holiday happy snaps - Australia Zoo

Australia Zoo was such a fantastic place to visit! Highly recommend it!!

The elephants were beautiful (but stinky - hence the kids waving their arms around in the photo above!). They've been in Australia since the 60's and used to belong to the Bullens (circus family). They look like they love it there. Their enclosure is huge and they go for walks through the zoo daily to reduce boredom. Just around the corner from the elephants are the tigers...at the moment they have three 14 week old cubs who are just gorgeous. We donated $10 to the zoo and the keeper took our camera into the enclosure and took some photos of them for us! There is no way we couldn't have gotten those shots otherwise - well worth it and the donation is very much appreciated.

And here's the touchy feely part of the holiday - they encourage you to be as hands on as you like. The keepers take wombats for walks, you can pat the kangaroos (careful they don't attack - see post below), koalas, lizards, alligators, you name it. Eme couldn't get enough. Seth on the other hand was a bit wary - and rightfully so. Even I got in on the act - and they aren't as scary as they may appear - just don't approach any of these in the wild.

Lastly, some play/rest time. Don't quite know what Eme and Seth are doing on that croc, but they had fun. We watched a show in the crocaseum that had snakes, birds and a massive "tocodile" (according to Em).

All in all, a fantastic day! I only wish we could have made it up there while Steve Irwin was still alive. His memory is well and truly alive throughout the zoo though and they have re-erected the memorial wall in preparation from Steve Irwin Day on 15/11/07. There is footage and photos of him everywhere and it made me a sad; particularly for his kids. Makes you realise two things; 1) Life is short and precious; 2) Don't mess with wildlife!

We were absolutely shattered by the end and were all asleep by 8pm. More photos/tales tomorrow.