The McKenzie's Official world tour site
# Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Good'ay from the Pommes!

Good’ay!

Our flight from Los Angeles took 13.5 hours on a Bowing 747 Jumbo Jet, with four Rolls Royce engines! We travelled with Quantas and were very happy with the service from the flight staff and information from the pilot during this long flight!  Some of the flight was quite turbulent in places and maybe this is quite usual – we don’t know, as none of us has ever journeyed over the Pacific Ocean before! Due to us flying through the date line, we actually took off just before midnight on the 3rd February and arrived into Brisbane, Queensland, Australia – on the morning of the 5th February!! We are still amused at having lost that complete day-somewhere up there in the clouds! We travelled approximately 7,340 miles at an average height of 42,000 feet and 556 miles per hour! As we flew through the night Ben was asleep even before we took off and was then the most awake of us all when we arrived early on Thursday morning (5th!) We exited through the security at the airport very smoothly after collecting our luggage and were all ‘hit by the weather’ as we stepped outside in Australia! It was still very early in the morning but very hot already! Jemma started the trick of running to the shade! We were able to catch a cab outside the airport and  go straight to the ‘Around Australia Motor homes’ rental depot, just fifteen minutes from the airport. This was the beginning of Macwayround Part 3 (following Europe- part 1 and USA -part 2!) It was difficult to believe that we had made it to the other side of our world as we know it and we were now in Queensland, 10 hours ahead of the time in England!

We had a thorough guided tour from the staff around our’ Nessie Two’ which we have decided to affectionately call ‘Ozzie’ for the purpose of this part of our trip! When all the paperwork and formalities were complete we set off with the help of our downloaded Australian maps and the satellite navigation – remembering to drive on the LEFT again! We set a loud alarm to remind us on the sat nav as we have been a long while driving on the right!

As nobody (apart from Ben) had managed to have much sleep during the flight, we decided not to venture too far on our first day. We stopped off at Landsborough Pines Caravan Park on the Sunshine Coast and were instantly amazed by our first encounters of camping with Australian Wildlife! The Managers and neighbours were all very friendly and we used a day around the campsite to try and recover from some jet lag! We were all up before 5am for the next few mornings and all ready for breakfast as our body clocks took their time to adjust! Being the twitcher that he is (with Ben now following closely behind!), Phil was frustrated by not being able to name the birds that we were seeing –and so an Australian book bird was put onto our shopping list  at a very early stage! We took a walk around the lakes and grounds of this site and it was great to see how much wildlife was encouraged to come and stay too!  There was also a tame resident Sulphur Crested Cockatoo who was beautiful and chatty too! He liked to dig and it was funny to hear that he was digging his way to China – when at home we might say he was digging down to Australia!

As we were all up again so early we were able to make a very full day out at the infamous Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin’s- Australia Zoo......and what a most amazing day we had too  – another highlight of Macswayround so far! Australia Zoo opened and began to develop in 1992 when Steve and his wife Terri took over management. The zoo quickly went from strength to strength through the commitment and dedication of Steve as a genuine wildlife warrior and his team. They have an ultimate aim of being the World’s Leading Zoological destination and believe in conservation through exciting education.  Today the current team is working very hard to keep this aim real and achievable in honour of Steve’s memory.

As we entered the gates the children were greeted by a ‘cuddly crocodile’ –with the warning that this was going to be the only croc they could cuddle that day! The first enclosure was home to a fine example of a Komodo- Dragon and gave us all an insight into the extremely high standards of enclosures we were to observe all day and throughout the whole zoo. There was a tribute to Steve at the entrance which was a bronze casting of him with his family, a crocodile and their family dog too and plenty more tribute boards towards the end of the trail. As we travelled around there was a great feeling of Steve’s enthusiasm all around us. The information boards were packed with his pictures and famous phrases and ‘Oh Crickey!’ the staff were all so very knowledgeable, informative and a pleasure to talk to. They seemed to be on an active journey to help Steve’s dream continue and grow to reach its full potential. We consider ourselves to be a wildlife enthusiast family and of all the zoos and wildlife parks that we have visited, we feel that this is probably the best we have ever seen! It was a delight to see ‘happy tigers’ at play, chasing and pouncing on one another, a sight which is often unusual in these settings. It was great to be able to hand feed an elephant and be close- up to the power and gentle precision that they have in their trucks! We were able to see many of the Native Australian animals at this early stage in our time here and hope to see many more ‘in the wild’ at a later date! The kangaroos and wallabies did a great job at being available for a cuddle or two, as did the koalas! We all loved the kookaburras and found their laugh to be very contagious! The photo opportunities were endless!

The Wildlife Warrior Live Show in the World Famous Crocoseum was entertaining and informative. We saw a wide variety of birds, snakes and of course the hand-feeding of the croc as it launched itself from the water’s edge! Crocs rule – OK! We studied the collection of most venomous snakes ever and took note of those to definitely avoid – although we do think it is better to avoid any of these wriggly creatures in this country!

