Lost Blogs

A couple of blogs have been lost amongst my travels.  The first one deals with lost items.  While I don't mind losing things that are truly lost, I really am frustrated by things that I've dropped along the way and know exactly where they are.  These include a white t-shirt that is on the bottom bunk of room 4 at Nananu Island Backpackers in Fiji, SPF lip protection that is on a top bunk of the Clinton Huts on the Milford Track, and a compression sack that magically disappeared in the tiny Oturere Hut on the Tongariro Crossing.  Although I think this one developed legs and walked away.

Lost Blog 2:

It's a small world after all.  When I'm at home I always manage to run into random people in even more random places.  This is to the point where Alan and I have competitions (especially at concerts) about who is going to see more people that we know, I usually win.  I was expecting this to steadily decline as I am traveling.  However, I've been pleasantly surprised by how this trend has continued.  While diving on the Poor Knights there was a guy (Jon Downey) on the boat that I knew from high school, who is now living in Auckland.  At a hostel in Brisbane I ran into a girl (Kate Scott) from Queen's that I'd worked with in second and third year.  And again while walking along the marina here in Airlie Beach I ran into another girl (Kate Gilby) from Queen's that I knew through work.  Disney got it annoyingly right, it is a small world after all.

Lost Blog 3:

Crocodile Hunter.  The man is a legend here.  I went to visit Australia Zoo because I couldn't get so close to the home of the Crocodile Hunter and not visit his zoo.  First of all, it's very expensive, but you don't feel at all bad about it because you can actually see the money going to help the animals.  They are extremely well cared for and their enclosures seem to top any zoos I've seen.  For the record, this zoo is very 'campy'.  They have something called the Crocoseum (Rob, you would LOVE this).  The Crocoseum is a 5000 seat stadium with a large water pond in the middle.  And the trainers run circus type shows with the animals.  They have a snake show, free flight bird show, and then the main attraction - the Saltwater Crocodiles.  There are 7 paddocks behind the Crocoseum with the big boys in them, these are the ones you've heard about in the show, like Monty and Graham.  They're lured out of their paddocks and into the Love Canal (so termed because if a trainer were to fall in, the crocs would love to eat them) and into the main arena where there is an informative demonstration about the saltwater crocs.  While these shows are generally aimed at kids the message about conservation is very clear throughout the zoo.  This is done in a unique fashion.  Generally at zoos you see plaques naming the species of animal, their size, their habitat, what they eat, etc.  These plaques don't exist at Australia Zoo, what they have instead is the name of the animal(s) on the paddock and information about the destruction of their natural habitat and what you can do to help.  And present at each enclosure is a trainer that can answer all questions.  Also, the zoo has something called Roaming Lovlies.  These are trainers that walk animals around the zoo for the people to meet and touch.  The 'walk' everything from snakes (nonpoisonous) to cheetahs, to wombats.  Also you can always walk through the kangaroo enclosure and feed and pet the kangaroos.  If you do ever happen to get to Australia Zoo, be sure not to miss the tiger show.  It's spectacular.  What I was disappointed about was the lack of variety in the animals (no monkeys/gorillas) but I guess the Zoo started as a reptile park and is slowly expanding to include more and more.  Also, the zoo also seems to be making a profit of Steve Irwin's death.  I mean there was a Steve Irwin mascot (bobblehead style), creepy.  However, the zoo is family run, so if they're ok with it, I guess I have to be as well.