The wetlands forest, lots of trees.
So yes, Regan came again. He was pretty quiet until I pointed out that I knew someone back home of a similar age who might take an interest in 20 years; at which point he did get somewhat active and bouncy!
Once my camcorder had recharged (I was planning on taking a lot of pics today), me, Lisa, and Lisa's father headed off to Bli Bli, to visit the Maroochy Wetlands Sanctuary (the small nature reserve we went past on Monday). All the info buildings were closed (I'd initially thought that was because we'd got there so early but in fact they were still closed on the way back), but of course the walk would always be open so off we went.
We went through a small pseudo-rainforest, with mainly paperbark trees (called so because their bark is quite thin and flimsy, resembling paper). As we entered the actual wetlands the trees suddenly changed to mangroves, which prefer wet (almost swampy) conditions. apparently the whole mangrove forest should be teeming with small crabs but for some reason we didn't see any (Lisa washed last night). There were a number of birds there, and on the wooden boardwalk over the swampy bits there were a couple of areas where birdwatchers could stay and look out over the land.
The path ended at a small jetty on the Maroochy River. There were a couple of fisherman in the distance on what looked like a dinghy, and a speed boat passed us at one point, but other than that it was pretty serene. apparently, 50 years ago, much of the area was given over to sugar cane farming but that's becoming a dying industry.
Apparently you can take boats from the jetty up and down the Maroochy River, although not far away is the sea so you mightn't get too far!! The wetlands are situated where the freshwater of the river meets the tidal flow of the ocean, which leads to an interesting blend of nature and wildlife.
We spent about an hour and a quarter in the wetlands before heading off. We than drove around and about, eventually picking up Jayden and Heather from their house, and bringing them both back to Lisa's, at which point we swapped cars. Lisa's parents, Jayden, and Heather drove off to Yandina for the rest of the afternoon (to see Maxine); this left me, Lisa, Regan, and now Kelly (Regan's mum). We headed off down the Bruce Highway to Australia Zoo.
Australia Zoo is quite large. It's also not a normal zoo, in England at least, in the sense that in normal zoos over here you don't get to hold pythons or have a main event of crocodile feeding. Australia Zoo is the home of the world-infamous Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. Although, despite everyone telling us to say "hi", we didn't see him!!
Apparently the zoo has expanded considerably since Lisa was last here with her bloke Andy last September, and is even still expanding now - they're building a Crocoseum (5000 seater stadium - bigger than some non-league football grounds!) where they're going to put on shows.
It wasn't too expensive to get in actually, well less than I thought anyway! We had a bit of a dash through at first, cos we were hungry, and we headed straight for the food court area. It took unfortunately a little while to get my food (I had a burger - they needed to cook it (!)), by which time Kelly and Lisa had already eaten theirs! It also meant I'd have difficulty getting to the crocodile feeding in time - Kelly and Lisa went on ahead with my video camera while I ate, but in the event everyone else had gone before us so they didn't get a good view anyway :(
There are a fair few creatures at the zoo; apart from the crocodiles (of which there are actually quite a few - as you'd expect!), there are also koalas, kangaroos, emus, camels, and the like, and we went round pretty much all of them. Most of the crocodiles seemed to be doing nothing more than sleeping, but it was still pretty impressive to be that close to them in the first place.
At one point we were walking past a few animals with company. A goose-like animal was happily wandering along the path. It wasn't too keen on having it's picture taken though, and tried to attack me (but I kicked it off)! It still wandered around though, it left us somewhere near the emus.
We did see the otters being fed though. They were quite lively creatures running around and trying to look cute - although they're pretty fierce creatures with a bit of a sharp tooth; even the zoo workers don't touch them directly unless absolutely necessary!
The one other thin we did; just after lunch; we went to a part of the zoo where you could have your photo taken with a python. Quite a large thing. So we did! Regan had the first pic - though he wasn't that keen on his own so Kelly had to sit with him. Then me and Lisa shared a photo - I had the head and she had the tail - I got to feel more as the snake slithered through my hands. It felt a bit like a tree bark, I felt like if I stroked it the wrong way bits would break off!
We saw a lot more snakes later on in the visit, behind solid glass. On display were the 10 most venomous snakes in the world - all of which are native to Australia. Britain, with it's one native, mildly venomous snake (the adder, or grass snake) seems boringly safe in comparison!!
I also stroked an albino red kangaroo that was heavily pregnant, felt pretty soft.
The gift shop was a bit crowded, so we didn't spend long there.
We went back home; Kelly dropped us off before heading back to her place, and we flaked out for a while. I received a phonecall from Kylie, and we sorted out more about my trip to see her - she told me how to get from Melbourne to Hamilton, the times of the train etc. She also didn't mind on what day I arrived, so I suggested that if I could change my ticket I would fly to Melbourne on the Sunday rather than the Saturday; that way I could spend an extra day with Lisa, and since Kylie would be at work anyway, it wouldn't necessarily affect the amount of time that I would spend with her. It was nice to talk to her again after so long.
We decided to go out in the evening with Lisa's parents. So that evening we went out to Nambour, and yeah it didn't look like the best town on Earth lol! We searched around for somewhere to eat, didn't really succeed that much, everywhere looked a bit naff. Many of the food places were also casinos, and actually looked pretty dodgy, seedy even. They also only tended to have a couple of people in them as well.
We ate in about the third one we walked into - the best of a bad bunch I guess. The food wasn't great, no in fact it was pretty poor, but at least we all got free drinks with them! Lisa had a dabble on a video poker machine but despite at one point being 80 cents up, lost all her money in the end (yeah we're only dealing with $5 here - the last of the big spenders!!).
To show you how bad it was, we then had dessert in McDonalds! And the dessert wasn't just an M&M McFlurry, but also a cheeseburger!! Dang!
Came back home, went to bed relatively early. I got a text message from Melissa (who I work with) saying there was going to be a meeting about the future of my firm tomorrow lunchtime. Hmmm .....