Andy and Ben in the sea!

We had been reading in the newspapers that the sea was actually too hot for jellyfish at that time; it was about 29 degrees in December! No jellyfish had been found when they had dragged nets through for the last weeks or so. Therefore it was less of a risk to go swimming, so we decided to go for it! It was so nice; all 3 of us were swimming about in the sea – which was like a bath. We had a lovely afternoon and had a stroll along the marina before setting off home. One thing was for certain – it really didn’t feel like Boxing Day! In fact, I cast my mind back to a year ago when we were at Wetherby Races with mum, dad and Kate in absolutely freezing conditions! There were so many families and large groups of people having barbeques, playing games in the parks and on the beach, a totally different way of enjoying the Christmas holidays to what we are used to.

Ben sunbathing!

We set off back home feeling fully refreshed and relaxed – being on the beach is like having a recharge!
Of course, it is rare that everything goes to plan… We usually swap driving half way to Moranbah because it is a tiring long drive. I picked up the driving from Nebo which is our halfway point. Luckily we were chatting and listening to music so I wasn’t going very fast when we heard a noise that sounded like a helicopter was about to land on the roof of the car. It got louder and louder until, at about the same time as an oncoming car flashed us, Andy saw smoke coming from the front left-hand wheel. Andy told me not to use the brakes and just slow down. I was shaking like a leaf but managed to get the car to a standstill at the side of the road and put the hazards on. The tyre had totally ripped open and was smoking like mad. To get to the spare tyre we had to get Ben out of the boot, so Ben and I stood on the grass as Andy changed the tyre. I was very careful not to move much at all as we were in the middle of nowhere in the bush, and flip-flops and shorts are really not the best attire for that occasion. After a 10 minute pit stop rivalling Ferrari we were on our way home again. Another mini adventure!!
The pain of all this was that nowhere was open for another week for us to get a new tyre. We didn’t dare go anywhere far (that’s everywhere!) with no spare tyre so alas, we were stranded in Moranbah for the rest of the festive period.

Harbour Beach on Boxing Day

Boxing Day on the Beach

On Boxing Day we decided to go to the beach – just because we could!! We set off mid-morning when the temperatures were already knocking at 40 degrees so we knew it would be a nice day on the coast. We went to Harbour Beach and it was beautiful, clear skies, white sandy beach and people in the sea!

Look what we found under the Christmas tree at the end of the day!

We had been invited to a friend’s house that evening, which is illustrative of how friendly people are here, we hardly knew them yet they had invited us for Christmas dinner! As we had got our turkey already, we told them we would go for a drink later on. We had a nice few hours with them and then came home and set up the computer for a webcam session with my family!! It was great and very strange seeing my family preparing for Christmas dinner without me at the other side of the world!! It made my day though as it is very difficult being away from everyone at this time; it is when you miss everyone the most.
Later on, we dug out some board games as is tradition for us every Christmas! By that time you people in England were tucking into your Christmas dinners and we were heading off to bed – Christmas all over for another year!!

Our Christmas day walk

The day was one of the hottest we had known and we later found that it had reached 43 degrees (yes, that is Celcius!!). The only time we went outside was to take Ben for his walks and take these photographs!! Even driving home later that evening it was still 39 degrees at 9pm!! The locals say that Christmas day tends to be one of the hottest days of the year.

BBQ Turkey...

The next morning I put all the presents under the tree and we had a smoked salmon and scrambled egg breakfast. I was so excited about eating breakfast and opening presents that I completely forgot about Mr Turkey sat in the fridge… at 5pm that evening we sat down for Christmas dinner!! To be fair though, we were really hungry and ready for it by that time, and it was the best Christmas dinner I have ever cooked!!

Me in garden sweltering in 43 degrees of formidable heat

We found a nice artificial Christmas tree, not ideal as I have always had a real one, but they don’t have too many Norwegian Pines floating about round here. It looked great when we got it all decorated, and we started getting some lovely Christmas cards from early December which was lovely (thanks to everyone who sent one!), it was so exciting getting the post every morning! My last radio show before Christmas was on the 21st so I played a mixture of big hits and Christmas songs for the whole show – it was great, I was singing along to Slade, The Waitresses and The Pogues and finally beginning to feel like it was the festive season!! They have a competition here (just like on Westfield Avenue in Eggborough) for the best Christmas light display, there are about 5 categories and fairly big prize money so it is all taken very seriously by some residents! You can even get a list of entrants from the council and do a ‘Christmas Lights Drive’ around Moranbah!

We both a ridiculously brief holiday period totalling 4 days off, how we longed for the traditional 1.5 / 2 weeks in England! In Australia it seems that once Christmas day is over, then that is that – whereas in England we treat the whole week as a festive week which is much nicer.

