Today we visited the Australia Zoo. For those who don’t know, that is Steve Irwin’s (The Crocodile Hunter) Zoo. It is also sponsored by Animal Planet, which is very cool to kids. As is Steve-O.
Where to start? How about we start when we arrived. Very unlike last year’s Disney adventure, there were at least 65 people on line to get into the zoo at opening time. Disney had to have a 1 hour pre-opening show for the 10,000 people waiting for the gates to open. We enjoyed the lack of crowds very much.
We expected to never be able to cover the entire park in one day, so we grabbed a few maps and started sprinting. The map was not available online so there was no way to pre-plan our route. After a very fast walk of 50 yards, we realized that we were almost halfway up the map, so we calmed down quite a bit.
It was the first realization that we were NOT in Kansas anymore. We checked out the infamous crocodile area, there are numerous pens with crocs in them. They all have names and stories, it’s pretty cool. We went to a tortoise talk time, and saw giant tortoises standing up when their shells were scratched, walking distances beyond our expectations, and eating all kinds of veggie matter. We also learned a ton of stuff about them. They have feeling all over the outside of their shell, they stand up to let lizards eat dead skin off their bodies, and that they never do ANYTHING quickly. But, if you leave your finger in front of them long enough, they will bite it off.
After the tortoise talk, he told us to go feed the elephants. So, like the skilled Disney-ites we were, we took off at full speed ahead of the crowd to get to the end of the park for elephant feeding time. We passed the wombats at 60 kilometers per hour (Aussies use metric), we passed through the huge aviary tent at 40 KPH, and came to the kangaroo area. Halfway through, we stopped and thought, “hey, it is much cooler to pet a kangaroo than to feed an elephant”. So we stopped and hung out in a field, sitting next to and petting kangaroos. Things calmed down to a screeching halt. And it was great. After we had our first fill of kangaroo time, we went to the Crocoseum for the big show.
It was nice to go see a show less than 20 minutes before it starts and get a good seat. They had snakes, one guy swam with a BIG python, birds were swooping over our heads and they showed us how to attract (or avoid) a crocodile. They were NOT 100% comfortable with the big croc, which was pretty cool. They were not acting, either. This guy was big and you never can tell when they will strike out at you. The main guy explained that the croc was a bit freaked out because they went and woke him up and took him out of his territory for the show. He asked, “what would you say if I came in to your bedroom and took your mate away”. To which John loudly answered “Good Luck”. He stumped an Aussie. The crowd laughed, I was mortified. So the Aussie said, “that was a good one”, and then “how about if I came into your home and took your beer” to which John said “you’re dead”. And he says I like being center of attention. But he was right, the Aussie guy said the croc was that mad. He wanted his beer back.
We brought on our own food and had a picnic, and we saw a fantastic tiger show (I am a big Calvin and Hobbes fan). We watched trainers show different methods of training tigers and have never seen tigers move that much, that fast or climb that high. Totally cool. We saw birds of prey in a show, fed the kangaroos, including joeys who were still milking their moms, and petted the butt of a koala. Koala bears are not wanting to be cuddled! We would vote for the kangaroo areas being the best of all.
But we did swing by the Tasmanian devil area for the second time on the way out, as the first time they were hiding and asleep. They were out and running around and even fought a bit for us. Very cute for deadly little critters.
Then I insisted we see the kookaburras last, which was the best time. We watched the top bird guy feeding rat pieces to the kookaburras and were treated to an amazing puffing up of the birds and the insane laughter shriek they let off. Several times! SO cool.
We had to hunt down the stores to buy souvenirs, but find them we did. This is the best animal center on earth, at least in my humble opinion. They inform you of so many interesting and meaningful facts about animals, and they make it fun. It’s kind of like if your neighbor had a bunch of animals and taught you about them.
It’s one more reason to visit Australia. Oh, and they are an equal opportunity employer. The bird guy went from starting to being in charge in 2 years!!! He is from Iowa. God Bless Australia!
