Brisbane Day 7: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

It was time to say goodbye to the Britz that had served us well for the past 4 nights. Although it was a little noisy and I very much missed a normal comfy bed, it was an enjoyable experience. The kids like the campervan too but were starting to display wifi withdrawal symptoms. The last night, they were yearning so much to watch their youtubes. Lol. They were so bored with the few games that they have in their phone. Ya, their parents didnt share hotspot with them. Hohoho.

We had to finish the food in the fridge and made bfast, finishing the remaining 7 eggs at once. Kids chef in the house.

Tadah! Our last bfast in the campervan.

With final packing up, we started our journey back to Brisbane city to return the campervan.

It was about an hour's drive. I was so hoping that we didnt have to wait another 2.5 hrs just to return the Britz. We tried finding a petrol kisok to top up the LPG gas tank but were not able to find that service both at our campervan park or the petrol kisok near to the Britz center. We gave up and opted to pay an extra AUD165 for the express return package, which will take care of the LPG gas tank and petrol. Maybe it was that, we walked out of the center in less than 30 mins. Yay! The kids were thrilled to find wifi at the Britz center but soon complained about how weak the signal was. Still no youtube. Sorry.

We took an uber to the city center to pick up our other drive from the Hertz rental center that will ferry us for the next 2 days. I had wanted to book the cheapest possible sedan car but the booking was amended on the spot by Daddy Lim, who opted to top up for a Kia SUV. He said that it is bigger and more comfortable. Zzzzzz.

We literally had a jerky start. Daddy Lim took some time to get used to the car; the Britz had a much longer braking distance and he needed to step harder on Britz' brakes, which was totally different from the sensitive brakes of the Kia. We were jerking forward whenever Daddy Lim stepped on the Kia's brakes, which was like every other second upon driving off. So funny. Fortunately, he adapted quickly or you can visualise a Kia jerking along the roads of the Brisbane City and pukey passengers.Lol.

Our hotel for the night - Ibis Brisbane, was located 5 mins' drive away, right in the middle of the city center. The only down was the lack of parking facilities at the hotel and we had to park at the car park building 1 street away, at a subsidised rate of AUD 36 for 24 hours. The kids didnt care; they were just dying to get to the hotel room for wifi.

Finally, after wifi starvation for 6 days.

They wowed at the big room for a moment before they were all hooked on their gadgets. Only their dear mother was excited about the big comfy bed that was so missing in her life for the past 4 nights.

It took some good effort to lug the kids off to the next destination - Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We were finally off to see some animals in all natural Aussie land.

The koala Sanctuary was about 30 mins' drive away. It was a small park but there were so many Koalas. Big and small ones.

Mummy and baby koala.

And even very active ones. I have never seen such active Koalas, including one that appeared to be trying to escape its enclosure.

The other star must be the kangaroos. There were not many of them but many people were attempting to feed the few. The kangeroos were obviously not interested and mostly in food coma.

Truth be told, we didnt bother to catch any of the shows. The only one was to the Platypus keeper talk, which was for 10 mins and Daddy Lim and I actually dozed off. For some reasons, we were all very tired.

By 3pm, the kids were asking to leave the park too. I did read somewhere that there was a market near to the Sanctuary but wasnt able to locate it or it probably didnt exist anymore. With that, we headed back to our room. The kids were more excited at staring into their screen than roaming the park.

It was dinner time before we finally got out of the room and explored this huge bridge across the road.

There were so many cyclists and there were long destinated cycling paths for them.

We almost wanted to rent a mobike alike but reckoned that it was too troublesome. We spotted one of those escooter only to be restricted by the minimum age. So it was back to a good stroll before some little people scream how hungry he was.

It took us (ok, it was me) some time to find dinner. There were definitely more restaurants opened in the evening as compared to Perth but they were either not interesting or too crowded. Eventually, we had to turn back and settled for Japanese food, yes, in Brisbane.

Ok, the Japanese restaurant was opened by Koreans. The Japanese food didnt quite taste like Japanese food. Why dont they just sell Korean food?

Yes, Zaky was very interested in my udon as you can see from the picture. Lol. For the rest of the night, we were just contended with nuahing in the room until the sleep monster came.

Sleep was so good; the big bed was so, so nice. Haha.

Mummy Lim

Brisbane Day 6: Aussie World

We drove past Aussie World and noted that it was a small theme park. We doubted if it would keep the kids occupied the whole day. We checked and saw that Aussie World would be opened from 10am to 3pm. The kids were presented with the alternative of a tree top adventure that will take about 3 hours. Our kids are indeed theme park trained and opted for Aussie World anyway, much to Daddy Lim's disappointment. Lol. He is no theme park fan.

