Thursday 28th January.

I woke up early and we checked out of the hostel, I grabbed some toast and a hot chocolate and went to get the camper van. We headed up the coast to Australia zoo (Steve Irwin's zoo). We went up past Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, and it took about two hours to get there. We arrived by about 11am which was good because we wanted to go to the 'Koala holding' at 11:30am. It cost $59 to get in to the zoo and $22 to hold the Koala and get a large photo to take away, so it wasn't a cheap day but I was desperate to hold a Koala so I didn't mind. Whilst we were waiting for the Koala I spotted a huge Python (behind some glass) and when I lay next to it, it was just as big as me which freaked me out! We were second in the queue for the Koala, and when it came to my turn I was so excited I practically ran over to him. His name was Diesel and he was so chilled out. The lady showed me how to hold him then passed him over to me, and he just hugged me and went back to sleep. He was heavier than I expected but I guess they just hang on you so you have all their weight. He also smelt of sweat, which I never knew about before, apparently it's to attract the females. If I was a female Koala, I would not be attracted to that smell! I didn't want to give him back but there was a queue behind me so after I had my photo I watched Kirsty have her turn. It was so funny, she was so scared of him and I couldn't understand why. She said he looked 'suspiciously calm', and was worried he would turn on her, but they are just lazy animals. We went to the 'Crocoseum' afterwards to watch a bird show and they a crocodile show which followed it. There was a short video on Steve Irwin's adventures over the years too. Kirsty made me laugh during the bird show because we were told there was a really large bird coming out and a normal bird happened to fly passed and she said, "are they winding us up"?! After the show we got on the train that goes around the different areas of the zoo. Whilst we were waiting for it to move, Jack and Jonny, who we met back in Surfers paradise two days ago, jumped on in front of us. You always seem to see the faces or bump in to old friends along the way. We ended up spending the day with them around the zoo as they were heading to the same place and we didn't really have a plan anyway. We saw the giraffes which were Jonny's favourite thing, and watched a tiger feeding. It ran up a tree whilst we were watching it to get some food, which squashed the myth that tigers can't get up trees easily. We went through a 'Koala walk through' where we could stroke the Koala's in the trees. It was so much fun. Jack tried putting his sunglasses on the Koala which although funny, me and Kirsty were mortified about. Another Koala decided to start seeing from it's branch, narrowly missing us all. We had to wait ages at the end for Jack to collect his 15 photos of him with a Koala which we gave him banter about and all found funny. Kirsty screamed when she saw a big lizard run passed us and scared us all. After a fun day at the zoo we had to drive back to Brisbane which was an hour away. Jack and Jonny were meant to be getting the bus but it wasn't coming for another hour so we offered them a lift back. Jonny sat in the front with me and Kirsty and Jack got the short straw of sitting on the floor in the back. When we got to Brisbane me and Kirsty checked in to the YHA and were put in a four bed female dorm. It was a nice hostel, but a good 20-30 minute walk from the centre. We bumped in to the Canadian and Austrian guys from our hostel in Surfers Paradise too, so we sat and spoke to them for a bit and another guy called Alex from Germany. It wasn't a late night, we were tired from the day and were looking forward to a quiet, air conditioned room. It's the smaller things in life.