Brisbane and The Australia Zoo

It is now the end of June and I am home from Australia. But I am going to continue to play catch-up just a little bit because I want to chronicle my time in Australia as best I can. Having said that, here is another mini-trip I did!

During a weekend in May, my friend Summer and I traveled to Brisbane, which is the capital of the state of Queensland. It is also the closest major city to the Australia Zoo, perhaps better known for its association with Steve Irwin, which his family still owns and operates.

We arrived in Brisbane around noon, checked into our hotel, and got some lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Comuna Cantina. Then, we spent some time just walking around the city, taking in the City Botanic Gardens and the Brisbane River.

Summer and Me and the Story Bridge

Street art of a world taken over by ibises!

That night, we had dinner at the Eat Street Northshore night market. There was some shopping, but it was mostly just a huge variety of food in stalls designed to look like shipping containers! Everything was lit up, there was music playing, and there was even a group of 3 people in inflatable dinosaur costumes wandering around, providing a whole new level of entertainment. I got some dumplings for my meal and a fried dough thing - kind of like an elephant ear, but it was called something else - with nutella and bananas for dessert.

They also had this awesome group performing that was so entertaining to watch. They were called Soul Cutz, and I think they call themselves a cover band, although I might classify them more as grown men doing high quality karaoke with choreography. And I do mean HIGH QUALITY! They were SO fun! Just a group of guys singing pop music that everyone knows all the words to. What more can you ask for? At one point, they brought out a toddler and the toddler started break dancing! Such a fun evening.

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The next morning, we rose bright and early, grabbed breakfast at a nearby coffee shop called Sugar 'n' Spice, and caught a train to Beerwah, the nearest train station to the Australia Zoo. The zoo sent a bus to meet us at the station (plus 15 others doing the same thing we were). Then we entered the zoo!

There were lots of cool animals in the zoo, from Australia and around the world. We could get up close and personal with many of them. There was also a museum section about the Irwin family, including memorabilia from Steve and Terri Irwin's Crocodile Hunter series and various things from the childhood of Bindi and Robert, their kids (who are not kids anymore).

Here are some animals:

The elephants were showing off when their trainers were around!

This tiger was blind, but had his enclosure memorized.

Coming from a family that has watched Dancing with the Stars for a long time, I thought this was very cool. Bindi Irwin was the champion several years ago, so they had her trophy on display in the museum section.

And of course, Steve Irwin's legacy is alive and well everywhere in the park, including on the no entry signs!

The biggest event of the day was the Wildlife Warriors show in the Crocoseum, where we got to see a crocodile in action. It was so neat, and the only thing that could have made it better was if Robert Irwin was running the show - which is a real occurrence, the Irwin family does it sometimes, but not when we were there.

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Fun fact - Terri Irwin met Steve when her family visited the Australia Zoo, run by Steve's family. They fell in love and Terri moved from America to Australia to marry him and take over running the zoo from Steve's parents. Bindi's husband Chandler met her the same way - he is an American who visited the zoo. So I had high hopes that I would run into Robert and we would begin a whirlwind romance, but unfortunately he was in New York while we were at the zoo. Figures.

After a wonderful day at the zoo, we took the train back to Brisbane and had dinner at Felons Brewing Company, which overlooked the Brisbane river and the Story Bridge. The bridge lit up at night!

Summer with the Story Bridge after dinner

The next day, we started with breakfast and some shopping at the Riverside Market. I got a crepe (of course) and bought some fun pins. We then took the bus to the Mount Coot-tha Botanic Gardens and hiked to the summit of Mount Coot-tha, where there was a cafe. Summer and I got some thickshakes (the closest approximation of the American milkshake) and some nachos and enjoyed the view for a while.

The afternoon was spent exploring the city a bit more and doing some more souvenir shopping. For our final night, we had dinner at Spaghetti House Trattoria in the South Bank area. Dinner was great, and that area has some cool art installations and... the Wheel of Brisbane! We walked around for a while and rode the Ferris wheel.

The most significant thing about this trip to Brisbane was this: I would do every single thing over again in the exact same way. Not everything I did in Sydney was something I would recommend, but every single thing in Brisbane - every restaurant and every activity - was worth it. Such an amazing trip.