Yep, you guessed it, a sleep in to get over the hang over was well needed! But not too long, cause what a way to start the week with a trip to the most famous zoo in the world….Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo!! Whoop whoop! It was only a train journey away so off we went with our camera in tow to see if we could spot the stingray that killed the leg-end!!
The journey from Central Station to Beerwah was alrite, about 40mins of extra shut eye, then off the train and onto the free shuttle bus straight to the zoo gates!! Result! It was FREE!! Haha!
We're here and as we guessed his face was everywhere! Awesome! Not a huge place, but big enough. Walked through the gates and straight away saw a crowd gathered around a massive white snake! Get me to that I said, this is what I wanna see! Lol. Some sort of white python and no joke its head was the size of my thigh, yeah huge!! God knows how long it was but crickey (did ya see what I did there!!) it were long! Had a feel and a stroke, of the python not the bloke attempting to hold it!! I wish - he was pretty cute haha!!
Anyway, we went in further and found the impressive crocoseum! This was where they did the croc show, water snake and some bird show. We checked out the time for the next show and had plenty of time to wonder around the zoo before it started.
We wondered up to the elephants and fed them some veggies, then went to find the tigers! This proved just how crazy Steve was, he only had his bloody staff INSIDE the pit thing with these tigers running around freely! This one crazy Sheila was in the water with them!! Reckon there must have been 5 or 6 tigers in there, but they obviously liked the company, one of them was having a nice what could only be classed as a cuddle with this puney ozzie bloke!! I surely would have crapped my pants!! Good show though lol!
On the way back to the crocs you go past a really nice bronze statue of Steve and his wife and kids, bless really nice that he is plastered everywhere! His massive smile lol! And lizards n things running out in front of ya, hey Lisa - made you jump few times eh haha! Had a walk around the croc pits, one was called Amy which I thought was awesome - maybe some sort of epiphany - you no, how I may die and come back as a croc or something - who knows!! Lol! Haha! They were big though, these crocs, not as many as I thought he would have there but then again, with the amount of bloody crocs we have seen in this country already has been enough!
So the crocoseum was massive with a kind of stadium effect. Must have a big capacity though with the stands and stuff. Big pool in the middle which is for obvious reasons. Grabbed a seat and waited for the show to begin.
First up, some dude brings out some homing pigeons - yep that's exactly what we said - bloody homing pigeons we can see anywhere back home bring out the crocs yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! Next best thing, they brought around in the crowd some lizards, snakes and some other smaller animals for the kids to poke at while some Sheila with a microphone taught us some interesting facts about them.
Then the good bit, out come the crocs to play with! Ha I wonder how much this bloke gets paid to dangle a big bit of meat infront of some crazy crocs nose, who has spent most the day eyeing up loadsa tourists taking pictures of him! I would want a bloody big sum I tell ya! But he did well, got him to leap up in the air and grab it, took him into the water and show how quick they can be in the water compared to on ground. Great advice actually, (so they said) if you happen to get attacked by one of these killers, try and poach him out of the water and then you can run for your life!! Oh yeah - right ill remember that, but how the hell you would manage to get him out in the first place I have no idea - neither did they!!!
At the end of the show, they played a video up on the big screen of Steve's little ones trying to be like their dad. Bless, he was trying to catch this big porcupine and he didn't know what to do, he wanted to jump on him but obviously…..aw so cute.
They also had there like a tribute section showing lots of Steve's collections from the years, like wrecked shoes, some skulls, pictures of him holding some humongous snake, and of course pics with him n his kids. So sad but nice to see what he created before he died.
Good day in all, you must go and see it if you around Brisbane or even Noosa! We finished the day off with some extreme bowling techniques with Fleur, Jodie, Tina and their French mate! Proper giggles and hyperness, we ended up playing tig around the shopping arcade cause we managed to get in there while it were shut haha! Funny stuff!
Busy week really, by the Tuesday we had jumped back in the Oz bus with Bogan driving us to Surfers Paradise! Not looking good though cause by this time it was chucking it down! And that was all it done the whole day and night we were there! Managed to get an hour or so while it weren't raining to have a walk along the beach with Fleur and around the shops n stuff, but it was full of all the schoolies. These are the kids that have just done there exams and are on a holiday together, they were everywhere, really annoying! Haha! Went back as the rain started again and made some chicken fajitas with Fleur and watched the……(at this point of typing, iv got the abba album on in my ear and chiquitta on and keep forgetting what things are called…nightmare!! Anyway!!)….hurricane (if that's what rain and wind is, my god my brains are disappearing!) come down! Early to bed as we were up early to catch our next Oz Bus to Byron Bay!
