Written 24th September 2011

G'day!

I am currently sat at Gate 81 in Brisbane Airport waiting to fly to New Zealand. Don't worry though, I'm not a day early I have changed my flight so that I can spend a full day in Auckland rather than just an evening. Having done pretty much done all Brisbane has to offer my time in Australia has come to an end.

The past week has been great! I have been staying with Shelia, Bob and Maddy the dog and have had a really good few days out to various places I will write about in a minute. I have also been emailing non stop different people around the world to try and sort out New Zealand. I now have a bed booked for every night and I am also booked on all the buses. I suddenly realised at the start of the week that I had better think about booking things in because of the world cup… good job I did as its pretty much full already!

Australia Zoo was our first day out. Shelia and I set off early and drove about one and a half hours north before finally hitting 'Steve Irwin Way!' As we drove down the road to the zoo I was snapping away at the road signs and thought it was fitting to put Elton John's Crocodile Rock on my Ipod. I thought it was hilarious, not sure what Shelia thought! As we entered the 'Steve Irwin World' there was pictures of him everywhere and in most places you could see the word 'CRIKEY!' It was pretty cool to think I was in 'his' zoo. I remember watching his shows as a kid and watching the memorial service in the 'Crocoseum' when he died, it never crossed my mind I might get the chance to go to the zoo in Australia so I was a pleasant surprise 

We walked though all the crocodile enclosures and saw the massive beasts not really doing much to be honest. It wasn't quite like you used to see them on TV! But then it was time for the show… On the way to the 'Crocoseum', I love the name, we walked past some huge Tortoise not really doing too much, but I suppose that's what Tortoise do… The show started with two African guys doing a song and dance, the zoo has literally just opened a new part called, Africa, more about this later. After the random song and dance a guy appeared who got the audience going. It was good fun shouting louder than the other half of the stadium, we won  Then they introduced some Asian Elephants and a load of different birds. They literally nearly took your head off! There were some really small ones, weird ones, and then a massive Vulture flew in. But then after the warm up it was time to see what everyone had come to see. Now at the moment in Queensland it is the school holidays so all the children are off school, believe it or not. This includes Robert and Bindi Irwin! So unlike the average child that maybe goes to the beach with mum and dad in the holls, Robert and Bindi feed crocodiles with mum, just like their dad! Family Irwin ran out of a smoke machine, not literally, and got a huge cheer from their many fans. It was kind of cool to see the girl I had watched speaking at the service I watched on TV now grown up and doing what her dad did. After a little sketch, which basically had a go at Channel 7 after they gave the family grief when Steve fed a crocodile with baby Robert, now 7, in his arms, they brought the crocodiles out! These too seemed to swim out of the smoke machine. The chosen croc for the day was Digger who apparently is a, 'beautiful ripper of a crocodile.' What they do with the crocs is crazy! Wes, Steve's right hand man, doesn't hesitate to jump in the water and wait until the croc is about 2m away from him before jumping out. They showed us how they move, swim and told us some facts about him before feeding time! Mrs Irwin, Terri, was the first to feed the croc, she approached the water dangling a massive sausage towards the croc. The big b***** was interested but didn't make a move to get it. After another go she decided to let Bindi, 13, have a go. First she stood on a platform over the water and with the assistance of Wes dangled the food over the edge. The croc swam over, waited…. SNAP! It launched itself out of the water and she dropped the food into its mouth! After a few goes like this it was time for desert. A rat! The same method was used and…. SNAP! She missed.

Update: I have just taken off… I sat in seat 56H and bizarrely have just been watching an ex All Black player's documentary of his trip around Egypt. He is doing exactly the same route as me more or less and even went to the same restaurant at the Nubian Village! It's a small world 

Anyway… back to Bindi, stupid name!

Then she moved to the other side of the pool and was swiftly followed by Digger. Bindi, don't forget age 13, then started to stamp on the ground and wave the meet in front of the croc! It headed towards her. Now alone and showing us all her real talent she enticed the croc out of the water, let in run along the floor and threw the sausage into its mouth just as it snapped! It was crazy to watch! She did this a number of times and I was well impressed… she certainly does her dad proud! Feeding time over, it was time for digger to swim back home and one way the like to do this is by getting it to chase Wes. The crazy fool dived in the water and swam the way they wanted Digger to go. Continuously looking behind him he swam literally for his life with a 2m plus croc swimming after him! Rather him than me! It was a great show and fantastic to see the Irwin's doing what the Irwin's do best and doing their dad proud!

After the show we decided to do some souvenir shopping. I bought yet another shot glass and Shelia kindly bought me a calendar for 2012. How good will that look in my classroom! Just as we were leaving Terri Irwin walked though the shop! She kindly let me have my picture with her before heading off… how cool is that! We then wondered around a few more of the reptile animals checking out a gigantic snake etc… We then went to Africa for our lunch! Literally opened last week Africa contains 3 Giraffe, 3 Rhino's and 3 Zebra. All of them had a funny orange tint due to the orange mud! We also saw a Leopard being taken for a walk around Madagascar island… I think I have now seen the 'BIG 5' on my world tour as the Africa in Australia made up for the lack of animals seen on my real African Safari.

