ROADTRIP!!

So after extending our stay in Airlie for 2 extra days, we finally decided to rent a car and go exploring!! Nick was sad to leave our little oasis as he had made a few friends along the way. Two cockatoos would visit in the afternoon and actually took crackers from Nick's hand. I stayed inside and took pictures as I'm a little "scaredycat"!!
Our roadtrip destaination was north. On our way we stopped in Bowen and checked out the Giant Mango. We determined it was almost as large as the Big Apple in Canada. Sadly though, no mango pies were sold! (Do they make mango pies here? Nick feels they would be too mushy!!) Bowen is a very old fashioned small town that was used for the set for the epic film, Australia, currently in theatres.
In Bowen, we stopped at various beaches. At Horseshoe Bay, we walked in the rocks and the surrounding water. I found a fiver in the water at the same time Nick found a 50 dollar bill!! Thank goodness for plasticized money in Australia. I noticed that a few people were climbing the rocks and wondered if the money had fallen out of their pockets so we asked them and sure enough once they searched, they were short a 50 dollar bill and a 5 dollar bill. (We didn't tell them what was found beforehand.) So Nick and I were happy to have made their day! Nick decided to climb the rocks afterwards and I kept a lookout for any extra cash he might throw my way!! ha ha







We arrived into Townsville and walked along the Strand which is a large park along the ocean. It was quite windy so we didn't go swimming. We decided to have a greek dinner and call it an early night. The next day we walked to Flinders Mall - a pedestrian street with shops but is currently under a great deal of construction. Nick tried to visit a barber but no luck! On our way to Reef HQ, we stumbled upon some interesting sights. Nick favoured this chair over the other one - I wonder why? Dad is always pointing out the interesting insects that Australia has so we thought we'd send along this picture of a spider we saw overhanging the street. We quickened our steps when we passed underneath!
Nick and I really enjoyed visiting Reef HQ - we spent the entire afternoon here! It is the world's largest living coral reef aquarium!We saw all types of fish, coral, eels, sea snakes (yuck!), and even several types of sharks!! Nice to see them behind glass and not visiting us while we snorkelled!! We also saw giant versions of the remoras that tried to stick itself to Nick's leg in Thailand. The entire experience was fascinating.
Here is the sea turtle in the predators section. We have many pictures to share.
Finally - Liam and Rowan would have loved what happened when we were leaving the aquarium and Nick managed to get a picture of it. That scary shark from Finding Nemo came after me - good thing Nemo and Dora were there to distract him for me!!
We finally got back on budget and stayed in a backpackers hostel last night. We got great deals on dinner $6.50 each at Molly Malone's and Nick and I were content to be back in an irish pub on a Wednesday night!! (Thanks to the Casey Clan for making us aware that the nachoes still taste great at The Toucan!!)