What a Wild Ride So Far!

Well this is very much overdue, but I'm finally getting around to writing about our trip. I am going to break it up into segments, and I'll start with our first adventure in Australia.

Abi and I flew Chicago to Vancouver and then Vancouver to Brisbane which was over 14 hours long. Luckily for us, Air Canada has a bidding system where they auction off unsold Business Class seats, and our bid was accepted! All the comforts of an international Business Class flight without the painful price! This was to be crucial to our success since we could arrive in Australia fully rested and ready to go without any effects of jet lag. Well, that was at least the theory behind it. Abi slept about a full 8 hours of the flight, but I maybe got a restful 45 minutes. The rest of my flight was filled with movies, eating (a lot), and mostly lying there trying to sleep, knowing how badly I need to sleep, but being unable to fall asleep. It was quite a turbulent flight, but I didn't mind too much, plus that was entirely out of my control. Thankfully, I was at least comfortable since the seats fully recline to a completely flat bed. Truthfully, even with my lack of sleep, the flight didn't seem that long which was a blessing.

We landed in Brisbane to total excitement and a bumpier landing than I had anticipated, but that's just part of the fun, right? It was as if the pilot accidentally pressed too hard on the brake pedal.

A tiny background note that will be important: we brought a small plastic kangaroo figurine with us on our trip. He was given to us years ago by our favorite bar in Chicago, Hopsmith. Their logo features a kangaroo so that's the connection there. We dubbed him Kev the Kangaroo and decided to bring him on a tour of his homeland and get his photo taken everywhere we could!

We got our bags, headed into the sun of a cool Brisbane morning, and went to pick up our rental car. When we grabbed our car, we got a suggestion for a good local coffee spot where we could quickly grab a drink. It was a Vietnamese coffee spot that had a delicious coffee made with condensed milk that Abi loved. Once we had our coffees in hand, we headed on a short trip to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we had a pre-booked tour. Before we headed in, we made sure Kev got a photo at the front gate!

We arrived at our designated time to discover our tour was to be a private tour since no one else had booked. Our tour guide was actually an American, so I felt right at home. We went around the sanctuary learning all about the creatures that inhabit Australia like cockatoos, Tasmanian Devils, kangaroos, cassowaries, platypuses, and of course koalas. Since it was such a small group, we got a bit more of an in-depth tour than these groups usually get. The animals seemed to be quite wound up and were really giving us a good show that morning! The Tasmanian Devils were running around incessantly, and the koalas were jumping from tree to tree!

Finally, we got to actually hold a koala and get our photos taken with him! His name was Knotty, and he was so freaking cute. He was really interested in Abi and kept smelling her face. We had such a blast, but Knotty's face suggests he didn't share our sentiments.

After playing with him, our guide suggested that we go feed the kangaroos which was so fun. They were free to roam in a nearby pasture but mostly just lied there resting and being fed by throngs of visitors. There must have been at least 50. Kev loved meeting them. They were so soft and sweet!

After the tour, we headed 2 hours south to Byron Bay where our weekend's festivities awaited us! My jet lag was setting in around this point, so I'll leave out the parts where I was complaining how tired I was.

I'll be writing and sharing more about that shortly! Please stay tuned for much, much more!