The 23rd brought another long drive we said goodbye to New South Wales and entered our final province Queensland of our Australia trip. For whatever reason, probably the weather this is where our biggest concentration of family members are. We broke our trip stopping at Alan and Shelly in Mermaid Bay on the gold coast. Our half hour stop turned into lunch catching up with Pat and Derek who were over here from South Africa while the cuzzies spent the entire time in the pool. Oli treating David as a human surf board was quite entertaining. We left the gold coast and headed towards Brisbane to Bree and family. Our planning didn't take into account the fact that Queensland doesn't do daylight saving, we gained an hour which meant we had to BBQ in the dark. The children now had another cousin and new toys to play with. From here on we need to remember insect repellent as much as the sun block.

Buderim on the sunshine coast was our destination for Christmas Eve. After unloading and feasting on a gorgeous lunch compliments` of Celia our hostess with the mostess we stopped in at Robbie and Christine's holiday unit in Mooloolaba for a family BBQ and some more swimming.

Thanks to a late night the children slept in till about 7:30 to see if Santa had remembered we were in Australia. To their relief the sacks were full of gifts. Zoe and Oli took charge of handing out the tree gifts. Within minutes they were back in the pool where they stayed while the dinner prep started. We relaxed while Celia, Murray & Lauren prepared the most gorgeous dinner. Having Christmas dinner outside is fun and brings back childhood memories. The seafood starter that Robbie and Christine collected at 3am to avoid the queues was a huge hit. We all had our fair share of prawns and tried fresh crab and Moreton Bay bug. Thankfully we had a chef in our midst that cracked the bug and the crab. Between the divine cold cuts with salads and pudding the children were back in the pool for a swim in the dark. Worn out from a long day of swimming and eating they managed some Australian pavlova before heading to bed managing to sleep through party poppers. At this point we're strongly regretting not moving here fifteen years ago.

Our best Christmas gift was a combined gift from the Barkers a trip to Australia zoo. Murray and Ken joined us for the day. The Irwin family own and run the zoo very well. First up we went to the crocoseum for an animal show. Being slightly early we caught the end of Bindi's show which was a song and dance American style. The animal show was slick and very impressive. Birds of different species were taking part and flying in on cue swooping around us to enable us all to get a good view. The crocs came next where they were fed and provoked Disney style. It was Robert Irwins' first day feeding Graeme a giant croc that the late Steve Irwin had captured in a flood where he posed a threat to the nearby population. While being captured he had taken a bite out of one of the keepers bottoms, Steve stepped in to save the day. It's a bit strange seeing a young child feed this massive croc showbiz style. The zoo is set out very well with plenty shade and sprinklers to cool down under. We were allowed to pat and feed the wallabies and kangaroos in their enclosures. The koalas are not that easy to spot, there are signs on the trees they are in. We were allowed to pat them too. Sadly we learned they are facing extinction and probably won't survive more than the next 20 years. As they spend 18-20 hours a day sleeping and the rest eating they look quite dozy and exactly like soft toys, they are otherwise known as drop bears as they fall out of the trees while asleep. Interesting yet my least favourite section of the zoo was the snake enclosure. The maps indicate that the most dangerous snakes in this country live on this section of coastline; we are all getting quite good at looking around and checking everything before sitting on or touching anything. At the zoo some animals walk around freely like wild turkeys and huge lizards one of which had a dead bird in it's mouth. The turkeys sun bathe contorting their bodies making them look dead with broken wings and neck. After reporting a dead turkey to a member of staff it promptly stood up and walked off. We completed the zoo experience with a trip to the animal hospital next door. It looks like they have their work cut out for them here; covering a massive area they help everything from turtles that swallow fishing hooks to koalas with kidney problems. There were no operations taking place much to Oliver's dismay however we did see a fair amount of koalas convalescing in a ward.