Where did you go in the last fortnight?

More than half the 60 km into town from their
property is on a gravel road.

It’s more than two weeks since I last wrote here. In that time we've driven over 2,500 km. We drove up to David's sister and brother-in-law's place in Central Queensland: it took us 10 ½ hrs. Then on each of the next four days we drove 60 km into town (they manage a property). 

We spent those days helping my sister-in-law prepare for and (a little bit) run her Alpaca stand at the Emerald Agricultural Show called Ag-Grow. They were long days, but we were glad to work alongside her, rather than be the kind of visitors that took her away from her daily life. And of course time spent with family is valuable, especially when you rarely get to do it!

My amazing sister-in-law (in pink).

Ag-Grow was mostly a place for farmers to look at stuff they were interested in buying, so there was a lot of large equipment and things we had no use for. They had cattle dog trials (dogs competing at cattle work) and Camp Drafting, which is horses doing a similar thing. I learned the latter is a unique Australian sport, but unfortunately I missed the actual event and only saw the horses the next day as they showed off their skills prior to an auction. 

We enjoyed Australian "show" food (but not the Chiko rolls) and the general atmosphere, though did feel a little bit out of our depth at times. For starters, we didn't have the "uniform" of an Australian farm show: long-sleeve button-up cotton shirt with blue jeans. But in the downward run towards packing up and flying back to Japan, we're also not in a mood to buy stuff, not to mention that prices continue to sky rocket.

Always chooks!

Rosegum Alpacas is my sister-in-law's business

Outback sunset

Sunset with view of the large Burnett River

After that, last Saturday, we drove 600 km out to the coast to stay with friends in Bundaberg. These friends we hadn't seen in over 25 years, but had kept up with what each was doing via Facebook. During that period they worked in three different large Asian cities as teachers and it was great to swap some of the many stories that arise from an international life.

On Sunday we spoke at their church, but overall had a quiet afternoon without driving much at all!

Walking with friends along Woodgate Beach

On Monday and Tuesday we drove about 65 km each day to a nearby township on the coast to spend the days with two families we are very close to who were holidaying there, then each evening we drove 65 km back to our lodgings in Bundaberg. Those were precious days of just hanging out together, unfortunately we then had to say goodbyes, just like we had to with David's family.

On Tuesday we had a bit of a car scare, but it was sufficiently resolved for us to be able to get back to Brisbane the next day. We've got a lot of car uncertainty in the coming weeks, and more than one car as our adult sons look at cars too. Probably that's something to write about another day when I know more.

Then on Wednesday we drove 450 km home. That night (and the next one too) we had family parties while watching football (State of Origin, an annual rugby league competition between our state and New South Wales).

Thursday afternoon I spent driving around town getting medical tests done, hopefully I'll know more about that next week after going back to the dr (it's related to the infection I had while we were travelling in the southern states). And David's been taking our middle son driving the last couple of days as he prepares for his second attempt at getting his licence on Tuesday.

It all adds up to a lot of driving and a lot of people! And a number of farewells too. Yesterday I woke up with a headache and pretty much just blobbed around all day. I read a 200-page book too! Today I'm feeling better, but still not hugely energetic. Tonight we're looking forward to our first evening in nearly two weeks when it's just the two of us.

We have just over two weeks until move in with friends and less than three weeks until we hand the keys in for this house. Three weeks on Monday we will, hopefully, fly back to Tokyo. Time is racing past and some days I'm really feeling the pressure. Not so much the pressure of packing up – I think that will be fairly simple – but the pressure of other things that we want or need to get done while we're still here.

Books I've read recently

I wrote back in October that our schedule was less busy than we were used to, that has continued. While we came back to Australia with some big audacious goals (the main one being getting our sons settled into living independently here, especially our middle son who has extra challenges), achieving those goals hasn't been a full 40-hr a week job each week. On top of that, for various reasons we've had fewer church and other groups to visit. We've also not been tied to school drop-offs and pick ups. And then our sons moved out in February and we discovered that we had even more time available to us (meal prep and clean-up took less time, for example). And then, obviously, we had two months of leave! It's been a really different home assignment.

So I've had to figure out how to use my time meaningfully when it's not full of the daily deadlines that were the reality of my work in the last several years in publishing. And with all of the above changes, there has been many a day when I've woken up wondering just what I was going to do to fill my time that day.

