Ok so we last left you at surfers paradise. From there we drove upto Brisbane, now Brisbane is quite a big place so we expected there to be loads to see and do however it is mainly centered around business so that thought was dashed! We did take a wonder round and found a church which looked like a cartoon one in the middle of a building site as they were putting sky scrapers up around it, which made it look totaly out of place. There is a man made beach in the city right next to the river, now this may be hard for you to imagine so obviously we got some proof. The sand is taken from a natural beach but the water has that distinct pool chlorine smell, but it does come equiped with real life guard and mini pier!!!! Pretty cool for the kids in the city as its hours from a real beach. While there we sorted out a PO Box for the post office in Cairns so David could have his renewal driving licence forms sent out as it expires while we are away!! Just our luck!!!! That was it really for this stop and was just over half a day so we set out to the next stop before dark.

The next stop was Caloundra which was a near base to Australia Zoo for the next day, otherwise known as "the home of the crocodile hunter" Steve Irwin... As it was coming dark and the campsite prices were still a rip off due to school holidays we had opted for a roadside stopover. We drove the coast road until we found a place called Shelley beach, off the main road and with surfer shower and 24hr toilets, for anyone who doesnt know a surfer shower is the one as you come off a beach to wash the sand away and is normally the temperature of the North pole!!!!!!!! Here we stayed the night making shadows on the beach and watching the waves, as the night got on we realised this was no normal carpark by the beach!!???!! Several cars coming and going with single people wondering to and from the dark playground areas made us nosey, after some time of watching we realised we were in either a red light area or a dogging area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As it turns out it was quite amussing taking the mic as people were trying to sneak around and the four of us were stood on benches making the shadows making it quite clear we knew what was going on. Other campa vans had pulled up for the night as well so we were all quite safe and no we did not participate.

Next day awoke to the sea view and had breakfast so have a look at the pics for this one as was pretty cool. After breaky up Steve Irwin highway to the Zoo to be greeted by Stevo himself on a huge billboard as we entered. The huge tortoise's were the first stop and they are mega slow but can live to 200 years old so no rush! At the show arena Steve's wife Terri, daughter Bindi and son Robert hosted the crocodile show. To see how quickly they respond to the slightest water vibration is pretty scary but made a brilliant show. Here is a tip as long as you stay more than half the crocks body length from the waters edge you can move quicker than it will get to you, the same applies for any direction but beware the tail will kill you if it hits you right. Several types of birds also did a display some of which we could not get pictures of as they are the fastest in the world but come within the inches of your head as they wizz round the arena. Now what really amazed us is the keepers sat playing with water balloons and TIGERS in the asian area. The tigers paid no more attention to them than a domestic cat asking for you to throw its toy, but then like a dog chasing a car did not know what to do with the balloon when they caught it so just burst it then looked confused that it was gone!!! The elephants in the zoo obeyed the keepers every word which was very strange that something that big did so, however we pretty sure that when they have an off day they are allowed to do exactly what they want. Would you argue????? Think not! We did get to stroke a slighlty smaller animal, the fluffy koala. Good to be so close to these little fellows and not a shame they are there as most have come from the hospital the zoo has so have had a second chance at life in a suitable environment. From the zoo we went to a place called glasshouse mountains so named as captain cook thought they looked like thecooling towers of his home town glasshoughton in castleford. Obviously they look nothing like the present day ones, and they were formed from old volcanos. As the day had been so busy we stayed at the campsite just uo the road from the zoo to get an early nights rest.