Crikey! Hardened blogger impressed by Australia Zoo!

I must admit I was a bit unsure about Australia Zoo. It's done such a good job of selling itself over the years, I thought disappointment might be the order of the day. And the crass commercialism might be a bit much for me, and would they actually be treating the animals humanely?

It wasn't really like that though. It was a rather better, more rewarding, and at times quite a spectacular experience. I thought it was well worth the unusually large entrance fee. And I've no doubt its educational value and the conservation activities it carries out do indeed outweigh any indignities inflicted on the odd individual animal.

There are of course animals from all over the world, in mostly generous enclosures. You can spend most of a day strolling the grounds. You get to see (and pet) beautiful non-venomous snakes, and the enthusiastic young Bindi look-alikes show off their eagles, owls, and kookaburras for you.

There are feeding shows involving many of the animals, which include a respectable collection of tigers.

The enormous 'Crocoseum' stadium was the location for the most spectacular event. Not only were crocodiles wrangled, but there was the most unexpected display of bird wrangling, the like of which I'd never before witnessed. A series of parrots mainly, did amazing tricks, like high-speed aerial acrobatics. One red tailed black cockatoo even stole a $5 note from a designated audience member, and then returned it to her!

 Here it is flying up to grab it.

Now it's on its way back to return it.












The crocodile feeding was a bit of an anticlimax, maybe because Australia Zoo founder Steve Irwin was filmed doing so much of it.

A good day out anyway. Five stars. Crikey!

Jelly wobble

Came across several of these on the beach at Maroochydore. They look like enormous fried eggs at first. I've been studying alleged jellyfish identification websites, but so far haven't quite got there. They look different when they're not stranded on a beach.

These sorts of jellyfish are often called 'snotties', I gather. But there's been some excitement in recent times among jellyfishologists, with new and rediscovered species turning up. Could it in fact be the Cambione Cookii - the so called 'Cookie Monster' jellyfish, recently rediscovered after 100 years?

Life's a beach on the Sunny Coast

While on the Sunshine Coast we based ourselves in Alexandra Headland. Here's the local beach, looking south towards Mooloolaba.

Walking north towards Maroochydore.

Between the flags, Maroochydore.

Our favourite swimming spot was in the river, at Cotton Tree.

Here's the beach at Noosa. Very crowded these days. Hard to get to, expensive to park near.










Snakes alive at Peregian Beach. (I think they're alive everywhere, but the Peregians are more open about it than most.)


The kitesurfers launched themselves from Sunshine beach, and within minutes were kilometers away at Coolum.












The view south from Caloundra - Glasshouse Mountains and all.

Silliest salad?

My birthday dinner at a rather fine French restaurant on Brisbane's Southbank. What shall I have for an entrée?

Candied beetroot  $16

Roasted onion, coffee gel, dark chocolate snow, sheep's yoghurt

Looked great on the menu. Looked great on the plate too. But gone in two mouthfuls, and taste sensations far too subtle for my palate!

The main course was a very tasty fish dish though. They acquitted themselves
well.

Brisbane cityscapes

The view from Mt Gravatt

One of Brisbane's many new skyscrapers.










The Goodwill pedestrian bridge.









 The view from Southbank.





Evening swimmers at Southbank's artificial Lagoon

World's tallest

The Q1 building in Surfers Paradise was indeed the world's tallest residential building when it was completed in 2005. It's been overtaken by five others since then, but it's still Australia's tallest building overall (though only the 80th tallest building in the world!)

It has a big spire on top, and they tend to include the spires in the quoted heights, which I think is cheating, and the top of Q1's spire is one metre higher than the top of Dubai's Burj Al Arab's spire. I imagine that's not coincidental.

I had to go up to the observation deck of course, and as these things go, it was a pretty good observation deck experience. You do have to pay, but there are no pesky metal detectors or other security checks. You just get in the lift, press the button, and up you go.

