MONTY PYTHON - IT'S A ZOO

April 4 – Today saw us making a pilgrimage to the spot that Siobhan has been waiting for this whole trip – the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary.  Yes, we have seen (and even cuddled) koalas before on this trip but I have it on good authority that you can never do that too often.  Lone Pine started back in 1927 to save what was left of the koala population in Australia after they were almost hunted to extinction for their pelts.  Thankfully, koala populations are doing much better today and the sanctuary currently has about 150 koalas in residence.  I would say something here about the sanctuary koalas tirelessly working to repopulate the species in the wild, but honestly, I cannot imagine them having enough energy to do anything, including procreate.  Seriously, as I mentioned before, only about 1% of their day is spent actually moving and most of their time is spent sleeping on tree branches in the most awkward positions imaginable.  I have included a special montage that I like to call “Comatose Koalas”.  I think you’ll enjoy it.

The sanctuary is home to a number of other species as well, so it actually took a lot of time to go through and see everything.  Liam got to cuddle a koala again (mostly by accident) and he and I both got to cuddle a rather large python named Monty (that is so corny it is almost clichéd).  There is a large enclosure where we went to feed the kangaroos and emus.  The kangaroos were quite funny – they were absolutely blasé about the presence of humans around them (even the fairly clueless parents who thought it was “cute” when their little darlings pulled the kangaroo’s tail). But as soon as one of the resident ravens came anywhere near the mob (group of kangaroos) the lookout kangaroo’s tail would thump the ground and the entire group would go on high alert.  It was really strange. We also got to see a falconry show that was quite spectacular (and a little gross, as the birds were given dead baby chicks and mice as “special treats” – eww.)  It was another day that was forecast to be rainy, but it was a lovely warm day.  However, prairie-girl was again sopping wet in the humidity and constantly fleeing to find air conditioning.  I wonder how long it would take me to get acclimatized, given that three weeks has apparently done nothing for my heat and humidity tolerance.  I may have to come back again to do some scientific research into this puzzling problem.

After we left the sanctuary, we headed back into Brisbane and toured through its art gallery and museum.  I love the fact that most museums and art galleries which we have visited so far have been free, apart from their special exhibits.  There was a modern art portion of the gallery which the kids really liked – their favourite seemed to be a music and video exhibition which, in my opinion, probably comes as close to an acid trip as you can get while remaining perfectly sober.  The three words that best describe it are as follows, and I quote: weird, weird, weird.  Bonus points to those who can tell me who I’m paraphrasing!! (Hint: No Christmas is complete without him.)

We had dinner at a really interesting restaurant called Jojos, which has a life-sized statue of Humphrey Bogart outside and a very eclectic menu (both of which for no apparent reason which I could discern).  We walked back to the hotel after we were done (stopping for some marvelous gelato on the way) to get packed and ready to leave for Christchurch in the morning.  Good-bye Australia – we really, really liked you!