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Published: December 16th 2006
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Natural Bridge
Did I ever mention how much I love waterfalls?? Hello from Brisbane! I arrived in Brisbane on Tuesday. The place I am staying at is AWESOME! Definitely hands down the best place so far. It is a hotel/hostel. The room I am in is HUGE, has a fridge and a t.v., sink, only two bunk beds and one is a double on the bottom, which I have. I only have had to share the room with one girl since Tuesday and she left yesterday. It is nice having my own space for a few days. It is a short walk from all the nightlife in Fortitude Valley and only a 30 minute walk to the CBD (downtown). And it is cheap - $20 a night.
On Wednesday I did a tour through the rain forest, yes another one. I can't help it I love the rain forest! We went to Springbrook National Park. First stop was Natural Bridge. We stopped at the picnic site and had morning tea and buiscuits (that is what Aussies call cookies) where a wild turkey stole one of the TimTams. Who knew Turkey's loved them too? Australia is home of TimTam loving Turkey's and flipflop wearing Dingos. Natural Bridge is a beautiful rock arc
King Parrots and Crimson Rosellas
For someone that is not a fan of birds, I sure got up close and personal. (with a waterfall in behind it (Aussies are very clever with their names, simple folk they are.) Across the bank we saw a Water Dragon sunning himself - a small type of lizard. He was actually posing for us to take his picture; I'd post one but he might be too hard to see. We then drove up to The Best of All Lookout. Yup it is really called the Best of All Lookout. (Oh you Aussies, so creative!) I wonder if anyone ever goes to The Worst of All Lookout? The Best of All Lookout is one of the highest points in Springbrook National Park. You can look down towards the ocean and see the skyscrapers of Surfers Paradise way in the distance. On a side note, Surfer's Paradise is a very long beach with a tone of skyscrapers, like heaps! (I have decided to not stop there on my travels.) After lunch we had a 4km hike around Twin Falls, which one of the falls was blocked and no water was coming down (I wonder if Brisbane shut off the water to this one, as they are in a drought at the moment?) All funnies (bad ones at
that) aside, we then moved on to the Glow Worm Cave. Those little creatures are just like the glow worm dolls you used to buy. It is only their butt end that lights up and it shines almost like an L.E.D. light, very bright with a a blue tinge to it. They aren't actually worms but larva of a certain type of fly. We then fed King Parrot and Crimson Rosella birds. They would come and land on your arms, hands, head, shoulders and eat from the palm of your hand. King Parrot's had the run of the place though, chasing off the Crimson Rosella's.
Thursday I headed out to the Australia Zoo. This is the zoo the Irwin's had started, Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter). You would not even know that you are at a zoo. This has to be the best zoo on the face of the earth. All the animals look really content and happy. There are no "cages", all enclosures are built like natural habitat and every enclosure has so much space, like acres. You can walk right through the middle of the kangaroo area. You can feed them and pet them. There are koala's sitting
Koalas
Aren't they so cute, looks like they had a rough night out! in the trees everywhere. You can walk through the bird aviary, where they birds can fly all around you. You can feed the camels and elephants by hand. You can cuddle a koala or pet one in a tree. Koala's have to be the cutest thing! They definitely have a sweet life. All they do is eat and sleep. Some of their positions in the trees are so cute, they almost look like they are drunk and flopped over. And we can't forget the crocodiles! Each croc has a story about how he/she came to the zoo, all rescues. I was able to go play with the wombats. Wombats are native to Australia and the closet relative to Koalas. They are a very solid little creature and their hair is very coarse. They are definitely not a soft and squishy like the koalas! After the wombats I made my way down to the Tiger Temple. Tigers are definitely my favourite animal of the world. They are so beautiful. Did you know that a tigers stripes are unique to each tiger. They are just like our finger prints, no two have the same. So graceful and strong. I could spend another
day at the zoo just watching those amazing creatures. You are able to get a studio photo with them at a small cost of around $500 (Mom didn't you say something about a Christmas present?). I have only good things to say about Australia Zoo, perhaps before I leave Australia I will come back for another day. I didn't actually have enough time to go through it all.
Friday I took a day trip to Moreton Island. Moreton is another sand island very similar to Fraser but not as big, I believe it is the third largest in the world. When leaving the mainland, you could see heaps of jellyfish in the ocean. They were a bright blue and we were told they were not dangerous, we saw more on the beach too. The day started out with some sandboarding. We hiked to the top of a huge sand dune, laid down on our stomachs (head first) on a piece of particleboard which was waxed and gaver! It was so much fun!! You go super fast and you go for a really long time. The rest of the day was filled with some short walks and swimming. One of
the lakes we swam in was called Blue Lagoon. The edges of it is surrounded by the Tea Tree (trees) so your skin feels really soft when you come out of the water. On our hike to the light house we saw a pod of dolphins in the ocean and about 5 sea turtles.
Today I did some walking around Brisbane. Checked out the Art Galleries and the Museum, all of which were free. Did you know that the temperature of the sand that the turtles eggs are buried in will determine the sex of the embryo? If it is 25 degrees it will be a male and if it is 33 degrees it will be a female. If the eggs are kept at 28 degrees the eggs will have equal amount of males and females. Pretty cool hey? It was a nice chill day for me, perfect as I had done some partying last night so I was in slow mode all day.
Tomorrow I am off to Byron Bay. I have heard so many great things about Byron Bay, and they have a nude beach, so those of you wondering about my all over tan, I
am sure it will be coming along nicely!!! HAHA!
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Brent
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Busy, busy
Wow, you sure are getting to know Australia really well, lots of activities and never a dull moment. Miss you out here but glad you are having the time of your life. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. ;)