Andy in new Liverpool strip

Both of us were working hard in the run up, and in the last few weeks before the ‘holidays’ I only had 1 day off due to extended opening hours – ah the perils of working in retail during the festive season! We had one chance to buy all out presents in the middle of December when we both had days off together we went through to Mackay for two days for a shop-fest. If you imagine that shopping in Mackay is nowhere near York/Leeds/Hull standards then it was a tricky task! You really do appreciate visiting a big city when you have lived out in the ‘bush’ for so long!! I’ll be salivating when we go to Sydney!! Using my initiative I also ordered some presents from UK online shopping websites to save on delivery costs, cunning! It took forever to weigh, wrap and write customs forms, as well as writing Christmas cards so it was a relief to finally get to the post office with my huge pile of presents. Little did I realise that I would have to call to get a bank loan first in order to post the bloomin’ things!! It cost an absolute fortune to send the presents, more often than not the cost of posting was far more than the cost of what was inside! But must remember that the joy is in the giving of presents and I know they were appreciated when they finally got to England!! Mental note for Christmas 2006: Gift Vouchers!!

Father Christmas - the 4th emergency service!!

The fantastic thing that happens in Moranbah every year is the Moranbah Santa Run. This is organised by the police who during the weeks before Christmas collect presents brought in by parents for their Children. All the presents are out in a gift bag with other goodies and then all day on Christmas Eve the police, fire brigade and ambulance service go round Moranbah in a Christmas procession containing a sleigh for Father Christmas and his Christmas helpers. All day long the sirens were going off round Mornabah as the Santa run entered another street. The children were so excited about it, next door were on the front garden all day just waiting for them to arrive!! Father Christmas gets out of the sleigh and gives all the children a hug, he even poses for photo shoots!

Ben with his Christmas Cracker squeaky toy from Uncle Stuart

Christmas in Moranbah

It was such a strange build up to Christmas, we just didn’t feel like it was Christmas at all – well you wouldn’t if you had 40+ degrees of sun hitting you every time you stepped out of your air-conditioned dwelling! At Coles, where I work, I had to wear a red ‘Happy Christmas’ t-shirt to work for the two weeks before and we wore Christmas hats on the last few days!! Moranbah council had put a huge Christmas tree up and some nice lights, but it was so strange seeing all this in the sunshine. It is born into us that Christmas = dark nights + cold miserable weather, so the sums here just didn’t add up.
Andy’s employer put on a Christmas party in the park near our house early in December, you just turned up with chairs and your esky (cool box) full of drinks!! It was fantastic, there were loads of things to keep the children entertained (bouncy castles, huge slides, fairground rides etc.) while mums and dads got on with the socialising, free food from the burger van and a live band playing all night! I went on one of the rides that goes round and round and round (recurring to infinity) after a few wines which in hindsight was not the most sensible option (I didn’t want a repeat of V2004 eh Jenny?!).

An emotional moment - Dave Grohl back on drums

They only played one song from the second disc of ‘In Your Honour’ as apparently they are lining up an acoustic tour for this year. However, the song they did do got me so emotional that I was welling up with tears! This wasn’t particularly due to the song itself, although ‘Cold Day In the Sun’ is a great song, it was because Taylor Hawkins (the drummer) swaps places with Dave to sing the song. I never actually got to see Nirvana live, Hayley and I had tickets to see them 4 days after Kurt shot himself. So, to see Dave, still regarded as one of the world’s best rock drummers, back on drums again, was quite an emotional experience. Dave still does guest drumming for quite a few different bands, so he certainly hasn’t lost his touch – it was like the energy he had on the ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ video.
Dave chatted away between songs, and mentioned about how last time he was in Australia he decided to ride a moped home from the ‘Big Day Out’ festival they were playing at, and got stopped for a random breath test by the police and locked up in a cell overnight!! The set itself was fantastic with loads of old fashioned speakers stacked up at either side. There were huge screens for people at the back to see what was going on – a nice touch not often thought about by many bands. Also the lighting was excellent, with amazing laser displays.
The show finished with ‘Monkey Wrench’ being the last song of the evening, and we couldn’t wipe the huge grins off our faces for hours! We got the train home and walked back to the hotel still feeling fabulous because we had seen the best concert ever!! Even Andy, who hardly listened to the Foo’s is now a devoted fan, realising that Britney and Christina are not all there is to music!!

