QLD zoo - farm animals

For Ben's birthday the other week we headed down to the Big Pineapple where they have the QLD zoo (formerly Alma Park zoo). It's doesn't quite compete with Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo down the road but QLD zoo is a whole lot cheaper and quite interactive for a small place. I'm going to divide the post into two sections, the farm animals (today's post) and the Australian animals for tomorrow :)

When you walk in you can grab some feed for a few bucks. I'd definitely recommend this but then again I always give my bags to Ben because I'm too scared! *scary flashbacks to Nara and those deer*

I loved this dude and not surprisingly he features most in this post today!

Piggie!! how awesome are pigs :)

Chicken! MY beautiful chicken Oblina got eaten the other day, I still have such a hard time walking into the yard and her not being there. She was the best and it was just such unfortunately circumstance that our metal fence flew open and the neighbours dog took advantage. We have decided our place is too unsafe to have any more chickens for now, which is really sad too :( I didn't mean for this post to take such a turn but I really want to say chickens make such awesome pets and she gave us lots of love and go chickens! :) :)

Mr Llama makes a comeback and to his left, dare I say, his cuter cousin, the Alpaca!

Ben getting his pat on with one super cute cow!

We also got to play with baby chicks!! I usually miss out because everyone else crowds around (when baby chicks are involved) but Ben and I had them all to ourselves!!! They were so playful and active and then would tire themselves out and fall asleep on the spot :p

Piglet!! This guy made so much noise and I kept saying to Ben - I want a pig!!!

Mr sheep! Or maybe Mrs :)

Some colourful bantams which provided some hair colour inspiration :)

And one final appearance from our alpaca friend

And llama dude!

Tomorrow I'm back with a bunch more cute animals!

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Big things of NSW

I've been blogging over at my Big things blog but thought it would be fun to compile all the Big Things 
I discovered on our trip down to Port Macquarie, into one post here :)

First up the big prawn! 

 Definitely my favourite big thing so far, it was amazing! Recently it under went a facelift - 400,000 dollars later and he finally has a tail and a new paint job :) Well spent coin in my opinion!

I love it most when people around me get on board with my love of Big things 

They get even more points when they want in on the picture!

This guy is Ben's brother, Paul outside the Big Bowls in Lake Cathie

The Big Banana

or as I like to call it the big overhype :P 

It is one of Australia's most famous big things but honestly I've seen better :p 

(oops maybe that's too harsh!)

Kew's Big Axe

(the very small township of Kew seem to be very proud of this axe, so I better watch my words here :P)

 In a more random direction, just before the big prawn we saw this pineapple at a petrol station.  Definitely one of the more bizarre big things finds as it didn't seem to have any purpose and you could also go inside of it! Whilst the windmill on the right unfortunately has a tragic story attached where the original builder died whilst constructing it :(

Full Disclaimer: I didn't know that fact before posing for the photo so I probably wouldn't of looked so happy

(my faux pas)

 Cunningham's Big Bunch of Bananas

Like the big banana, the big bunch of bananas also lives in Coffs Harbour and unfortunately suffers under it's shadow - I still thought it was cool :)

The Big Knight and the Big Avo

both are adjoined to tourist attractions, Macadamia Nut World and Tropical Fruit World which we unfortunately didn't have time to visit :(

And lucky last the Beehive at Urunga

which we did get to stop in and where I picked myself up some yummy local honey!

I'm not sure if I told you guys but Ben and I are roadtrippin' back to Port on the 20th because Ben's brother (the guy on the motorbike above) is getting married - woohoo, it was a bit of a surprise but I'm super excited to go back, I love road trips! This time we're also taking the inland track down rather than the ocean way so I can photograph a few more big things *looks ridiculous excited*

Oh another happy note, Ben is back, *dances like crazy* woohoo!

(forgive me if this blog turns into a ghost town for a while :P)

Catch you on the flip side!

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Macadamia Factory

Continuing on with our Big Pineapple abandoned-ness, today it's all about the abandoned Macadamia nut factory :) From what I remember as a child, the Big Pineapple was pretty much sundaes, the train and the nut mobile which toured the orchards and I'm guessing (because I can't remember) also stopped by this factory. I saw signs to the "observation view" and the "shop" and also some lonesome eating tables on the bottom level - it seems, it would of been the happening place, back in its day.  Part of the building is now being run as horticultural centre, though it doesn't seem to be associated with the big pineapple. We went on a Sunday and it was all but closed and empty.

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Tomorrow's Harvest - Abandoned amusement ride

The big pineapple is a local attraction at the Sunny Coast, I remember going as a kid and having to park in the lot across the road because it was so busy, now it's a pretty safe bet you'll land yourself a parking space right outside the front door! In its heyday the Big Pineapple had attractions, a massive gift shop and huge plantations, oh and Princess Diana even came and visited! 

From what I know, The Big Pineapple went bankrupt, sat vacant for a while, was bought by peeps (wanting to turn it into a vintage car museum) was declared heritage listed (foiling those plans), and then was bought over by a new bunch who are slowly restoring it. They've already brought back the train ride, given the pineapple a fresh coat of paint and made sure you can get a banana sundae!  They also pioneered The Big Pineapple Music Festival this year but from reports by friends, the music quality was bad, the lines was enormous and they ran out of alcohol, oops! 

Anyway when J was up we decided to go take him to the Big Pineapple unfortunately we missed the last train by about 5 minutes :( So instead we got a sundae and explored the grounds, in particular, the now-abandoned "Tomorrow's Harvest" an educated boat ride with a crocodile that jumped out and scared you at the end, or so Ben tells me - I had to use my imagination! I'm a big fan of abandoned structures and if they use to be an attraction even better :)

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