Welcome to my story style travel blog, featuring my time spent in Brisbane, Australia in the spring of 2025. Normally, I do group tours when I travel but I have an opportunity to use a flight pass from my friend who works as a flight attendant. I first visited Australia in 2009 when I was touring New Zealand and decided to fly over to Sydney for a week. I figured it’s been awhile, and Brisbane is a route my friend usually flies… so we plan to meet up there! I also have many friends who live in and around Brisbane, a result of all of my travels over the years. So here we go!!!
Today I am headed to Australia Zoo!! At first, visiting this place wasn’t even on my radar until I put two and two together and realized it is the zoo belonging to the Irwin family(I’ve been following Robert Irwin on Instagram for awhile but somehow it slipped my mind haha). I was going to do this as a tour package next week, with the zoo admission and transportation included – it’s located in a separate town called Beerwah which is around an hour and a half drive. But when I met Bassel a couple of days ago, he told me it’s really easy to take the train there, and then catch the free zoo shuttle from the train station. He’s right, it’s super easy and saves me about $100. I head to the entrance to pay my admission, and the girl helping me has a Canadian accent – turns out she is from Vancouver Island! Small world.
I’ll start by saying this is an absolutely beautiful zoo…very well maintained, with spacious enclosures for the animals. I walk past the otters
and some other cool lizards.
There’s a roving animal team that walk around with creatures to show off; I pass by this cutie cockatoo who’s waving Hi.
I head to Grace’s Bird Garden for the morning feeding. The zoo offers many “shows” throughout the day, and it’s worth it to time your day around these activites. There are all kinds of pretty birds in this garden; such as the rose crowned fruit dove, the glossy ibis and the Australian King parrot.
Bassel also told me that when he was here earlier this week, Robert Irwin did the tortoise feeding. This week Curie also saw Robert at the Crocoseum show – so I figure I have a good chance to see him today! I head over to the tortoise feeding area early, and make sure I’m right up at the front and close to where this cutie Aldabra Tortoise is hanging out.
I must look like such a keener. Haha. At 10:00, a girl comes out with a bucket of food for the tortoise and my heart sinks. But guess what…she’s just the helper, and in strolls ROBERT IRWIN!!!!!I whooo’d like a true fangirl.
And he gets soooo close to me – I could reach out and grab him but I resist because I don’t want to be that crazy old lady. Haha. He feeds the tortoise, and tells us some cool facts.
At the end, he takes audience questions . Well, do you think I can think of anything to ask?? No! And all these kids are raising their hands with clever questions and I’m stumped. I could have TALKED TO HIM!!But ok, at least I get to see him up close. He is so adorable, and so genuine with his love for his animals . And if you haven’t checked out his modeling ad for Bonds underwear……go do it now….
Seeing Robert has completely made my day…hell, my entire trip..so now I can relax and wander around the zoo for the rest of the day(I still keep my eyes peeled though for another spotting). I pass by the wombat enclosure and a few of them are just hobbling around aimlessly..I love them!!
I’m making my way to the Tiger Temple, for the Sumatran Tiger show. I’m early enough to get a seat, and the tiger we meet today is Hunter and he is a special one..he’s blind!
His eyes were removed and he’s been fitted with prosthetic eyes to help keep the shape of his face. He knows his way around his habitat and there are chunks of meat hanging on sticks for him to find.
There are less than 400 of these species out in the wild, so there are also many ways to donate to the zoo’s wildlife funds to help preserve these animals.
Next stop along the way is Bindi’s Island – this is the best place to see the ring tailed lemurs, but I’m not so lucky today. The last stop on the zoo trail is Africa, and here you’ll find the giraffes, rhinos, zebras, and cheetahs.
At this point I’m really hungry so I will have to skip the rest of the smaller shows for today as the timing won’t work. But I’m ok with that!! I have lunch at the Grasslands Café, and order the cheetah bread shibobo – it is sooo good! It’s chicken seasoned with all kind of yummy spices in this crusty cheetah roll.
After lunch, my last official stop of the day is at the Crocoseum, but first I pause to admire the Sumatran elephant.
This show is the biggest draw of the day, and as we’re waiting for the show to start, it begins to rain and I’m so glad I brought my umbrella!! They play a video of Steve Irwin talking about the zoo, and it’s very emotional.
To start, they bring out this giant snake.
And eventually, the crocodile feeding. Robert is not doing this one today, so I’m so glad I caught him this morning.
After the show, I wander around for another hour, pasing by the koalas, quokkas, more birds, dingos and the Tasmanian devil.
Did you know the cassowary is one of the most dangerous birds in the world? It can seriously injure or kill a human in an instant with its deadly claws and kicks
I take the train back to Brisbane, and meet up with Evelyne – my flight attendant friend who has given me her pass to fly here. We start at the hotel; there is a party for one of her colleagues who is retiring.
I get to join for drinks and cake! After this I take Evelyne down to Brunswick Street for karaoke at Blute’s bar. But this time it’s much different – there is a host. If you can call her that. The song submission is still the same – pick from the juke box machine on the wall. She controls the pace and announces the next singers, but that’s about it. The microphone is broken, so it has to stay on the stand and no one is allowed to touch it. Except a few drunk people can’t resist touching it and it’s super exhausting. What’s also dumb is they are a karaoke bar that doesn’t have a backup mic. And to top it off, we have to wait TWO HOURS to sing a song which is completely ridiculous since other people who signed up later than us are getting put ahead. I’m about ready to get up and leave, but she calls us up to sing shortly after we’re thisclose to leaving.
Overall, I had a decent time there a couple of nights ago but tonight is terrible. There is another karaoke spot across the street called Ric’s , and we pay a cover charge to get in…and it’s even worse. Absolute drunk shitshow karaoke. No host, terrible sound, no structure, and too much yelling. We attempt to put in a song, but then decide to leave – not worth it at this point . Karaoke in Canada is much different. Haha. Our last stop of the night is Chattahoochee Joes, a country bar with a live band.
The décor is really cool and it’s so busy and a fun atmosphere. Except it’s so packed and hard to move around . A young drunk girl literally pushes myself and Evelyne out of her way, so she gets a swift kick and trip from me – this isn’t my first rodeo, girl. When she turns around I make it like she tripped over me. Haha girl, not tonight. Anyways, the band is really fun but we don’t stay too long. We take the bus back to our hotels, and get some rest before we take a fun excursion tomorrow!!
Everywhere On Earth With Erin 