Back in Gladstone for a day we spend it lounging around and resting up for our overnight in Rockhampton, a neighboring town with the airport the Eric and Jill were going to fly out of. At the point I was getting really excited because the final installment of the Harry Potter films was coming out a few days earlier than it was in the states and I made sure we had tickets to a showing on opening day. As we awoke on what I believe was a Thursday morning and getting ready to drive to Rockhampton for our day’s adventures, Jill noticed the tickets were for Wednesday... So turns out Harry Potter came out in Australia the day before, the day we laid around doing nothing, and we had missed it, not to mention we had wasted four pricey tickets.
We hopped online and got new tickets for later that day and I got over the fact that I didn’t get to see Harry Potter on the opening day. In the car, we drove the two hours to Rockhampton and first visited the Coobury Park animal conservation reserve. Walking around the park there were tons of kangaroos just hopping around. They were so friendly they would just come up to you and eat the feed we had out of hour hands! It was such a great experience and such a good way to meet a roo! We also got to see all types of birds, wombats, crocodiles, and dingoes. After we had walked around the park, the trainers brought out a little joey, a snake, and a koala! I got to hold all three, feeling like a bad ass holding the snake and falling in love as I held the joey and the koala.
After the animal park we drove to the Capricorn Caves for a tour. Eric looked like Indiana Jones in his new Aussie hat. The tour was pretty cool, and took us through a large cave they call the theater I think, where they hold wedding sometimes and it has perfect acoustics. Apparently the acoustics are even more perfect than that of the Sydney Opera House. While we were in there they shut off all the lights and had us sit in “cave dark” where you literally cannot see anything, and listen to music. I’m no expert on sound and acoustics but I do know it sounded pretty darn good. On the way out of the caves we elected to take a candle light walk through a very narrow passage, with only three lit candles between the six of us who were on this particular tour.
After the caves we headed back into town to finally see the Harry Potter movie. As I went to check the address of the theater, I noticed a small detail that we had overlooked. Somehow we had bought tickets for a theater in a town called Indaroopilly. Checking the location of said Indaroopilly, it was a good seven hour drive away. After a good laugh, and a quick chat with the manager of the theater, who I’m sure was looking at us like we were stupid Americans, the nice guy was able to give us some comped tickets to a showing later that day. So in the end, the entire Harry Potter fiasco costed us a few extra dollars than planned, but I was ecstatic to finally see it!
That night we checked into a motel, which was a major downgrade from our Whitsundays accommodations. We laughed at the fact that they were willing to leave our room key under the mat, and struggled to get the neighborhood cat from running into our sketchy little room. It was a fun night however, and we had a decent night sleep before our early morning trip to the airport to see off Eric and Jill on their flight to the states.
Back in Gladstone with just the parents and I, I had fun hanging out with my mom an dad, and meeting some of their friends. One day we walked to the “wine farm” and had lunch with a few couples and had some of the local wine. On our hike back we saw some more kangaroos (this time in the wild so its was exciting), and then stopped at one of my mom’s friends house to see and feed the kookaburras who come to their back yard every day around dusk. I even got to feed them raw meet straight out of my hands! One night we had an enjoyable night in with my parents and dad’s friend Paul. Good conversation and a bottle of bundaberg rum later, I experienced the first time being highly intoxicated with my parents. Those hangovers lasted for a few days but I was impressed with my mom’s hangover cure of toast with vegimite and a brekkie sandwich.
Another day we got all dressed up for the race track where there was a camel race going on. The race itself was a bit of a let down given there wasn’t even any betting on the camels, and all it really was was camels in sparkly cloth running towards food buckets. We tried to bet on some of the other races around the country but soon realized it wasn’t really any fun not being able to actually watch them race. It was fun seeing all the ladies dressed up as if they were going to the royal wedding, fascinator hats and all.
After a few days in Gladdy my mom and set to head out to Sydney for a weekend... But I am going to let you wait for part three for that one! The lovely Ashley Silver has also reminded me that my trip to Nashville needs a blog so there should be a lot of exciting things for y’all to read soon! And even though I am behind on the blogs, I’m still itching for some new travel so hopefully there will be a lot of new posts to follow shortly!
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