| Myrons Daily Journal - Page 15 April 29, 2004 Went to the Australia zoo today. Didn’t get to see any of the Irwin family, but images of them are everywhere. Every conceivable items a tourist could buy has them looking back at you. My highlight was being in an area with a lot of kangaroos. They were used to humans and I could pet them and scratch them behind their ears. I even scratched the ears of the babies in their mother's pouch. I couldn't pass up having my picture with a koala. The reason I got the picture was so I could hold the koala. I was lucky because it started raining again today, but not until I had seen the entire zoo. I will be heading back tomorrow to Robina on the train with my bike. I got more than 100 clicks on my bike while in Brisbane. I see the word klicks in the newspaper here, but they spell it "clicks," so that is how it must be spelled. From Robina I will bike back to Coolangata for 2 days before I head back to the states. April 30, 2004 Rode the express train from Brisbane to Robina today and then biked the 30 clicks to Coolangatta. Stopped by the airport to be sure I can get my bike off of freedom air and onto air NZ in 1 3/4 hours between landings and take off. Found out air NZ’s transfer time is 55 minutes, as long as I don't exit the customs area. Don’t want to end up leaving my bike or both myself and bike here because of a delay in unloading the bike from freedom air. Other than this, I have the rest of today and tomorrow to lounge around. Found a place in downtown Coolangalla that serves all the pancakes you can eat for 7.70$AU. Think I will take them up on that tomorrow. Why have the few other places that serve pancakes (other than McDonalds) charged over $9 for 2 somewhat small cakes? While in town a group of young kids on their bikes crowded around my bike. They were all impressed and I let them all sit on the bike. Just after I left I heard them say, lets catch him. I am sure they were Again impressed on how fast it could go; I never saw them again. Later in the evening I was passing a pub in Coolangatta on my bike when a group of local Aussies called out. I had stopped at the pub for coffee when I was in town last Friday and had met one of them. It was Friday again and the group obviously spends quite a bit of time tipping glasses there. Stopped and joined them and had some laughs. Boy, can the blokes drink beer. I had a pint and just one more at their insistence. I didn't know how well my recumbent would handle with too many beers. I could just see me getting a drunken riding ticket in Australia. I wonder how many bragging points that would be worth. I asked them if they knew what a "click" was. One of them who was originally from Canada did, the others didn't. They then told me how they described distances. They would say it is so many stubbies from here to there. Naturally I asked, what is a stubbie? They told me a stubby is a short beer.! Enough said. May 1, 2004 As I said yesterday, went to the cafe that serves pancakes. Got a stack of four. That was all I could handle. They were just like the best you could get in the states and they cost just over 6$AU. This is a very fair price considering Coolangatta is a resort town. It is interesting the number of real estate offices you find along the gold coast. Here in downtown Coolangatta I found 3 competitors next door to each other with a 4th only 3 doors away. Every block has at least one. This is typical of most towns in this area. It is obviously a real estate boom time here. Why else would they be building the tallest apartment tower in the world with 80 floors just down the beach in surfer’s paradise, even though it is already packed with apartment towers? Even Coolangatta has big cranes piercing the sky. One thing I find very few of here in Coolangatta is pay phones. They are loaded with them in the bigger cities. I talked to an employee of the phone company. He said in the past they would repair vandalism. Now if a phone is vandalized, they just remove the phone. As I suspected, cell phones are taking over. A news article in the Brisbane paper mentioned a service available to parents. You can limit what numbers your child can call, the times they can't call such as during school and at night, as well as get a listing of the numbers they did call. Another article explained how cell phones are not being allowed in school classes because they can be used to cheat on tests. The ACLU would be out in force on this one if they were here. The way Australia copies the states, it won't be long before they have their own ACLU; except, A will stand for Australian instead of American. Went to a pizza hut for dinner. It was packed. All the pizza you want for 10$NZ. Another stateside business doing well over here. May 2, 2004 Packed the bike this morning. This time I had a standard mountain bike box. I was worried if it was long enough. I measured and found it to be ok. When I started to pack the bike I found it not high enough or wide enough. I will need to learn the minimum dimensions for the future. I was able to cone the top at one end to accept the rear wheel and will carry separately the seat back and seat cushion. After packing the bike I walked the beach into downtown Coolangatta for another stack of pancakes. They have a sign giving the name of the present "all you can eat" champ. He has eaten 19 pancakes. He got his $7.70 worth since he also got a $50 voucher. I will take the beach back to the hostel. I notice there are now older people at the hostel. Many are in their 40's and 50's. Even with the older crowd, someone was playing the guitar and singing at 2 AM this morning. By the sound of the music I would consider the person to be in the older group. Luckily I was! in a single room on the first floor. The performer was on the second floor. Next trip, if I do stay in a hostel, I will stay in a single room; never again in a dorm. I will also have a vehicle to carry my stuff like those 11 bicyclists I met in the south island of NZ. The trip has been enjoyable. It is the first time I have biked solo. I can enjoy it either solo or with a group, as long as I don't have to cook. Now I have added another requirement; not to carry my stuff. I have found that writing these daily emails has not been as difficult as I first thought. It is a good way to review my trip. I hope they have been enjoyable to those who have taken the time to read them. I will send my last email entry when I arrive home. I am already looking forward to planning my next trip to Europe. |
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