A Very Cool Holiday
And it wasn’t supposed to be cool.
The idea was to fly up to Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast in mid-August of 2003 to get warm in the midst of a cooler-than-usual winter in Melbourne. Instead, we had three days of intermittent rain and clouds, followed by sunny weather but temperatures cool enough to discourage swimming in the Coral Sea.
Oh well, we had a nice break anyway, and visited some of the local attractions, including “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin’s Australia Zoo, where heavily-drugged crocs pretend to “attack” Steve Irwin-wannabes in order to get food.
Although a big hit in the U.S., Irwin is an embarrassment to genuine Aussies like Jacob, who was appalled when we said we planned to visit this corny tourist trap. But it’s one of those places that is so bad it’s almost good, and you pretty much have to go if you’re up there. A bit overdone, like Disneyland, and the oppressively-cheerful staff seem to have been instructed to address all visitors as “mate” at least once in every sentence or lose their jobs.
For 7 nights we sampled Mooloolaba’s good restaurants along a very pretty seaside esplanade, and during the day sat around our pool reading books or walking the lovely beach, which was named Australia’s cleanest beach.
Here are some photos:
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Alma on a windswept beach |
Overlooking the Coral Sea |
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Temperature was 65, but felt like 55 |
Along Mooloolaba’s Esplanade |
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Will the real Steve Irwin stand up? |
Life is a continual photo op. These are at croc hunter Steve Irwin’s zoo which we visited. “Crikey, mate” said all of the zoo empolyes, just like Steve. |
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Croc “attacks” zoo keeper |
Alma getting to know a koala |
