Travel Guides and Stories

Looking at last week’s travel notes — not many views, no comments… seems like I’m just entertaining myself! Queensland’s natural world really has a lot worth visiting. If we’d had more time, we definitely would have gone to the Great Barrier Reef, but since we’d decided to head south to Melbourne, we gave up on the north of Brisbane and focused on the south. A few days in, traveling without our luggage, we actually got used to it. The news that our luggage had finally been shipped out made us very happy and we continued our trip in high spirits.      On our second day in Brisbane, our plan was Lone Pine in the morning, then rock climbing at Kangaroo Point in the afternoon. The purpose of visiting Lone Pine was to hug a koala — because Queensland is now the only state in Australia where you’re allowed to do that, and Lone Pine is the No.1 koala sanctuary. As expected, it was tough to get up in the morning, but we made it to Adelaide St. to take the 445 bus.

This is the bus guide provided by BC. When we arrived, we were a bit unsure of the direction, but after asking a driver and dashing to the other side, we just missed the 445. We didn’t want to run, so we decided to wait for the next one. That turned out to be a long wait — buses abroad come far less frequently, and we waited 45 minutes! I really regretted not running for the last one.      When we finally arrived at Lone Pine, we were greeted by a sign at the entrance that I have to share: it was beautifully written.

           Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

"The earth is not only for humans." Once inside, the real fun began. Lone Pine isn’t big, but it’s full of life. When you first go in, you see animals walking outside of cages and everyone wants a photo — but later, you realize the cages are just for show. As long as they’re not aggressive animals, they can wander anywhere, even outside the sanctuary.

The keepers regularly clean, feed, and walk the animals according to their needs…

As you can see, Lone Pine isn’t just about koalas — there are plenty of other animals, but koalas are the real stars here.

Awkward me, walking down the avenue with the animals. Next, time to introduce the main event: Mr. Koala! Photo spam incoming…

The koalas are grouped by gender and age: there are active zones, a kindergarten, a newborn-must-stay-with-mom area, and a retirement area. Hugging a koala here is a must — and it’ll cost you $100 on the spot!      When I held the little guy, I instinctively wanted to rock it, but the keeper immediately stopped me — that makes the koala think the wind is blowing the tree, signaling a dangerous storm is coming! Turns out, I was “the tree.”      By the way, the keeper was a Japanese girl — maybe I was being sensitive, but she seemed less friendly to me than to the older Western ladies in front of me.      Lone Pine also has an interactive kangaroo feeding area. Kangaroos are Australia’s national symbol, but not endangered, so you can interact with them freely.

This was the only kangaroo mom with a joey I saw. But it was strange — do kangaroos not breathe? Why was the joey’s head buried in the pouch? Group photo:

Because we were constantly interacting with the animals, time flew by. Lone Pine also has a great rest center for visitors — food, drinks, and even computers for internet access (no Chinese input, but you can still contact friends). At a No.1 spot like this, sending postcards is a must. You can buy postcards at the entrance shop and the rest center, and get stamps at the entrance shop as well. Miss Ma and I each bought five — they’re much more expensive here than in the city because they say “Lone Pine,” but it’s the thought that counts. Sadly, only one friend ever received theirs; the others vanished into thin air.    We left Lone Pine after 2 p.m. Determined not to miss the bus this time, we checked the routes: there are two buses from Lone Pine to downtown. The first to come wasn’t the 445 we wanted, but the 433. Since we’d already gotten to know Brisbane’s layout, we knew 433 stopped at Queen St. — not far from where we were staying, and we had rock climbing scheduled for the afternoon. So we took the 433 back.      Once home, we freshened up (not that we had much to change into!), then walked to Eagle Pier. One ferry stop took us across to Kangaroo Point.

           Story Bridge

Of all the bridges connecting the north and south banks, Story Bridge is probably the most important in Brisbane. Since we were going to climb it, here’s a note about it. Both rock climbing and bridge climbing require reservations, and prices vary by time slot. Sunset is the most expensive, followed by twilight, then breakfast climbs (breakfast is around 10 a.m., not dawn — Aussies aren’t up that early!). If you want to do these activities, book on the official website as early as you can. We wanted to see the sunset, but it was fully booked, so the only available slot during our stay was the third morning.      Our rock climbing reservation was for 5:20 p.m., but we arrived an hour early. Miss Ma went cycling, but I wanted to save my energy since I had no experience in rock climbing — I figured it’d be exhausting, so I started taking pictures instead.

There’s a cafe on top of Kangaroo Point, and it must do good business since it was always lively. I climbed the steps and saw a whole area packed with people exercising!

The view of the CBD from Kangaroo Point is the best.

As for the rock climbing itself… let’s just say it was embarrassing. I gave it my all, but just couldn’t make it up!

I only climbed two meters… what a fail! After wrapping up the day, Miss Ma and I realized we hadn’t eaten a real meal all day. Back in the CBD, we could only sigh — after days of bread, bread, and more bread, we craved proper food! Thanks to Miss Ma’s great memory, we found a lifesaving Korean restaurant not far from where we were staying. This was the best impression I’ve had of Korean food in years — spicy dishes, soup, rice. We shamelessly ordered kimchi stew and seafood ramen. As everyone knows, “ramen” in Korean restaurants is really just instant noodles, but we were completely satisfied.

Finally, a happy end to the day. The next morning, we barely made it in time for our bridge climb. No idea why, but even traveling independently we seemed to always be rushing!      There are only three bridges in the world officially open for climbing: one in New Zealand, and two in Australia — Story Bridge and Sydney Harbour Bridge. I originally wanted to climb the Harbour Bridge, but it’s twice as expensive (it’s a Sydney icon), and for the experience, Story Bridge suited me just fine. The whole bridge climb takes about two and a half hours, including paperwork, a briefing, and the actual climb.      Before climbing, we made sure to eat plenty (yesterday’s rock climbing taught us not to go hungry!). One tip: portions abroad are huge — Asian girls especially could easily split one portion between two people. Miss Ma and I were stuffed.      Before climbing, the instructor did some ice-breaking: introductions and why we were there. Our team was from all over — one Irish lady told us this was her third bridge climb, having done the other two already. I was super envious.      Because the bridge is operational, everyone has to change into special gear and you can’t bring jewelry or cameras (even sunglasses have to be strapped). Here’s proof that “made in China” is everywhere:

Honestly, so many things are made in China — we really have changed the world.      In the sweltering heat, we finally got our luggage and could look forward to the next stop — Sydney — in even better spirits.