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Day 88- We awoke and had breakfast at which point Cathy- the house PA, asked if we wanted a lift to the bus station as it was so hot. We said we would be ok but she insisted so we were happy to oblige and packed our stuff into her little car. It was only a 20 min drive but once in the car the dashboard temperature gauge read 39 degrees so we were happy we took the lift. We seen Adam and Roz at the bus stop as well and it wasnt long before the bus pulled up and we were on our way to Mooloolaba. The bus dropped us off outside the only hostel in town which was good and we checked in. The first thing we did was go straight to Domino's across the road for cheap Tuesday then we went for a look around. The beach was lovely and the sea seemed to come into the land in the form of canals. The whole town is riddled with waterways and loads of houses backed onto them with a private jetty and some even had boats- amazing! We strolled around then went to the supermarket after deciding we already seen most of the area. Back at the hostel we booked our Australia Zoo tickets and settled for the night.
Day 89- Australia Zoo! The zoo bus picked us up at 9.20am, it was like Disneyland again as the whole bus was themed with pictures of animals on the seats. It took around 30 minutes to get there and we picked a map up and seen what shows were on when. First up was the elephant feeding so we walked through the massive aviary then through the koala area where we got to stroke one and across to the elephant area. As we waited we saw the red pandas and then queued up for a turn to feed the big girls. There was three to feed and it was a right laugh, we fed them apples and melon and it slobbered all over your hand as its trunk took it off you. We manage to get some good photos and then walked past some more bird enclosures and through the huge wallaby and kangaroo area. This zoo is very different to a normal zoo mainly thanks to Steve Irwin. He set a lot of it up and was a huge ambassador of the zoo. In particular the kangaroo and wallaby area was just a large bit of land fenced off with gates and you walked amongst them. You could buy feed for them and approach them to pet and feed them if they let you. Its great as it teaches kids how to interact with animals and gets them used to wildlife. From here we moved onto the Crocoseum. This is the world famous arena where crocodiles are brought out to show us what they do best- eat! We arrived slightly early so had a look at some of the crocs in their enclosures first. They were in pens but to see them we had to walk up a floor of the arena and look into the pens from above. Alongside the pens there was boards telling us more about them. All of them were either caught by Steve Irwin personally or as part of a team. It was amazing to read how much he actually did single-handedly. There are around 20 in the zoo and were caught because they were causing problems near busy areas such as marinas or were Ill. The croc show started and there was some birds on display such as the huge condor and some macaws. Next a little alligator came swimming out then a big salt water croc, they showed us how he would feed and hunt, it was amazing to see. After this we ate our tuna pasta we made and walked over to see the cassowaries and dingos. The night highlight was a live koala show, here they had some koalas hanging around and the keeper told us about them and their habitat. Next we had to run to Tiger Temple to see the tiger show. The tigers are quite a new addition to the zoo and there are two at present. They are in a big enclosure and a part of it is fronted by big glass windows so we could see. They were extremely well trained and brought up in captivity as the trainers and presenter were in there with them. They showed us some of their hunting tricks and then some conditioning exercises to make sure they are still acting like a wild tiger would and was it fascinating to see. Afterwards we headed down to 'Africa' which is a huge part of the Zoo just recently added. It resembles African savannah and enclosed a rhino, three giraffes and three zebra. They also had a cheetah but was out for a walk or something. After heading back we seen the snakes and reptiles and then the giant turtle- which was bloody massive. We then moved on to our last show- otter feeding. It was only small but was still good to see - one of Eve's favourites. There was three otters and the trainer came out to tell us some more about them and then chucked a big bucket of crays and fish in and they shot off. They were such fast swimmers and all manged to find one of the three crays within seconds! We then had to rush off to the bus as it picked us up at half 3! We didn't have long at the zoo as the bus times for Mooloolaba were fixed and not great but we saw everything we wanted. We had an amazing day and was nice to see the zoo was filled with predominantly Australian wildlife and was a brilliant and completely different zoo experience. Back at the hostel we booked our next hostel and went of to bed early after a busy day.
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ann purdy xxx