How many 9 year old Canadians gets to play with a koala and crocodile for their birthdays?

I will have to make this entry shorter, simply because I am short on time... but this one will have lots of pics!

This year is a special one simply because it is a first for every one. We have celebrated our first Australian halloween, christmas and some have already celebrated their first Australian birthdays - Zed is one of these. This year we decided to make it extra special, especially since Zed was feeling quite lonesome that there wouldn't be any of his friends and family (from Canada) here to celebrate with us. The boys had asked several times if we were going to be going camping anytime soon. We figured that Zed's birthday would be a perfect opportunity to do such a thing! We got together the things we needed, made our reservations, baked heaps of treats and goodies... then we were off. We drove a days drive to Townsville, which is situated along the coast; such a beautiful city!!

Let me tell you that we had a wonderful time... during the day! The days were filled with fun activities, adventures, animals and of course, swimming. The nights however, ugh the nights, were filled with mozzies (mosquitos), hot, humid air and a lot of rain. The nights were long because you couldn't sleep due to the stifling, suffocating hot air, but they felt too short come morning (simply because you hadn't really slept the night before). So, let's just focus on the fun stuff, shall we?!

The first day out and about we went to Reef HQ Aquarium... and what an aquarium it is! We saw everything from glow in the dark fish to hammerhead sharks. 

It was amazing, beautiful and thrilling for all of us. I saw a lot of my most favourite sea animals (hammerhead sharks being one of them!)  

Here Jonboy is signing 'turtle' to
the turtle.

I learned that Jonathan has a real fascination of turtles. He was so thrilled every time we came across one.  

While at the aquarium we took part in an information session that included talking with a diver who was inside the aquarium with a variety of sharks, rays and fish. Very cool!

Can you spot Wade??

After spending half the day at the aquarium we went for a stroll down 'the strand', which is like a scene out of CSI Miami where you see people riding bikes and long skateboards in bathing suits on the long, wide sidewalks that are parallel to the hot, sandy beaches that draw your eyes past the palm trees to the varying blue waters of the ocean. Yes, beautiful. It would be so nice to just run across the beach and jump into the water, but as you do you would stop in your tracks, as you see the big warning signs that tell you what is waiting for you in the waters... stingers (jelly-fish). Every kind you can imagine... teeny tiny ones and ones 10 feet long. So just keep it as that... a nice view! :)

We took in the view as we walked along seeing all sorts of birds and monuments, until we came to an incredible outdoor spray park. It was just what we wanted after being in the stifling 36+ degree heat, that had caused our clothing to stick to our bodies and beads of perspiration ran down our cheeks. Yes, it was a hot but more so, humid day... again. It was this day, the enticing water and great amusement of playing together that caused us to neglect the use of sunscreen. Fortunately it was only me who experienced a wide spread burn, but of course I didn't notice the severity of it until closer to bedtime. You will see in the pic at the top that I am quite a bit rosier then my family.  So, anyway, after the water park, we took another short walk to another park to play while we dried off. After that it was back to camp. 

Camping in Australia is WAY different then camping in Canada. I will go into further at another date, but suffice to say the we truly take for granted the joy of having a fire that should go hand in hand with the act of camping (in my opinion!).  We made due, but it certainly wasn't the same. Thankfully the "camp grounds" had a fantastic outdoor (is there any other kind in Australia?) pool. It was absolutely beautiful. The only was to describe swimming in it, would to say it felt as though you were swimming in soft clouds. It was a clean, warm salt water pool, surrounded with foliage and fire torches. We spent a LOT of our time in this pool.

Moving along... the following day we made our way to Billabong Sanctuary; which is essentially a zoo with some animals moving around freely. 

There is a large variety of birds, a bunch of kangaroos/wallabies (varying in ages), and turtles that will come up to you, or you can go up to. There are scheduled information sessions that invite you to view, touch and gain an appreciation for the animals they are presenting. 

We held our share...

We interacted with everything from koalas (which are NOT bears -- They are marsupials) to the dangerous cassowary bird. We saw a lot of interesting animals that day... "for sure!" (as Jonathan would say.) I will go into more detail at a later date, but it is certainly late into the morning, and the kids are calling for snack.  

Till next time...