Australia Zoo, Round 1

February 18, 2017

We were so excited to spend Blake’s 5th Birthday at Australia Zoo. For a while even before we left on our trip, Blake would tell random strangers that he was going to turn 5 in Australia and see kangaroos on his birthday. We were able to make this happen, which was such a fun family memory. His birthday fell on a Saturday, so Brandon took the day off (Australia’s Saturdays were USAs’ Fridays). We drove the short 20 minutes to the Zoo. From the moment we walked in, we knew we were in for a treat. The Australia Zoo was amazing.

The Zoo was like no other we had ever been to. There were no giant crowds (maybe due to the fact it was such a huge zoo so everything was spread out) and the paths were shady. Australia Zoo was the late Crocodile Hunter’s Zoo, so conversation is their number 1 objective. You can tell this is the case by the way the “cages” are set up for the animals. The animals are in cages, sure, but they seem more like their natural habitats and seemed much bigger than other zoos.

We got to see a few different shows including the Crocodile Show–amazing!, the Tiger Show, and a few others. We spent a total of 6 hours there and still didn’t see everything! Thank goodness we bought 2 day passes, so we could come back and see more.

Animal Encounters

There were a lot of animal encounters throughout the day where we could pet and touch animals and birds. I was shocked that Blake and Evelyn would touch this horn-backed lizard. I think that was the name anyway. We also saw snakes and birds and koalas.

Australia Zoo

Heading for the Koalas

Australia Zoo

Roo Heaven

Appropriately named, Roo Heaven is a huge grassy enclosure where kangaroos and wallabys hop free. This was such a unique experience. The kangaroos get fed so much though, they don’t hop around a lot.

Australia Zoo

Asian Section

Australia Zoo

Red Pandas

Australia Zoo

African Section

Australia Zoo

Petting Koalas

There was a section of the zoo where we could pet koalas. Holding them would have cost $45, so we opted for the free experience of just petting their backs. We’ve always heard how soft they are, but they were SO much softer than we thought they’d be. We learned that they have 3 layers of fur? that make them so soft. They were adorable. We all loved the koalas.