A few possibilities for how to use my time were taking on further study or volunteering more of my time to our church or another organisation. None of these were ideal because of the lack of consistency I could offer. Particularly with two months of long service leave thrown in there. We haven't been at our church every week because we have had to speak at other churches some Sundays. We've also only got one car, and some weeks it's been pretty busy as David helped each of our sons get the necessary driving hours to qualify to take a driving test, or been helping them with other tasks.

So in the end I haven't volunteered much anywhere. One thing I have done, however, is read. I have read more non-fiction than I usually do, as an attempt at personal growth. Some of the non-fiction books I've read during our HA include:

• Trusting God by Jerry Bridges
• The Bible Jesus Read by Philip Yancey
• A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World by Paul E. Miller
• Writely or Wrongly: An unstuffy guide to language by Joanne Anderson
• How Writing Works: a field guide to effective writing by Roslyn Petelin
• First You Write a Sentence: The Elements of Reading, Writing . . . and Life by Joe Moran
• The Man Time Forgot: A Tale of Genius, Betrayal, and the Creation of Time Magazine by Isaiah Wilner
• My Dream Time: A Memoir of Tennis and Teamwork by Ash Barty
• The Container Victory Garden: A Beginner's Guide to Growing Your Own Groceries by Maggie Stuckey
• Australian History in Seven Questions by John Hirst

It's turned out to be a great way to use my time on those days that I have extra hours to fill. The three I have read most recently are pictured here (not in the list) and they've all been very good.

Bullies and Saints was an excellent overview of the history of the church from the perspective of the good and not-so-good things that people who call themselves Christians have done over the centuries. I love history and really appreciated the perspective that the author, John Dickson, was able to provide. It definitely provided perspective on our current cultural climate, and the place of Christianity in it. His podcast Undeceptions is also excellent and I recommend it for thoughtful, well-researched content that addresses many things aside from history, including really difficult contemporary topics.

David and I read the Keller book on marriage together after dinner for a few weeks. It's also given us a better perspective on marriage in several areas. I definitely recommend it to any married person along with singles, pretty much any adult, but particularly those interested in a Christian perspective on marriage.

I'm not quite finished the Carson book on A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers. It isn't the easiest book, but it's really good. For years I've used Paul's prayers in various Biblical letters to help me when, on our prayer schedule, I am allocated the task to pray for people who I barely know or haven't been in recent touch with. So this book about Paul's prayers has given me new insight and new encouragement to pray for people prayers that have more depth. For example, rather than  to  say "Please bless Sue", to pray that God would give her power to know his love deeper and to grow in her knowledge of God and love for others. 

To keep myself ploughing through the above book (and others before it), I've tried to set aside specific reading times. For example, a daily reading time over coffee mid afternoon out on my deck. Top tip: over the years I've found it easier to get things that aren't top of my priorities/joys done (like house cleaning and reading more difficult books) if they are tied to a schedule or some other marker.

Reading has many, many benefits. It's a great way to help you with conversation too: the number of times that I've brought up things in a book I've recently read could not be counted! A book like the one by Ash Barty is a great potential conversation starter in a variety of situations.

I'm grateful for the quieter weeks we've had this year, and the opportunity to invest in reading in a way that I haven't had a chance to do for nearly 25 years!

Constancy in the midst of change

I like to come up with one main thing that a blog post is about, it makes for easier reading (and writing). But this week I've been a bit stuck. And it's a symptom of transition. We are, day by day, growing less settled and more drawn into the depths of transition. Yes, it's what I wrote about last week and many times in the past. Missionary life comes with constant change. If it isn't us changing it's someone else. But in this case it's us.

This week we've become more embroiled in practical decisions about both sides of the equation:

Australia

• Meeting up with people "before we go"
• Finalising payments like rent
• Doing things that need to be done before we go, like medical appointments, final things to help our sons get settled
• Talking over logistical things like moving house and selling our car
• Starting to sort through boxes—I threw out many years worth of X-rays this week and found a photo of myself as an infant in the arms of my maternal grandparents.

Japan

This is the largest space in the apartment.
By Australian standards it's tiny, 
especially the kitchen, bathroom,
and laundry. But it's a lovely, bright
apartment and we'll enjoy the challenge
of figuring out how to furnish it.
Watch this space in August!

