Crikey! Australia Zoo, Mate!

As a kid, one of my favorite shows was The Crocodile Hunter.  I loved watching Steve Irwin capture crocs and hunt down deadly snakes.  So one of the things I knew I had to do while in Australia was to visit none other than the Steve Irwin Australian Zoo.  On a whim, my flatmate Brittany and I decided make the trip towards the Sunshine Coast and check it out.  Of course, there were tributes to Steve and his family all over the zoo and more crocs than I have ever seen at one time. It. Was. Awesome. 

What a better way to start the day than feeding some animals?  Unfortunately the staff doesn’t trust Australians, small children, or even the average tourist to feed crocs, so they offered us elephants instead.  Brittany and I jumped in line early to secure our chances of feeding the elephants and planned our photography strategy to get the best action shot.  The feeding staff made it very clear the line had to move quickly or else the elephants would get bored and go find their own food….impatient little guys.  Much to our despair, our first go at the photo shoot was a bit of a fail, but luckily we were able to get back in line to give it another go.  Looking like kids who just got promised another ice cream cone, we ran to the back of the line for take two...and three and four and five.  Success!

 

We continued with photo-ops of all the other animals in the zoo, but none seemed to want to have their picture taken so we ended up with lots of animal butt pictures.  But we managed to work the angles and get some good shots of them.  Later we made our way to the Crocoseum which is exactly what it sounds like…a coliseum/stadium for the croc shows.  We scoped out the perfect seats and watched the trainer do the same type of croc show that Steve Irwin used to perform—crikey!

A trip to the zoo in Australia wouldn’t be complete without getting up close and personal with Aussie wildlife, so we made some more kangaroo and koala friends.  And then found one of the zoo employees doing something we had never seen in any American zoo…she had a wombat on a leash and was taking it for a walk.  Which meant we got to stop for a chat and pet the wombat!

Before we knew it the afternoon was half over, but we still had my favorite animal encounter on the agenda—the tiger show.  The experts had the tigers doing everything from jumping through the air for a slab of meat to feeding them from their bare hands.  Since the tigers have been with their trainers since they were cubs, they have developed such a good relationship that the trainers are able to do these things with them.  They made it very clear that if any of us strangers came into the tiger enclosure it would be the last thrill of our lives because they still have their natural, wild instincts.  The heartbreaking fact is that if nothing changes, these beautiful animals are projected to be extinct within FIFTEEN years.  But the cool thing is that the Australia Zoo is very proactive with saving tigers and raising awareness about this issue.  So if you feel so inclined, do your part and help save the tigers!

The following weekend I made my way to the Gold Coast to visit some friends and check out Blues on Broadbeach, which is a big music festival featuring heaps of blues artists and it took place on Broadbeach, one of the Gold Coast beaches.  Hence the name.  Unfortunately, rain always seems to follow me whenever I go to the Gold Coast.  So Friday we braved the rain, wind, and chilly weather to check out some of the bands.  Eventually we had had enough and decided to call it quits for the day.  Luckily Saturday was much nicer and we were able to enjoy all the festival had to offer.  We found an amazingly talented solo artist whom we could have watched all day.  But eventually we had to tear ourselves from the performance so I could make my way back to Brisbane.  Even though it was too chilly to even think about putting on a swimsuit and going to the beach, Blues was a great success.

The next week was bittersweet—it was the last week of class.  While usually I am jumping for joy as I walk out of my last classes of the semester, it was actually kind of sad this time around knowing I was saying goodbye to some of my Australian friends.  As with every uni semester, the last class is somewhat anticlimactic since there are no end-of-the-year parties thrown by room moms or field day activities like in grade school.  If I didn’t have another adventure to prepare myself for the following week I would have thought that I’d be back at uni after the weekend!

Cheers!