Noosaville, Australia
Rain at the Beach
After several days of drizzle the sun finally came out again. We didn't let the mist hold us back - we swam in the pools at our Polynesian-like resort. Compared to the youth hostels we are now living the life of luxory with three pools surrounded by tropical palms gently blowing in the breeze filled with birds, including white parrots soaring overhead (four just flew by our porch), chirping, cawing, tweeting, screeching, hooting, etc., all day and night. Our 3 story townhouse/villa includes 3 bedrooms - aaah, this is the life.
The rain didn't phase us at Noosa Heads Beach as we body-surfed in between the rain drops. We have had two nice days at the beach- with multiple sunblock applications and swim shirts for all. Everyone here in Australia and in New Zealand is very conscientious about the sun and children without swim shirts are in the minority. At a pool in NZ we quickly realized Ben was going to be one of the only boys without a shirt and it gave him pause as to whether he would swim that day or not. Since then, since the ozone hole is above NZ and Oz, and the fact that everyone is wearing swim shirts, we all bought ourselves swim shirts and are protected and fit right in. In New Zealand everyone was wearing the long sleeve swim shirt but I just couldn't go that far yet - we got short sleeve shirts. Today at Noosa beach we actually saw kids in full body bathing suits. The water is really warm and delicious to swim in so these were not wetsuits but bathing suits made of regular bathing suit material but covering from wrist to ankle. (I'm sure the fabric was embedded with UV protection.) Even the lifeguards here wear long sleeve bathing suit shirts and hats with brims all around.
Australia Zoo
On our first cloudy (rain free) day here we drove down to Beerwah - the home of the Australia Zoo. This is the zoo originally run, owned and extensively filmed by Steve Irwin, The Crocodile Hunter. Crikey mates, we had a good time. From crocs and Dingos to Tasmanian Devils and wombats we saw it all. Ben fed Kangaroos and elephants (Amelia took pictures) and both got to pet Wombats. The zoo does an amazing job of giving all the animals huge enclosures - the tigers even get to go on walks in a 150 acre private area. The most incredible birds buzzed by our heads. A great day and we stayed hours longer than we thought we would.
How to Avoid Being Eaten by a Crocodile
We were happy to learn that contrary to popular belief crocodiles are very slow on land. So, while you could never out-swim a crocodile, nor could you avoid its incredible leaping/grasping ability on or by the water's edge, if you stay 5 meters (a little less than 15') away from the water's edge you can outrun a Crocodile! Good tip to know (esp. for us as they have crocs in Africa too where we will be going later on our trip).
Tomorrow will take us to Byron Bay and/or Ballina.
All the best,
Jackie
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