Uncle Buck was the man behind the wheel this time, an alright bloke, bit of a boar but he could have been worse! Played some ring of fire on the way (you have to change seats everytime ring of fire comes up in the song!), not much to see on the way as the rain was still coming down!
Not looking forward to getting to Byron, only cause we are booked to camp at the Arts Factory and if this rain continues, we are gunna be soaked through! And yep, sure enough that was it, it rained all day and all night! We managed to get the tent up in like 3 minutes in the rain cause they didn't have any spare rooms left, so all our stuff was wet, our bags, the inside of the tent, us! Nightmare! Sacked it off and went to the bar for some food and to borrow the toilet dryers to dry us out! Managed to slide down a $5 steak and a few beers, not bad! Haha Fleur offered us the floor in her hostel and so did Brad but no point - it was all soaked already so might as well sit it out! No sleep, more wetness, getting shivers…..not happy bunnies in the morning so that was that, we checked out n got us into a cosy lil hostel down the road!! Slept the rest of day while our stuff was washed and dried, then we went to meet the Oz Bus people for some well earned drinking games and a night of some serious dancing!!
We all headed to Brads hostel for the drinking games and we put away lots of goon! Learnt some new games of his German roommates, then to Cheeky Monkies it was, let the night begin! Very drunk here, had to be taken home, cant remember much after the dancing on the tables began, but that was all of us, not just me lol!
Wicked night! Not good in the morning though, cause we were up and about early with Fleur to do the walk to the famous Lighthouse. A long walk to it, up through the rainforest in the blazing heat, but nice coastal views along the way and then we made it to the most easterly point of the Australian mainland! What a result! The walk killed us like, to the point where we asked some old couple to drop us back in the city haha! And they did! Lol, talking like they were about 75ish! Haha! We felt good after seeing the lighthouse, it was a lovely place, and the views were unbelievable, check out the photos to see what im talking about! Byron Bay….done!
The weekend already and this was the weekend we had been looking forward to for a while, it was Surf Camp weekend!!! This was where we got our free surf lessons for being on the Oz Bus! Wicked hey!
Squirtel was the man to drive us there and our group was wicked, we had met back up with the two Matts, Cat, Shirley, Liz and others I cant remember! Wicked group to do our lessons with. The drive was long but good company makes up for it. It was straight into it, we had to get changed into our sexy wetsuits, get waxed up and learn all we could about the surf! First we were taught about the water itself and the swells, and rips and some other cool dude sayings! Then it came to the skill - try it and see how you get on! So off we went, in twos to carry our big soft surf boards down to the beach. Once on the sand our instructor showed us how to get up on the board properly and a few handy hints then we hit the surf. It was cool, I was bricking it cause when I go under water I have to hold my nose - yeah yeah I no I no! saddo, but I cant handle the water up my nose, so I was feeling bit pressure, but the adrenaline took over and I was in there, or should I say up there! Yep, I made it, I was surfing, we all did really well, we all managed to get up and come in on the board! We were well chuffed! Especially me cause I thought I banished my fear of the water up nose thing cause I was wiped out all over the place and it didn't bother me in the slightest!! Yeah, yeah, I no, sad!! Awesome! We were in the water for over an hour surfing our lil butts off and it was tiring. It weren't the actual surfing that knackered you out, it was the carrying the surf board back into the depth where the waves were, that was the killer!
A shower and then to the free dinner - bonus it was a roast with all the trimmings!! Lush! We all sat around the camp fire (no singing of kum-by-ar though - sorry to disappoint!) and one of the blokes that works at surf camp called Brett, was singing whilst playing his guitar. He was really good! Like really good! He was from Canada and was singing some cover songs but played a lot of stuff that he wrote himself! Really good voice. That led us onto finding out how mad all the guys were that work there are! Oh my days, off there heads!! Once Brett done his singing the lads done what they call the Wax Box Challenge! This comprised of them putting this cardboard box (full of wax) around/over the campfire. They all took up a position as close to the fire as pos, and sit it out! Obviously the fire went mad with the wax and it was sooo hot!! Lol, they were sat there for maybe a minute before they all started to bail out apart from 2 of them, they were laughing and shouting that there legs were burning and still they sat there haha! Classic! Funny stuff! Mental night!
We had booked to stay and camp at surf camp for extra days than the rest cause we wanted to get some practice in, plus Fleur was there for her extra paid lessons too. It was so cheap to camp there so that's what we did, set up our pitch and that was us sorted! the weather was awesome by the Sunday, so more surf in the sun, dossing on the beach, bat and ball, and drinking and free food with the crazy lads was how we finished the week!!