So our first... I should probably say my first must was to get to the koala sanctuary for a nice big cuddle from the cutest little natives. They actually look like teddy bears in a tree. Seriously! I love them! My cuddle came from little Crumpet and she was munching away on leaves as I held her. So cute and surprisingly heavy. At the Lone Pine Sanctuary we also got to see loads of other Australian animals including the amazing duck-billed platapus, talking cockatoos and some mental tazmanian devils.
We also visited Australia Zoo which may as well be called the Steve Arwin Zoo seeing as its on Steve Arwin Way and hes absolutley everywhere. Didn't expect it but felt very sad being there, they even had a huge memorial there for him. The place was pretty amazing though. So fun. Pictures of Steve on the walls and 'Crikey!' printed pretty much everywhere you looked. Loads of animals but it was the koalas and the tigers that stole the show for me. Think I watched one koala eating for about 15 minutes.
So our first trip in Sheila and we headed down south to the Gold Coast. Our first stop was Byron Bay and we pitched our tent in among the trees, the bush turkeys and the hippies! Peace and love everywhere in Byron Bay. And surfing. Took our first surfing lesson and actually managed to make it up onto the board and surf one wave. Oh yeah! It's very tough... especially when you've got arms made of jelly. Was aching for days after! Haha. Was great fun though. Looking forward to take two.
After after a few layed back back days in Byron we headed north up the coast to Surfers Paradise. And with golden beaches as far as you can see on both side of you, green-blues water and lovely white waves I really understood where it got it's name from! While in Byron we got to hang out with the hippies in our camping site, it was the grey nomads we were surrounded by in our caravan site in Surfers. On the day we arrived the were all sitting in rows enjoying the Christmas in July (!) barbeque. Very funny sight. Surfers was very relaxed but very different to Byron. We sampled some of the night life in Surfers going on a club crawl. One of the clubs even copied a club Sex and the City club and put beds inside it. Didn't trying Surfing again here but we did watch a lot of the locals kick ass in the waves.
Another must along the coast during the winter is to go whale watching so we jumped on a boat and headed out to find some humpback whales. And we bumped into some amazing, playful ones. My first sight was two of them jumping fully out of the watch and smacking back in. After such a spectactual start they got lazy but we saw lots of tails, blows, and they came right up to the boat where we were for a little look at the very end. Pretty amazing stuff. Didn't even bother having the camera out for the incounter. Didn't want to miss anything messing around with the settings!
Heading back to Brissy for a quick visit and then the big road trip up north begins. First stop, Noosa!
And one more Oz must I have to achieve, is to taste vegemite.... might be a while :S but I'll report back when or if it happens.
x
