Day 13: 21/6/13
I went to Australia Zoo today. I could hear the rain before I got up and I was hoping it wouldn't rain all day, but it did of course- a desperate day to be at the zoo! A shuttle bus brought us from the hostel to a special zoo bus which went from Noosa. We left the hostel at 8:15 and we got to the zoo shortly before ten. On the bus they played excerpts from the Crocodile Hunter show with Steve Irwin as it is his zoo. I'd never seen the programme so it was good to see a bit before I went.
There was a programme of shows and feedings throughout the day and we were just in time for the first one at 10 which was a feeding of Giant Aldabran tortoises. They were huge! They were up to the zookeepers knees I'd say. They were strolling around the grass really lazily- it was funny! I made my way to the elephants then as you could feed them at 10:30. They had a basket of veg and if you held out a piece on your hand they'd wrap their trunk around your hand and ear it! I gave one a carrot and he sucked it up in no time at all- leaving my hand covered in muck!! They took a photo of everyone feeding them and you could pick up the print and keep it, without buying the photo, which was really good!
After that I wandered around most of the zoo. First I went to the African section and saw rhinoceros, giraffes and zebras. They had a whole big area to graze on. I passed by a red panda, tigers, kangaroos, wombats and got a photo patting a wombat. Then I got to a section with birds in it- I hadn't ever heard of most of them. The emu was first- I had heard of that of course! It took me a while to find it in the middle of the trees but then another appeared right near me. Then there was a Brolga and a jabiru which both were like storks. The Brolga was grey with a red kind of head. The jabiru was white with a navy head. They were both very pretty! There was a big kangaroo section then where you could feed them. I didn't bother as I'd done it before and it was way too wet to be walking on the grass! There were supposed to be echidnas in an enclosure beside them but I couldn't see any. I've never seen one so that was one of the things I wanted to see!
I made my way to the Crocoseum then as there was a show there at 12. Behind the stadium there was information and pictures about Steve Irwin and lots of gifts and messages that were sent when he died. It was a bit strange. I think a lot of the pictures an stuff were put up when he was alive and very famous and then they just added the other stuff when he died.
The Crocoseum was like a stadium that held about 5,000 people with a pool and grass in the centre. There was a big screen and before the show started there were messages and interviews with Steve's son Bob. The show was called Wildlife Warriors and it was a mix of all animals. They started with some birds flying back and over the stadium and one bird flying to someone in the audience taking money out of their hand. An Andean condor flew in to the stadium aswell which was pretty impressive. They brought out some snakes aswell and walked through the audience with them. They had a perentie lizard which is big for a lizard but looked tiny in comparison to the big crocodile they brought out after that! There were two zookeepers in the enclosure coaxing it out with fish and then back into the water. They seemed to be nervous of the crocodile but whether it was put on or not it was hard to tell!
I had some lunch after that and by then I was absolutely freezing as my feet had been wet for about three hours! I kept goin anyway and saw lots of different crocodiles and alligators. There were otters aswell and then Tasmanian devils. Some of the things like the Komodo dragon and the dingoes didn't seem to be there so I think they were hiding from the rain! So that was pretty annoying! I went looking for the cassowary then which is a big bird like an emu with a colourful head. There was a covered area to view them but of course the one guy that you could see wasn't near that!! I was getting pretty miserable at that stage because I was so wet and half the animals didn't even seem to be there! Then I met a Welsh couple that had been on Fraser Island- Rhiannon and Nathan. I spent the last few hours going around with them so that took my mind off the rain! They're really nice but they have really strong Welsh accents so half the time I didn't know what they were saying!!
We saw a little bit of a talk about the koalas and got to pat another one. We went through the kangaroo area again and one came right up to us so we got lots of photos with him. Usually they don't stay if you don't have food. Then we went to the tiger area as there was a show there. They got the tigers to stand up on their back legs and got one to jump up a tree. It was pretty impressive! They spent most of the show though talking about conservation instead of getting the tigers to do things. On the way back from that we saw a koala with a joey. The joey came out of the pouch and climbed up around the mothers back and was sitting on its head for a while. It was so cute!! I'd never seen a joey koala before!!
There was a bird of prey show then and they flew an eagle and an owl back and over a small enclosed area. They brought out a small falcon aswell but they couldn't fly it because of the rain. I've seen better bird of prey shows- they didn't get them to swoop down for food or anything.
It was almost time for me to go then so we went our separate ways. Before I went I had a look at the camels as I'd missed them earlier. Beside them there was a binturong which was like a cross between a raccoon and a bear. I've never heard of that animal before. It was climbing around the trees for the few minutes I was there. I thought I'd have one last look for the echidna and when I got to the enclosure they were zookeepers there feeding them so there were two of them out! They look like a hedgehog but there face is more like a beak. They are related to the platypus I think. The zookeeper was holding it up so I could feel it and it was pretty spiky!! The spines were quite thick and hard. The other one was eating from the other zookeepers hand and it had a big long tongue which flew out from is beak like mouth- it was really weird! I was glad I finally saw one!
I made my way back towards the exit anyway and there were zookeepers there with a wombat so I got a photo with that aswell! I had a quick look in the shop then which had loads of keyrings, magnets and cuddly toys of all the animals in the zoo. There were also loads of books and DVD's of Bindi Irwin- Steve's daughter. She seems to be quite the celebrity! The bus came around 3:45 and we left for Noosa. On the way they played the film called Collision Course that Steve Irwin had done. It was a kids film and was pretty harmless but it was okay.
When I got back to the hostel I had some dinner and changed into warm shoes and socks! Ell, the Italian girl, and two English girls were all having food at the same time so we were chatting. Shortly after that there was a quiz in the bar so we did that. There was a picture round with buildings and you had to say where they were and then there were only 15 questions. We ended up with 31 1/2 marks- I don't know how that worked! Second place got 32 1/2 and the winner got 33- so we were pretty close!!
After that, we just went back to the room. I went on the Internet for a while and then went to bed!