We then returned to the main park and went to watch Bluey being fed. This was just like the other show just in a smaller area and when the guy tempted the croc out the water the thing came running! The guy chucked it the meet and then said, 'Crikey… that came quicker than I expected!' Enough said…

After this we boarded the shuttle bus and went to see the Tigers. They were well cool! We got their just as the show was ending and were able to stand right at the glass which looked into the pool and Tiger play area. The mental staff were pulling and pushing and fighting with the Tigers for toys and making them run, jump and swim. It was fantastic to watch and I was mesmerised! I stood and watched for about 30 mins! After this we walked back to the main park through the bird-less aviary, sleeping wombats, sleeping koala's and slithering snakes! To top the great day off I had a jumping picture in front of a poster of Steve jumping! CRIKEY… What a day!

So after our day out at Australia Zoo we decided that it was time to explore Brisbane City. In Sydney I had managed to get on a free walking tour that was excellent. So I found one in Brisbane on the internet and we were their and waiting at 11am. After a while we realised that nobody was going to turn up and after I asked at the café nearby it was confirmed that the tours were no longer running. Great! So with no tour to do we decided a trip to tourist information was in order. Luckily their free walking tour was starting at 12pm  We did a bit of shopping and then joined the group. We walked all around the CBD in Brisbane and listened to all their so called history. Queensland was initially the place where convicts from England were sent if they re-offended after arriving in Sydney. A nice place to be! Many of the Brisbane building were built to basically replace a smaller version that was outgrown. These were all pointed out to us. It was a good walk but once we arrived a the Botanic Gardens we were ready for our lunch so left the tour and had a picnic in the park  I also managed to convince Shelia to have a jumping picture with me! You can decide by looking on Facebook if it was successful!  We then boarded the City Cat ferry and went for a trip up and back down the river. In the glorious sunshine and 30 degree temperatures we sailed past all the amazing riverside mansions and boats! The best way to see Brisbane is defiantly from the water! We got off the City Cat at Southbank and went to a café for a Chocolate milkshake with ice cream! Very nice  After a walk back along the 'beach' we boarded the bus and headed home. A good day in the city was capped with a great cruise on the river, great idea Shelia!

The following day it was time to experience a Gold Coast theme park, Dreamworld! Michelle had a terrible migraine so she was able to join us and there was no stopping Shelia and her on the rides! They knew where everything was and which ones were the best, I had theme park tour guides for the day. We had a great day and had great fun riding loads of rides. The main ones were, Tower of Terror, The 'Awful' Claw and Buzz Saw. I lost count how many times I went upside down and inside out throughout the day! Dreamworld also has a Lazer Quest in the park so after lunch we decided to try our hand at shooting each other. I was nicknamed 'Peicemaker'. I went into the dark room with a load of kids quietly confident. After 15 mins of ducking, diving and shooting, we all went out waiting for the scores. Michelle had 360 ish, Shelia 500, Myself 2640! My team Yellow Team won! I am also proud to say I was top scorer on the Yellow team and was 2nd overall, GET IN! It was then back to the car and a drive home as we were knackered!

So my last day with Shelia was spent at Surfers Paradise. We parked the car a Broadbeach and walked all the way along the gigantic beach to Surfers. It is just a load of high rise skyscrapers along the beach. It looks great from a distance and is tourist central. The beach was great but Surfers itself looked pretty awful! The crazy thing is there were no actual surfers surfing in Surfers Paradise!

That evening I moved back to Michelle's as Shelia went off to a Clogging weekend away. Oh ye I forgot to mention… on my 2nd night with Shelia it was Clogging night! I said I wanted to go along and was amazed. They are not normal traditional clogs but tap dancing shoes with a loose metal bit so it makes a right racket! The whole idea is a mixture between line dancing and tap dancing. It looked very complicated with a load of different names for different steps. It was great to see Shelia doing her thing though!

Anyway… Back to my last night! Symphony Under the Stars! Brilliant! As part of the Brisbane Festival I again got a chance to boost my Classical music IQ! Michelle, Steve and I all went along to the racecourse to find a massive stage and about 5000 people! We sat down on a rug and watched the Queensland Symphony Orchestra play some classics that we could all whistle and clap along to. It was a great way to end my time in Australia.

So after a week of emailing I finally got to change my flight to a day earlier to allow me to spend a full day in Auckland, by the way it has been an awesome day but more about that later. A month or driving along amazing roads, hiking, biking, amazing views, bird watching, jumping out of plane, sailing, surfing, diving, coming face to face with crazy animals, meeting family and friends, meeting some new amazing people and most surprisingly recognising my love for classical music! That last part was slightly over exaggerated! It had a great time in Australia in both to cold and hot parts. Now it is time to move on to New Zealand to see some more of this beautiful part of the world and get some real adrenalin rushes!

Here's to good times in NZ and reaching the furthest point away from home on my tour!

Over and out!

Tom x