Unforgettable Flora and Fauna

February 10

Charlotte:

Today we were going to the Sydney Royal Botanical Gardens. In the gardens there are lots of birds trees and pretty flowers.

There is also a special tree that they called a wishing tree that if you are walked three times around it and three times walking backwards while saying your wish it would come true. Sam and I did it.

We went on a pretty short walk. On the walk we saw an outdoor movie theatre, the Sydney Opera House, and the Harbour Bridge. We also got to see Mrs Macquarie’s Chair that we didn’t see on our bus tour in the rain. It was a stone bench that Sam and I sat on. It was pretty comfortable actually.

Sam:

After the walk through the gardens and seeing the opera House, it was almost time to catch our train so we took an Uber back to the hotel to collect our suitcases. Before we got our suitcases we went to get some food and then caught our overnight train to Brisbane. Before nightfall, we got to see a lot of countryside and coastline from the train windows. We even got to see kangaroos hopping across fields.

With all of the rain following such a hot, dry season, there is a lot of flooding.

February 11

We finally arrived in Brisbane at 5am! We were all so tired and exhausted. We went to a McDonald’s and stayed there for awhile.

We had to have a nap, so mom and dad found an AirBnB in the big Skytower, the tallest building in the city. We were staying on the 50th floor! We walked to the Skytower and went into our room. We watched one show and had a nap. We hung out at the condo all day (Mom and Dad went out for a while to get groceries).

Dad went out on the early evening to play tennis with some locals he met on MeetUp.

While Dad was gone, Sam and I went swimming in the pool on the 66th floor. It was inside but there are big open windows. We played catch for a pretty long time. It was so fun! Then we went back to the room.

February 12

Charlotte:

Today we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where I got to hold a koala! It was so fluffy and so adorable. We saw lots of koalas all around the sanctuary (which was like a small zoo).

Koalas eat only eucalyptus. They are very picky. Eucalyptus makes them tired and they sleep about 20 hours a day.

The koalas at Lone Pine have been rescued from the wild. Some were injured and others were orphans. We learned about what to do if you find an injured koala.

We learned that the spots on their backs help them to camouflage and are like fingerprints because each koala has a unique pattern.

In the koala education centre, we learned all about the life cycle of koalas. Baby koalas, called joeys, are only the size of a jelly bean when they are born. They crawl up into their mother’s pouch and attach to her teat. That’s how a koala mother finds out that she’s had a baby.

This koala is getting some medicine and vitamins to help it get stronger and healthier.

This is Byron. He’s the koala that I got to hold. Isn’t he adorable?

We got to see a birds of prey show, too. It was really good – there were lots of different birds and they flew so close to us.

After that, we went to go feed kangaroos. There was a really big fenced area with kangaroos, wallabies, and emus running around. We bought special feed for them. The kangaroos were way smaller than I thought they were going to be and they’re very gentle. Mom made a furry friend that, whenever it ate from her hand, it would hold her hand. He was so cute! I didn’t really want to leave. Before we left, I bought a koala stuffy and named her Alice.