Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo

Serenna and Zac on life size model of one big croc.

Day One of our Road Trip up the East coast of Australia began with a day spent at the Zoo.
The late Steve Irwin, 'the crocodile hunter', is an Australian treasure.  He has made loads of TV shows wrestling crocodiles and snakes and getting way too up close and personal with dangerous wild animals.  They really LOVE this guy and after spending a day at the zoo that he and his family have created I can see why.  The Australian Zoo rocks!

The animals are well kept, the staff are amazing and knowledgeable and really send out a message of wildlife preservation at all of their featured talks and shows.  And we got up close and personal with Kangaroos, Koalas,and elephants.   Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we have ( now that both kids have cameras, there are truly hundreds of pics. to sift through - especially when it comes to animals!)

We were thrilled to be able to feed, touch, pet and hang out with a few dozen kangaroos and wallabies.  The were pretty relaxed and didn't mind being hand fed.

hanging out with my new aussie mate

 Speaking of being handfed.  We also got to feed three Elephants their morning snack of fruit and veg,  We enjoyed that so much we went back and fed them their afternoon snack too!

At the Crocoseum, we saw a crocodile trainer, with two weeks experience, almost lose an arm to a crocodile.  He was feeding a crocodile a dead chicken and dropped it before the croc. got it.  Without thinking the trainer quickly reached out to pick it up just as the crocodile was lunging for it.  CRIKEY!  It was tense for a moment.  Fortunately the trainer got to the meat first and then quickly tossed it to the hungry crocodile.

that is real fear you smell

I loved these little lizards resting on the crocs. tail.

Jason was even  part of the 'Birds of Prey' show!  The trainer chose him as a volunteer.  He asked him to take out a $5 bill and roll it up and place it between his fingers.  Then this huge bird swooped over and landed on Jason's arm and took the $5 in it's beak and then flew back to his trainer with the money,

The crowd all had a good laugh at this pick pocket scheme.  Then the trainer had the bird return the money!  It was very cool.  Jas was even on the huge screen for all to see.

We all loved spending time with the koalas.  They are just so cute!  We were allowed to pet them on the bottom, where they do not mind being touched.  We learned a lot about the Koalas from their caretakers.  They eat only eucalyptus leaves which to other animals would be poisonous, but the koalas are able to digest them.  Since this is their only food intake they eat for many hours a day.  Eucalyptus does not provide a lot of calories so they move slowly and nap often preserving their energy.  They are covered in lovely dense fur despite the warm Australian climate because they have next to no body fat to keep them warm.  The fur also protects their skin from the sun. 

Koalas are marsupials, meaning the baby spends many months in the mother's pouch growing before it emerges from the pouch.  When a baby koala is born it is about the size of a jellybean!  It then has to make the long journey up the mother's tummy (guided by a scent trail she licks onto her fur) and crawl into the pouch, where it latches on for dear life!

After about six months of being milk fed, they crawl out of the pouch and start learning to climb.  The tender digestion of the baby is not able to handle the eucalyptus leaves so the mommy feeds the baby a special kind of poop she makes, that gently introduces the baby to eucalyptus.   I am not kidding...

sleepy joey

On a sad note, there is an animal hospital located next to the zoo where they take in sick zoo animals and injured wild animals that people find.  Some are injured by run ins with cars (many kangaroos) and some (many koalas) are injured by pet dogs that attack these nearly defenseless animals.   The staff at the animal hospital were also amazing, telling us the background stories of some of their injured koalas.  Every animal is named. At the time of our visit they had  about 30 koalas recuperating.   The surgery was all open and we could see the animals being treated through a huge glass wall.  When one unconscious koala was done being treated, the vet brought it over to  for us to have a look at.

Zac studied Australia when he was 5 yrs. old in Montessori.  For 2 years he has been singing the "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree, Merry merry king of the bush is he......"  Now we have all met a real live Kookaburra.  Here he/she is...

Another thing I really liked about this zoo is the signage.  The write ups about each animal were entertaining and personal.  Each alligator had a name and a message about his/her personality.  For example Daisy apparently had beautiful Betty Davis eyes, and Alison was a real grump in the morning.  Here is what Steve Irwin had to say about the python.

Here is one last picture of the red panda that Serenna wanted to bring home with her.

