Back from Brisbane

My apologies for the longer-than-normal absence from posting. The last week was a bit of a whirlwind, dominated by a week-long stint up in Queensland. Coupled with having my friend Zach in town from the States, things have been pretty busy.

I'm about to call it an early Friday night, but in the interest of making sure I get things posted to keep everyone up-to-date, here's a short recap of things that I will endeavour to write about in more detail in the next few days.

Last Tuesday, Zach arrived, and like any traveler from the United States, the name of the game was stay awake with lots of walking and coffee shop visits. We hit all the major sights so he could get a sense of the city and made the most of his first day in Australia. Wednesday, I worked while he explored on his own.

Visiting Brisbane.

Thursday, we flew up to Brisbane to meet up with some more friends and Friday, we all loaded up and headed northwest into the hinterlands to spend the weekend with a big group in the Bunya Mountains. The weekend was filled with hiking among the bunya pine forest and encountering plenty of Australia's wildlife—that will make its own post later this weekend.

A wallaby and a baby joey in the Bunya Moutains.

Hiking in the forest.

We returned to Brisbane on Sunday, making a few stops in some interesting small towns along the way. Monday was filled with many more animals thanks to a large animal sanctuary on the outskirts of Brisbane.

Driving back to Brisbane through the bush.

Koalas at the Lone Pine animal sanctuary.

Tuesday, I lectured at the University of Queensland, which was a blast, and Wednesday I spent the day in the office before attending a book launch in the evening.

The main building of the UQ quad.

An early morning flight got me back to the office in Sydney to work the rest of the week and guarantee that I was wiped from the busy week.

So there's the general overview, along with a few images. I'll break down the finer points in a few additional posts this weekend!