• We had the first look at photos of our new apartment and started to think more concretely about furniture
• Getting a couple of quotes for moving our stuff into our new apartment
• Finalising details on David's contract with the school
• Renting a car space across the road from our apartment (the apartment does not come with its own space) and thinking about what car we might like to buy
• Thinking about the logistics of that first week in Japan

And less immediately concrete details—I had a meeting with key members of my magazine editing team to talk about the future structure of the team and how I'd best contribute to that.

Along with all of that goes emotions, of course. But probably I'm feeling more excited and not too tremulous. This is the first time we've done this as a couple without any children, and it is significantly simpler (no schooling to consider, just for starters). We've also got the advantage of knowing that we've lived in Japan pretty successfully for many years now, so there's a lot that isn't scary at all.

Emotions are mixed because parts of our heart live on both sides of the ocean now. There are people in both places who we love. There are things about each place that we love.

But, I've written about this before. If you've read along for a few years, you've heard it before!

Change is constant in all of our lives. But as cross-cultural workers we've learned to expect a more frequent and larger changes. Therefore, this article resonated with me: https://velvetashes.com/the-constant-of-change/

The author reflects:

If I have learned anything in my life, it’s to embrace the highs and lows, clinging to the promise that God is with me, will never leave me, and will always provide for me in unexpected and incredible ways.

And she quotes one of my favourite hymns, which is very relevant at this time:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.
Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided;
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

I'm clinging to the one who never changes (God), along with experiencing the comfort that comes with remembering that he has provided all that I've needed and trusting that that also will never change. That is very soothing in the midst of the noise that echoes around in my head at transition times.

But I might not be a soothing person to talk to. My head is full of messy noise that can mean it's hard to concentrate sometimes. If you catch me in the wild, asking "How are you feeling?" might meet with any number of answers!

Changing gears: revving up for more transition

It's been more than a week since I finished blogging about our road trip. It truly is time to get back on the horse and return this blog to it's original purpose: to write about "ordinary" life as an Australian Christian who's worked as a missionary in Japan for much of the last 25 years. But I guess our travel was "ordinary life" for us for two months, so it wasn't too off base!

But, in the last week we've definitely had a return to the more usual life of a missionary on home assignment.

I've been enjoying our deck
once more!

What have we done? Last Saturday morning we spoke at a meeting of people who pray for OMF's work in East Asia. David preached at our home church on Sunday. We've been involved in various other (home) church-based activities this week too. I wrote a prayer letter and sent it out. We had a debriefing with our state OMF director. 

But the big news is that we've booked our tickets back to Japan—for the 22nd July. As a result we've been communicating with people in Australia and Japan as we work on putting details into place around that transition. There's no letting grass grow under our feet! Here's what we know:

6 July: Open house here (drop me a line if you'd like to come)

15 July We'll stop living in our house in Ipswich and spend that week moving and cleaning.

19th we'll fly to Melbourne for a wedding and fly back on the 21st.

22nd we'll fly to Tokyo.

23rd or 24th we'll move into our new apartment not far from our previous house (we even got to go inside this apartment last year before we left).

Early August we'll start taking back various responsibilities we handed to others before we left.

As you might imagine my emotions are up and down, as is typical in the midst of transition, and in reality we haven't really made it out of transition since it began early last year. I'm longing for it all to be over, but I know that will also mean that I've said goodbye to Australia and all our Australian-resident family and friends once again.

Long service leave was delightful. It was the mental break that we needed after several very stressful years. But it's hard to let go of the leisure and get back to harder things that our own pleasure! There's also a growing urgency around people to catch up with and things we want to do before we go back to Japan for another year.

It helps to remind myself of the why of what we do. Most Japanese (we're talking over 90%) have never heard the gospel, the good news that we can have eternal security with God, that Jesus came to save us from a life that's full of strife and pain, to give us hope for the future. That he freely offers us his love, the indescribably precious gift of a personal relationship with him that is completely unconditional. That is why I do what I do.

Reflecting on our two month motorhome journey

This travel series isn't complete without some reflecting (I love to reflect!) and some statistics. I've been writing this for the last two weeks and it just keeps getting longer, so I need to stop and publish this! What follows is a little random, but hang with me and you might find out something interesting.

