So I don't know about you but I grew up watching the Animal Planet channel and one of the main stars was Steve Irwin. I loved watching that guy jump on crocs and talk about wildlife. He had such an energy and passion for it, truly one of my childhood icons, and I got to fulfill a childhood dream by going to his park. The park his family owns and runs to this day.
We actually went during the time that the family was in LA accepting a star on the hollywood walk on behalf of Steve. Funny we flew out of LA while they were flying to LA.
In anycase, this park was amazing. I would suggest to everyone who is going to Australia to put it on their itinerary. The park was well cared for and the animals seemed super content and active.
Most zoos I've been to the animals seem a little lethargic, not here. They activily try to engage the animals and allow them activities to keep them occupied. My goodness they had wambats on leashes walking about and yeah, they were very hands on about their care for the animals.
There were all the classics, wambats, crocs, gators, devils, koalas, ackidnas, Giant tortoises, and snakes, and cassawary, dingos; all natives to Australia.
They also had a few not so locals, including tigers, lemurs, giraffes, rhinos, a bunch of awesome creatures. All a part of their outreach program and rehabilitation programs.
And we got to interact with them too. There was a Koala walk where they had an area where you could pet a Koala on his bum. It was so soft!
They also had the paddock area where all the Kangaroos hung out and you could buy some Roo food to feed them. They were free roaming in the area and you just could walk up to them and feed and pet them.
Most of them were pretty lazy, you kinda had to walk up to them and hold out your hand with food. They were super accustomed to people. So they were very relaxed almost complacent.
To the point that some didn't even care if I had food, and would just hop away from me.
Then they had shows, where they few the crocs and it was awesome, they were getting in the water to get the croc to come near and try to attack them. It was a bit intense.
We also had a chance to pet and touch a tortoise, I don't have that picture but we got to, it was adorable.
This was one of my favorite days of the trip; and when we finally got home from the crazy drive (our GPS was a piece of crap) we found that our hotel was right next to the ocean. So I got to be lulled to sleep by ocean waves.
Adventure is out there.
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