Given that it was a late start day, we decided to sleep later. That kind of wish never happen; Zaky was up at about 7ish. Soon after, he was screaming hungry.

We had decided that it would be an eat out day and walked to the street opposite the beach in search of bfast. It was the 1st time that we paid real attention to our "neighbours". We noted that the campervan park was a lot more crowded than the ones we were in Perth, even though it was winter. More interestingly, many of the camper homes seemed semi-permanent and the folks were elderly. Maybe this is a cheaper option than owning a home?

A number of cabins were also well decorated, which meant longer stay. I was jokingly telling Daddy Lim that we should do this too when we retire - visit Aussieland for a month during winter and nuah in a campervan. Haha.

Anyway, back to bfast and to my pleasant surprise, there was a bakery waiting for me. Hohoho, I love bread and pastry. Of course they were freaking expensive but money doesnt separate me from my beloved pastry.

Bcos we were early, we took a walk to the beach after bfast.

This signboard is so interesting. For a while, I thought the Aussies are so humorous. Chey, somebody pasted a sticker over the duckie's head lah.

Johnny was... just different. Haha.

After much slow mo-ing, we finally start our drive to Aussie World. It was a short 15 mins' drive away.

We were still too early and ended up shopping at the stalls nearby. We found delicious chocolates; the honeycomb ones were so good that we headed back for more during lunch.

The park was really empty given that it was a Aussie school term mid week. We were told that the park was manned on minimum staff too and there would be some waiting for the staff to attend to us at the rides at times. Nevertheless, this was made up by how friendly and warm the staff were.

The park is really more suited for younger kids. The most exciting ride is opening soon and the 2nd most exciting ride is under long term maintenance. Win already. But that didnt stop the kids from having fun. They happily hopped into their 1st ride of the day - kiddy tea cup. Nice, bcos the parents can relax one corner.

There arent loopy loop rollercoaster or upside down crazy rides. The thrilling rides are mostly super fast round and round rides.. my bfast! Even their viking was so tame.

What we did enjoy a lot was the bumper car ride. We went on that so many times.

We had an incident at one time; Zaky got a whiplash from one of the bumps. There were some tears and then more bumper car rides. Lol.

The parents decided to take a break and went for a slow ferris wheel ride, much to the kids' protest. They ran off to other rides and we found them nearby thereafter.

It was lunch time and we saw a restaurant serving decent burgers but decided to head out for lunch as we were allowed re-entry. I had so wanted to try the Beefy's pie bcos I saw their advertisement everywhere. Best Aussie Pie wor, dont play play.

The pies in Australia are really good; warm and moist. People usually take them as a full meal, not like what we do in Singapore and treated pies like snacks. We returned to the park for more rides. It was also nearing closing time.

While the park doesnt have thrilling rides, some of them are quite interesting. This illusion house is one of them. Just think mirror maze, luminous lights and optical illusions. At one point, we turned into vampires.

Our clothes were lit up too. Daddy Lim wore the wrong shirt to the park and the staff kept teasing him if he had feared yet at the park. Lol.

The giant slide was interesting too. The only down was the need to lug the mat and climb the many steps for that 5 sec adrenaline rush.

The last bit of time was spent at the kiddy golf. Zaky was pestering to pay and play kiddy golf at the Bellingham Maze. Luckily we didnt and got to play it at the theme park. Daddy Lim even got a hole-in-one!

With that, our theme park adventure came to an end.

We had plenty of time to spare and thought of booking a laser tag session but were put off by the price tag. Ended up, the kids had fun at the canpervan park heated swimming pool. Daddy Lim said that it was still quite cold and surrendered before the kids. Here, he was trying to warm up before going into the water. Apparently that didnt quite work.

The kids had fun despite the small pool and cold.

Dinner was again near to the beach - the usual fish and chips and burger. I was so sick of fish and chips by the end of the trip.

The kids were totally exhausted and willingly crawled into bed in the early night.

The parents had to do one last laundry to do and, to drain the grey and black waters. Daddy Lim had the noble job to clear the black water (aka toilet) bcos Zaky took a pee in it on the 1st morning. Hahaha. I also realised that I now like doing laundry during trips having done so for the last few trips. While it does take some time, we now pack lighter for trips and still get clean clothes to wear throughout the trip.

Mummy Lim