The next day we were up early to head to Australia Zoo. Most of you will know of it thanks to Steve "Crikey" Irwin. We (and the boys) have enjoyed his programmes over the years so we were looking forward to seeing where it all started. Its just over an hours drive from Brisbane north up to the Sunshine coast. My sister explained on the way how Steve, who was loved by Aussies prior to his death, was turned into a saint afterwards! Apparently there was mourning akin to that which hit the UK following Dianas death! Not sure where they are with it but they were attempting to get an annual Steve Irwin public holiday last I heard.
The park itself surprised us... it was almost Disney in quality. The newer areas that had been added in more recent times were themed excellently. It was no longer just a reptile park but had Elephants, Tigers and other non native animals. Obviously the main area near the entrance was full of crocs as you would expect.
If you've watched any of the Crocodile Hunter series you will know that Steve built a big show area where lots of people can view birds, elephants, snakes and of course crocs in a single arena. The show in the Crocoseum (like it! lol) was brilliant. The training, especially of the birds was superb and the whole lot held together by lots of laughs and over enthusiastic presenters!
The empty seats in the picture are due to the heat and lack of shade, not becuase it was empty lol...
After lunch we headed off to see the elephants and tigers. The elephants have a great enclosure. Ok so its not quite Kilimanjaro Safari but it was very well done with plenty for them to do and a HUGE pool
The whole "land" had an Asia design to it and it worked very well. Even the merchandise shops showed signs the managers had done their homework at universal or Disney.
The tigers were a weird one. As with another tiger exhibit we visited in Oz, the enclosure was beautiful, realistic etc but for some very weird reason... they had handlers in there with them. Now I know they were all hand reared and are kittens to their handlers, but it does kind of spoil the illusion with 3 blokes having a chat on a rock next to them. I found it strange, especially when we saw it again in another park.
After seeing the koalas, emus and feeding the roos, the park started to close. This is another complaint about Australian parks. They open at 10 and close at 5! What is that all about? It was pretty much the longest day of the year? None of the parks were cheap (more on that in another report! ) but weirdly they were empty by about 4! I guess its just customary to do that but we felt a bit short changed. DW got fed up of me reminding everyone that Disney sometimes opens at 8am and closes heading towards 2am lol. Its not like they haven't got the climate here!
Back in Brisbane and a visit to Krispy Kreme to keep the kids happy finishes of the evening.
A fairly quiet day follows when we take a walk around, looking at the sights and having a smoothie in the Botanical gardens. A quiet oasis (well when we were there) just off the central business district.
The afternoon is spent on the southbanks artificial beach with the boys swimming and us enjoying the rest. We had a nice outdoor dinner on the way back to the hotel and that was Brisbane. As I said, we really liked it there and would definitely stop there again on another trip.
On the next report its down to the Gold Coast and the themeparks!