First on the list was the Australia zoo, owned by the family members of deceased Steve Irwin. After paying our tributes to Steve's shrine, we fed some kangaroos and elephants, learned lots about koala's while watching them nap, and saw the world famous crocosium along with a bunch of other large reptiles. It was a fun day, but the highlight certainly was Dani getting to feed and hang out with the Kangaroos. To say she kind of likes them would be an understatement.
Following our day at the Zoo we headed north to hang out on the beach in Noosa for a couple of days. The sun was out, the surf was coming in, and the beach was gorgeous (maybe a little crowded for our preference, but you could understand why). Courtney and Danielle proceeded to begin burning themselves into oblivion while I received a beautiful golden tan. We ended up purchasing a couple boogie boards, and after running into some friends from Patagonia (how random) borrowed a surf board. Boogie boarding as always was fun, while surfing as usual made me want to yell loudly and throw sand. I think Danielle's surfing experience was similar as she quit quickly to go burn herself.
After Noosa we headed up the coast to a little coastal town named 1770 for when captain james cook first landed in the state of Queensland. From here Courtney, Dani, and I headed out for an unforgettable day on the great barrier reef! This was undoubtedly the highlight of Australia for me. I had only snorkeled in Brazil prior to this, so i might be a bit of a newbie, but this was unreal! So many gorgeous fish all with different day glow colors in a backdrop of colorful reefs. It was unreal, I have never experienced anything similar to it before. The ship that we took out to the reef also catered us with some amazing food, and everything else fancy ships have to offer. Quite a fancy day out for us humble backpackers.
Following our day on the reef we headed south to bundaberg for a relaxing day before sending Dani on her way back down to Brisbane via greyhound. We said our goodbyes and sent the little one off on her own in the wild southern hemisphere. After doing this Courtney and I headed north as planned only to get caught up in the beef capital of Australia, Rockhampton. As a lot of you have heard, Australia has been facing some unbelievable natural disasters as of late. The international news has all centered around the bush fires in the state of Victoria in the south, however the top half of Australia has been experiencing crazy flooding. The flooding in the north put a bit of a detour on our plans to head up that way, and we spent a couple of days in a hotel in rockhampton. It was nice to have a room while it poured rain outside.After the downpour we changed plans and instead of heading up north made arrangements to camp on great kepple island. The weather had cleared up a bit for us and we made it out to the island and met the holiday parks owner fergie. He asked us if we were interested in making a deal. Of course we were. We ended up working three hours in the morning for free accommodation in one of his fancy tents with a double bed and a porch. This little arrangement made it possible for us to stay out on the island a little longer than anticipated and we spent four days working in the morning and hanging out on the beach in the afternoon when it wasn't raining on us. We got free snorkeling equipment and went out three different times. I saw a big sting ray that scared the crap out of me after visiting Mr Erwin's shrine at the Australia zoo. Later on a kayaking/snorkeling expedition that was definitely the highlight of the trip out to the island, Courtney and I saw a big sea turtle along with some more amazing fish.
After this trip we turned around and started heading south back to brisbane to catch our flight to malaysia. We spent a day beaching it at rainbow beach, and made our way to byron bay (where we currently are). We are trying to take care of all the odds and ins that can be accomplished in a developed country that speaks our language before taking on SE Asia for the next two and a half months.All the photos from Australia have been uploaded on to Picasa, as well as those that Dani had from NZ. We just found out that my mom's home in Fort Collins will be available for us to move in to at the beginning of May and we are quite excited. This means we will be moving there provided Courtney gets into school. This also means I need a job, which might be hard to come by now days... so if anyone who reads this has a contact in fort collins, let me know.
We picked Joe's sister, Dani, up in Christchurch on January 16th, and she quickly fell into our well defined groove. Joe, being the character we all know and love, decided that we just had to wear goofy outfits to greet Dani in style. A perfect welcoming.
Day hike at Rob Roy Glacier outside Wanaka.
Rees-Dart. 4 days, 3 nights. A pretty burly trek. Our first day was a gruling 11 hours. Dani's feet almost fell off. Like most tough treks, the views were undeniably worth it.