And it's a pleasant and relaxing observation lounge too. No time limits, no crowds, and wonderful views of that oh-so-familiar strip of unreal Gold Coast real estate.

The view to the south.













And to the north.







A somewhat optimistic world's tallest comparison chart. World's 80th tallest in yellow.

Surfers: a paradise for surfers (of course!) and the old farts too

We watched a beginners surfing class on the beach at Surfers Paradise. It's an obvious must-do activity for all the young backpackers. I can't afford to be at all sniffy about them. I can't do it at all. Tried once, several decades ago, and failed miserably. Never tried again. Good for them, I say!

But Surfers is obviously a place for old farts too. It was supposedly in its heyday in the 1970s, so the old farts who discovered it then can't stop themselves dropping in again from time to time. And amazingly, we found ourselves following a proud self-proclaimed old fart along the Gold Coast Highway!

Note for my non-Australian readership: While the online slang dictionaries label the term 'old fart' as perjorative, the Australian usage version I consulted confirms that there's nothing to worry about. 'old fart' = 'old friend', and 'boring old fart' = 'my good friend'.

No bites at Ballina today

The sharks have been biting a lot at Ballina (and other nearby) beaches in the last couple of years. That's biting as in sharks biting people, as well as the usual vice versa.

We noted that there weren't that many people in the water at Lighthouse Beach as we passed by.

A shark net has been installed recently, amidst much controversy. They cause a lot of deaths to other sea creatures, and many species of sharks are in fact endangered (unlike humans). The Great White Shark, probably the most feared one of the lot, is also the most endangered. There are fewer of them left in the world than there are tigers.

Heading north for the Big Things in life

 We've just come back from a road trip up to Brisbane and the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. I wasn't primarily seeking out the Big Things, but they do seem to catch the eye (and camera).

Coffs Harbour's Big Banana was one of the first of Australia's iconic Big Things, and one of the best known. It's also known for being a bit smaller than you expect it to be, and a (Big?) disappointment.



I did rather like the Big Prawn at Ballina, opposite the Big Bunnings store there. I just read that a few years ago Ballina Council voted to allow its demolition, but Bunnings bought it and saved it. Good for them!

The Big Pineapple at Nambour is another old stalwart, and here's a Big Golf Ball, found lurking in the grounds of the Big Banana.

What else did we find? Well here's that Big Bunnings, and not far to the north of there, at the Macadamia Castle at Knockrow, we came across the Big Knight. I'd never heard of him.

Surfers Paradise had a rather big residential tower block, Q1.





And Australia Zoo, at Landsborough, Queensland, was big in lots of ways. Here are its big tortoises and a big (prehistoric) crocodile.

And here's Wikipedia's piece about Australia's 150 or so 'official' Big Things:  
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia's_big_things

Summer in the City

Views of the city coming back from Manly the other day. It was one of the cooler (and therefore more comfortable) of recent days. Blue sky days are great in the cooler months, but in summer they just spell hot, hot, hot. Sometimes there's a welcome subtropical downpour when it's like this. Didn't happen this time though.

Manly's minor beaches

I discovered a whole new 'Secrets of Sydney' experience the other day. Here's Collins Flat Beach.

I thought I knew the Manly area quite well, but somehow was completely unaware of the scenic footpath winding its way southward from the ferry terminal, past East Manly Cove Beach. It links several of Manly's less well known beaches, which I somehow thought I'd been to before, but in fact hadn't. Sydney's like that. There are so many of them!

Here's part of the walkway.

And a group having fun at Little Manly Beach.

I had a good view across to Store Beach too, but found that the walkway wouldn't get me to this one. I'll return one day soon and do the rock-hop along the foreshore. Apart from arriving on your own boat (as lots do), this seems to be how it needs to be done.






Lots of recreational fishing goes on around here. Watch your bag limits though. (And no excuse for not being informed about them.)

But I do think there's a good excuse for dozing off on a park bench, if your companion's only interested in his fishing.