This is Australia Day 3. At last we're taking it easy. Sunday we arrived (I had no sleep that night, finishing the first pass of Perl Cookbook edits) and drive up the Gold Coast to see family. Then it was up past Brisbane and up to Mooloolabar for the evening. These few short sentences hide a lot of miserable children moments (too long in the car), heart-in-mouth moments (as el budgeto rented van threatens to conk out on the motorway), and oooooh-aaaaaah moments (at white sand beaches and gorgeous shimmering ocean).
Yesterday (Monday) we went to the Crocodile Hunter's "Australia Zoo" which was bloody awesome. Lots and lots of crocodiles, of course, but also tons of different Australian animals. Far more than we could do in a day, especially a hot day. Their first aid guy said he routinely revives people who pass out from the heat. The crocodile feeding was the highlight for me--amazing ferocious cunning deadly prehistoric creatures.
In the afternoon we visited Montville, a tourist town in the middle of the Glass House mountains, and the Big Pineapple in Nambour. The Big Pineapple used to be right beside the big highway, then the government put in a bigger highway miles away and now it's stranded in nowhere. It seems enough of an attraction that it still gets people, though. It's a pineapple farm with a railroad, macademia plantation, avocados, animals, and a bar. Oh, and it gets its name from a HUGE pineapple that you can climb up. It's obligatory to get one's picture taken at the top of the Big Pineapple.
We're back in Mooloolabar tonight. Hot day and just-right water. Apparently a lot of Kiwis have given up the Gold Coast (Coolangatta to Brisbane) and moved up a hundred or two miles to the Sunshine Coast (where we are now). I can see why. It's real nice up here. The sort of place you'd want to have a holiday home at. One of Dad's mates from high school spends winters here and summers in New Zealand, and that sounds a right nice lifestyle. Then again, there are an awful lot of Australians here .... Australians are the Texans of the South Pacific. New Zealand definitely has the better land, but I think Australia has the better beaches.
--Nat
(from an internet cafe that let me plug in my laptop ...)
Re:how did you...
gnat on 2003-04-24T11:14:35
This was just tickets-and-go. The Gold Coast (Brisbane to Coolangatta) is full of hotels. Some are crummier than other but it was easy to get space. The Sunshine Coast (north of Brisbane) is a bit more sparse, but still there are plenty of motels.We only saw a tiny part of Australia, mind you. We didn't see Sydney or Melbourne, the two big cities, or even venture very far inland. I suspect you could easily spend a year seeing everything there is to see in Australia. The good thing about doing that is that you'd never have to fly to Australia again! It's even further from civilization than New Zealand, if that's possible
:-) --Nat
The crocodile feeding was the highlight for me--amazing ferocious cunning deadly prehistoric creatures.
Australians are the Texans of the South Pacific.
Re: Australia
jhi on 2003-04-15T07:53:00
> You sure they weren't Lisp programmers???
I guess one would feed them raw lambda expressions.
Re: Australia
Damian on 2003-04-15T08:50:24
I guess one would feed them raw lambda expressions.
Yes. From the safety of one's car.Re: Australia
Dom2 on 2003-04-15T09:07:22
Heh, reminds of something Mark Pilgrim wrote the other day:My other car is a cdr-Dom
Re: Australia
petdance on 2003-04-15T18:48:33
Yes. From the safety of one's car.Come on, Damian, that joke cdr been so much better.
