Day 2
Summary: Visited Australia Zoo, drove back to Brisbane
Friday, January 3rd
We are huge fans of Steve Irwin because we both grew up watching his show on television. Greg even has a Steve Irwin doll in his room at his parents’ house. We had to make the pilgrimage to the Australia Zoo and we had an awesome day there!
Since we had slept 15 hours the night before, we had no problem getting out of bed at 7am. We showered, packed up our stuff, and headed out of the Airbnb by 8:30. The house is right down the road from the zoo, so we got there and parked before it opened at 9am. There were people already lined up to get tickets, so we didn’t feel too early.
At the ticket counter, there was a poster that said the Irwin family will feed the crocodiles at noon that day – we got so lucky! In planning our trip to the zoo, we didn’t dare hope we would see just one of the Irwins and now we were going to see all three! Very exciting.
Right inside the entrance, they have a statue of the Irwin family so we had to get a few pictures.
Just beyond the statue, there were several zookeepers holding animals that we could pet and take photos with. We pet a blue-tongued skink and a koala! They tell you to pet the koala on its lower back because they don’t have much feeling there. My theory is they don’t have much feeling there so they can sleep while wedged between tree branches.
It was a hot day at the zoo, so we walked around and saw a bunch of animals while filling up our water bottles multiple times.
They said Tasmanian Devils like to sunbathe!
Naturally, there were lots of crocodiles, most of which had their own pen or just sharing with one other. I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t see crocs on such a pedestal at any other zoo! Also, each animal at the zoo has a name! This croc was either Weipa or Lucy, I couldn’t tell which!
The koalas were nestled in some trees under the shade with plenty of eucalyptus to munch on.
The cassowaries come with a warning! Danger danger danger.
We had lunch early, at 11, because we were getting hungry but also because we wanted to make sure we ate before the croc show at noon! We ate at the Crikey Cafe and the food was actually really good, especially for zoo food. We were really impressed! We also loved that they called it the Crikey Cafe!
We went to find seats at the “Crocoseum” at 11:30 and it was already filling up! We sat pretty close, but that meant the shade we were under shifted away as the sun moved while we waited for it to start. By noon, we were sweating off our sunscreen in the sun, but we survived. The only way to really have shade is to sit high up in the bleachers and instead we chose to be closer to the action. While we waited, they played old episodes of “The Crocodile Hunter” on the big screen.
They packed everyone in there and started off the show with zookeepers teaching about what to do in the event of a snakebite and interesting types of birds in Australia. They had some amazing birds that flew around the amphitheater, landing on perches throughout the stands. At one point there were several species of birds flying around in synchronized routes so they didn’t cross paths; it was really cool!
Then the Irwins came out and fed the crocs! We were star-struck. They make a grand entrance with a countdown, hype music, and smoke – it was awesome.
Terri has such a great speaking voice. She narrated their television show and she does an amazing job speaking live.
Steve’s children, Bindi and Robert, are on the right. Bindi’s fiance is on the far left.
Crikey that’s a beauty!
Bindi feeding the crocodile and demonstrating their vertical jump.
Robert simulating a prey animal with meat on a rope to show how the crocodile hunts.
It was really awesome! They do such a good job making an educational show that is entertaining despite how many times I’m sure they’ve made the same jokes.
At the end of the show they play this fan-made musical tribute to Steve. I just had to look it up when I got home – it’s so catchy!
To cool down, we took a break on a bench under a tree in the kangaroo sanctuary. There were kangaroos and wallabies all over the place and you could feed them and pet them. I’m always amazed when zoos have kangaroos just out and about, but I realized they are sort of like petting zoos with deer in the US. We didn’t feed any, but we did pet two of them! They were super chill but those strong legs still intimidated us! Luckily, they were very used to people.
This picture makes it look like Greg is standing over a dead kangaroo, but it was just sleeping.
We spent a lot of time hanging out with the emu because it was so close to us and we were the only ones around. Doesn’t his hair look like Kramer from Seinfeld?
Aren’t Red Pandas the cutest? Look at that tongue!
I wonder if this tiger is blind because it has milky eyes.
They have a little island dedicated to six lemurs and they get to run around everywhere. They give them bowls of food so they congregate and they were very fun and energetic.
I caught one with its mouth full! They loved lettuce.
They had so many giraffes! The most I’ve ever seen in one place.
This meerkat was perched on top of a small tree in its habitat to get a better view. A plane flew overhead and they all ran into their burrows.
After we saw everything at the zoo, we headed to the gift shop because we knew for sure we wanted to buy a souvenir here. It was pretty crowded, but Greg knew just what he wanted to buy: a khaki shirt just like Steve’s that has “Crocodile Hunter” embroidered on it. I chose a plush koala wearing a khaki zookeeper outfit. Stuffed animals are kind of a silly souvenir, but he is soft and cute and I was just drawn to it! I named him Ozzy (like “Aussie”) and he hung out in my bag for the whole three weeks!
We left the zoo itself and crossed the parking lot to the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital. We paid a donation to go inside and while there wasn’t a whole lot of action that we could see, besides a kangaroo joey getting fed by a zookeeper, it was still neat to see the facility. The bushfires were really bad while we were in Australia, though not located anywhere near where we were, and the zoo’s wildlife hospital was admitting several animals affected by the fires.
The zoo is located on Steve Irwin Way and we turned on that road on our way back to Brisbane. We returned the rental car and took a taxi to the Brisbane City YHA where we stayed the night. I had never stayed in a hostel before, but it was very similar to a college dorm. We had a private room with a double bed and an attached bathroom so we didn’t have to share with strangers. It was pretty nice! The only drawback was we heard a lot of slamming doors throughout the night. We were confused why so many people were awake in the night, we thought maybe they had late or early flights. Then I had the idea that people were waking up to use the hallway bathrooms and the doors slam shut behind them. Who knows!
We ate dinner at a pizza place called La Stazione “The Station” and it was good! We went to bed early so we could get ready to meet up with our tour group in the lobby of the hostel the next morning.
Our trip to the zoo was absolutely perfect and I’m so happy we got to visit! Greg’s favorite animal was the wombat; we stumbled across a zookeeper taking one for a walk. It’s hard to choose, but my favorite was probably the koalas. They are just so fluffy and cuddly!
Thanks for reading!
-Rebecca
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