Australia Fayre...crickey!

Well, finally managed to find an Internet cafe. To be honest, its' been made difficult by warm weather and illness. We arrived in Brisbane over a week ago and after 2 days headed up to the Sunshine Coast where upon arrival Seba took ill with a virus which then spread to Marie and Oscar. Yours truly soldiered on!
Have been guests of family in Brisbane and hospitality in the first 48hrs ran to cases of wine and beer and great food. Marry that with the warm weather (its the middle of winter here) and the place is paradise.
Australia seems the most obvious choice for relocation. Weather, self-sufficient in most foods, outdoor culture...but the one problem for Marie is the proximity of snakes...or the realisation that they are within 500miles of her. Still, can but dream.
We've been staying in Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast in a wonderful apartment on the tributary into the sea. Due to the illness, we've been cabin bound but managed two small trips out - Australia Zoo and some whale/dolphin watching.

Firstly, Australia Zoo or otherwise known as the Steve Irwin Tribute Park - crickey! The zoo was home to the self-titled Crocodile Hunter (he's the crazy Aussie guy who used to be on ITV Sat afternoon chasing crocodiles and snakes around the world. Now its' a shrine to his life, work, etc,etc. Due to it being middle of winter the animals were, umm, sleeping. We're pretty much experts in animal nocturnal habits. Crocs (asleep in water), koala's (asleep in trees), pythons (curled up and asleep), kangaroos (lying down). Quick mention in dispatches to the elephants who at least stood up, had a drink, and then lay down again. When walking / pushing / carrying a 4yr and 2yr old around a zoo you pretty much need to see some animal activity (preferably killing / chasing / roaring) for them to be interested. In our postmodern world, once you've seen one animal asleep you've pretty much seen them all.
Still, Marie and the boys' had their photo taken with a syphilis carrying koala!
Next up, and very much high on the "world tour tick list" was whale watching. What should have been an obvious omen to the day ahead, we booked with "Australian Zoo Whale One" or more widely known amongst his employees, "Steve Irwin Whale Boat". Off we set, 10am in the morning, camera's all charged up, plenty of spare discs (for we are a modern gadget holidaying family) into the great blue yonder to watch the majestic whales sing and swim for our delight. As we hit mid-day, and the Steve Irwin tribute DVD played for the 2nd time I started to wonder whether the cure of Australia Zoo had followed us onto the boat. We were informed that whales only spend 10% of their time on the surface but the area we were in was a "popular spot" for them - they swim over for a beer, have a BBQ, take their kids to the park...
Several false spots later, and eagle-eye Hughes spots a jet of water some distance away and then a brown hump. The boat speeds in that direction. Then we're told they can stay under water for up to 15mins. What confused us was why we were all looking at the front of the boat - do whales just sink up and down in one spot? Answer, no. Round the back of the boat a cry went up...so the boat turned around and then we all looked in that direction. This is pretty much what whale watching is all about. It's like looking for fairies at the bottom of the garden. After an hour I was hoping that we wouldn't see them and then we'd get our money back. But the bugger popped up twice which meant all bets where off. Oscar slept through it and Seba's eagle eyes are not yet that developed. Not that I was expecting a "Free Willie" free dive over the boat (well, I was) but nature does have a habit of not performing when you want it to. Or, the whales recognised the boat and stayed under for fear of hearing a raucaus cry of "Crickey" or "Whales Rule"
There was another highlight on the way back where some dolphins swam under the bow of the boat which was an amazing thing for us to see. Thankfully, the are natural show-off's so the video won't look that bad!