Magnetic Island - 28th June - 1st July

We caught the bus from Airlie Beach at 4:40am ready to make our way further north to Townsvile where we would catch the ferry over to Magnetic Island for a two day stay. Our time on the island would see us stay at Base Hostel and i couldn't believe my luck when the lady at reception said she was feeling generous and would let me stay for FREE! The hostel was beach front located and was absolutely stunning. 

OMG BABY KOALA ALERT

We spent our time on the island over the two days down at Horseshoe Bay wandering around the super small market, Chilling on the beach, and on our last day myself and Debbie took a trip to the Forts walk where we were lucky to see a mother Koala with her baby. It was also my very first WILD koala encounter and it was so unbelievably cute!! The last evening on the island all of our Loka group went along to the hostel bingo night. None of our group won anything though but it was good fun none the less and a good way to end our time on the island. If i'd had the money I think it would have been better if we could have hired a car to explore the island as it was difficult to keep ourselves busy throughout our stay.

Australia Zoo

I had wanted to go to Australia zoo ever since I arrived in On and Monday 20th April myself and my friend Jade caught the early 7:45am Greyhound coach and headed to the zoo.

After an hour and a half bus ride we arrived and headed straight for the crocs and alligators(naturally)and there was definitely plenty of them. I had never of guessed how big they actually are. Scary!

CRICKEY!

The weather wasn't great but we still managed to get round the whole zoo and see all the animals, Kangaroos, Koalas, Tigers, Reptiles, Birds, Camels amongst a few. Mid-day we went along to the 'Wildlife Warriors' show in the Crocseum, the main arena for all the animal shows and demonstrations. They started off with a reptile talk followed by birds and then onto the crocodiles.

The keepers gave a talk and demonstration as to how they catch their food and educated us that most people only come into contact with crocs if their too close to croc infested water or their just being idiotic and asking for something bad to happen. 

My favourite part was feeding time and the time when you were able to see just how powerful these animals really are and certainly not to be messed with!

Towards the end of the day we made our way round to the far side of the zoo where we went to the Tiger talk. Again, the keepers were super hands on and were actually in the enclosure with the tigers. They talked us though the enrichment tasks they do how this helps them to maintain the animals are ok and healthy. 

Rather them than me for sure. 

Despite the weather being pants it was a great day and a good insight into how hands on the keepers are with all the animals no matter how big or small.

East Coast Adventure - 02/04/15 - 05/04/15

On the morning of 2nd April with an early 8am start myself and five others who I had made friends with on from my first week in Oz set off from Sydney for the start of our east coast trip.

After a fairly long 3 hr coach journey through torrential rain we arrived at our first stop Barrington Tops nr Gloucester having wound up a narrow cliff top road which was practically in the middle of nowhere. 

We dropped off our belongings and headed down to the river below for tubing and riding the rapids.

That evening we headed back to our mountain lodge for homemade pizza and beer pong along with the best nights sleep i'd had in a while.

03/04/15 We made our way from Barrington Tops to Spot- X surf camp with a short stop at Port Macquarie Koala hospital. That evening after a surf lesson where I finally managed to stand on the board we slept in tipis.

04/04/15 Was the day of our trip to the remote river camp were we went kayaking. We stopped off along the river boat to spot soldier crabs and then headed up the river to make way for camp. We stayed in tipis and had a camp fire meal as well as toasting marshmallows.