We travelled for over eights weeks. And it was a long way: 7,479 km! It's hard to find a good comparison for that. It's further than if we'd driven either the east or west coast of the US from top to bottom and back again. It's hard to give a European example, but if you start at the far west (Lisbon, Portugal) and drive east, you have still only driven just over 4,000 km when you enter Middle Eastern countries! It's also the distance as the crow flies between Brisbane, Australia and Tokyo. The larger distances were on the mainland. In Tasmania, I think our longest drive was the first day, when we drove nearly 300 km from Devonport to Lake St Claire, via the Cradle Mountain Visitor Centre.

We spent time in four states and one territory. The only ones we missed were Western Australia, South Australia, and the Northern Territory! 

This is a closer look at the mainland
portions of our travel. I shared a 
similar image for my reflections
about the Tasmanian portion of our
journey on my Tasmanian reflections
blog post.

We slept in 37 locations, including two separate nights on the ferry. A little more than half (19) of those were in Tasmania. We spent 8 nights out of the 58 out of the van (two nights on the ferry, three nights with family/friends, one night in a motel when I was sick, and two nights at a conference). 

We're so thankful we had no breakdowns or accidents. Driving a borrowed vehicle is always concerning. We were covered by my parents insurance, but happy not to have to call upon it. The possibility of accidents is the underlying anxiety for me on long road trips. I have to work hard not to imagine worst case scenarios. It was a relief to get home again unscathed.

Climate. I wrote about Tasmania's climate in April here. But regarding our whole trip, I was amazed at how fast we could change from one zone to another. We left Queensland in shorts and t-shirts, but on the first night, six hours south of Ipswich, we found ourselves pulling out warmer gear as we camped on the Northern Tablelands of NSW.

Our favourite places to camp were the less crowded and the ones that were less well-known. I'm glad we were in Tasmania during a "shoulder" season. Even though two of the weeks we were there were school holidays, most of the places we visited weren't overly busy. 

Montagu, Grants Lagoon, and Dora's Point would be among our favourites (all Tasmania) even though none of these had showers. Most caravan parks were in good shape (David's the underlying factor here, he booked the caravan parks and checked reviews before he did). It's hard to choose a favourite caravan park, though Tomakin was very good (south coast of NSW near Batemans Bay). Lake St Claire and Mount Field National Park were also good. Wagga Wagga free camp was the most crowded and most uncomfortable we felt. 

The campsite on a farm near Dalgety (in the Snowy Mountains) was possibly the most quirky place, with a flushing toilet all on its own up on a hill, but without electric or showers, also, almost no trees. I think was the only place we stayed that was private property, basically a farm stay, and we had very chatty hosts, it was a pity that I felt so terrible at the time.

We shopped small and often. So different to how we have operated for many years (we've had teenage boys in our home for over 13 years). This trip also came hard on the tail of our household halving in size. We had a small fridge and little storage space and limited kitchen equipment. It was a good challenge to think about how to buy food and feed just two of us with limited space. (Though the motorhome actually had more bench space than many Japanese kitchens do!) We had to figure out how to buy small sized items. For example, mini tortillas ended up being the go-to for lunches, as opposed to bread, which was too large to store.

We managed surprisingly well with limited privacy or personal space. We're still very good friends!

I wondered how I would manage, using shared bathrooms and toilets for the whole journey because I'm a bit particular about cleanliness. It wasn't too bad most of the time, though there were times that I wished I was post-menopause (sorry if this is TMI). I can't deny it's been wonderful to be home and have our own bathroom and toilet.

I rediscoverd my love of paper maps. We bought a road map of Tasmania for $5 on the boat on the way over and were so glad so many times that we had it (especially when there was not internet connection). I’ve practically worn that one out: it’s been folded multiple times the “wrong” way, just so we could see the little bit of Tassie we were in at the time. Some of the folds have torn now, but it was a welcome tool on the trip that we used almost every day.

I came home with an even greater appreciation of my own toilet and shower, water on tap, a laundry and kitchen, a fluffy towel, and WiFi! And smaller things like being able to leave my toothbrush out (not packed away). 

A motorhome is very convenient, though. Most everything you use regularly is practically within reach all the time! Of course smaller motorhomes aren’t so convenient, for example, having to pack up the table to make a bed, or lift up the bed to get to the storage underneath it. Ours felt just the right size for the two of us. I was particularly appreciative of the always available bed, especially when I was unwell.

Here's phrase that I've pondered: "romance of the open road". What is it that makes people desire to get away in caravans and motorhomes, or to do long "road trips"? The cynical me says its running away from responsibilities, but I think I'll leave that thought aside and focus on reflections here. It is a little "weirdness" about a big country like Australia that we have this thing of loving to drive long distances. In fact it's the best way to see our large land. But it's gotten a little crazy here in Australia as our Baby Boomers have hit retirement age and many have hit the road!

