Headed out to the Lone Pine Koala sanctuary today. I managed to figure out the bus system well enough to get out there, but I definitely wouldn't consider myself a bus expert by any means yet. We'll see how I fare with the ferries later today…
Anyway, the koala sanctuary was much cooler than I had envisioned. They didn't just have koalas, but also snakes, kangaroos, Australian lizards, and a rockin' sheep herding demonstration with very well-trained dogs. I managed to get a ton of pictures but will have to wait to upload them. Hopefully some of them came out. The coolest thing was probably the kangaroo area. There were just a bunch ofkangaroos sitting around and you could just go up and walk among them and sit with them. I felt like a regular Jane Goodall. :-) The feeling didn't last long though, due to the screaming kids and overzealous parents trying to make them pose to get good pictures. But very cool nonetheless.
After returning from that I grabbed some lunch and checked my voicemail. Amanda left a message with more details for the evening, so I called her back and made arrangements to meet up with them. My hostel is actually in an awesome place - I was able to walk over to Fortitude Valley where they were getting together in about 15 mins. :-)
There were quite a few PNG people there - Peter Callister, Mark Matthies, Craig Lloyd and his wife of course (who seems lovely, though I didn't get a chance to talk with her much) and Amanda and her fiancé. Then Nalissa (can't remember her last name right now, class of '99) and her older sister (class of '97) were also there. Plus Ben of course. We just sat around for the first few minutes chatting and catching up, then a few people left and the rest of us headed to another club and the casino. Craig is a lucky guy - he won $115 on his first spin of the big wheel at the casino. Then won again at Roulette, and ended the night up $80 I think.
By the time I got home, I was pretty tired, so I crashed. This morning I slept in and haven't even showered yet. I guess I should do that and head into town for a bit. :-) Tonight there is some dinner or something so Nalissa is supposed to call me with the details. Hopefully I will have heard back from Cingular about unlocking my phone so I can actually start to keep it on all the time… :-)