After our long and hectic flight from LAX, we finally arrived in Brisbane to wonderful weather and a beautiful view. After landing and grabbing our luggage it was an easy walk over to where we picked up our rental car and headed over to our hotels that were located just a short distance south at Surfer’s Paradise. The drive down was a fun struggle to identify stores and chains that we remembered from our time living in Sydney. Driving on the wrong side of the road was also a fun adventure, but luckily my dad, who was our chauffeur, had plenty experience traveling and driving on the wrong side of the road.
The roadway into Surfer’s Paradise was a beautiful roadway leading straight down to the coast. The skyline was one of the first sights we noticed, the entire coast was littered with modern-looking high-rise hotels that gave off the touristy expectation that one might have of a city called Surfer’s Paradise. Given the number of our family that traveled to Australia (6 in total), our family ended up renting two different living accommodations, a small suite at the Hilton and an AirBnb. Both were situated just a block from the coastline and had amazing views of the beaches and surrounding city. Once all of our luggage was situated in our respective rooms, we took immediate advantage to stretch our legs and take a stroll down the waterfront. The beaches in Surfer’s Paradise were very well kept and not terribly crowded given the time of year that we went (Mid-February). Similarly, the city and shopping areas were very clean and open, giving a relaxed and comfortable feel. The city itself provided free WiFi on and near the beach, however we unfortunately had a lot of trouble connecting to the signal with our phones from the states. We’re not sure if this was due to different signal strength/frequencies or something else, but it proved a little frustrating. We ended up having to go to the Hilton and ask for a couple extra WiFi logins to be able to get access on our phones to download maps, share photos, update status’, and answer a few messages.
Most of our dining was just strolling around the city to see what looked good and made a mental note to come back and try. We ended up eating at a local Greek place that sold gyros before heading out to the countryside for our first adventure to the Australian countryside.
We drove about an hour inland to Springbrook National Park. On our way there we drove through some wonderful forests. We made a couple roadside stops on the hills to take some neat photos of the landscape through the trees and brush. Once we arrived at the park, we didn’t really have any plans so we just followed signs to whatever sounded interesting to everyone in the car. Our first stop was a definite must for anyone planning to make a trip this direction. We wound our way through the forest to the beginning of the trail head to Purling Brook Falls. The trail ended up being a little muddy which we didn’t come very well prepared for, some of us were still wearing sandals or flip-flops from the beach, but well worth it. Only about half a mile into the trail, the right side of the path opened up to a spectacular waterfall with a sheer backdrop. The trail itself consisted of a bridge over a smaller stream that appeared to turn into a smaller waterfall of it’s own right under your feet. We stopped there for a while just taking in the noise and beautiful scenery.
We continued down the trail a little farther, spotting some insect and lizard wildlife and providing a few other glimpses of the waterfall at different angles, but none as great as the first. After winding our way back to the car, it was starting to get late so we decided to make one last stop in the park at the highest point of the hill the park was situated on. On our drive up, which ended up being another 15 minutes or so, little wallaby started making their way out to the road during the dusk time. Our first sighting took us by surprise as at first it gave the impression of a large rat on it’s hind legs. Once we realized what we were looking at though, all of what “what is that??”‘s turned into “Awww, how cute”‘s and we kept our eyes peeled for more on our way, which turned out to be fairly easy as they were quite common. While dusk was setting a fog also started to creep in the higher we went. This made driving a bit interesting given all the wallaby that were starting to make it out onto the road, and the fog got quite dense by the time we made it to the top. We had just enough time time walk down the shorter trail at the top to the other lookout sign posted before it got too dark. However, given the fog, we weren’t actually able to see the sight described by the plaque posted at the end of the trail. Instead we saw what we ended up calling the “Edge of the World”. Because of the dense fog and drop off at the lookout, it literally looked like the world ended at the end of this trail. All you could see were the nearby bushes and a blank wall of white fog. The plaque described what might have been a volcano’s mouth, but instead we saw absolutely nothing in front of us. All of our family considered this just as neat of a sight as seeing the landscape that was there so we counted it as a win. The trail in and out of the lookout also earned itself the name of the the Forbidden Forest given the fog, damp, and ancient vibe that it gave off. Some of the trees were huge, woven monoliths of branches and warped trunks, creating an eerie and mysterious feel.
The next day we took an easy morning considering the long flight we just got off of the day day before, packed everything up, spent a little time on the beach, and then made our way over to one of the crowning achievements of one of my all-time favorite people and role-model, Steve Irwin and the Australia Zoo!
Australia Zoo was everything I expected to be, except even better given the small crowd that was there mid-day on a weekday. We strolled around, taking in the sights and running through a brief rain to all the different sections of the park. Our first order of business was to check out the schedule for any animal shows or feeding times to get a chance to get up close with the animals, and we weren’t disappointed. About 30 minutes after arriving to the park there was a koala demonstration where a zoo keeper came and explained why the koala’s habitat has been changing, how we can help, and even let us pet one of them! We then headed around and ate lunch at the large cafeteria they had, with a good selection of different food for everyone. On the top of our list of things we wanted to see was the crocodile feeding session, which wasn’t a letdown. We got to see other keepers step into the gator’s area and dance around to show us how the croc kept an eye on the two in his territory. The beast then proceeded to completely swallow an entire pig leg, as you could hear it crushing the bones with the quick, few bites it took. Pretty cool stuff. We of course made our rounds to all the deadly and poisonous snakes and other reptiles, strolled through the small bird sanctuary, and even ran into a wombat being walked around the park. We couldn’t pass up the opportunity to walk through the petting section of the zoo, hanging out with some extremely lazy kangaroos and taking some fun, up-close and personal photos with them. Being the zoo that Steve Irwin founded, it had a number of memorials to him, the family, and some fun shots from his TV series that I couldn’t help but take some shots with!
We then made our way to the airport, stopping to snack on some fresh fruit and produce, and enjoying the scenery of our last couple hours in Brisbane!
Frosted Tips:
- Although definitely known for its beautiful beaches, take some time to explore the landscape of Brisbane! Its beautiful, wildlife filled forests and hills are very peaceful and an easy drive to get to. Plenty of little nature walks or hikes to explore deeper as well.
- Have and idea of how you want to stay connected to the internet, if of course you’re not taking this opportunity to completely disconnect. We ended up having our plan enable two of the phones we had for international data so we could still access some web pages and maps on the road. If that won’t work for you, make sure the flat you’re sleeping in has wifi access, as you can download and save most maps or other information for offline use. Australia’s network infrastructure is pretty good so you shouldn’t have too much of a problem if you enable international data, though we did run into some data caps which essentially crippled any future data usage we wanted for that day.
FROSTED TIPS 