David says I must include a link to a fun video by an Australian comedian about people who have done "the lap" (driven all the way around Australia in a caravan or motorhome): https://www.facebook.com/reel/292003200631967 (I can't find a Youtube link). I don't think we are this inarticulate about our journey, so please don't hesitate to ask :D. We've got a few good stories.

Sickness while travelling isn’t fun. It was quite difficult and distressing, actually. I'm thankful we didn’t end up having to make major changes to our journey, though that was on the cards and caused some of my anxiety and stress. It was difficult to get a diagnosis and treatment amidst the travel and public holidays and I was surprised that areas I didn't think were remote, were actually, at least in a medical sense. I still have some lingering discomfort, which concerns me, but hopefully that will go away with time (tests done last week don't show any cause for this discomfort). I'm thankful for the online medical services that have popped up in the last few years that made getting access to medical help a bit easier (but not as good as being at home with your own GP who could assess you and follow up).* 

WiFi matters. If you're going to write a travel blog it matters more. So does taking time to write along the journey. I sometimes got that right, but was often foiled by a lack of WiFi, and even at one location, by a lack of any kind of internet at all (our phones said "SOS only" in the place that usually tells you how many bars you have).

My travel diary/scrapbook

Travelling is tiring (which I really knew…) and time consuming. We took quite a few non-electronic things to keep us occupied as we could hardly imagine two months of holidays. We enjoyed puzzle magazines and Scrabble. Some of the other small games too, that we took. I started a new hobby, Wool Felting, but struggled without the internet to guide me on the intro video. I also took my “big” camera, but hardly used it, it was easier just to pull our my phone. We didn’t touch the colouring books we took. Of course blogging took up a lot of time and the other project I did was a scrapbook journal. Not to mention books (I read more than a dozen, plus we listened to three audiobooks while driving). These were all good ideas and we never were bored. But we had less free time than what I’d feared (and yes, I hate being bored). Being sick for a couple of weeks decreased my energy levels for extra curricular activities. And the cold meant we often went to bed early and got up latish: bed was the warmest place and it was easy to read there.

One of the big things we learned was about being more spontaneous and adaptable. Parenting with our particular family dynamics (see here for more on that) has meant we've spent many years learning to plan ahead. We're pretty good at it now, but what we're not good at is spontaneity. After practicing something for over 20 years you don't unlearn it quickly! ....

A friend following our journey has surmised that I like travelling, but I think I like the idea more than the reality. I'm a bit of a home girl deep down. However this trip had so many fun things about it (and not too much staying in other people's homes) that it was hard not to enjoy much of it, even if I was longing at times for home. In reality we've been in transition since early last year, I'm a bit tired of it all. I know we're going to have to pack up and leave our current place in under two months and I'm longing to get to a more permanent "home" in Tokyo and stop there (I hope) for longer than a year (at least have that as our home base for longer, that's not to say that we won't travel).

But I'm so thankful for this break. It's been great to get away from all the usual demands and to just concentrate on travelling and seeing parts of our amazing home country. I think I especially appreciated being anonymous: not having to talk about Japan, or our family, or why we were doing what we were doing (which happens in both Australia and Japan). Some people we talked to last year were concerned about us—that we hadn't had a good holiday for a while, and indeed we barely took any in 2023 at all (at least a go-away-to-relax holiday). This has made up for that, I think. We have so many good memories and are ready to move on to the next thing, mentally at least, I think.

* For Aussies who read this, there are a variety of online medical services available these days to see a GP (probably in part due to COVID-19). I was surprised, but also a little naive. One, Doctors on Demand, was quite expensive. Another is 13SICK and is only open on public holidays and after hours. Literally, they open at 5 pm and shut at 8  am. That was "bulk billed" but even after contacting them literally at 5 pm to get in their virtual line, I waited hours for them to call me back. And if they order a test, they won't talk to you about the results, you have to go to your "ordinary" doctor.