After the zoo we drove to the Rossmount B&B about 2 hours away.  The sun sets here by 6 pm so much of the drive was in the dark.  When making the booking this B&B didn't look very far from the town of Gympie, but it turns out it was in the middle of no where!  We were following our GPS down crazy paths (cannot call it a road) in the pitch dark over stream bridges that did not look like they could support the weight of a car.  Since we could not physically turn around, we had no choice but to continue on.  Fortunately we ended up at the right spot.  The stars were amazing (recognized nothing however) as no light pollution interfered with our view.  The next morning we could see how beautiful the countryside was but that night we were really wondering where the hell we were going to end up.

More amazing animal encounters next blog.....

A Walk Around Brisbane

 Brisbane is the capital city of Queensland, the state we live in.  The population is about 2 million.  Brisbane actually has a Scottish connection as it is named after a Scotsman Sir Thomas Brisbane in 1821 he was a Governor here.  Like Canada, Australia is a relatively new country so it feels very similar to home in so many ways.  There is the feeling of lots of space with highways, modern buildings, and one or two story detached homes is the norm.  One of the obvious differences however is that they drive on the left, just like in Britain.  We have been there and done that so we didn't imagine we wouldt have too much trouble over on the wrong side of the road.  But one difference that has given us the giggles is that the windshield wipers' switch is located where us Canadians would normally find the turning signal switch.  The result is that every time we go to switch lanes, or turn the corner, the windshield wipers start going!  But I am getting ahead of myself- more about our road trip in the next blog.  For now lets just have a look at Brisbane.

Brisbane is called the 'river city' as there is a large river of the same name that twists through the city.  This means transportation by boat is the best way to get around.  They have river buses - which are actually these super cool boats that stop at various terminals all along both sides of the river.  It is so much fun to ride the City Cat.

Every Sat. and Sun. there are various markets around the city to buy fruit. veg. baked goods and trinkets.  The kids have got there next few allowances planned already.  There are also lots of gardens, play parks and little ponds through out the city.  We met a few interesting creatures on our walks.  Zac is counting and trying to photograph every new bird species he find.  He thinks he has seen about 23 new types of birds. 

This lovely lady is an Ibis.  They are pretty much the pigeons of Australia as far as I can tell.  They seem to be walking around everywhere looking for some food.  They are not very timid, but seem harmless.  Its the magpies we need to watch out for just now!

Some of the trees are unbelievable.  The roots can grow down from the branches!  They are super fun to climb.   We are also always on the look out for lizards, water dragons and snakes.  So far no snakes or other deadly things, thankfully.  But is it quite common to spot a few lizards.

Lots more pics. and adventures to tell about soon.  Just now the internet in our flat is rather dismal so getting anything done online is challenging.  That should improve by next week, in the mean time, I'll keep trying to stay  connected and I do mean that literally and figuratively.

Early days in Brisbane

We have successfully arrived in Brisbane.   All children, suitcases and sanity intact.  The flights were actually fine: 5 hours to L.A., a three hour stop over, and then 15 hours to Brisbane.  Serenna was able to sleep for 7 hours of the second flight and Zac for 5 hours.  Us parents not so much but Jas got some work done and I watched 5 movies!  Besides feeling like a sardine (gotta love the middle seats), it was good.  Zac even had a visit to the cockpit to chat with the pilots and try on a hat!

Our "two bedroom" hotel apartment that we had arranged from Canada turned out to be a one bedroom/"two room" very small accommodation (as I suspected) despite their assurances that it was a two bedroom. Jas and I have been sleeping inthe kitchen/dining room/livingroom area and the kids have the beddroom/bathroom/laundry cuboard. No dresser or shelf to unpack into. Generally we are climbing over each other and suitcases. At first I though we can make this work.... it will be good for us to be less pampered and priveleged. Well, that commitment lasted about 3 days. We have found a new flat to move into on Sunday. It is in a 12 story building, also just a one bedroom (for the bargin price of 700/week, yes that is per week!!) but it is bright and beautiful and on the river with amazing views. Soon the pool will be opened and there is also a communal BBq area and a bit of outdoor space to play in.  It is actually only 25 dollars more a week than what we are paying here, so we felt is was well worth it.

I have so much more to share but I have to go as we are headed out on a 5 day road trip in search of kangaroos, koalas, crocodiles and whales!