I'm back Again...

This time from Australia,

I was over in Darwin which is at the top of Australia luckily for us it was only 30 odd degrees which doesn't sound very bad but because its in the tropics and extremely humid it feels pretty warm you walk outside and start sweating, but it beats the usual 40+.

I was there for work with just one other work mate, Scott. The plan was that we would fly up to Darwin on the 21st and work that night, then the Aircraft and crew would carry on and be back to pick us up on ANZAC day (25th) and fly back to NZ on the 26th April.

All was well when we were dropped off that night we were told that there was a cyclone brewing off shore and everyone was just waiting to see what it was going to do, but no one really made a big deal of it, that was on Friday.

Saturday was pretty much spent catching up on sleep but that evening we went into Darwin city and had dinner and went to the movies and saw, Scary movie four. We decided that Sunday would be the day of the crocodile!

Sunday morning we walked out to the bus stop unfortunately the busses don't come as often on Sunday's so we spent quite some time at the bus stop, eventually we made it to 'Crocodilis Park' we arrived just in time to see them feeding the massive Salt water croc's, then we carried on to the American alligators and the fresh water croc's.

The last part of the tour was feeding the baby crocodiles that they breed to turn into handbags and shoes! There is a massive enclosure with heaps of little crocodiles and there is tarpaulins on the side of the enclosure so that when they are on land they don't scratch their underbelly and ruin their skin. They feed these by putting a piece of chicken on a pulley system and the further out it got the closer to the water it got. The croc's would jump out of the water to get the chicken, and the ones on the shore would scoot around slipping on the tarp trying to get into the water it was quite funny. After that we got the chance to hold a baby crocodile. Don't worry Mum I didn't hold a snake!

After the tour we got to walk around and see all the other animals, there were monkeys, Lions, Emu's, Dingo's, a Wombat, Turtles and quite a few other birds and stuff, there were some snakes there but they were locked up in their glass cages.

That afternoon we also went and checked out the aviation museum which had a B52 bomber and heaps of other cool stories and stuff as Darwin was a major part in WWII being so close to Asia Pacific.

The next day we went into the mall at Casurina which was bustling with activity because the latest news on cyclone Monica was that it was a category 5 and the biggest cyclone Darwin had ever seen and it was heading directly for us! Even bigger than cyclone Tracy which flattened Darwin in the 70s.

That day we also found out that because of the cyclone our plane was going to be able to get in and pick us up so we had to ride out the cyclone and worry about getting home afterwards. It was due to hit either that night or early the next morning. ANZAC day. All ANZAC day celebrations had been cancelled because of Monica.

ANZAC day morning when we woke up there was no wind, no rain, no people, and no cyclone although the sky was a little dark. We eventually found out that Monica and been downgraded to a cat 2 then later a cat 1 and wasn't going to hit Darwin directly. That afternoon we got the rain but not much wind and a phone call saying we would be flying home on Friday. YAY! But unfortunately it rained for the next three days and there wasn't much else to do other than eat and watch TV.

Well last night I finally made it home, a little disappointed I didn't get to experience a cyclone but alive at least.