Where to start? How about we start when we arrived. Very unlike last year’s Disney adventure, there were at least 65 people on line to get into the zoo at opening time. Disney had to have a 1 hour pre-opening show for the 10,000 people waiting for the gates to open. We enjoyed the lack of crowds very much.
We expected to never be able to cover the entire park in one day, so we grabbed a few maps and started sprinting. The map was not available online so there was no way to pre-plan our route. After a very fast walk of 50 yards, we realized that we were almost halfway up the map, so we calmed down quite a bit.
It was the first realization that we were NOT in Kansas anymore. We checked out the infamous crocodile area, there are numerous pens with crocs in them. They all have names and stories, it’s pretty cool. We went to a tortoise talk time, and saw giant tortoises standing up when their shells were scratched, walking distances beyond our expectations, and eating all kinds of veggie matter. We also learned a ton of stuff about them. They have feeling all over the outside of their shell, they stand up to let lizards eat dead skin off their bodies, and that they never do ANYTHING quickly. But, if you leave your finger in front of them long enough, they will bite it off.
After the tortoise talk, he told us to go feed the elephants. So, like the skilled Disney-ites we were, we took off at full speed ahead of the crowd to get to the end of the park for elephant feeding time. We passed the wombats at 60 kilometers per hour (Aussies use metric), we passed through the huge aviary tent at 40 KPH, and came to the kangaroo area. Halfway through, we stopped and thought, “hey, it is much cooler to pet a kangaroo than to feed an elephant”. So we stopped and hung out in a field, sitting next to and petting kangaroos. Things calmed down to a screeching halt. And it was great. After we had our first fill of kangaroo time, we went to the Crocoseum for the big show.
It was nice to go see a show less than 20 minutes before it starts and get a good seat. They had snakes, one guy swam with a BIG python, birds were swooping over our heads and they showed us how to attract (or avoid) a crocodile. They were NOT 100% comfortable with the big croc, which was pretty cool. They were not acting, either. This guy was big and you never can tell when they will strike out at you. The main guy explained that the croc was a bit freaked out because they went and woke him up and took him out of his territory for the show. He asked, “what would you say if I came in to your bedroom and took your mate away”. To which John loudly answered “Good Luck”. He stumped an Aussie. The crowd laughed, I was mortified. So the Aussie said, “that was a good one”, and then “how about if I came into your home and took your beer” to which John said “you’re dead”. And he says I like being center of attention. But he was right, the Aussie guy said the croc was that mad. He wanted his beer back.
We brought on our own food and had a picnic, and we saw a fantastic tiger show (I am a big Calvin and Hobbes fan). We watched trainers show different methods of training tigers and have never seen tigers move that much, that fast or climb that high. Totally cool. We saw birds of prey in a show, fed the kangaroos, including joeys who were still milking their moms, and petted the butt of a koala. Koala bears are not wanting to be cuddled! We would vote for the kangaroo areas being the best of all.
But we did swing by the Tasmanian devil area for the second time on the way out, as the first time they were hiding and asleep. They were out and running around and even fought a bit for us. Very cute for deadly little critters.
Then I insisted we see the kookaburras last, which was the best time. We watched the top bird guy feeding rat pieces to the kookaburras and were treated to an amazing puffing up of the birds and the insane laughter shriek they let off. Several times! SO cool.
We had to hunt down the stores to buy souvenirs, but find them we did. This is the best animal center on earth, at least in my humble opinion. They inform you of so many interesting and meaningful facts about animals, and they make it fun. It’s kind of like if your neighbor had a bunch of animals and taught you about them.
It’s one more reason to visit Australia. Oh, and they are an equal opportunity employer. The bird guy went from starting to being in charge in 2 years!!! He is from Iowa. God Bless Australia!
2 comments:
Better than your cyber zoo?
WAY better than my cyber zoo!!! There are other people in existence!
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