The Tasmanian -Devils certainly lived up to their name as we saw how vicious they got when it was time to go to bed at the end of the day! We wouldn’t like to catch them having a bad day as we saw them rip their meat to pieces in temper!

We left the zoo wanting to find out more about the wildlife warriors and how we can help. Conservation is so very important and as wildlife numbers continue to drop, many to the endangered point, we ALL need to take an active part in saving our planet and the wildlife within it, in order to let mother- nature do what she is designed to do best. Many of Steve’s important words were displayed including these – which to us- said it all - “My job, my mission, the reason I’ve been put on this planet, is to save wildlife. And I thank you for coming with me.”

Back at camp and we had a traditional Australian happy hour (chat!) with our neighbours (Dianne, Kelvin & John) as news of the devastating and severe bush fires in Victoria were emerging.

We drove past the Glass House Mountains as we left the Sunshine Coast and headed for the Gold Coast. These mountains are most spectacular and are the remnant of cores of volcanoes which were active about 25 million years ago. They were formed as molten rock that was forced out of the vents from within the earth and over a period of time these flows of magma cooled to form the conal shapes of hard rock that we see today.

Arriving on the Gold Coast we had been recommended to stay at the Tallebudgera Creek Tourist Park and what a good recommendation that was! This is just north of Palm Beach and we camped right next to the beach with a netted swimming area in front of us! Jemma and Ben were off again and it reminded us all of our favourite seaside spot in Croatia! We were even lucky enough to see a ‘wild’ dolphin as it came up the estuary for a quick swim! This was the first time we heard the kookaburras laughing as their early morning call and it was a great sound!  Since being amongst Australian Campers we have noticed that they seem to retire off to bed much earlier than Europeans or indeed Americans, however they are up and about very early at first light instead!

Next we came across Brooms- Head, another lovely spot and stayed at the caravan park there. This was in North East New South Wales. The sea here looked very tempting but we were warned about the ‘blueies’ – which are a jelly fish type thing and they are capable of giving you a nasty sting should you pass their way! Since then we have discovered that we know this as the Portuguese Man of War and that the nasty sting is actually excruciatingly painful!

As we were leaving Brooms -Head we were recommended to keep an eye open to see the only coastal flock of emu’s. Alas it was not to be our turn, however Ben’s spying caught a very well hidden ‘real wild!’ kangaroo and we were all very happy! A little further down the road and there were a whole mob of them sitting in the shade of a tree right in the middle of a field!

 PERFECT-one of our missions accomplished already!!

 

FACTIODS-

·         Brisbane Airport is Australia’s second busiest International Gateway.

·         The Australian Wildlife Hospital has a new 5 million dollar site, situated next to Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast. This hospital will help to care for up to 10,000 native animals each year. Please remember to get involved in helping to keep Steve Irwin’s mission and dream alive by visiting and supporting his devoted team at www.wildlifewarriors.org.au. Thank-you.

·         In 1770 Captain James Cook, on ‘Endeavour’, named the Glass House Mountains (as the reflections and shapes of these hills reminded him of the glass manufacturing houses back in England).

·         Mount Beerwah, at 556 metres high is the ‘Mother by Legend’ and the grandest of all the 15 Glass House Mountains.

·         Australia Zoo was formally known as Beerwah Reptile Park which was opened in 1970 by Steve’s parents Bob & Lyn Irwin.

·         The Koala Bear is not a Bear! It is a Marsupial!

·         A Koala Bear sleeps for an average of 16-20 hours per day!

·         The Tasmanian- Devil stores its fat in its tail – therefore a fat tail means a healthy devil. Also, the Tasmanian- Devil’s pouch opens backwards so dirt does not enter while it is digging.

·         The Deadliest Spider in the world is the Sydney Funnel Web.

·         Steve Irwin Day is on the November 15th each year.

·         The Gold Coast has 100,000 hectares of parks and reserves and 70 kilometres of celebrated coastline.

·         The Gold Coast has an average of 8 hours of sunshine for 300 days of the year!

WILDLIFE HITS:

·         A Variety of Lizards, up to 18 inches long.

·         Brush Turkeys

·         Piwis

·          Little Egrets

·         Flying Foxes (Fruit Bats with up to 1 metre wingspan))

·         Rainbow Lorikeets

·         Noisy Minors

·         Australian Magpies

·         Dusky Moorhens

·         Crested Pigeons

·         Azure Kingfishers

·         Swallows

·         Pelicans

 


Tuesday, 24 February 2009 11:49:05 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [2]  Australia

Tuesday, 24 February 2009 23:48:13 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
what a long flight. i bet the wore you all out. i would not be able to stay on a plane for that long. mind you, going back to england from the usa was a 9 hour flight. i had also driven 13 hours straight before i had crashed my truck. hahaha. STAY SAFE! love you!
natasha mckenzie
Tuesday, 24 February 2009 23:48:52 (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
by the way, today is my dads birthday, dont forget!
natasha mckenzie
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