Australia: When 12 Hour Layovers Become Adventures

First stop: Brisbane!
After leaving LAX and hopping the pond, our very first plane landed in Brisbane. What was originally going to be about a 3-hour layover with our original flights, turned into a 12-hour layover with our new flights. I don't think we really realized it until we landed in Brisbane and saw our next boarding time for Cairns (or at least I didn't). For a brief second it was a bit of a harsh blow but if we had learned anything the past 24 hours it was that plans change, you deal, and you move on to make the best of it. So we grabbed some maps, found some open space to sit down and plan, and began to plot out the best way to see what Brisbane had to offer in 12 hours or less.

Growing up, I was raised in a household with a little brother who adored Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, and every move this man made. From the animals he worked with to the lovable energy and personality he resonated to the zoo he founded in Brisbane in the sole interest of animals, education, and conservation, my brother was captivated and soon had in his possession every Crocodile Hunter video, movie, action figure, and even an Australian themed bedroom. To say Sept. 4, 2006 was a sad day in our house would be a bit of an understatement. Because of the nature of our trip and the time limits we had, I had given up on trying to work the Australia Zoo into our itinerary and didn't really push the matter once our schedule and travel paths were set. Then came a 12-hour layover pushed right in our laps. I took one look at the map, found that the location of the Australia Zoo was only about 12-15 stops down on the train, and convinced Travis that this should be where our 12 hours were spent.

So after getting over the initial sticker shock of the train ticket cost and the fee to get into the zoo, we hopped a train and made it there by opening time. As soon as we stepped in and saw how close up we were able to get to the animals, we soon forgot about the fate that brought us here, the amount it cost, or even that it had been raining off and on since we got on the train. Our first few hours into the country and we were thrown head first into Australian wildlife's finest!

It wasn't long before we broke out the cameras:

Waiting on the train

at the very colorful train stop.

One of the first creatures we saw. That neck!!

Drop bears: snuggly one second...

...sizing you up for the attack the next.

"stuck...STUCK!!"

It wasn't even Wednesday

We saw one and got super excited!

Little did we know we were about to see dozens!

They were all so curious until they wised up to the fact that we didn't have food.

"Do you have food? Then I think not."

"Hey, I want some lovin too!"

"Paint me like your French girls"

I want to keep one.

These particular little guys felt like velvet.

In the land of kangas

She looks less than thrilled to hold this snake. I was even less thrilled how close she was holding it to me!

A dingo demonstrating how to ride in the ambulance if you get attacked by an animal, you know, as they do.

A mini animal show.

Travis thought he'd give it a try.

Nailed it!

I'm touching a koala!!! Clearly I'm excited.

He talks a big game about drop bears but deep down he loved every minute of this!

Wombat!!!

Apparently zebras, giraffes, & rhinos can live together.

Cassowary

Perfect (just don't ask how many tries it took)

Outside the animal rehab hospital they have set up behind the zoo.

Next up: Cairns...

** Photo credit: Sarah-Jane Cruz and Travis Simnitt **

Australia: How We Got Here

As this blog is meant to represent my travels all over this crazy beautiful earth, I decided to post my goings-on in Australia here. There were just so many photos that I figured this would be the best way to tackle sharing everything. 

How did this all come about: A little backstory.
So back around Christmas time, I was carrying on a conversation with Travis, a good friend of mine whom I had met about 5 years ago in Africa. Being fellow wanderlusts, it's not uncommon for us to discuss places we'd love to travel in this crazy world. As we began listing out places, we noticed Australia seemed to come up repeatedly in our lists. Obviously that meant we had to go! So we decided to push our luck and just start planning a trip and pray it worked out. We had originally hoped for about 2 weeks but due to big-kid jobs and jobless budgets, we landed on 10 days to get from Houston to Australia and back again. Totally doable, right?!


