Australia Zoo

Max and T in the mouth of a very large croc
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After bidding boring Brizzie adieu, we headed north to Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo.  Crikey, the Crocodile Hunter lives on!  Here, you realize how much effort Steve put into conservation and education and how much he will be missed.  His daughter Bindi has become quite a celebrity though, and seems poised to carry on his work.  Overall, we rate Currumbin sanctuary, cheaper, less busy, more intimate and better overall, but we still saw some pretty cool stuff here.

The tiger show was great, they got them climbing trees and leaping all over rocks etc - very impressive to see huge Bengals up close.  Then we got to feed the hungry elephants and get drooled on!  We saw a show with crocs, snakes and birds, and we've confirmed that Max's favorite animals are definitely birds!  Everything here seemed active, despite the mid-30s heat.  We saw wombats, including a baby, the most active snakes we've ever seen (all deadly of course) and heaps of other stuff.  Not too many shady places to sit however (pant pant...).  Enjoying that -30 at home?  :P

Crikey, the Crocodile Hunter lives on!

D feeding elephant
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Time for a wildlife tally of the last 6 weeks (this does NOT include zoos):

Koalas - 50+

Roos ~15

Wallabies ~15

Spiders (big) - 0

Snakes - 1 (from the car, while driving)

Lizards - countless

Roaches - 5 (3 in Sydney, and two HUGE ones in the hotel laundry at Surfer's Paradise)

Echidnas ~10

Dolphins ~10

Seals ~25

Sea Lions ~100

Penguins ~50

Bogans - countless

Utes - countless

Emus ~5

Wombats -0

Jellyfish -0

Flying Foxes ~500

Parrots/lorikeets/cockatoos ~20+

Platypus -1 (maybe)

Crocs -0

Not bad eh?

T&D&m