Happy New Year!

Yesterday was New Year's Eve. I have to tell you, I have never known New Year's Eve to ever not be wearing cold-weather clothes. It didn't really feel like New Years, and the Brisbane peeps offer happy new year wishes reluctantly. The Boy and I sat down and got bitten by mozzies (mosquitos) and hung out with 25,000 of our closest friends at South Bank to peacefully watch the coordinated fireworks and laser show. It was interesting, and the fireworks were lovely, but maybe a little tamer than what we'd expect. Hey, I heard that Oprah was in Sydney.

Before the fireworks, The Boy and I left Surfer's Paradise and backtracked to Currumbin to go to the Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw kangaroos and koalas and dingos, oh my! It was fantastic. We've gotten to the point where we are hating the Lonely Planet East Coast Australia (2002) authors. They are just so bitter about everything. Each site is too commercial and peaceful.. if we listened to the book we'd have done nothing. We're glad we went to Currumbin. The Boy had been saying that he felt like he was on vacation, but aside from the accents, he didn't really feel like he was in Australia. At the Wildlife Sanctuary we got to learn about Australian agriculture and wildlife, including all the cold blooded (eek) reptiles who just hung out. Also their version of the seagull was crazy brave and hanging right out at the picnic tables ready to swoop in as soon as you were done eating. And yes, I had my picture taken with a koala. Her name was Arabia and she was 5 years old. Adorable!

After the Wildlife Sanctuary, we went to Surf World and then Honeybee world (or something) and I tried (and fell. in. love. with) macadamia honey. What.

We drove to Brisbane, checked ionto the "honeymoon suite" at the Acacia Inn on Upper Edward Street and wandered through the Queen Street mall. I had said I'd stop in at the Lululemon in Brisbane, and we found it.. the posters are still up, but the store is completely dismantled. What happened?? We had dinner at Jimmy's On The Mall and I ate Moreton Bay Bug (kind of like a small lobster), Bundaberg scallops, and local King prawns. MmmmMmmm!!! Then we walked around the CBD, found what we thought might be city hall (it turned out to be a casino) and then walked to South Bank for the fireworks. We did end up seeing city hall on our way back to the Inn.

After so many days of cloud-free skies, it finally all came down today. This morning, we walked back to South Bank to go to the Queensland Museum, which was fun and informative (I want a mother of pearl bib necklace SO badly) and the Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art which was crazy fun. I played with lego as part of an installation, we sent a postcard to our future selves, and we slid down a huge double slide. The Boy even got injured by the slide!! That took up our entire day. we only had time for a snack and to pick up some souvenirs before heading back to get our luggage and get to the airport. where I am now. and they're calling us to board so I gotta go. New Zealand is next!!