There weren’t a lot of things I had to do while in Brisbane.

Sure, I wanted to try the local cuisine and walk across Story Bridge. But the one thing I was most excited about — and it wasn’t eating Vegemite — was seeing the Australian wildlife, particularly the koalas and kangaroos.

So we headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane, the world’s first and largest koala sanctuary, with more 130 koalas and other animals, to up close and personal with the country’s iconic animals.

I couldn’t wait!

My goal: to cuddle a koala.

Here’s what our day trip to the sanctuary — and what we ate after — looked like:

Koala habitat

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Get this: koalas eat only about 50 species of the more than 700 species of eucalyptus trees in Australia. Picky eaters!

Follow my adventures in Brisbane on Twitter at @thedaiydish and on Instagram at @catherinetoth.