Relaxing in Mooloolaba

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March 28, 2006

We have just had the last two days in Mooloolaba. Isn’t that a great name?
It is aboriginal, as are many of the names around here. Mooloolaba is a resort town on the Sunshine Coast, going north from Brisbane. We picked up a rental car in Brisbane and drove in just over an hour to Mooloolaba. Chris and Graeme have a small “flat” - apartment in a resort there right on the beach and they were gracious enough to let us use it for 3 nights. How wonderful - we had a great time. They say that Queensland only has two types of weather: really wonderful and perfect - and it was!

So, on the first full day: and now I have to apologize to Patrick as I know how he feels about zoos and “kept” animals, but yes, we went to the Australia Zoo, which is Steve Erwin’s crocodile place. It is an amazing place. His first interest was crocodiles - and he is breeding them there, and we saw several of them and I wouldn’t want to meet one, but it was fascinating. Steve and his wife, who is from Oregon, have built the place into something quite fantastic. It is gorgeous and truly immaculate. They take such good care of all the animals and are teaching all the time about how to take care of animals and how to help all the species which are endangered. Many of the ones he has there are endangered and he is trying to help breed crocodiles, tigers, and many other types of endangered animals. He has a lot of snakes and I had decided to let Gunnar photograph me with a python around my neck, but they want a lot of money for doing that, and we decided it wasn’t worth it. There was an enormous amount of staff who were all friendly and knowledgeable. They would stop and talk any time. We saw staff going in to cuddle the wombats. We saw and heard Tasmanian Devils, lots of koalas, crocs, snakes, lots of birds and much more. We were just extremely impressed with everything there.

Yesterday we drove north along the coast up to Noosa Head (isn’t that another great name?) It is another resort with gorgeous beaches and we had a picnic and walked the beach and it was very pleasant and relaxing.

So now our Australia visit is over. We fly out very early tomorrow morning. It has been great. New Zealand and Australia have not seemed very foreign at all. We speak the same language, basically (except for small differences like “barracking”), and everyone is walking around with a cell phone and/or Ipod. We wear the same brands of clothes, basically, and styles are the same. We shop at the many of the same stores, Safeway, Target, Kmart, Woolworths, and all the necessary fast food is here like McDonalds, KFC, Baskin Robbins, and Starbucks, So, it hasn’t been exotic, but it has been absolutely wonderful. I have a feeling that the next three weeks will be different.

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Photos

The Australia Zoo
Koala and Bev

The Australia Zoo
One of the tigers. Did you know they like to swim?

The Australia Zoo
Roo and Bev - she is a red kangaroo