Hey everyone

Today was Koala Sanctuary day!

We were up and out early with a nice picnic prepared for our day out at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We'd heard it was really good and christina couldn't wait to hold a koala. We caught the bus from the city centre and upon arrival checked out the shows on throughout the day.

First stop: barn animal feeding and chick holding. We had fun cradling the little chicks and stroking the ponies and guinea pigs. From there we went to watch the birds of prey show, and were amazed at just how huge some of the birds were. After the show christina got her photo next to a crazy looking huge eagle, and stepped away just in time before it went mad trying to escape its owners grip.

We then went to watch the koala presentation where we learnt lots more about koalas, and got to stroke 'Monicle' (a koala with only one eye). Our next stop was the sheepdog show, where we watched an amazing sheepdog that obeyed every command perfectly that its owner shouted. We then watched a 'learner' sheepdog that was slightly more unpredictable, and kept on ending up standing on the sheeps backs.

We had a nice picnic lunch and tried to feed the two birds watching us, but they didn't seem to like our grapes. After lunch we caught the end of the snake presentation, and as Christina could no longer contain her excitement, we went to koala cuddling area. At first the koala refused to leave the keeper and be held by Christina, digging his claws in and leaving marks. The keeper went and got a bribe - some eucalyptus leaves - once the koala was munching away he had no complaints and happily cuddled Christina. We bought the photo and went off to the shop to collect it. Christina was happy with the photo, and in fact you can all see it, at

http://photo.koala.net/1703049603.htm

Whilst in the shop we bought some kangaroo food, and then went off to feed them. The kangaroos roamed free in a huge field, and were amazing animals. Most were huge, as tall as Christina when they stood right up, and had big long claws on their front paws. As much as they could have hurt us, they were actually really friendly. Some were lying on their sides, relaxing in the sun, and liked it when we tickled their stomachs. Others were hopping around, looking for food. Christina made friends with a little joey who happily nimbled food out of her hand. If she held her hand high up, it would rise up on its hind legs and hold on to her wrist with its paws for support. We had a lovely time feeding them, Christina hugged about eight of them, and we got some great photos and videos.

We then went off to see the remaining animals at the sanctuary, including crocodiles, dingoes, wombats, cockatoos, kookaburras, parakeets, and loads more koalas. We fed the parakeets and they went crazy around the food, it didn't help that there were about 100 of them. They made so much noise and one pooed on Christina's hand (the second time today...).

It had been a lovely day, one of our favourite days so far, and we had seen all of Australia's animals (except for a possum...). Xxx