Life with the Lees....

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Sophie had last been to Bundaberg on her previous visit to Australia in 2004 when Debbie & Rich had just moved into their new house. Since then Debbie (Sophie's friend from the UK) had been keeping Sophie up to date with the 'rennos' on the house and we were both looking forward to seeing what had been done, catching up with the new family member and swimming in that pool that had been promised to be in situ for the next visit!

Debbie picked us up from the coach station on the 23rd December after our 16 hour journey from Mission Beach and we were very excited at the prospect of spending a few weeks in the luxury of a 'proper' house. From the moment we got into the house we were made to feel right at home by Debbie & Rich (along with Harper 3 and Macy 10 months) and were looking forward to spending our first Christmas away from home with friends rather than strangers in a hostel. We were also amazed by the change in the house with it having virtually doubled in size and the pool exceeding all expectations as it was HUGE!

We spent many days relaxing with the kids who provided hours of amusement, particularly on Christmas day when presents were opened although Harper was clearly just below the age where he feels he has to get up at 4am which was quite a relief to the household.. Debbie was the keenest being first up at 6!

We really enjoyed our first hot Christmas with cold Turkey and salads along with homemade christmas pud and beers in the 30+° heat, then taking a dip in the pool to cool off after dinner and it was such a change to what we are used to. New Years Eve was also a real treat as we went to Debbie & Rich's party and sweltered in the heat at midnight rather than shivering as we normally would have done had we been in the UK.. we really think we could get used to this lifestyle!

Australia Zoo

We were lucky enough to be loaned a ute while we were here too which Dale just loved! To leave the Lees in peace and enjoy their holiday for one day we ventured off on the 400km drive to Australia Zoo which we were very excited to be visiting. The drive there went well after a 5am departure and we arrived at 8.30am and joined the queue to get in... which was quite long!

In our minds, Australia Zoo is probably the best zoo in the world and really is what all zoos should aspire to be like. All the keepers clearly love their animals and you can see the close relationship that is between them, we were most envious of the tiger keepers as they played catch the bottle and cat cuddles with them. The enclosures are amazing and the best bit for the visitors is that you can interact with many of the animals. Obviously the snakes and Komodo Dragon are out of bounds but kangaroos, koalas, camels, elephants and many of the other animals are all tame and you can pat, feed and sometimes hold them which is just great and we both loved every second of our time here.

As most people know, Australia Zoo is also famous for their Crocoseum where they have a huge 5,000 seater stadium around a pool where crocs are shown off in all their glory to everyone. On the day we went we were lucky enough for Terry, Bindi and Robert (Steve Irwin's wife & children) to be presenting the show. After missing Steve the last time Sophie visited the zoo Sophie was really pleased that this went some way to make up for it and Dale loved the show so much he got a little to engrossed with the monkey impressions that the audience were asked to do! The show was great with snakes, beautiful cockatoos & parrots and that all important Croc who in this case was Graham a huge Saltwater Croc who obviously loved the pig and rat he was fed by Terry.

The only downside to visiting the zoo at this time of year was the heat which was 36° the day we went. Very quicky we were reduced to sweaty messes after walking to the top of the zoo and round and round but the zoo had thought of this... all around there were these fabulous misting stations which you stood under to cool off for a few seconds. These were also found in the tropical bird area where many people seemed to linger a little longer than was necessary to just look at the birds!!

This day was excellent and although it is quite a lot to get into this zoo it is so worth it as it's a complete day of neverending entertainment, especially for people who love animals quite as much as us. Sophie has now got her heart set on becoming a zookeeper here should she ever be lucky enough to come back and live here....

Bundaberg Fun

Bundaberg is famous for a few things but probably most famous for being the home of Bundaberg Rum.. the most loved of all the spirits here in Oz. We decided that it would be a bit wrong if we didn't visit the distillery while we were here so ventured there one day and see what all the fuss was about. Typically the Rough Guide was way out with it's entry prices with the tour coming in at $25 rather than the published $10 so we opted for the museum tour at $15 which also included the 2 tastings at the end (lets admit it this is what most people come here for anyway!) The museum was very interesting and we learnt a lot about making rum and also why there is a Polar Bear on the label but yes the best bit was the tasting at the end! As Dale was driving he only got 1 sample while Sophie got to enjoy 3.. great! She made the most of the rum liquer and tasted it straight, with cream and with milk.. a great start to the day!

Debbie and Rich also took us on a visit to the beautiful beach resorts of Agnes Water and the Town of 1770, so called because Captain Cook landed here in 1770. While Sophie & Debbie took it easy relaxing on the beach reading trashy celeb mags, Rich gave Dale a lesson on how to bodyboard which he really loved, this was apart from the terrible board rash he got after spending a good few hours in the water. These resorts are both stunning and have not yet reached that overdeveloped feel that most towns are suffering from but it will only be a matter of time before they are undoubtedly overun with bars and restaurants.

