Rockhampton rocks

basically told ye everything I did in the reviews! ha ha ha! ok i'll start from the beginning. left airlie beach for rockhampton about 11. on the way i met a couple from meath. michelle and owen, nice couple only out here for a few weeks. so they mentioned that they were thinking of going into ascot stonegrill backpackers. i'd seen it in the lonely planet. i was sitting in the front seat of the bus, so i was also the video doctor. the video was the fugitive and the screen kept going blank so every 5 mins i was up shaking the video around like a spanner! i sked the us driver where to stay and he said to go to ascot that they were good people there. so i asked the couple if it was ok to follow them! and so began my new habit of just waiting to see who i met or what minibus turned up at the greyhound stop to pick people up and take them to their hostel!i no longer rang ahead! so i asked the lady had she space so no problem i headed off with the other 2. so we got there dropped our bags and headed to the bar to check in. it was fairly quiet but there was 2 men at the bar. one was the owner and the other was dave from the beefnreef tours. they were  trying to encourage us to go on it, and that the guys from Jackass had gone on this tour with this guy. he's the next steve irwin when it comes to animals. but i read some of the write ups around the place and one lassie had let him put a huntsman spider(as big as your hand) on her face, well i wouldn't in a month of sundays! and if there was gonna be that tomfoolery i wasn't gonna be a part of it! kinda regretted it the next day when they were coming back and heading to the zoo at night coz they had some special guy there for 1 night only and they were going doing something with the animals. but everyone who did it said it was brilliant. but anyway after checking in michelle and owen said that they were going to get cleaned up and gonna go for steak if i wanted to join them. excellent! we met up and sat down at the table. the restaurant was quiet but it was during the week, i'd say it'd be busy on the weekends. so having a look down throught the menu and it seems very expensive, $24 being the cheapest steak, i was soon to find out why! it came out on sizzling type hot plate heated to 400 degrees. with chips a veg and sauce on either side of the proper plate. the steak was raw about 2 inches thick and about 6 inches length and bredth. the waiter told us how we were to cook it by cutting off small bits and letting it cook on the hot plate. it was soooooo goood. i couldn't finish it but tried to doggy bag it for the next day. it was dried up by the following evening. boohoo! anyway after we finished i headed upstairs to bed and had a  pretty decent sleep. apart from 2 lassies leaving at 6am and who hadn't bothered to pack their stuff the previous evening! but by the morning i did even hear robin coome in a clean the room or make the beds, i was out cold! she couldn't believe i slept through it! makes me wonder what else i'm sleeping through if i wake up to so much stuff! so anyway i got up late, went to the shops for milk for my cereal and had a nosy around the small shopping centre that was there before going back for my breakfast so i spent a little while on the free internet and decided i'd better do something with my day as i was leaving at 645am the next day. so i decided to check out the zoo in the botanical gardens. i missed the 1st bus and had to wait and hour for the next one and it takes 30 to 40 mins to get there and the last one back was at about 530, so by the time i got there it was 330. i met michelle and owen gettin on the bus as i was getting off so got directions straight to the zoo. ah the animals were soooo cute, koalas and kangaroos(that came nowhere near close enough for me!) cassowarys, dingos etc. basically all ozzie animals. i was walking around and the sun was kinda in my eyes but i couldn't figure out what was in these 2 enclosures so i went up to the fence with my face pinned to it to see if i could see anything, i walked up to the sign and it said it was a crocodile so i walked up and down twice and then i looked right where i'd been putting my face up to the wire, there was a croc just at my feet. no either he was asleep or dead or well fed, or else he had tried to get through the wire too many times but he didn't go for me, i would've lept outta my skin if he had even budged! but i was so surprised that there was only the same wire separating us as there was the other animals. and i'm sure he could've gotten through it if he really wanted to. and then i looked behind at the other enclosure and i see the other one with its mouth open under a tree, not moving an inch. it was kinda cool. and there was loadsa lorrikeets(the really colourful parrots/budgies) around. it was really cool and totally free. so i had a wander around the gardens as the zoo shut at about 430, and then of course couldn't find my way back! and i knew it would get dark around 5 so eventually(a little panic striken) i fell back on the bus stop at about 5 and a bus arrived straight away. didn't do much else for the evening. cooked dinner, watched tv, went down the bar for a drink with michelle and owen and a lad from clare who was working in rockhampton. so we got up and headed for hervey bay at 645am. i love mornings!