The Zoo!!!

I am so excited to pet a kangaroo and a koala! When they first told us about going to the zoo I didn't know how hands on it was and wasn't that excited to go. After all the stories I couldn't wait! We met at the station about 8:00 and took the 35 min bus ride to the zoo! It wasn't a horrible morning. It was warm but the clouds were all over the sky; rain was in the forecast. The first thing we did was take pictures in front of some signs!

We all attempted to mirror Steve's action shot... this was the best one ;) I was a bit unaware. As you can see we are all in our tshirts and the sun is shining! It didn't last very long. As we walked into the zoo we met an array of interesting animals. The first was a cockatoo, then a shingelback, and then a koala :) I was a bit nervous meeting the koala.

We saw so many interesting animals! I have always loved the zoo and this one is going to be hard to beat. I have never been able to interact with the animals before and if there was a time you missed seeing any of the animals chances were you would bump in to them walking around the zoo with their keepers. I loved petting the kangaroos and feeding the elephants! The kangaroos were in their own special area and they were free to roam around and do what they pleased. They were all so tame. It was a bit intimidating meeting them. I was sure one would come over to me and give me a good kick. I don't know for sure how many kangaroos there were, but it was a lot. In the same area they also had wallabies! They look like small kangaroos :) After we spent time with the kangaroos we headed for the elephants and walked through the koala area to get there. They weren't behind glass in their own exhibit - all of the koalas were hanging out in the trees that we walked past. They had one special area for us to take pictures with them. It was amazing!

After we fed the elephants we made our way to the crocaseum. I have no idea if I spelled that correctly.. but it is where we went to see the crocodile show! We arrived a couple minutes early so we decided to lather up on SPF and eat our lunches... we were about two bites in when it started to down pour. We had very good seats up front in the open so we had to decide on giving them up and moving into the dry area or dealing with the rain... we stayed. Our guide was across the arena watching us and said it was the funniest thing watching all of the Americans trying to put on blue ponchos as fast as they could. Thankfully the rain did not last that long, but we kept on the classy blue ponchos just to be safe. The show started with a beautiful introduction with birds (and a short skit about a drunken buffoon trying to wrangle a poisonous snake and getting bitten and dying. In other words we shouldn't try and wrangle snakes if we find them). Then came the crocs!! I was very uneasy watching the guys irritate the crocodile.. they got very close at times. All in al it was a fantastic show!

 The afternoon was spent in the gift shops, eating, and trying to avoid the down-pouring of rain. It was a long and tiring day but I was thrilled to have been able to see so many wonderful animals! Before we left the zoo we were able to visit the zoo hospital. There was a specific area for visitors to view into the holding and operating rooms. There weren't any operations going on while we were there but there were two adorable koalas recovering. One poor guy had been attacked by a couple dogs and was brought in. The other was hit by a car and had fractured his neck. The koalas are everywhere in Australia and they are injured all the time. Thankfully they have the Zoo hospital which is run on donations :)

I apologize to those of you who are reading my blog and wanting pictures. I have uploaded some in this blog, but the majority of my pictures I have uploaded to my facebook account. I will start adding some pictures as I go! :) Thank you to all who have been reading. I hope I'm not too much of a bore. I would have more beach stories if it would just stop raining. I'm afraid it's going to flood!