross the international dateline as I inch myself closer to Europe. Next stop is Honolulu Hawaii where I will have a short stop before going to New York. 

Aloha!