Steve Irwin's Zoo

So John and I went up to the Sunshine Coast area. (South of Brisbane is the Gold Coast, north of Brisbane is the Sunshine Coast.) Australia Zoo, also known as Steve Irwin's (The Crocodile Hunter) zoo, is there. I'm not a big animals person or anything, but now that Steve Irwin's dead, it kind of makes the whole experience a bit more interesting. (Am I wrong for saying that?) Anyhow, the zoo turned out to be great. Most of the time, I hate zoos because I feel really bad for the animals, being all caged up like that just so people can stare at them. But the animals at Australia Zoo have so much space and they're treated very well. It's really humane. I was never a big fan of Steve Irwin since I don't really care about crocodiles, but after seeing the zoo, I have a lot of respect for what he accomplished in his short life.


On the road. Notice that we're on the wrong side of the road. It was so annoying going around the world because in half the countries, the cars are on one side of the road and in the others, they're on the other. So it just kept switching back and forth and I was constantly in fear of looking the wrong way and getting hit by a car. ALWAYS LOOK ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ROAD BEFORE CROSSING.


Me and John.


Asian elephants in Australia.




Me feeding a kangaroo. John and I adopted this one as ours because she was sooo sweet and cute. The rest of her friends were really lazy.




She was hopping...that was cool. I didn't manage to capture it.


Wombat!




This is Michael. He's like the hardest working person at Australia Zoo. He did the koala demostration (as pictured here), then the big show at the Crocoseum, then he was organizing the kids in games at the playground, and then he was directing traffic. He likes animals and children! How sexy is that? I have a crush on him.


Awww...


I'm an Irwin too!


John loves wombats. (Vombats!)


But I prefer koalas.


John as one of Bindi's back up dancers, the Crocmen! Hahahaha....


"Icky moss" John.


Crikey!


R.I.P. Steve Irwin




Me with a real live koala! Most places won't let you hold them because koalas aren't as soft and cuddly as they seem. They have really sharp claws (this one punctured my arm) and they can become really scary when you bother them (they sleep 19 hours a day). Australia Zoo is the one of the only places you can actually hold one, but you have to pay $15 AUD which go to help koalas.


Dingo! (Dingo babies...hahaha! Inside joke with John.)


This is a tazmanian devil. They look nothing like cartoon one, but they do run around constantly like they're on crack so it's really hard to actually capture a picture.




After the zoo, we went to John's family's country house. Yeah, they have a country house. They had a beach house too, but no one used it so they recently sold it. (Of course, John is mad even though he hasn't been there in like five years.) The house is in the mountains. There's a little town nearby and it's just quaint. Australia's really pretty.


See how pretty! And at night, you see all the stars, and it's absolutely amazing because the sky was soooo clear. Also, they have different star patterns here since we're in the Southern Hemisphere.


Jen in the country!


John's a farmer.


He grows macadamia nuts.


Here's John trying to turn on the gas so we can have warm water. (It's winter Down Under.) It was a little adventure because I was afraid he'd end up blowing up the house. His neighbor came over and helped.


This was what I woke up to. Isn't that gorgeous?


Then we went down to the beach for lunch. That's the Pacific behind me. It smells the same as at home. The Pacific has that really salty, sewage-like smell. Hahaha.




Swim a few thousand miles in a northeast direction and that's home!

After the Sunshine Coast, we went back to Brizzy and had dinner with Mum, Dad and Gran. John's Gran is hands-down the coolest Gran in the world. She went hiking in the Himalayas when she was 70! She's really sweet. John really doesn't belong in this family.

So that was my time in Brisbane with my new surrogate family and my around-the-world friend John. Stay tuned for John's trip to Los Angeles in February. (Our fourth continent!)