[Cathy and the koala]

[Scrub Turkey and its mound]

We plan to leave the Shaw's house reasonably early, but our content at being in a family home is so great that we can't tear ourselves away early. We mooch around until we remember we're here to see Australia. John takes us to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, in the hope that we'll see a few more native species. It's only 15 minutes from the house, and a big tourist attraction. They have a successful koala breeding programme and now have 130 koalas, which seems excessive - they're everywhere, split into social groups ("kindy", "elderly" etc). We go to a talk on koalas, during which the speaker is upstaged every time one of the koalas behind him wakes up, stretches, or sneezes (they're incredibly cute). Afterwards the guy gets a koala out for everyone to stroke. It's surprisingly soft and has very thick fur. Apparently some of the koalas crave human attention and love being cuddled. You can get your photo taken holding one,but it's expensive and I'm ultimately unsure whether this is good for the koala.

[Snake and lunch]

[Cathy and the kangaroo]

Next stop is the kangaroo talk. The keeper doesn't endear herself to John by informing us she rescues possums - to John they're a pest and he has to relocate the ones which appear in his garden before they eat it. There's a big kangaroo and wallaby petting enclosure, with lots of species, but not the elusive Tree Kangaroo we missed when canoeing in the Atherton Tablelands. I pet a few roos, which are remarkably tame and patient. We move on to a talk about snakes. The keeper appears with a python in a big bin, then wraps it around her neck. This prompts John to tell us about when his neighbour lost his pet python (kept in the loft to keep pests out), and it hung around the local gardens for a few days, during which time no possums were seen. Someone then allegedly shot it.

[Cassowary]

[Taz]

[Wommmmm...]

We see a cassowary hiding in the far corner of its enclosure, a tasmanian devil (doesn't look anything like the cartoon Taz) running around as though its high on something. The wombat is asleep (it's nocturnal) but Iain kindly wakes it up with the flash on his camera, trying to photograph it in its dark hole. We look for an echidna but it's somehow buried itself and is nowhere to be found. My overall feeling is that the animals in this zoo are not particularly happy - they're generally alone in enclosures and either hiding or doing repeated laps of their cages. It's nice to see koalas and roos up close but I prefer spotting them in the wild. However, we haven't seen a single wild koala.

[South Bank]

[Brisbane River]

Pam makes us lunch when we get back, then I sleep for a while. We go out again at 3pm to the Brisbane River Festival. It's a week-long event, apparently the biggest in the year. Tonight is "Riverfire", a big fireworks display. 500 000 people are expected to attend. We catch a bus, to avoid having to park, and bag a spot by the river. The fireworks aren't until 7.30pm, so we have a three hour wait. We take it in turns to go for walks down the river bank. This is the South Bank, an area redeveloped for the 1988 World Expo in Brisbane. It's really nice; spacious and colourful. There are free public barbecues, a man-made beach and pool, wonderful flower and sculpture creations, and people everywhere. You get the feeling this area is well-used by both tourists and locals. There's a market on, and a seafood fair, loads of cafes and restaurants. John and Pam frequently have dinner here before going to the theatre behind us.

[Nepalese temple thing on South Bank]

[People wait for the fireworks]

The crowd gets to 40 deep in places as we near the time for the fireworks. They're being lit from different locations down the river, so people are spread out alongside it. While we're waiting the local radio is broadcasting live nearby, it plays our trip theme tune "Down Under", which makes us smile. We also hear a live fashion show with designs created from barramundi (a fish) scales - very odd. There's an excellent aerobatic display, with the plane diving around and buzzing the river 100 feet away, and doing rather worrying stalls above us. Across the river from us is Brisbane's Central Business District, and as the sun sets the buildings are lit up beautifully. Seeing the plane fly closely to them is reminiscent of news images we saw from September 11, and is a bit eerie. The crowd hums with excitement, and there's a great atmosphere. Most people are having picnics, as we do.

[Brisbane by night]

The firework display is fantastic. It lasts over half an hour, and is probably the best I've ever seen, including at Disney World. We're between two bridges (which have been closed for the evening) and fireworks are lit from the tops and bottom of them. They're also shooting up from 7 high rise office blocks, 2 moving catamarans and 2 moored barges. We can see the reflections in tall glass buildings, and catch occasional glimpses of the synchronised display 2km down the river. There are speakers along the river projecting music to which the display is timed. The whole thing is announced by local radio presenters, who spoof that it's all going wrong. There are loads of colours, shapes, and locations, it's hard to know where to look next as we're flanked 180deg by fireworks. There are waterfall effects set off from the bridges which is stunning. There are even two encores.

[Fireworks]

[Fireworks]

[Fireworks]

[Fireworks]

[Fireworks]

John and Pam take us through an excellent shortcut which get us onto a bus before almost anyone else. We're halfway home when we hear the driver's radio warning all drivers not to open their doors as the crowd is swarming the road back in the centre. We get home at 9pm and watch four Dr Who episodes! Pam makes cocoa and raisin toast, and we feel very at home - it's going to be hard to leave. I feel today as though we've seen a bit of outdoors Australian lifestyle which we'd missed before - a real Australian event, not a tourist one.