Advertisement
Published: October 22nd 2012
Edit Blog Post
We decided that we really wanted to travel up to the Sunshine coast, and found a little 2 night window to head up there before going to Brisbane. So we had to take 2 greyhounds, but we got there by 5.30pm. We were picked up by the staff of Flashpackers hostel, where we had decided to treat ourselves to an ensuite double room...flashy! This hostel was really nice and clean and friendly, and because it was about $10 a night more than most, a lot less young annoying messy backpackers! We walked into Noosa Junction, which is tiny with a few take aways and a couple of small cafe's, mostly closed because it was sunday! We had some tea and then walked back to the hostel.
The next day we went to Australia zoo - home of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile hunter! We were pretty excited as we got picked up in the big yellow bus with Steve's face on the side. On the way there we got to watch video's of Steve and his family wrestling crocodiles, standard! We had a great time in the zoo, seeing all your classic zoo favourites as well as some Aussie classics and
of course croc's! Its a bit of a strange experience though they really try to make the zoo very interactive and give you some different experiences, it's pretty noticeable the animals are not really wild! We got to feed the elephants, stroke the kangaroo's and koala's and get bit closer to some birds than we were completely comfortable with. There was a show in the "Crocoseum" where they showed how a crocodile strikes from the water and how to avoid being attacked and had birds flying up over our heads, including flying one straight to a man sat behind james, nearly decapitating James in the process! You couldnt say the animals were not happy, we have both seen bored zoo animals in small enclosures, and these animals looked content, just a bit strange when you see a cheetah or wombat out for a walk on a lead for "enrichment". Steve's influence is everywhere at this zoo, and he seems very much alive in there, its pretty sad when you see all the memorials and letters from kids that they have displayed. His children seem to be taking over as face of the brand. The oldest who is 14, Bindi seems
to have her own brand, dolls and pencil cases etc! All in all we had a brilliant day at the zoo, if a little strange!
We were delivered back to Noosa at about 5.00pm in the big steve bus, and headed back to the hostel where they were having a free cheese and wine night, so we stayed in and had a chat with a few people in the hostel. We decided to book another surf lesson for the morning before we leave for Brisbane, as it's the last chance we will get in Aus and it's going to be a wee bit colder in NZ.
We were met at 9am the next day by someone from the surf school to take us to the beach. This was a completely different set up from the last time. We were met by a large group of about 7 other surfers including 2 children, and 2 instructers, one responsible soley for the children. The instructor was french with a strange Aussie lilt, making him sometimes a bit tricky to understand and instead of finding out what people had done before, took everyone through all the basics, in the end we
only got about an hour in the water. The waves were much smaller this time, and it was far easier to paddle out to where you needed to start. However thats where the easiness stopped! the boards were smaller and more slippery, the waves were a bit rubbish making it harder to catch them, and the instructer a bit more negative, always just telling you what you did wrong, after teaching you a different technique to the last time...how confusing! James of course cracked it fairly quickly, and although not for quite as long as last time was standing lots. I think I only managed 2 all day! very annoying. When we got back to flashpackers we asked if we could use the shower and were told we had to pay, but could wash off in the swimming pool...interesting! So instead we went back to the lovely sunshine beach for a couple of hours until it was time to head for the bus for one last time!
Yet again we needed more time in Noosa, we never really saw any of it because of our trip to the zoo, which is a real shame...next time i guess!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.121s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 13; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0613s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb