100% confusion!
Trip Start
May 06, 2006
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56
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Trip End
Mar 23, 2009
Brisbane,
Australia
Friday, June 8, 2007
After a busy yet also relaxing 6 days with John and Sue I left them to go and stay in beautiful Byron Bay for a few nights. I managed a few more visits with John and Sue. We went to the hippy and drug filled town of Nimbin - considering it's so well known it's amazing that it's just one tiny street! Nice that it hasn't become a big tourist attraction in terms of chain companies - none of that stuff there!
I also took a lovely walk around the roads by their house and came across a very friendly 'dog' whose owner I was looking around for and I was slightly worried when I couldn't find one. It had no collar and I decided there wasn't really much I could do about it... it wasn't until my visit to Dreamworld (zoo/theme park) that I realised this animal I encountered was a wild Dingo! How cool is that? I'd much prefer that to the number of dangerous snakes I could've bumped into!
So, I left there last Wednesday and stayed in Byron for 2 nights. I met some cool people at the hostel and got to go out, get drunk and dance with them! Something I haven't done for a very long time (the dancing part at least!). It was a great night but it didn't do well for my bus ride to Nimbin the next day! All very windy roads in a bumpy bus but I made it without being ill!
I then spent 2 nights in Nimbin which were very quiet and very relaxing. The first night there wasn't anyone else there but the second night we had a bit of a jam around the camp fire with a little group! I also saw a massive Carpet Python sitting on top of the light in the bathroom - I went back to take a photo and it was gone so I decided to steer clear of that bathroom for the rest of the day!!
Nicely chilled out I left Nimbin to come to Brisbane to stay with John and Sue's son, Christian who I haven't seen since I was about 9, and his girlfriend, Lucy, which is where I am now!
On Tuesday Christian and I headed to Dreamworld for a day of fun! The rides were amazing and it's been a long time since I went to a proper theme park and we took advantage of the cheesy photo opportunities - some of which I will add to this entry! I got to touch kangeroos (I got a bit carried away with the photos) and saw some very cute koalas! They also had two baby sumatran tiger cubs but you had to pay an extra $60 (about 25 quid!) to go in with them which was the cost to get into the theme park so we skipped that! I did get to see them play in an environment nothing like our cubs had though - so much room compared to our poor cubs.
01 Bring a bong!
I also saw the show they do which was pretty amazing - fascinating how you can get a tiger to behave without forcing it to do things and showing it the respect it deserves. Like the cubs, they also had a lot of room to roam around.On Wednesday I arranged a visit to Australia Zoo (the one Steve Irwin set up). I'd met a guy at the temple who works there and said to call him when I got here so that I did! Yet another place where the tigers are better off than at the temple. It actually almost made me cry thinking of our poor tigers in Thailand. I got the behind the scenes tour so I got to see the cages, the off show enclosures and the freezer full of dead animals for food - mmmm yum! The tigers have a great life there and I so want my baby to join them! However, the tigers there didn't really like me being in 'their territory' and were quite clearly hunting me as I walked by... a little disconcerting to say the least!
While there I got to touch more kangeroos and a cute little koala as well as see the crocodile show... the atmosphere wasn't too great thanks to the very poor weather. The 'Croceseum' holds 5000 people and the number of people that visited the zoo that day was only 600... about 100 of which attended the show I was at! Was great 'cos you had sole view of most of the animals but I felt sorry for the staff putting on the show trying to get the crowd going!
All in all a great few weeks. I'm still having problems with my Oz visa and my New Zealand one still hasn't been approved which is a little worrying but I'm off there this weekend (once I've booked the flight!) so hopefully that will come through soon so I can start work! For now I'm staying in Lucy and Christian's beautiful house and they're both such amazingly generous people. We've been visiting Lucy's family a lot and they're a great and fun family to spend time with!
I've loved Australia and the people here are so willing to help you out with a place to stay either with them or they offer up the homes of their friends - a great way to get to know the country properly and experience more of the Oz life. My only issue is the confusing prospect of more permanent jobs! I thought traveling would help me decide but it's just opened up more doors confusing the situation... I have found that making contacts in the zoo world has been a whole lot easier than making them in the media world!
Anyway, time to get off and go and get some lunch somewhere. I've added a lot of pictures to the last entry and there should also be some with this one so take a look if you have time! Hope all is well with everyone and I'll try to reply to all your emails today!
