Good morning! Had a really bad sleep last night on the plane cos the turbulence was awful lasting close to an hour at 2am+.. think I finally managed to catch some winks for 2-3 hours tops before it was time for a super early brekkie served onboard. Meanwhile, the mister slept through the turbulence all the way so he definitely slept abit more than me hahaha!
Read about Day 0 here:
Going through the Brisbane immigration was smooth, and probably not the peak travel season as there were barely any queues. Neither did we get inspected through customs though we had SO MANY luggages (almost 50kg!!).
We even managed to grab a free meal at Corretto Cafe thanks to his priority pass where we could enjoy up to 36AUD for a meal per person! Yep, that’s 72 AUD worth of a free meal for two pax! Naturally.. we went all out and got ourselves a nice meal with drinks. Aussie is afterall, not the cheapest place to be so any cost savings is a godsend!
Even so, the waiting time was fine and all was great..till we had to call for our complimentary pick up shuttle from Alpha. That was a long wait, around 30-40 mins for the shuttle to arrive while an APEX shuttle went around 3-4 times 🙁
We weren’t the only ones as there was another family who waited for the shuttle since an hour ago! Phew.. an insane wait and hopefully just a one off thing. However at least now you know in case you ever choose to rent a car from Alpha, to factor in extra time for this.
It took us an extra 15-20 mins before we finally were able to pick up our mystery rental car that we booked in advance, this white Toyota Corolla! Just don’t forget to inspect the car + snap photos of any defects beforehand to cover you for any liabilities when you return it after the trip.
Running behind schedule, we headed next to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary as our first stop of the day! Just glad that I look relatively still ok in photos despite the lack of sleep.. however was slightly more disappointed that we missed out quite abit of the free shows as we arrived close to 2pm. Oh well let’s just have a late lunch first then 🙁
P.s get your tickets to Lone Pine at 5% off using my code <MITSUEKI5OFF> if you book on Klook HERE! (min USD100 spend, capped at USD10, valid till 31 Dec)
Since we had plenty of time to kill and not rush for any shows beyond a Dingo Talk and a Pawikeet Feeding session (all free), we took this time to explore the sanctuary and visit all the animals starting with The Barn! Here, you can see a number of farm animals ranging from pigs, chickens, sheep dogs, rabbits and sheep. Fun fact, owning a pet rabbit is illegal in Queensland state!
Other than that, there are also other animals including dingoes, crocodiles, wombats, cockatoos, birds, snakes and more!
The two highlights of Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary will definitely be the koalas and free roaming kangaroos/wallabies area.
For the former, it’s highly recommended to book the touch a koala / hug a koala session (around AUD 40 per pax) for this experience online as it’s otherwise almost impossible to get a slot on the spot. If not, you can just look at the koalas from far and they are really cute.
Would recommend paying to do the koala session because Lone Pine and a few other sanctuaries are the rare ones that allow you to the opportunity to touch/carry/pet a koala and get so close up with these sleepy fellows. Unfortunately we didn’t do that cos I was on the fence and in the end tickets got sold out lol. Have to make do with hugging a koala toy instead hahahha.
Another up close in person experience is the pawikeet feeding session where you can hold up these little dishes of food and the pawikeets will land on them to eat!
Otherwise, another free experience included in your ticket will be the free roaming grounds where you can find kangaroos and wallabies to pet, snap photos with and feed! You can get the roo feed at 2 AUD from the gift shop or at the ticket counter and it should suffice to get some roos to eat out from your hand for those nice IG worthy photos. This was really fun but do be careful not to agitate these wild animals nonetheless!
Next stop, was a short drive to his sis place where we would be crashing for a few nights during our Brisbane trip. Free accommodation + save money yay~ Got this chance as well to meet the rest of his family including his dad, sister + BIL along with his two adorable nieces.
Off to Woolsworth we go for some grocery shopping later and finally to The Kenmore Tavern for dinner with his dad. Food was not bad, just pricey (restaurant prices) and time to head back home for presents + a super early night cos I was so shagged out!
Gnite everyone! It’s been a fun day 1 and I’m looking forward to day 2 tml~
x
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