Carolyn in Oceania: Crikey, what a beauty!

I missed Steve Irwin Day at the Australia Zoo by one day. At least I beat the crowds! I had been in Noosa when I made the day trip out to the zoo, and although it pretty pricey for a zoo, it was worth it. A beautiful place, filled with all the critters I had yet to see out in the wild...like wombats, tasmanian devils, echidnas, dingos, not to mention all the snakes and alligators. I did have a close encounter of a potentially dangerous kind (yes, yes, despite all my promises to be careful...but sometimes these things can't be helped!). I did a beach walk in Noosa, up into the national park, which had some great views, overlooking the ocean and huge rock formations, known as the Devil's Kitchen. Since my Capricorn Dave trip, I was feeling somewhat comfortable in the fact that if I saw a spider, I wouldn't freak out (opposed to if I saw a cockroach...riddle me that!), but I was keeping a keen eye out for anything to cross my path. However. I was meandering along, when I heard something in the grass behind me, and to the right. So I froze in my tracks, turned around slowly, and it took me a moment to actually spot the darn thing...tricky camoflauge. It was a pretty big snake (or so I thought)...it was lying there just off the path, and I had walked right past it! If it had wanted to, it could have easily nipped out it's head and gotten me in the ankle (a snake presentation at the zoo showed that guys are more often bitten than girls...mostly because girls run away, and guys decide to poke the snake with a stick. And they only attack when provoked or threatened, so it must have sensed my extreme innocence!). I snapped a quick pic (using zoom of course...I'm not that daring), and continued on my merry way...at a much faster pace, with eyes darting right and left. It got me wondering what other things I had passed by, oblivious to! An older couple (locals) was strolling in my direction, and I jokingly told them that a snake was waiting up ahead for them. They asked what color it was, and I showed them the pic. The lady looked at it thoughtfully, but didn't say she knew what it was...just said that there were poisonous snakes in the area. And so then I went home, convinced she knew what it was, but didn't want to scare off the clueless tourist.

Hervey Bay, Fraser Island, Brisbane, Surfer's Paradise...in Surfer's as I write this. Timing along the Gold Coast is not really all that good, since the schoolies are running rampant! Thousands of them flock to the Gold Coast since they're done school for the summer, and here in Surfer's, it's madness everything that's set up for them. A large section of the beach is cordoned off for them, and there is a long line of first aid tents, registration tents, rest tents, porta-potties. Two girls (who looked like they were 14, but could have been 16 I guess) were talking to me and asked if I was American. I said no, Canadian, and they said "oooo, are you here for schoolies?!" HAHAHA. I was incognito in a hat and sunglasses, but I didn't have the heart to tell them my age, or the fact that my "schoolies" eligibility would have expired seven years ago.

The kicker is, I heard on the radio the number of arrests made over the weekend alone...almost a hundred. Not just kids though...their parents too!! There were actually parents joining their kids in Surfers, getting drunk and disorderly, and trying to sneak booze into the alchohol-free student areas. One local told me they have at least one death per year during Schoolies Week...mostly because of someone getting drunk and falling over the railing of their rental unit, or going swimming while inebriated. Ah, the future is in their hands.

This statue had been unveiled the day before, during the Steve Irwin Day celebrations