The mighty Foo Fighters

After an agonising wait, behind the screen on stage a drum stick was thrown into the air – the crowd went crazy, then it was thrown again, and again to loud cheers every time. The crowd were being built up for what was to be one of the greatest rock shows most will have ever seen.The feedback to ‘In Your Honour’ kicked in, and after this point I can guarantee no-one in the building will have looked at their watch or left to get a drink, the Foo Fighters didn’t let up for 2 hours, playing a selection of songs from all five of their albums to date. An extended version of ‘Stacked Actor’ saw Dave Grohl run to a platform at the back of the floor area to trade guitar solos with Chris Shifflet. Dave was a true performer, putting every ounce of energy and enthusiasm he could possibly have mustered into his playing and singing. He ran from one end of the stage to another and had a huge grin on his face as though he was absolutely loving it! A sensational version of ‘Everlong’ began acoustically with Dave, and then the rest of the band joined him for the last chorus. DOA was fantastic live, and new single ‘Resolve’ was excellent, as was ‘I’ll Stick Around’. ‘Times Like These’, ‘No Way Back’, ‘Best of You’, ‘Generator’ and ‘Breakout’ were all played, and every single song they did made you want to jump up and down and scream along to the lyrics with Dave!

Kaiser Chiefs

Kaiser Chiefs/Foo Fighters Concert

After a fantastic day at the Australia Zoo, it was time for a quick turnaround to head off (on the train this time) to the Brisbane Entertainment Centre for the Kaiser Chiefs/Foo Fighters concert that night. I dressed up as a proper rocker with black mini skirt and the infamous black Nirvana t-shirt with yellow smiley face that I’ve had since the 1990’s!! Yet again, we had to go through the most stringent security outside of Buckingham Palace as girls had to form one queue and boys another to go through the security checks. When there are thousands of people trying to get in then you can imagine that this was considerably worse than trying to herd sheep. I found Andy at the other side of security and we rushed to get in to the entertainment hall in time for the Kaiser Chiefs’ support act. A punk band called ‘The Nation Blue’ were just finishing their opening set as we arrived. Later we found out that the guitarist actually dislocated his knee towards the end of their set and continued to play whilst lay on the stage until the paramedics arrived!! I am SO glad I didn’t witness that or I may have been too queasy to enjoy the rest of the show! Next up were the Kaiser Chiefs – who aren’t very big in Australia yet, although by the time I’ve finished promoting them on my radio show they should be! This was their first tour in Australia and we were both very excited about seeing it as their album is fantastic. I saw them at Glastonbury where he sang some of the songs next to a huge inflatable dinosaur he had been given from the crowd – it was a great set. The Kaiser Chiefs entered the stage to ‘Money For Nothing’ by Dire Straits and then went straight into ‘Na Na Na Na Na’. Ricky was his usual charismatic self and leapt about the stage and thrashed his tambourine for all it was worth! They did most of the songs from their album ‘Employment’, including ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’ and ‘Oh My God’ and the Australians were getting into their music, jumping about and hands in the air. I even heard someone behind me saying he loved them and would be buying their album, so I reckon the Kaiser Chiefs did a good job promoting themselves that night. They finished with the excellent ‘I Predict a Riot’ and received rapturous applause and cheers for a great supporting set.

Freshwater crocodile having a yawn!

All in all, we had a fantastic day and I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. I never knew before we visited the zoo that Steve Irwin actually owns it, I thought he just did demonstrations there. But to realize that this fantastic zoo has been built up over 35 years from scratch by his family, and now has over 400 emploees, makes it all the more impressive.

Andy feeding an elephant

As well as the main Crocoseum shows, there are small presentations and activities going on at all the animal/reptile enclosures all day. The highlight of the day for me was being able to feed an elephant!! The sight of three enormous elephants lumbering towards us as we waited to feed them was breathtaking. We got to feed them a piece of fruit, they took it out of our hand using their trunk and ate it – fantastic!! I also got to stroke a wombat, and we saw an excellent presentation with Harriet, the giant Galapagos Land Tortoise. Collected by Sir Charles Darwin in 1835, Harriet is the oldest living animal on the planet (176 years old), which makes it an awe-inspiring experience to meet her and touch her. If she gets tickled she lifts her shell up, which is great to watch! The other great, but horrible at the same time, thing we saw was a huge snake devouring a rat whole! There are also fantastic kangaroo, wallaby and koala areas where you can feed and sit amongst these marsupials, but we didn’t spend as much time there due to our visit to the koala sanctuary the day before.

Crikey, what a ripper!!

Unfortunately the big man himself wasn’t there, it is rare that he is nowadays due to his high profile celebrity status now bringing him a lot a media work. While we were there he was working in far northern Queensland on a project to tag crocodiles with satellite transmitters so that we can learn more about their movement. Unluckily for us though, he was actually going to be at the park in two days for his son’s second birthday. His son was only having the entire zoo as his party, with all children admitted free and celebrations at the zoo all day – lucky boy!!

