Steve Irwin Zoo-Australia's nat'l Zoo

Can you say Crikey!!! We had such a great day at the Steve Irwin Zoo. The kids loved feeding the kangaroos. I think that was a highlight for us. We were able to watch a big croc show, ride ponies, feed tons of kangaroos, touch Koala's, feed elephants and all types of interesting things that don't really happen at our own Hogle Zoo. The zoo was really close to where we were staying on the Sunshine Coast so we were really fortunate to be able to go there and experience the Steve Irwin Spirit. It's a pretty impressive place and it's so interesting how he really is such a big deal over there. We had a great time w/ all the kids and the Nichols.

Last day in Oz

We had so much fun in Australia. Our last day of choice was to spend at the beach. Moolooaba was our favorite-- We went here and even though according to Australia's standards, the weather was cool, the 80 degress was just great for us. The kids played w/ the Nichol kids and Blakely had fun boogie boarding w/ Bryan. We almost got in our only car wreck of the trip on the way to the beach this day. It was crazy. There are tons of round-a-bouts over there and in NZ and Bryan forgot to yield going into one and we about got smashed. That night we went and got all kinds of yummy local fav foods of Nath and Beth's and ended up at the beach park again to do dinner and have some yummy gelato. The kids played on this Steve Irwin statue. We headed out early the next morning and took a few pics of the car, their house (Which they completely turned over to us... crazy friends) and Baya and Abby zonked out on some part of the 24 hour commute home. We had to fly from Brisbane to Auckland (4 hours), have a 2 or 3 hr. layover and then from Auckland to LA, about 14 hours.. and then we got to LAX and had printed an old itinerary and totally missed our flight. So, after 3 more hours, we were lucky to get a flight home! 24 hours later... we arrived! The kids did so great and we were definitely victims of jet lag for a good week, but it was worth it!

Last day Auckland, NZ

We spent our last night in NZ in a cute little basement apartment in the rain forests of the east coast near Auckland. It rained all night long and it was seriously crazy wet outside. We headed into Auckland for our last day before we headed out to fly Australia. (The order of this blog is reversed, sorry.) Auckland was really a beautiful city. We went down by the harbor and wanted to try and hop on a ferry boat of sorts. We took a local ferry across to a nearby town/island and the girls got an ice-cream and we walked around town. The city was so impressive and the opera house was here in the background while we sailed away on the ferry. By about 2 p.m. we headed towards the airport to turn in the car and get ready for our 4 hour flight to brisbane, Australia. New Zealand left it's mark on us and we would love to go back w/ more time. It is a beautiful place.

Day 3 in New Zealand was awesome. We spent a lot of time driving, which was always so pretty. We drove from Rotorua to Tauranga Bay where they have this pretty mountain surrounded by a beautiful rocky/surf beach with tons of shells. The girls spent hours shell combing and just playing. It had been so rainy the previous 2 days that we were really happy to have the sun out. Baya was hysterical running from the waves and Abby and Blakely enjoyed getting all sandy and building sand castles, collecting shells etc. From there we drove up the coast and across some beautiful inland scenery of rolling hills etc to meet up with some friends who live near Auckland. After dinner we headed to our last night in NZ and stayed in a rain forest area w/ tons of rain.