Gold Coast to Brisbane and beyond...

On our way out of Byron, we stopped in a small town called Lismore to see their koala sanctuary and hospital and to take a tour. I can't get enough of koalas and I just want to take some home in my suitcase!

From there, we continued up to the Gold Coast but decided to just pass on thru because there were more schoolies there than at Byron Bay. So we headed up to Brisbane, which was a disappointing city to say the least. Really not much there...except for a spectacular art gallery that we saw our first day there. We did some couch surfing with an older guy named Barry who was very generous in opening his home to us despite already having a young french couple staying with him. Aside from putting us up, he also had breakfast for us and between us and the french couple, we each made an evening meal to share.

We spent a large portion of our time in Brisbane doing planning for the rest of our trip up the coast. 

The only photo I took in all of Brisbane...the Brisbane Wheel

Noosa was next on our list of towns to stop in but the morning we woke up in Noosa, it was pouring buckets! So we continued on and stopped at Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo, which was absolutely phenomenal! Any place where you can hang out with and pet kangaroos and koalas is amazing in my book. But I'll leave that for my next post...

Newcastle -> Port Macquerie -> Coff's Harbour

Our last day in Sydney, we picked up a rental car and drove to Newcastle to stay with a couch surfing host there. His name was John and he was Canadian! Back in Canada he had been in the Canadian Air Force and here in Australia, he ran the flight simulation program for the Australian Air Force.

He ate dinner with us and then took us on a walking tour of the coastal area that he lived in. It was a wonderful walk down to their lighthouse and thru the beaches and harbour area. We met up with his girlfriend and went to get some drinks all together. 

The next day, Don and I did another coastal walk and saw these very strange jellyfish that we later learned were Portuguese Man-of-War. Yikes.

After staying in Newcastle for two nights, we headed to Port Macquarie, where I was very eager to see the Koala Hospital! It was absolutely amazing. We learned all about some of the diseases and injuries that koalas get and what places like this hospital are doing to help them.

Next stop: Coff's Harbour. The weather was a bit lousy while we were there but we went to the Botanical Gardens, took a nap on their main beach, had drinks at their only decent bar, and went to a cartoon museum before heading on our way.

It was very easy to see the different layers of rock...clearly defined

Don's new car!

Don is vertically challenged from the waist up, otherwise known as having a short torso

A random bird in Port Macquarie...love finding these gem's in our photo folder

A koala we met at the Koala Hospital in Port Macquarie

Did you know koalas sleep 18-20 hours a day because the eucalyptus leaves they eat have so little nutritional value that their bodies don't have the strength to do much of anything but sleep and eat.   

There were about 50 of these giant koalas all over the town. Each koala had a different theme...scroll down for a few more photos like this.

Oh, hello

This is a pretty good looking yogurt parfait if I do say so myself. Fruit is in season in Australia and it's amazing! Notice the fresh mint leaves on top!?

V-Wall on the way to Coff's Harbour...most of the rocks have been painted along this whole walkway

Don is famous in Australia. Don is Don. Don is good. Shaved leg ham?! 

Some of the beautiful flowers at the Coff's Harbour Botanical Gardens

If you look really closely, you can see me on the red bridge!

Went to a cartoon museum in Coff's Harbour where I proceeded to read an entire volume of Calvin and Hobbes...my version of a summer day doing nothing : success.