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We departed Port Douglas and headed to Noosa Heads, we had a slight panic the day before the flight as we had to buy more luggage allowance, considering we are backpacking we were amazed we had 50kgs of luggage, especially considering we only left the UK with 30kgs. We got picked up at 515 for our 830 flight, so had a little time to kill, we even made it first to the gate, much to Ryan's excitement we were on the plan first too. 2 hours later we had landed in Brisbane. We had booked for an 1150 bus to Noosa but managed to get the 1050 one as our bags came through really quickly, Maz shot off to get the bus and left Ryan to carry the the most of the luggage. Another 2 hour journey and he were being dropped off at hour new accommodation, not a tent with Lino flooring, but a room with a double bed, the walls were thin, not as thin a Koh phi phi though.
Once linda, bruce and Paul arrived we were able to organize ourselves, the first on the hit list was Australia zoo, so we set a day aside for it. Paul wanted to see a koala in the wild, so we headed of on a nature trail through the national park. We didn't see any Koalas, they move around and don't eat from the same tree they sleep in. However we did get to see dolphins up close and hump back whales from a distance, all from a viewing point called hells gate. An appropriate place to stop for lunch.
We met up with some friends from Laos on one of the evenings, we chatted, loads and even enjoyed some red wine from tea mugs. It was nice to catch up with Heather and David, swapping funny stories, however were slightly jealous that they've rented an amazing van. We met again for breakfast before we headed off to Australia zoo for the day.
The zoo was amazing, we got to watch otters being fed and also listened to a talk about them in the wild around Asia. We wandered around the zoo looking at Tasmanian devils, dingos, cassowaries before we eventually came up to the first koala zone, lots of the cuddle looking animals sat in the trees, one even had a baby clinging to it. We arrived at the crocoseum a little before 1130 when the show would start, we fed some goats before taking up some seats, Steve Irwin's daughter performed some songs to the kids about animals before the croc show got underway. We were informed that they were filming the title sequence to a new show called Steve Irwin's wild life warriors. We had to shout it out about 10 before they bought the animals out. It started with a bird show featuring, macaws, lorikeets and a massive vulture. Various other birds got involved but we think they were actually wild ones! Then the croc came out, Murray was his name. They got him to simulate a death roll, pretty scary glad we were on the right side of the fence, even the clapping sound made from his jaws closing gave us goose bumps.
The show finished and we carried on looking at animals, we found another area where we got to touch and pose with a koala, and pat a wombat as it was being taken for a walk around the park. We tried to feed kangaroos but as it was baking hot and coming towards the end of the day most weren't interested.
Eventually we had to head back to the main entrance as we had to catch the bus home but we stopped in the animal hospital set up by Steve Irwin's parents many years ago to see work being performed on a pelican and other injured koalas recovering from various injuries. The zoo was a great day out and they are still very passionate about animals and Steve.
Our last chill out day in Noosa we spent on the river in a pontoon boat. We even rented some fishing rods, we took a slow cruise up the river and found a spot where we chilled our, chatted, and did some fishing. Ryan caught 2 grunting breams and his finger, Paul only managed to catch the anchor and Bruce's line got broken, we can only imagine, by a monstrous fish! With no one willing to hold the fish as they flapped like crazy feet were used to hold it down in order to get the hook out and then gently kick it back into the water. Even the worms didn't like being put on the hooks as they tried to bite you. Skipper Bruce did a fine job navigating the river and we didn't capsize.
We met with Diane and Tony's, friends of Linda and Bruce that moved to NZ and haven't seen each other in 15 years. we spent our evenings in their rented apartment as it had the most space, we all cooked meals, chatted laughed and played lots of card games.
Sadly the holiday eventually came to an end, and the family heading home we waited to be pick up by Kim and Matt to head to Brisbane.
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