Steve Irwin Zoo!!! And Goodbye Campervan!!

The next morning we awoke bright and early - I swear these southerners wouldn't let us lie in!!! We left camp and headed off to finally find Steve Irwin Zoo!!! We arrived before the place even opened and made up our packed lunch for the day and got suncream on - It was sooooooo hot!!! We got to the desk & found out in was $50 each - 25quid to go to a zoo... rip off!!! However you can't miss out the legend that was steve irwin, so we headed in!!

While we were stood in the foyer waiting for everyone getting organised we were watching one of Steve Irwins shows - & HE WAS IN BUKIT LAWANG WITH THE ORANGUTANS!!!! How weird, me & debs actually recognised the hostel we stayed at & everything!!! Completely surreal!!!

Anyway we headed out into the zoo & the first animal we saw was a Komodo Dragon!!! They are huge, slightly glad we didn't go to Komodo Island as there they are running free around hostels looking for rubbish!!! Seeing them wild would be crazy!!!

So we wandered through the zoo & those who hadn't been to SE Asia were amazed at being able to hold a snake & a koala, and being able to touch an elephant, but as me & Debs are veterans of the animal kingdom we weren't that impressed!!!

We went to wacth the supposedly world famous Croc show, which was smart but again made really cheesy by the presenters & stuff!!! At one point they were trying to interact with the crowd and were asking people to pretend to be certain animals to win stuff & all seven of us were gorrillas!! Ended up being gorrillas for about 1000 people as we were on the big screen!!!! but we won a photo of Mrs Irwin feeding a croc!

Throughout the day we caught different shows but mostly just browsed through checking out different stuff!! We got to the tigers but they wernt doing too much, so after quite a good day we headed back out to the car park & carried on down the coast to a city called 'Surfers Paradise' - what a ridicolous name for a city - to meet Paula (our irish buddy who we met in Thailand, and who we're living with for the next 4 months! Hadnt seen her since Xmas, was great to catch up!) and so the Fraser 7 and Paula all had a beasty night out before the group parted & went their different ways!!!

We landed at about 5pm and got settled in the most expensive campsite ever... and naturally started on the goon!!! As we were running out me, Ryan & Sam headed off to grabs some more & ended up wandering around for 2 hours in an attempt to find a bottle shop!!! Eventually however we managed to get back to camp and get some drinkin done!! That night was a cracker!!! Went to an Irish bar for a couple of hours and got tanked up, then tried to get into the next pub but Ryan was pulled for ID & had left it at the campsite!! So we went to get a taxi to get back to find the biggest queue ever!!! Ryan, who doesn't care about money at all, heads straight to a 'rent-a-limo' & gets in!!!! Couldn't believe it, picking up ID in style!! Ended up costing him 30 quid for a 5 minute journey!!! ha!

The next day we said goodbye to our good friends Hannah, Kirsty & Charlotte, and took Ryan & Sam to the train station so they could get back to Brisbane!! It was quite sad saying bye to all our pals but at the same time was exciting as the new part of the trip was just starting with Paula!! When we had left the southern lot we headed to Jen & Tims house (Paula's sister & her husband). They were really welocming, proper nice people... especially since they have 9 month old Emily!!! That night we chilled in a house for the first time in 6 months and watched the TV!!! It was great! We slept in the van and the next day we drove back up to Brisbane to drop it off.

However when we landed in Brisbane it was a comple maze of one ways systems!!! It was so frustrating!! However we managed eventually to find the 'Wicked' place, ready so we knew where it was for the following day when we were giving it back!! So we went and found a campsite which was quite cheap and unpacked the van!!

What a blag!! As we had not even looked at our backpacks since Cairns we didn't realise how much crap we had accumulated!! Took about 2 hours to get everythng packed & the van cleaned!! Straight to bed after that and ready for the next day!!

We were up bright and early, dropped the van off - then went into the offices & sorted out the small fact that they owed us near 800 quid!!! Cheeky b*****s!!! Somehow they'd paid some other lucky git the deposit they owed us!

From there we marched through Brisbane with not only backpacks but two big shopping bags full of food & stuff we had been keeping in the van!! Was completely knackered when we got to the train station!! From Brisbane we went back to Surfers and dropped all our stuff off at Jens house again as she kindly told us we could stay for a while until we had some lodgings of our own!!

We worked out that camping was by far the cheapest way of living so that afternoon we went and bought a tent, a sleeping bag, some paper plates & cutlery & stuff!! The next day debs managed to sort out a campsite that was well cheap & we had both rung up & got a job interview in place!! How bloody organised!!?? To be fair it was Jen & Tim who told us there were loads of call centre work, she even gave us the number of one she used to work at!!!

So that takes us up to present day. All we've been doing is working, living in a tent, being looked after by Jen and playing out with Paula at the weekend. Will fill you in with the details of the last couple of weeks in Surfers Paradise in the next blog. It will probably be a good 3 weeks from now though......AS TOMMY HARGREAVES IS COMING OUT TO OZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope you've enjoyed this installment of blogs and pics, vids should be up as soon as the site works. Sorry again that you get so much at once and then nothing for ages.......oh well!

Miss you all, bye bye for now!!!!!!

The travellers xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx