After Byron Bay we moved up the coast to Brisbane and stayed with some of Bens friends of the family. It was really nice to chill out for a few days and be shown around the city and surrounding areas. We also ate like Kings, eating meat on the BBQ everyday. That put a smile on our faces after living off instant noodles for the last few weeks. :-)

We drove to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and got to see the native wildlife up close and even fed some kangaroos. There was a loud noise in the park which must have scard the roos and they all ran away from it. We could have got killed by a stampede of roos. At least it would have been Aussie than the cows! There was a crocodile there that is over 5 metres long and looked prehistoric. You would not want to see that whilst going for a swim. We were nearly in crocodile land as well so was a bit scary! We saw some Tasmanian Devils and also tree kangaroos. We had never heard of them but they were really cool. They look exactly like kangaroos but are a lot smaller but they jump up trees like them. The colour of them was really nice as well, like a bright orange colour. We sat and watched a bird show and they brought out a MASSIVE pelican. Im pretty sure it could have picked me up in its beak!!! They brought out another bird which unfortunately i cant remember the name of but they showed us how it gets its food! It really likes to eat Emu eggs but as they are quite tough they cant get into them with their beaks. So they pick up a rock and keep dropping it on the egg until it breaks. It was brilliant to see it do it. They also had loads of koalas there, I nearly took one home but Ben reminded me that i wouldnt get it through customs. Apparently they sleep or eat 23 hours of the day so its rare to see one awake and not eating. However, we saw one that was jumping between the trees. I never realised they had that much energy! There were massive lizards walking around the park, one of them had half a tail and was relaxing with the 5m croc so we were hardly surprised! There are a lot of lizards in Brisbane and Latte (the hosts dog) kept chasing them into their swimming pool.

We went out for an Italian meal in the city which was delicious and then to a chocolate bar for desert. THIS WAS AMAZING!!! Everything they sold was chocolate and it all looked so good. The hot chocolate was amazing so we had to go back the next day for another :-)

The southbank was really nice and they even have a manmade lagoon on the river with sand around it so it looks like a little beach where you can go swimming in your lunch break! However, because of the floods earlier in the year they were being rebuilt when we were there. Brisbane was a really nice city, quieter than Melbourne and Sydney and nice a relaxed.

We went to Surfers Paradise which is like the party capital of Oz. It had been named Las Vegas in Paradise and i dont doubt it! There were casinos everywhere and was absolutely packed on the Saturday night.

All in all, Brisbane was great and was nice to relax for a while. After all the next stop is Noosa for our canooing trip so we needed all the rest we could get.....