For kids, it's Aussie awesome

Noosa Heads, Australia — JUST a few hundred yards into our family's short hike from an oceanfront hotel to the beach at Tea Tree Bay, our 5-year-old son stopped dead in his tracks. Was Charles feeling the aftereffects of the 14-hour plane ride from Los Angeles? Had he been momentarily stunned by the shell-shaped bay's simple beauty? Or was he simply too tired to walk one more step?

The answer lay elsewhere, nestled comfortably in a eucalyptus tree a few dozen feet above the hiking trail. Up there, as Charles pointed out, perched a small koala, obliviously munching away. In a few minutes, a small crowd gathered to gaze up at the marsupial.

Australia may be famous for its koalas, but it turns out they're not usually spotted outside a zoo.

We were nowhere near a zoo, in fact. We were walking through the coastal headland forest outside of Noosa Heads, the swank beach town that anchors the Noosa region in northeastern Australia. It's the kind of place where you can sip a cocktail late at night in a bar spilling over with gorgeous people, then swim early the next morning in a warm, glassy ocean filled with heavily tattooed surfers. The koala was just a surprise wildlife bonus.

The koala throng kept growing, and Charles was tugging on the sleeve of anyone who came up the trail -- visitors from Tasmania, a collection of other Australian tourists and even a few local surfers. But there were tide pools to wander, organic farmers markets to browse, even a ginger factory and a giant pineapple to tour. We left the koala, methodically eating its shoots and leaves, behind.

My wife and I had risked subjecting ourselves to the epic plane trip from Los Angeles to Sydney -- and a short connecting flight to the Sunshine Coast's Maroochydore airport several days later -- with two small children (Henry, our other son, had just turned 1) for exactly this koala experience: something indigenous, exotic and, for kids and parents alike, unmistakably cool.

Whether it was playing with kangaroos in "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo or sampling local music at the rambling Eumundi Markets, our journey into this little-known pocket of Queensland rarely fell short.

Our contemplated summer vacation had been London and Paris, but with the dollar weak against the pound and euro, a two-week European trip had become prohibitive. I had visited Sydney on business and had found it irresistibly metropolitan and seemingly kid-friendly. Even though it has slipped since our visit, the American dollar remains strong there and is now worth $1.24 Australian.