Bundaberg is also famous for having one of the best turtle rookerys in the world where Loggerhead, Green and Leatherback turtles all come to nest during November - January. Sophie had visited this rookery on her previous visit but because she didn't see any turtles on that occasion she decided to give it another go. When you buy tickets you are put into groups according to when you book so the people who book 6 months ago are in group 1 and the people who book that day are in group 5. Because turtles are not trained to come out at at set time each evening you are asked to arrive at 6.30pm and basically wait until the turtles arrive.. group 1 go to the first turtle, group 2 to the second and so on.

The trouble is that we were in group 4 and after sitting though the 1.5 hour talk on turtles, looking round the information. centre, looking round the small souvenir shop, information centre again etc, you get pretty bored and when you when find out that the turtles didn't even start coming out the water until 11.45pm the previous night you wonder just how long you might be there. The first group hadn't even been called by 11pm so we gave up and called it a day. It's a real shame that we didn't get to see anything but we really didn't fancy sitting there until 3am in the hope that a turtle might turn up.

To be fair this is peak season and they had been getting up to 9 turtles a night in the previous week but with only 4 the night before we went we just didn't fancy our chances. What we think is that the moon was too full on the night we went and the turtles don't like this so leave it until it's a bit darker to come out.. this is our theory anyway and we would advise anyone thinking of visiting this attraction to try to take this into account.. this and also take along a comfy cushion, book or pack or cards and something to eat and drink as you might be in for a really long wait!

There was one thing that wasn't so nice about being in Bundaberg though and Sophie had the misfortune of experiencing this all on her own. Over the Christmas period she developed severe toothache so made an appointment to see a local dentist as soon as she could after the holiday period. The dentist had a look in her mouth and reported that there was nothing abnormal to be found... both Sophie and Debbie (who had gone to hold her hand) breathed a huge sigh of relief and then the bombshell was dropped... he couldn't see anything but suspected an absess above the top wisdom tooth and would recommend that it be taken out.. YES TAKEN OUT!!

People who know Sophie well are well aware that she had a deep inset fear of dentists and particularly needles so after crying for a while and recovering from the shocking news she asked if she could have a week to think about it as this really wasn't something she could just have done there and then despite him saying it would only take 10 minutes. Home she went and promptly took the antibiotics Dale had from his tooth problem in Argentina in the hope that this would work miracles and she wouldn't need anything done.

A week went by and she returned to the dentist with the tooth no longer hurting and was feeling pretty confident that he would say that nothing needed doing now.. WRONG! He said that by taking the antibiotics and the pain going away merely confirmed that there had been an infection and now it should definately be taken out. As much as Sophie didn't want it out she did see the sensible side and really didn't want to have tooth problems in SE Asia where having a tooth out really would be a serious problem so she went ahead with it. Armed with as much gas as they would let her have she endured 6 injections to numb the area (obviously for someone with a fear of needles the standard 2 wouldn't work so they had to bring out the heavy stuff!), had a bit too much gas which made her head go funny and start laughing uncontrollably until the nurse realised and turned it down :o( ... and then the time came for the extraction. Sophie asked how long it would take to get it out and was told up to 2 minutes which sounded awful but as soon as she dared open her mouth (which took a bit of coaxing) he had it out in about 2 seconds and the whole terrible ordeal was over! Dale's hand was a bit worse for wear after it and Sophie had a grotty tooth to take away as her momento so you can all look forward to seeing that when we return home! So now we've both had tooth problems whilst we've been away so please everyone keep your fingers crossed that this is the last you will hear of this kind of thing!

Eventually the time had come for us to leave the Lees in peace, we didn't want to go because it was so nice to be in a proper house with good friends and it provided a fantastic break from the hostels and constant packing and unpacking. We were both so sad to be going and would like to thank Debbie and Rich for looking after us so well we really did have a fantastic time with you all and you really couldn't have done more for us.. thankyou Harper for introducing us to the delights of Nightgarden and Thomas the Tank Engine and to lovely Macy who is just the cutest little girl ever!

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Photos

Croc's Rule!
ok so it's an alligator but nevermind!!

Enjoying Christmas Dinner
From l - r Dale, Ryan, Rich, Debbie & Sophie

The Pool again
Dale playing jump off the rock feature!

Harper's 3rd birthday cake
YUM!

Comments

[Holly]

Graham?
Isn't that the most unlikely name for a massive fierce crocodile! How funny. Love the blog, keep em coming!! Hxx