Showing how a crocodile can lift out of the water using it's tail

The shows were fantastic, they were all trying to be very educational as well as highly entertaining. The tigers were shown swimming in water, leaping into the air and playing with huge ‘toys’ which was incredible. The bird show had birds flying around the Crocoseum seats – sometimes very low near your head, so that everyone could see them up close while the keepers talked about them. The crocodile show was, of course, the most impressive and we learnt so much about why they will attack and what not to do to provoke them (i.e. swim in their water – they are very territorial).

The Crocodile show

The Australia Zoo has won loads of big tourism awards and you can see why. It is immaculately presented, all the staff are extremely knowledgeable and friendly and they have a great balance of shows, interaction with animals (e.g. a team of ‘rovers’ who bring out wombats, dingos, baby alligators, koalas, snakes, lizards etc. and walk around the zoo with them for people to touch and ask questions about) and animal/reptile/bird enclosures. I was also very impressed with the layout of the zoo, everywhere is cleverly landscaped so that you can only see the small area you are in. This way it never feels crowded or indeed like a stereotypical zoo full of cages. There are few animals/reptiles at the zoo that don’t have a specially made enclosure, which is fantastic. You walk along a boardwalk amongst the emus, cassowaries and dingos. The elephants have a huge play area, and go for walks to the dam twice a day. The new tiger temple is very impressive with a glassed in area containing trees, water and hills for them to sit on. The crocodiles are the centre of attention and have big lakes where they can wallow. Some of them get to perform in the Crocoseum – where the big snake, tiger, bird and crocodile shows are held every day.

Tigers after their swim

We had to be on a train at 8am on the Monday morning for an hour and a half journey north of Brisbane up to Beerwah where the Australia Zoo is located. Needless to say it was a struggle to get there on time after our night out! We managed to get a bit of sleep on the train and after passing through dozens of remote stations (and getting off at one of them only to realise our error and have to jump back on as the doors shut!) we finally arrived at the station to be greeted by Steve’s Safari Shuttle to take us to the zoo!

Tiger leaping into water after the toy!

Steve started to become a bit of a celebrity himself in 1992 when he was asked to star in a soft drinks commercial. In this year he also met Terri, who was shortly to become his wife, and begin catching snakes in the bush! As soon as they were married, Steve’s mum and dad handed the park over to them. Steve’s crocodile demonstrations were being touted as the greatest wildlife event in history and people were flocking to see them.
Soon, they had to buy out the avocado farm next door just to build a car park.
In the same year, 1992, the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park became ‘Australia Zoo’…. And they haven’t looked back!

Tiger show

Soon, the power of the crocodiles was starting to attract more and more people, eager to see the much talked about demonstrations and in 1991 the car park at the park was overflowing regularly.

Snake show in the Crocoseum

In 1987 the Irwin’s built the Crocodile Environmental Park. Steve’s dad was fed up with saltwater crocodiles being killed and skinned by crocodile farmers and was desperate to educate people about crocodiles to try and make this behaviour unacceptable.
Steve spent most of the late 80’s in north Queensland capturing crocodiles, mostly to save their lives and relocate them. Some of them he sent back to the park, these crocs were to become the stars of the Crocodile Environmental Park. Steve would normally do a daily crocodile feeding demonstration, but if he was away then Wes or Kelsey would do it to ensure the park was a success.

The common wombat having a walk!

By 1980, with all money earned being invested straight back into it, the Beerwah Reptile Park had grown and grown. The park was now Queensland’s premier wildlife attraction and the name was upgraded to the ‘Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park’. The Irwin’s purchased another 4 acres of land to develop the park further. At this time Steve Irwin began rescuing creatures that were ill or injured and the family cared for them at their park. He had also fed all the crocodiles there since the 70’s. The family hired their first employee, Wes, in the mid-80’s to help them out and later would employ Kelsey, a 15 year old work experience student who bonded with them all immediately. Both of these employees are still there to this day. In 1985, Steve’s mum and dad finally felt they could leave the park in his hands for a few weeks while they had their first holiday in 15 years.

Harriet the 176 year old Giant Galapagos Land Tortoise

Australia Zoo

Steve Irwin’s mum and dad bought 4 acres of land in 1970, on Queeensland’s sunshine coast, which his dad transformed into the ‘Beerwah Reptile Park’. The reptile park took up all the Irwin family’s time and money and they lived in an old caravan for the first few years. The caravan progressed to a shed and then a house, in which the Irwin family still live now.