Australia zoo info please?

Hi all,
We are creatures of habit and have been to the gold coast for 2 months every 6 months since DD was born. My sister, whose kids are DDs only cousins live up there so it is to give the kids an oporrtunity to see each other. so we are going for 2 weeks in december. DD loves Bindi the jungle girl and DH is a big fan of Steves so I thought I might organise to go to Australia zoo while we are in qld this year. Will probably hire a car to get there but wondered if the lovely queenslanders or people that have been there can answer me a few questions:
1. how long to drive from surfers to Australia zoo
2. would like to stay one or 2 nights on sunshine coast as DH and DD have never been there, where would be the closet place to stay to Australia zoo?
3. how far is Australia zoo from that closest place?
4. Do we need one or 2 days to see Australia zoo?
5. any tips/hints?

Anney, we have taken visitors to Australia Zoo twice, and will probably go again soon to take the boys. It's quite good. Here are the answers:

1. Probably about 1 1/2 hours outside of peak hour. You would bypass Brissy on the Gateway I would think, so M1 to Gateway, to Bruce Highway.

2. I think Beerwah is the closest town. This is really Sunshine Coast Hinterland, rather than Sunshine Coast itself. I think Beerwah has some B&Bs and so forth. Aus Zoo is about 5 or 10 mins from Beerwah if my memory is correct. You would be looking at about 30 mins to get to Maroochydore which is "real" Sunshine Coast.

3. Whoops, answered above.

4. 1 day is definitely enough. I recommend going early as it makes it easier to fit in the shows if you want to see those. There are lots of other things to do around that area though if you are staying overnight.

5. Try contacting the Tourism board before you arrive as you can sometimes get discount vouchers. It is not cheap, but it is worth a look I think.

HTHs.

i have a yearly pass to the zoo & have had for the last few years

1. prob almost 2 hrs from surfers to beerwah - depends where in surfers you are & the traffic but definately take the gateway

2. beerwah is the closest town tho not much there - depends if you want to stay near the beach then id either try mooloolaba or even golden beach/caloundra both about the same time from beerwah - or if you want a mountain holiday stay up at maleny or montville

3. 5mins into beerwah - about 1/2 hour to the other places

4. depends on how into everything you are - with all the changes there & seeing all the things you may need two days - i have been there so many times & have yet to go into the wetlands area - there is a main show in th crocoseum plus other shows at enclosures like elephant feeding

5.contact the zoo to send out some info - they even have a travel agent there now that may help with accomodation - you can take your own food in & there are nice places for picnics inside or their food section is great with a huge selection - get there early so you dont have park too far away

have fun!

thanks girls, just getting back to this now. Going to try to get some accomodation with my flybuys points.