Hi, everyone!
Yesterday, we reached Australia just about sunrise. Because we were headed south in the channel between the mainland and some islands, we saw the sun rise over land! We docked at the passenger terminal on the Brisbane River and had breakfast overlooking the city. Then we took an all-day bus tour north of Brisbane with Lynn-san as our guide. I made friends with her platypus right away!
The first place we went was the Australia Zoo in Beerwah, Queensland. The zoo was developed by Steve Irwin, who did television shows about hunting crocodiles. There were crocodile statues on a truck and set into the walk. There were statues of a prehistoric crocodile having a fight with another dinosaur and a statue of a saber-toothed tiger, like the skeleton I saw in Thailand. I’m glad they were only statues, so I could make friends with them without getting eaten! I also made friends with a live komodo dragon.
Australia has lots of very pretty native birds. I made friends with a cassowary and a kookaburra, but the parrot stayed way up high in the tree! Then Grandma and Grandpa took me to the area where I could make friends with kangaroos. There was a little kangaroo, called a joey, that was just the right size to make friends with me!
Of course I really wanted to make more koala friends, and there were lots of koalas around! Some of them were napping, but I made friends with them anyway!
The only other lion at the Australia Zoo was a big statue that marked the area for East Asian animals. I visited the Sumatran tiger, then I went to Bindi’s tree house. There was a telescope there, so I could watch the zookeepers feeding the lemurs. Then I stopped to say hello to the camels at the camel ride.
By then, it was time for the wild animal show in the Crocoseum. Grandpa and I found seats in the shade where we wouldn’t get splashed! There was a dingo (wild dog) in the show and birds that flew around when the zookeepers told them to. Finally, Charlie the crocodile showed how high he could jump when he wanted to get something to eat! I’m glad we were sitting much higher than Charlie could jump! I don’t think live crocodiles make good friends for little lions like me!
There is a wild animal hospital at the zoo, so after the show we walked over to visit it. The receptionist let us see the intensive care unit and an operating room where a koala was just waking up from anesthesia. I hope he feels better soon!
After we finished visiting the zoo, we drove further up into the mountains so we could see the coastline and Brisbane. We stopped in a pretty little town called Montville. I made some sheep friends and had yummy Dutch pancakes with ice cream and strawberries with Grandpa. Then we stopped at Mary Cairncross Park in Maleny to see the Glass Mountains. These are eroded volcano cores, and there’s an old story that each one represents a member of a family that had a fight and stopped talking to each other!
It was almost evening when we got back to MS Marina and started cruising again. The smokestacks on the ship barely fit under the big bridge, and that was at low tide! The sun set into clouds over Brisbane as we left.
Today, we’ve been cruising the Tasman Sea on our way to Sydney. There was another cloudy sunrise that we could see from our cabin balcony. The Grand Restaurant had a special brunch because it was our last day at sea. Look at all the fancy food they served!
Some passengers on the ship have been building ships for a contest, and today all the ships had their seaworthiness tests in the swimming pool! Lots of people came to watch and hear the stories the shipbuilders wrote about their ships. All the ships stayed upright, even when MS Marina rolled enough to make waves in the pool! Every team found a different way to make their ships float! The judges had a hard time deciding which ship would win the prize! Guess what? My friend Wilton’s grandma and grandpa helped build one of the ships!
Tomorrow we’ll be in Sydney. I’m excited to be going back to the first place I started having adventures with Grandma and Grandpa. I don’t know what we’re going to do tomorrow in Sydney, but I know it will be fun. Then it will be time to end this cruise!
Love,
Lion-san
Your trip to the zoo looked like fun. I’m glad you made more Koala friends! We all hope that Gorgeous George is better. Nancy-san really likes koalas. Did you try going on a camel trip? The grand buffet looked good. Have a nice time in Sydney and a good flight back!