Had a really hot night last night and woke a couple of times and couldn't get back to sleep. Had some berry yoghurt for breakfast and then just a cup of tea at the cafe and Jon had the fruit and muesli.
We went to Australia Zoo which is just about 20 minutes drive away. Very busy and glad we didn't go on Sat or Sun.
We went to the big show arena for the 11.00 show but were really disappointed as the first half hour was all Bindi Irwin doing her songs from a new DVD she has made and although the songs are cute and all the children in the audience loved it, it wasn't what we had come to see. However, it was our mistake as it did say on the board that she was on followed by the show but we got really hot and annoyed waiting. They then had an auction and the prize to the highest bidder was a tour of the zoo with Terri Irwin, Bindi and the son Robert with the money going to his charity. There were only two bidders and the final bid was $1500 which is about £750. A lady behind us put it into words 'they must have more money than sense'. The zoo is not that big so I hope they were given a bit more than that for their money, it was a family of five that bid for it. After that they brought on snakes and had lots of birds flying around and then the big croc, Murray, came in and did his bit. We found it all to be too commercialised with his wife and little son taking part along with Bindi. I don't know if it would have been like that had Steve Irwin not died but it was all a bit much.
After the show we went across to see the elephants and the tigers. All the compounds are beautifully kept and the tigers have better lawns than most houses here in NZ! We then walked through the koala enclosure. They keep them in macadamia nut trees as they are not too high and so they can get them down when they need to. The eucalyptus branches are brought in fresh for them to eat and put in the nut trees. You can actually stroke them in the enclosure with a keeper there to make sure all is well. We then went into the kangaroo enclosure. They are red kangaroos and only the females are kept at the zoo as the males grow too big and they would be too hard to manage. We saw one with quite a big joey in her pouch but were bitten by insects while taking the photos and my arm came up quite swollen. After saying we had no problem with insects, we spoke too soon.
It was now nearly 2.00 and the photo session was due to start with the koala and so we went over to wait for that. There were only seven in front of us so we didn't have long to wait. Now, you have to understand this and get the idea and put yourself in my shoes. It was HOT, really, really HOT and I felt like a rag with my hair plastered to my head and I was going to have a photo taken with a koala, something I have longed to do so I wanted it to look good as you only get one go at it. Jon took my photo so I could see what I looked like and I manged to comb my hair into something OK. At last it was our turn. The keeper holds the koala and puts one hand up its chest so his arm acts like a branch and he carefully puts her on your hand and she cuddles into you. What you can't see on the photo, obviously, is that the keeper has koala poo all down his shirt as after each photo she does a little poo, a bit like rabbit poo, he then slides his foot across the floor and scoops it away. He does it all very nicely and it is only when you have your photo taken that you see what he is doing with his foot. I was glad we were number eight to have ours taken as by the end of a session there could be quite a pile there! But really it was lovely, Mila was so soft and cuddles into your body as if to say 'just let me sleep will you'.
We then went off to get some lunch but not before we washed our hands! We shared a small pizza and a salad and it was very good. They have the dinning area all open with fans blowing water across you in a very fine mist, very welcome.
We then went to see the snakes and there were lots of them and very active and very poisonous after that it was the wombats who are really cute. We then had a lovely ice cream, I had macadamia and it was yummy. After that we had a walk through all the alligator area and that was enough. Time to leave.
The Glass House Mountains lookout is only 10km away so we went up there to have a look around, very pretty but very hot.
Back to Mooloolaba for a very needed cup of tea. What a tiring day but very enjoyable.
I had surf and turf and Jon had baramunid for dinner, not as good as Hot Pipis but OK. The pudding though was to die for. Chocolate semi fredo with wafers and a white chocolate basket filled with vanilla ice cream mmmmmmm!
No comments:
Post a Comment