This week we did some shopping at pacific fair alongside a good coffee and some tasty sushi for tea. Next day we took a family trip to Nandos as a special treat. Then we went for a longer drive to visit Brisbane for the day, we got quite lost in the city trying to find an appropriate car park that didn't charge $20 per hour! We found a spot near southbank park and had a nice walk about. We stopped at K-Mart on the way home, one of my favourite shops here! They have everything for a cheap price! That and the reject store which has branded products for the fraction of the price because they're in Thai etc, brilliant! We bought some stuffed pillow pets because their just the right neck support for travelling! So mike and I have pandas called Paul and Percibauld, Jen has a male pink butterfly called Bruno and Amy has a frog called Frampton.
Yesterday we had a quiet day, booked some activities and tried out a new gym trial. We are travelling like pros and using up the free trials at various different gyms in the area. We had a Dominos as it was cheap Tuesdays and spontaneously decided to spend the evening in the cinema. We watched Last Vegas which went down a lot better than Wolf on Wall Street.
Today I did the 'be a trainer for the day' programme at SeaWorld. It was very good, glad I did it. We started off with the seals backstage, saw their bedrooms and pools and watched behind the scenes as the show was performed. Very interested learning about how they are trained and kept while huge sea lions ran or slid past us being led to their positions. There was also a large pelican that was part of the show, he was in breeding season so was a little hyped up and kept eyeing us up for a bite with his big beak, very funny when he refused to go back to his 'bed' and made a dash back to the stage. They said it doesn't always smoothly, one seal once managed to get into a fridge- ate far too many fish... Burped, was sick everywhere, pooed everywhere then passed out! He was fine just had a bit of a binge. Another seal escaped into the big show pool in the park for jet ski stunt shows and couldn't be caught for 2 months. After the show we partook in some training with the newer, smaller seals where someone taps and they have to work out who the sound was coming for. One was a cheeky, naughty little fella who enjoyed training so much he refused to go back to his bedroom.
We met Charlie the big sea lion and had a good pat and a wet cuddle with him and then suited up to get in with the dolphins. We met 2 dolphins originally in the water but focused with one on her training time, we got to stroke and pat her, watch some of her behaviours she's learnt, watched as she swam underneath us and showed off twisting through the water, had a water fight with her, danced with her and shook her fins :) it was very cool, loved it. They felt very smooth and rubbery with very human eyes that were always watching you inquisitively, she seemed very happy to show off and spend some time with us. We went back later on to meet a lot more dolphins and get close to them from the waters edge. One was a bit playful and launched herself at our guide perched on the edge of the pontoon making us all jump! Another really cute dolphin was in a training lesson and you could see all she wanted to do was please us so when she didn't get it right and get rewarded she got sulky and wouldn't come back straight away to try again!
After the dolphins we headed to the private areas of the polar bear enclosure, we saw their big bedrooms and playground areas away from the public eye. Lea and Henry (mum and cub) were cuddling up snoozing when we got there, we were watching close, but behind the strong bars obviously! Henry soon got up though and signalled he was hungry, balled into Lea after making a racket to get her to move and started feeding! Cubs make an unexpected constant low purring/rasping noise when feeding which was interesting to experience. He then came up close to see who we were and then was quite happy filleting some fish he got given. We were learning a lot about them chatting for a while while watching them, Henry forgot we were there because when we moved to he closer he jumped out his skin! Mum signalled for him to come back with morse code grunts but was then quite happy to keep and eye on him from a distance! It was a very good day, learnt a lot and saw a lot of what happens with the animals behind the scenes. Great experiences :)