Last time we were in Brisbane, we didn't get the chance to visit the Sunshine Coast at all, so we fixed that this time :) There is indeed plenty to see, and we didn't see it all. However, we saw:

While this might not seem like a lot for 2 days, it actually was due to everything being so spread out, and many hours spent driving back and forth to get to those places during their sometimes limited opening times, and Australia Zoo being big.

Let's start with the zoo:

let me steal those eggs for an omlet :)

other eggs, yum :)

Misc animals:

red panda, not liking the heat :)

red kangaroos are cool looking and soft

they're also very gentle despite their size

We then went for our first booked animal encounter. I got Jennifer a nice possum :)

the opposum in our backyard is much more scary looking :)

Birds:

looked like a dead bush turkey :)

Reptiles:

Jennifer was asking why one croc was trying to drown the other. I replied that they were just getting friendly :)

Our 2nd animal encounter was spiky echidna ;)

very long tongue

From there, we drove back down to Glasshouse Mountains, first to a viewpoint:

We then went to Mount Tibrogargan and did the 3.2km hike around it. Climbing the top looked like it was going to be a bit harder than what we were ready for. The hike around was sadly a bit boring:

We then drove to the Mt Ngungun trailhead for views and sunset. We got to the top in 20mn :)

great sunset

We then drove to Casa Della Pace, a great B&B we spent the night at, with a great breakfast the next morning:

The next morning, we first drove to Buderim Forest Park, a nice little 45mn walk:

We then drove to Sea Life Aquarium for a quick visit and around the coast there:

Next, we drove to Queensland Air Museum where we spent a bit over 1h30.

This allowed to get to Parrots in Paradise just in time for the only allowed time for a visit (12:30). It was a pain to get things around so that we could make that time, especially as we drove by it 4 times during those 2 days, but we made it. We had a volunteer give us a private guided tour and show us many of the birds they are boarding or keeping until they can find homes for them:

our guide Mark was great, he was one eye patch short of being a pirate :)

we both liked the smaller parrots, they are more gentle and still very nice

lots of different colorful parrots :)

cockatoos too

another very pretty parrot

mandarin ducks, also colorful

We got out on the visit just in time (to the minute) to drive to Maleny Botanic Gardens and make their 14:00 tour when originally we'd be doing their last 14:30 or 15:00 tour. More birds, big and small:

after terrorising the other lady, the 2nd macaw came to help to steal the ring, which they did

the handler knows them better, but even she had issues with them :)

the smaller ones are so cute :)

being friendly :)

After seeing the birds, or maybe we paid to be entertainment for the birds and not the other way around :) we had a walk around the botanical gardens, which were quite nice:

On the way there, jennifer shouted "vin!" when she saw that big barrel, so we stopped on the way back:

While I originally thought we'd never be able to do all of this due to limited opening hours and lots of back and forth driving (30mn each time more or less), we actually ended early and had just enough time to try the Big Kart Track I had noticed on the way.
While it was fun, the karts were not that fast (I mostly ran flat out without braking) and had no timing on them, so it wasn't as exciting as I was hoping for. I was a bit annoyed during my 2nd session when I kept outdriving one person in front of me and then it he would pull away at the first straight because his kart was just faster than mine :-/
Jennifer also got a bit of chest pain from the seatbelt, while my back was hurting for 2 days after due to lack of padding.

And that was it for our time in Sunshine Coast, we then had a 2h15 drive to the Gold Coast, where we had a room for the night and the next 2 days of activities.