Steve Irwin Zoo north of Brisbane

We went to the amazing Steve Irwin Zoo north of Brisbane.  We missed Steve's daughter Bindi by a couple of days.  We had a full day of fun getting up close to many of the animals.  My highlight, of course, was getting to cuddle with a koala bear!  He was soft and fury, but really heavy!   Their facilities were world class and a must see if you ever make it to this end of the planet.

When I got home to my house tonight there was poo in my front yard.  I asked my neighbor about it and he said a kangaroo was paying me a visit and leave his calling card!  Sure enough I looked out past my back fence and there was the culprit grazing in the back field.  I have some yard clean up to do ... 

Sapphire Fossicking

Today we went to the Billabong Blue Fossicking Park to fossick for sapphires.  Yes, fossicking is what you do in the Inverell area.  It is known as a leading provider of the worlds sapphires and other gems.  The owner gave us a personal tour of their big wash plant, an operation similar to that on the TV program Gold Rush. You can see in the top photo the pile of raw dirt that you sift through.  You then wash the rocks in the pool of muddy water and dump them onto a burlap covered barrel.  You start combing through the stones looking for blue coloured rocks.  With a keen eye, we picked out about 20 little stones that could be turned into sapphires.  A great way to spend the day in +30 degree weather.  Thanks to Deb Czainski for my Australian hat, it came in handy today:)

Coffs Harbour

On our way to Coffs Harbour we came across our first 'koala bear' road sign.  We didn't see any koala's on the road, but did see, on separate occasions, two kangaroos who were resting permanently on the side of the road ... yep, we hit deer and here they hit kangaroo.  We went for a run yesterday morning around the town dam and a kangaroo went bouncing on by ... so cool to see in the wild, but not so cool when the 4 foot long snake went slithering across our running path. 
Barnaby had his picture taken in front of the Big Banana!  Coffs harbour has groves and groves of banana trees ... hence the really big banana as a town attraction.

Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge

Like all tourists do, we went down to the Sydney Opera House and took our pictures at this famous landmark.  Didn't have time for a boat cruise around the harbour, maybe next time I'm in Sydney, I'll squeeze it in.

I was able to get my picture taken at the National Museum in Auckland before we left NZ.  It was, hands down, the best and biggest museum I have ever been to.  This fellow represents the traditional Maori dress and look. 

Today we went to the Kelly Tarlton's Sea Life Aquarium.  Outside was the Shark Bus ... Barnaby is posing just inside his mouth!  I got to see my first king penguins!  So cool up close. 

Big Apple

We are seeing a lot of "World's Largest" here in NZ.  Barnaby had his picture taken beside the Big Apple! 

Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Today we went to the Waitomo Glowworm caves.  What an incredible experience!  One of the tours took us through by boat into the dark caves to see the ceiling glowing with the tiny lights.  The guides told us that for 9 months the glowworm stays in their pupa and sends out 10 to 20 'fishing lines' outside of his pupa to catch flies, mosquitos, etc.  These lines that you can see in the first photo, are similar to a spiders web in that they have a sticky substance that the bug becomes stuck to and it takes the worm about 20 seconds to go down the line and reel his lunch in!  We were underground on the second tour for 2 hours and it was cool to see all the calcium formations on the lime stone.  We really wanted to do the three hour adventure tour where you wear wetsuits and float through the caves on tire tubes, but our timing was off:(   We made it back to Auckland this evening and tomorrow we are off to see some penguins at the aquarium. 

Driving through Te Kuiti making our way to the glowworm caves we came across the worlds largest sheep shearing monument.  The sign indicated that there are 48 million sheep in NZ, which means there are 14 sheep per person.  It also told of a man who holds the world record for shearing 831 sheep in a 9 hour work day...  The hills are covered will sheep everywhere we've been ... I believe there is 48 million!!!