Attack of the Kookaburra!

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Well after recent disater with the blog, we threatened to start a new one, but couldnt be bothered to go to the effort so we will just use this one and hope it doesnt happen again!

Its been so long since we have blogged, cant even remember where we left off last time and we have loads to catch up on so here goes.....

BRISBANE

We arrved in Brisbane after what should have been a short journey from Byron Bay, but our bus was over an hour late, so neither of us were best pleased when we got there. They also had stupid train system, so we end up going onto and off 3 platforms before we eventually found the right train. Then when we finally got to the hostel, the woman who runs the place wasnt there, and we had to wait 1 1/2 hours for her to turn up to check us in, so we had a really bad first impression of the hostel anyway, which was made worse by the fact that we had a room which backed onto the garden where the owner and a group of people from the hostel partied and played Michael Jackson until after 3am!

After our whole first day in Brisbane was wasted, we went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary on our second day, purely because Adrienne would get to hold a koala there (which i did - they are heavier than they look, have super sharp claws and have springy fur like sheep, but dont smell of eucalyptus!). It was pretty much the same as the wildlife park in Port Macquarie (except this one had millions of chinese tourists!), so we got to feed kangaros again but they werent as freindly here as in Port Macquarie. We also got to see loads of wombats there, which are the cutest animals ever except for tasmanian devils! Our next day, we just wandered around the city exploring, we caught a ferry on the river and went to see the simpsons movie in the evening. Then on our last day in Brisbane we went to Australia Zoo (Steve irwins zoo), which is definitely the best zoo in the world! This is cos they let visitors interact with the animals more than anywhere else we have been, so we fed elephants (twice), stroked wombats and koalas and even a giant tortoise, fed the kangaroos (again lol!) and Adrienne held an alligator! We also went to the famous show in the Crocoseum twice, and in the second one it took ages for them to get the croc to snap for the food, but when he did he was really quite aggressive!

RAINBOW BEACH AND FRASER ISLAND

Rainbow Beach is absolutely tiny, which is quite shocking given the number of tourists who will pass through there to go to Fraser Island - it only had one main street with about 2 shops and a few cafes! We were there for 3 nights as well, so we were pretty much twiddling our thumbs waiting for the day we would be going to Fraser Island. We walked miles along the beach in both directions, and in our other attempt to escape walked from one end of town to the other in the night,which took about 30 seconds, tried to go futher but it was really dark as they didn't haver streetlights anywhere but right in the town centre, so we had to run back towards the light before we were eaten by dingos, snakes or the famous Australian people eating frog. The beach wanst even that nice, probs the worst one we had visited on the east coast so far as there were loads of 4x4's driving on the beach.

So we were pretty glad when our day trip to Fraser Island (a giant sand island) came around, for a change of scenery if nothing else! This was a v pricey day trip, and looking back, it probably wouldnt have cost us much more to do an 3 day 2 night safari. When we got to Fraser Island we had to drive quite far up the beach to this resort where we had morning tea and then later lunch, past a giant turlte with a cracked shell and (if Adrienne is to be believed) a snake! The first real stop if the day was Lake Mackenzie, which is the most beautiful place we have ever seen on earth. The water is crystal clear (but freezing cold) and the sand is pure white, and the water must have some amazing proerties as you come out of it as soft as a newborn baby! It was a shame that we only got to spend 45mins there, as we happily could have stayed on the beach soaking up the sun for a few hours. The rest of the day didnt beat that! We drove over really bumpy sand tracks and thought the bus would turn over, we had buffet lunch, then went for walk in the rainforest and saw a creek so clear that you cant even tell the water is there but for the light reflecting on it. We saw a wild dingo on the beach, visited a shipwreck and went walking in another freshwater creek, which was also really beautiful. On the way back to the mainland, we saw some wild dolphins really close up in the water as well, so was a really good day overall, if slightly rushed and very bumpy!

HERVEY BAY

We couldnt book any accomodation in bundaberg, so we decided to ignore the guidebook, which said hervey bay was rubbish if you arent going to Fraser Island, and went there for pauls birthday. The guidebook was wrong! Hervey Bay has a really long, really lovely beach and although the town centre was not the greatest (making birthday shopping a complete nightmare!) we really enjoyed our 2 days in Hervey Bay.

On Pauls birthday he was 22, and we got up really late then went straight to the beach for a picnic lunch (adrienne got bitten by ants on the way!). We then headed back to the hostel for some birthday cake and got changed into swimming gear and spent most of the afternoon on the beach and in the sea! We are past surfing towns in Aus I think, the sea was completely calm, but more cloudy than what we were used to in hawaii, so we didnt venture out too far for fear of standing on a stingray or something! Then we went out for some drinks in the evening.

ROCKHAMPTON

We went on super long bus journey the day after Pauls Birthday to Rockhampton, the beef capital of Australia! It was really hot there as it is on the tropic of capricorn - we have definitely left winter behind in Australia! We didnt get there until the evening, and the next day, we went off in search of a shopping centre for more birthday shopping!

On Adriennes Birthday, we got up early then headed down to the tropic of capricorn for some tourist photos and then onto the zoo! before we went into the zoo, we stopped for some lunch in this outdoor cafe and a nasty kookaburra swooped down and stole chips from Adriennes plate when it was only inches from her! You could tell it wanted to do it again, but wasnt cheeky enough to try until I pushed my plate away (i wasnt going to eat the rest of my chips after that!), so Paul prepared himself with his knife and waited for the kookaburra to strike! The first time it did, my instinct for revenge took over and i hit him and paul stabbed me in the elbow. The kookaburra was stupid enough to try again after that and i left paul too it, and he managed to hit him with the knife so the nasty bird flew away squaking in the opposite direction (not really hurt of course!)

The zoo at rockhampton is free, but really small, so we both felt sorry for the poor chimpanzees who hardly had any space and looked really bored. They didnt even let us go into feed the kangaroos (that never gets old!) even though they sold zoo food in the shop! We got up close to the koalas though, saw a peacock trying to woo a chicken, heard a dingo howl and the emus were also making some really weird deep vibration noise - was a bit of a bizzare day!

Thanks to everyone who gave me prezzies and birthday wises over the phone and on the blog as well!

AIRLIE BEACH

We are in Airlie Beach now after another super long bus journey. The beach itself is pretty rubbish, but it is a pretty little town, but we have been so busy finalising the rest of the trip in Australia (only 2 weeks left here!) that we havent really had a chance to explore it properly yet.

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Comments

[dad]

just back from bonnie scotland
we're just back from bonnie scotland and have just read the blog. The kookaburra was probably more entertaining than a £3000 dollar flight in a mig jet anyway! Love Dad

[Drie and Paul]

yeah, its defitely one of the stories of the holiday so far!