Living Life to its Fullest: 11/11/10 – Day 48 – Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

I really enjoyed the city of Brisbane. It was our first decent size city in Australia and we had a full day to spend as all-aboard wasn’t until 9:30 p.m. It was nice to spend the day and see normal “real life” happening all around. The city itself is spread out about 30 miles along a river, which is a very active means of transportation. The northern-most City Cat (the river ferry) stop was only a 5-minute walk from where our ship docked. Also, important to note is that today is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans’ Day, ANZAC Day, or whatever your Allied country of choice calls it. Holland America gave us each a poesy pin to wear in honor of those who have served in the military. We also had a service at 7:30 this morning to honor Veterans (I wasn’t out of bed yet, but my parents attended) and we were invited by the city of Brisbane to their 11:00 service of remembrance (which we didn’t attend).

Our port was about 40 miles up river from the ocean inlet. After docking, we left the ship mid-morning and hopped on the shuttle bus that dropped us in town center. There, we walked to the visitor information center and located the stop and time schedule for the city sightseeing hop-on-hop-off bus. We took the loop around the beautiful city with commentary from our driver. Something to note is that it is Springtime here, and the trees are in full blooms with splashes of red, orange, blue, purple, and yellow. It’s actually be fun to go from Fall up north in Russia to Spring down here in Australia in less than two months.

Anyway, after finishing that tour, we located the post office, purchased some stamps, and mailed some postcards. We then took a city bus to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary all the way to the southern end of the city. This was one of my favorite places that we have visited on this trip. We were not only able to see koalas, but we had the opportunity to hold one of the critters long enough to get some photos with them. You see Brisbane is located in the province of Queensland where, although there are strict rules, koala holding is permitted. When we get to New South Wales, koala petting is permitted but not koala holding. The rules in Queensland are that each koala can only be held for a maximum of 30 minutes a day and must have at least every third day off from being held. This wasn’t a problem at Lone Pine as they had over 130 koalas.

We learned a lot about koalas and the other Australian native animals at the sanctuary. Just for the record, koalas are not bears at all. Instead, they are a marsupial that is most closely related to the Wombat, also similar to the kangaroo and wallaby (all of which are marsupials). When koalas are born (as well as kangaroos), they are the size of a jellybean. This little jellybean size creature makes its way up to its mother’s pouch on its own (which is quite a distance for such a tiny thing), and attaches itself to one of mama’s nipples, where it spends a few more months developing, growing, and maturing until it is ready to emerge from the pouch. Pretty crazy, but amazing stuff. Another interesting fact is that shortly before a koala is ready to be weaned off its mother’s milk, he will start eating his mother’s pooh. Now, this instinctively happens for the sole purpose of “safely” (but, I agree, grossly) introducing bacteria from the eucalyptus plant to the young koala’s system that would otherwise be toxic if he were to just go ahead and start munching on the tree. Weird, eh?

Anyway, at the wildlife sanctuary we learned that koalas. Like people, each has his own unique look and personality. It is a requirement of each staff member to be able to identify each koala by his or her physical appearance. They name the koalas and are actually quite easily able to distinguish each by his or her facial features and/or butt markings. This may seem to be a daunting task for a new staff member, but it ends up being quite a bit easier than one would think. As I mentioned, there are over 130 koalas at Lone Pine and the staff knows them each by name. I found it fun that they had koalas to observe of all types and ages, including a nursery, bachelor pad, kindergarten, and a retirement home. The male koalas all have a brown patch on their chest that is produced by a scent gland that emits a smell that apparently the lady koalas are quite attracted to.

The koala diet consists solely of the eucalyptus plant (of which there are many varieties). They rarely drink water, as the eucalyptus leaf is 50% water, which is where they find hydration as well as nutrition. The thing koalas do best is sleep, an activity that they participate in for about 22 hours of the day. The majority of the koalas we saw were sound asleep in a tree. I found the koalas to be very cute, but smelly. To me, the fragrance was a combination between poop and a cough drop (from the eucalyptus plant). The oil from the plant moves out to the tips of their fun, and after holding one, you smell like cough medicine (more so than pooh) for the rest of the day. But, it’s all worth it as they are quite darling. The koala’s name that we held was a female named Kat (yep, just like niece’s name…and just as cute too). She was so darling and definitely worth the $15 extra that we paid to be able to hold her.

Now, keep in mind these critters truly are native to southern Australia, and can be readily found in the people’s eucalyptus trees in their backyard. However, their population is diminishing and there are efforts to “save the koala.” Supposedly, the locals are urged to stay away from them as many carry disease and people are afraid of their sharp claws. Which, I guess I can understand; it might be similar to us wanting to pet a raccoon. Anyway, I did enjoy the koalas at Lone Pine. They also had a free-range area that you could enter with kangaroos roaming about, which can be commonly found throughout the country. There were over a hundred, I’m sure. We had the opportunity to feed them, pet them, and play with them. However, the staff didn’t take too well to the middle school boys group running after and chasing them. But secretly I let you know that it was pretty exciting to see 100 kangaroos fleeing together for a brief moment.

After the Lone Pine Sanctuary, we took a city bus back to a shopping mall. We grabbed some dinner in the food court and bought a few necessity items. It was interesting seeing the teens hanging out in the mall after school, just like they do in the U.S., with the exception of both public and private students being in school uniforms. This is the norm though; in fact, some colleges require uniforms as well. After the mall, we hopped on the City Cat ferry, near the southern end of the route, and took the 90-minute trip right through downtown to our ship. It was a nice sunset cruise through the city of Brisbane, and an excellent way to end a good day. Now, it’s one day at sea and then Sydney. I am quite excited about Sydney because I am going to have the opportunity to see a friend who I worked with at a summer camp 9 years ago. So, not only will we have a personal local guide there, but I will also have the opportunity to catch up with an old friend. What fun!