Day 57 and 58: Dubbo to Cranky Rock to home

The last two days of our journey were mostly driving, but we did find a place to camp for the night that had a cool name. And also two fascinating rock formations. If we'd not been looking for a campsite or stopped to ask at an information centre, we would never have found either of these. I'll tell the story mostly with photos:

Our last campsite: Cranky Rock Recreation Reserve
We used their showers and toilets, but opted to pay less
 and go without electricity. This is just outside of
a small town I'd never heard of: Warialda

The width of Australian country town streets can be astounding
to these two travellers who've lived in Tokyo most of the last 19 years.

Narrabri. We ate lunch here and watched a bunch of school children
running around and around a largish circuit in this park. Not sure what
it was that they were doing, but it didn't look especially competitive.
I found something on the footpath nearby that told me this small
town is the "origin" of a high percentage of elite
athletes. I'm pretty sure none of the group we saw running are
destined to be runners, though!

Wide open plains. We're not in Tasmania anymore!

Sawn Rocks. Allegedly one of Australia's best example of
a rock formation called "organ piping". We took a "road less 
travelled" from Narrabri to Warialdra and this was just off the road.
We would never have stopped except for the mention of it by a
keen local at the information centre.

Beautiful drive through Mount Kaputar National Park (not far past
Sawn Rocks).

Cranky Rock. The source of its name is debated.
The sign here gave two possible origin stories, one
more colourful than the other and involved the stabbing
of a woman and death of a Chinese man known as "Cranky".

We climbed up to a lookout (looking down at the pool seen in 
the previous photo)

Got a little sentimental as we watched our last sunset
of our trip.

And there were chooks at this campsite!

Final day on the road

We crossed the border into our home state in a town called Texas :D

It was great to get home again after over eight weeks away. What I'd looked forward to most was my own toilet and shower. But unpacking and inhabiting a larger space where things didn't always have to be put away before you did the next thing was wonderful too...as was our own washing machine and a larger kitchen and a larger selection of clothes. And multiple places that one could sit! We emptied the van as soon as possible and then parked it down the road on a level parking space. The next day we spent a couple of hours cleaning it and then David drove it one last time back to its home with my parents in Toowoomba. I drove our car; we took our younger two sons too and enjoyed 24 hrs with my parents. They were patient and listened to some of our travel stories!

But I'll leave the rest of my reflecting till tomorrow's post.

Day 56: Dubbo Zoo

Dubbo, is a rural city in New South Wales of around 54,000, and is home to a famous zoo: the Western Plains Zoo. I went there as a child a long time ago. We haven't gone to any zoos for a very long time and it was a bit strange doing it as adults with no kids. David had never been there, so we decided that seeing as we were travelling through, we'd take a day to check it out.

Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros

It’s a large zoo (3 square km), not at all like the little city zoos that most people are more familiar with. Most of the animals have very large areas to roam and they've made an effort to make it closer to how their wild relatives live. There's a circuit of around 5 km that you can drive, walk, or ride around. We took our motorhome and drove. I'm not sure we saved much energy, though, because we also walked over 6 km. Driving meant, though, that we could easily carry our own food and water. We drove, parked, and walked . . . on repeat, several times. I found it a little challenging to orientate myself as we went around!

Map of the zoo.

At one point along the way we met four y.o. Molly, who promptly introduced me to all her family. She's the oldest of three siblings and her mum looked weary. It's easy to see how Molly's opinions were a strong driving force in the family—she didn't hesitate to talk to us, and, I suspect she never hesitates to share her thoughts. I'm sure if we'd hung around we would have heard a lot of things her parents didn't think were appropriate to be sharing with strangers.

We saw three types of rhino. Giraffes, hippo eyes (yep, they were in the water), Tasmanian devils, elephants, wild horses, meerkats, African lions, many birds, wallabies, koalas, etc.There were lots of keeper talks, the challenge was coordinating yourself to get there. We happened upon ones at the hippos and giraffes and actually managed to organised ourselves to hear the Tasmanian Devil and platypus ones.

Meerkats

We also visited the animal hospital late in the day, and read many signs there, but didn't see much action. This zoo is involved in a lot of fascinating work in conservation as well as helping injured wildlife. Check out their website if you'd like to. We could have done more, but we went into the day pretty weary and did what we could. Again, it was a different experience without the wonder (and challenge) of children in our charge, but good nonetheless. The variety of creatures on this earth is amazing, and it's always good to be reminded of God's incredible creation.

Tasmanian Devils. We didn't see them in
Tasmania, but had to wait to NSW!
It's time like this that I wish for a camera
with a zoom lens.

African lion