But Australia is kinda big. How in the world are we to see it in just 10 days??
We decided we wanted to hit all the high points in the limited time we had (taking into account that we would have to spend part of our time in the air to get from location to location). We picked locations on the east coast and, with a little help from a travel agent my parents had used a few years ago, we decided on the golden triangle: Cairns, Uluru, and Sydney. We bought our tickets, reserved our hotels, booked our excursions, and in a few "short" months (really though it felt like an eternity) we were finally off! 

Oh the travel!
Because I live in Georgia and Travis lives in Houston, we knew I would have a little bit further of a trek. How far was this trek you might ask? To get from GA to Australia and back again, I took 10 flights in 10 days. Good thing I'm not afraid of flying! I wish I were kidding but as it were, I was averaging about 1 plane ride per 1.5 days - or something like that. Needless to say, by the time I landed my happy self back in the ATL, I could have given the in-flight safety speech in my sleep! (We won't even count the number of hours I spent in airports!) But, I consider this all a *very* small price to pay when you're a world traveler. Flying is just the name of the game! :)

This is where the story gets fun!
As anyone who has ever traveled has most likely experienced, when you travel, you are more often than not at the mercy of others; whether that's fellow passengers, airline big wigs, our lovely and personable friends in blue (aka TSA), or even mother nature herself, no matter how much you plan down to the very second, one little thing could set your whole plans spinning. And you know what? You just gotta roll with it because there ain't nothing anyone can do about it. We found this to be true right off the bat. We showed up at the airport Friday night (the 15th) tired after a long day (one of us from work, one of us from pre-travel sickness) but nonetheless bright-eyed, excited, and ready to go! If all were to go as planned, we were to leave Houston around 7pm, make it to LAX around 9p or 10ish west coast time, and be out of there on our way to the land down under by 11:45p. Let's just say we did not exactly have the final say. I mean, what's plans anyway? Upon arriving to our gate in Houston, the events went a little something like this: 

- The plane coming into your gate that is taking you to LAX is delayed due to weather

- The plane is here and we are now boarding

- Now that you have successfully boarded the plane, the plane you are currently sitting in has been inspected and has been found to have mechanical damage from the storm it just flew through to get here...late

- We are sending you to the gate next door and getting you a new plane

- Oh wait, that plane requires a different pilot. He will be here in about an hour. We will be boarding in 3.

- Just kidding! You're not going anywhere. Please see 1 of the 2 representatives in the entire airport at customer service for any questions you may have.

My "there's no hope like false hope" face.

And his "The plane is what now? Are you kidding?" face.

Feeling crap out of luck as we were, we decided to get on the phone to the airline (psh, who waits for customer service??) and see what we could do about (1) the plane from which we just got denied and (2) the plane we were now missing on the other side of the country. Answer? Not much: "you booked with a travel agent so everything you do from here on will need to be handled through them. Oh and because it's Friday night after hours, you'll have to wait till their next business hours for help. Thank you and have a lovely evening."

"I feel like crap and I look like crap but if I smile, will you get the camera out of my face?"

So with our tails between our legs and our heads hanging just slightly, we picked up our carry-ons (that's right, we didn't even get our checked bags back), scooted back to the car, and kicked it at the apartment for the night till we could learn more answers in the morning.

Boarding - take one!

As things tend to do sometimes, it actually all managed to iron out in the wash by the next day. We got in touch with our travel agent (or a variation of, at least) figured out our flights re-booked themselves for the next day on their own, and moved some excursions around for the day in Australia we would now be missing. Yeah it kinda sucked missing out on an entire day (in what we later discovered was near paradise) when we were given so few of them to begin with, but what can you do? You just gotta staple it together and call it bad weather.  

"This is my happy face." He may or may not have caught me off guard - then laughed at the results.

Eventually we made it to the lovely city of Brisbane, a *ahem* "few" hours later, and the game was on...

** Photo credit: Sarah-Jane Cruz and Travis Simnitt **