Jan 27th 2006

Thought I'd update my journal now in the hostel while I have the chance - won't let me put pics on tho so will just have to do this for now!

So I left Brisbane a couple of days ago and met a few english girls on my bus staying at the same place as me in Noosa, and one (ally) for same amt of time too. On the way to Noosa we stopped at the Glasshouse Mountains and did a small hike to the Wild Horse Lookout tower to get a good view of the mountains, the tower is also used to spot fires in the valleys (we were also told that a woman died in our exact spot a couple of weeks ago when lightening struck the tin roof - nice!) The mts are volcanic structures named by Capt Cook and we were also told the aborignal story about their existence - supposed to represent a mum, dad and son .... complicated story!

Noosa is a pretty trendy place where all the celebs hang out (Pierce Brosnan was here 2 wks ago) A little like Byron Bay but more to it and more upmarket. Instead of hitting the main beach we decided to do the coastal wark along the edge of the national park and to Sunshine Beach, it tok 2.5hrs and god it was hot and not an easy trek in places!! Saw a few good sights though, koalas in wild, rays and turtles in sea, and a few nudists on the beach too! There's enough to do here for a few days with the diff beaches and national parks (and of course Oz Zoo) basically its well known as a place to come and chill out!

So yesterday was Australia Day (thanks for the 4.30am msg kate!) and I got the free bus from Noosa to Australia Zoo! On the bus they showed films of Steve's autobiography showing how he got involved in it all, never knew he started from such a young age - there were ints with his mum and dad too. Cos today was Australia Day they had an Ozzy Icon and apparently legend singing live - cant remember his name tho, how bad!!! It was either John Williamson or Harrison?? He sang lots of oz songs in the Crocosuem for a while and was good mates with Steve - even made up and sang a song at his memorial. Then the wildlife warriors started their show with snakes, birds and crocs, it was so good!! Couldnt believe the size of the snakes they bought out and the crocs too, crikey! Me and Ally then went round the rest of the zoo, its so well set out and has all the typical oz animals (koalas, roos, echidnas, crocs, snakes, wombats etc - and a few tigers and elephants too - no utans soory mum!) They employ 450 staff and theres always someone in khaki hanging around the enclosures to tell you about the animals so that was good and diff from other zoos. The also have lots of shows on as well, we saw the croc feeding session that Steve used to do, pretty scary watching it so close and the keepers are so brave, one of the crocs - Agro - was huge and even Steve used to have trouble with him, was awesome to watch up close though! Theres still pics of steve all round the zoo and even weirder pics of when Steve actually caught each of he animals. Also saw a film of little Robert - he's so cute and lookin just like his dad! They still have all the memorial khaki shirts and other tributes on a wall for Steve under the crocosuem, so sad reading all the messages. They've even renamed the road into the zoo 'Steve Irwin's Way'. Zoo was really good though and the staff are so passionate about all the animals there and have such big plans for the future, the animals are really well looked after too, the roos and koalas even have little rest areas and signs when they're taking their breaks ha ha, I need one of them!

So thats my time in Noosa, off today to Rainbow Beach for one night and then its onto Hervey Bay ready to start my 3 day fraser island adventure on Mon! Hope I feel better for it tho, got such swollen throat and chesty cough, had it for last few days and doesnt seem to be shifting - been having such early nights too to try and clear it! Still havin fun though!

Ang xx