Cruise on the Hastings River - Mar 12

Summary: Beach, Billabong Wildlife Park, River Cruise, more random Aussie items.

Today was the day we've been looking for. The weather has been perfect all along, but today both Alex and I were rested and ready to get out there and do something.

Quick note from the first image - boats use different colored Aussie flags. A normal Aussie flag has a blue field (you knew that). The naval vessels run with a white field. Non-naval vessels all go with a red field. I've asked two people, they don't know why. One of our Aussie readers could comment and let us know, or the mystery will stay with us.

We kicked it off by walking to the beach. Our little lagoon was a bit more violent at high tide, but the ocean was fun regardless. He is getting more and more comfortable with the surf - I think the warmer water makes me more comfortable too.

After that, we had to go check if our cruise was on track. There were only 11 of us booked for the cruise, so there was a chance that it would be canceled. Anyhow, it was on and we continued on to the Billabong Wildlife Park. This place is known for the koala petting and we did do that (sorry, I figured two sets of koala petting photos might be enough). What was different here was that you come into a koala area with 9 koalas visible. Most places only have one or two. They were all sleeping teddy bears when we came in, but they woke up when the group swelled from us two to about 35 people. They say the only way you can tell the difference between a sleeping koala and a dead koala is that the dead koalas fall from the tree. Weak joke, but it appears to be popular among koala handlers between here and Adelaide.

The rest of the wildlife park - away from the koalas - was quite good. They had some spider monkeys that were fun to watch. They had an area to walk around with and interact with the wallabies and kangaroos. Great bird exhibit, including a cockatoo that kept saying "hello" in the sweetest Aussie accent. Their reptiles were pretty good too. We'll leave the animals alone for a few days until we get to Steve-o Irwin's Australia Zoo in Beerwah just north of Brisbane.

The image above will resonate with parents who've seen "Finding Nemo" a few times. Right near the boat we took, the seafood co-op was cleaning some fish and the gulls were getting the lion's share while the little ones said "mine" (kidding) and fought like crazy with one another for their bits of fish guts.

Next up, we took a boat trip up the river from Port Macquarie (up the Hastings River). It was a lunch cruise. Alex endeared himself to the staff (as usual). One woman wants him to bring her home in his suitcase, but Alex is not yet willing to part with the needed stuffed animals to make space. The lunch was very good, but the highlight of the cruise was when they lowered the boom net. (see photo below) Sadly, I did not have the foresight to ask someone to photograph us in the boom net, but we were among the first to get on. Maybe having a toddler do it without crying shamed a few people into giving it a go. Alex liked it quite a bit and we rode back there for about 10 minutes in brackish river water. He loved it. In the interest of reassuring his mother, I asked "there aren't any salties in New South Wales, right?" I asked this after we got out but I did not really get an answer. No worries love, we won't do it on the Daintree River!

So what are some of the odd things in Australia that I have not mentioned yet? Not really odd, but ...you know... different. People drive these car/pickups like the old El Camino (if you can remember that). They look kind of rednecky to me - especially when they have roo bars, but I imagine that our full size or even smaller pickups look like overkill to these guys. They are surely useful to people who need to haul stuff and they look like normal cars in traffic until you see the back of them. What else? The M&M kids called drinking fountains "bubblers". Outside of Wisconsin, we don't call it that in the US, but it is a minor one. Oh, the power outlets all have cutoff switches. I guess the ability to easily deactivate each outlet is a good thing - just one more set of buttons for Alex to push. Maybe it uses less energy. That would be good. As an aside, this is one country where alternative energy can make a huge difference. When it comes to electricity for 20 million, you've got an entire continent where solar panels could work everywhere year-round and wind farms can work in many regions. I like them for the US too, but wind farms don't work in many places and offend somebody in many other places. Solar panels in the Northeast? Useful once a week. Oh, and 300 million need a lot of energy. Back to oddities - the toilets have an interesting innovation that the rest of the world should consider: a half flush and a full flush. I won't explain what merits a half flush, but this makes more sense than the low flow toilets we get in the US (creating a black market for Canadian toilets). Much like Europe, their toilets don't swirl, they just force the water out. Things do swirl clockwise and you see it in the bath.

That's about all for now. I'll look for some images of the local El Caminos tomorrow. I will also get down to Lake Cathie (pronounced "Cat Eye", not "Kathy") and maybe go to the Indoor Crazy Maze.