Surfers Paradise

So we left Hervey Bay on Monday morning and went down to just north of Brisbane to Beerwah where the Steve Irwin (Crocodile Hunter) Australia Zoo is. We pulled into the parking lot and gasped and cursed at how flipping full it was.... Hundreds and hundreds of cars... We went to the second lot and found a spot in the half full overflow lot. We walked to the gate and paid our fee and started walking around. The animals were great and you just can't get tired of seeing crocodiles in their habitat and lizards running freely around on the sidewalks... It was pretty cool.. They did a show around noon or so and it involved crocs at one time, birds of prey and some really big black cockatoos.... It was awesome, even though it was a bit Hollywood...... It is a first class place they have got here... Really first class.....

keeping cool in his own pool

Tasmanian Devil

 Cassowary

 Jabiru Stork

 

  Andian Condor

 

 

Crocodile

 Tortoise

one of many Kangaroos in the park

 We left the zoo a couple hours later and drove through the outskirts of Brisbane to our park of choice which was one in Surfers Paradise.... Holy cow..... So many high rises...... The park was overpriced and it rained all night... We see now how easily it can flood here. The rain was not that heavy and within 20 minutes even in the park, the grass was overflowing with water and the storm drains in the roads in the park were gushing with so much water.... There just is no depth of the soil here... You dig down a couple feet and it's bedrock... No chance of normal absorption of the water.....
We left the next morning and was glad of it... Bloody overpriced mudpit......
We drove through Surfers Paradise and were really blown away with how many high rises (hotels, condos & holiday apartments) there were in this place..... Totally both a bedroom community for Brisbane and a surfer's paradise....

Brisbane

bridges in and out of Brisbane over the Brisbane river

quick stop in Surfers Paradise

We finally got out of there and headed south... We found ourselves on the highway and Byron Bay was in the back of our minds for some reason....

So we cut off the M1 and headed east for it.... It was a really cool surfer type town... So many board shops and summer clothing shops.... We were bushed and decided to have brunch... It was 11:20 or so and we stopped at this restaurant and couldn't have lunch because they didn't serve that until 12:15, so we had the last of the brekky's that was served at 11:30.... They didn't serve any food between 11:30 and 12:15..... Go figure......

Anyway, we finally left there and decided to try to get out of the bloody rainy weather and we headed inland....
 

We figured we'd go to Tamworth tonight and Dubbo tomorrow (Wednesday).... We are really hoping we can get a few days of sunshine and heat before we have to head home.... YUCK!!!!! I don't even want to think about that right now....

And here we are now, in Tamworth NSW.... We got here around 6:15pm... Our first evening drive... It was totally dark by the time we got here and found our park... We went down the street half a block to a Chinese restaurant that has just won an award for being one of the top 100 Chinese restaurants in Australia 2011... It was mostly awesome food...  Really good... The preparation is so different from ours.....
Anyway, that's where we are now.... Dubbo in the morning....
Bye for now... Thanks for following....
And no, we don't want to know any hockey scores.... Thanks.....