Australia Zoo

I can vividly remember as a child watching The Crocodile Hunter on Tv and although I wasn’t a massive fan of crocodiles/reptiles , Steve Irwins passion for the animals he encountered always resonated with me. When we had originally decided to visit and drive Australia, Australia Zoo on the beautifully named Steve Irwin Way in QLD was a must! We were lucky enough to be gifted with tickets as a Christmas present from Daves parents (thank you Sam and Colin) and I was like a child full of sugar on the hours drive there.
We got there early, found a nice quiet shaded spot, ate our watermelon for breakfast in yet another car park and headed in.
Ive never known a zoo to be so interactive and so hands on with its animals.
We got to walk through the red kangaroo enclosure and sit with them whilst they enjoyed the shade of the morning.
We also got to walk through the (ever elusive – we are yet to see one in the wild and had started to believe they were a myth!) koala enclosure where I was able to get super close and stroke one. They are so so soft and so little too! We were also lucky to listen to a talk on Koalas and watched one shimmy down a tree and run off across the ground – so cute!
We walked through an aviary filled with kookaburras so close, you could reach out and touch it, as well as witnessing many other beautiful birds flying around your head.
We visited 3 tigers who were relaxing in their enclosure, right alongside their keepers who rather nonchalantly, were sat chatting into a microphone on the platforms next to these impressive and incredibly powerful creatures.
We saw Giraffe, zebra and rhino all doing absolutely nothing and who can blame them when its 33 degrees and 100% humidity!

Now, whichever way you look at it, we were either lucky or unlucky to have visited Australia Zoo during peak school holiday time. Id say that makes us lucky as we got to watch Terri, Bindi and Robert Irwin do the crocodile show at the Crocoseum, something that they do at midday every day during the holidays.
They spoke about the work Steve had done as if he were still alive as well as demonstrating the skill and speed that even a large crocodile like Mosman, was capable of! Their knowledge and love of the animals and each other was lovely to witness and Robert is just the spitting image of his father.
He was, unfortunately, only 2 years old when his father died but he seems to have taken a lot of his fathers qualities on as well as being an incredible wildlife photographer. You could buy some of his beautiful pictures in the shop!

The photos of the day just don’t do it justice but here are a selection of one of mine and Daves favourite trip so far, Enjoy!