Gold Coast, Part 5 – Australia Zoo

It’s about 2 hours drive from Gold Coast to Australia Zoo. So we woke up (or rather Mat woke up and dragged me up) early in the morning, and drove up to Australia Zoo. It’s voted best zoo in Australia. And if you didn’t know, it’s home of the Crocodile Hunter, the late Steve Irwin.

We arrived there just 2 minutes before opening time (see, early again… hahaha….)

And you’re greeted by the Irwin family!

There are zoo staff in some corners of the zoo holding some kind of animal for you to touch and take photos with. Like this lizard below. I also took a photo with a parrot, which apparently didn’t like to be touched

And some animals of course, you’re not allowed to touch, like the tasmanian devil, unless you want your fingers to be chomped off. The lady carrying this baby tas has been looking after it since it was born.

Home of the crocodile hunter, of course there will be crocodiles. This is the first time I see such clean crocodile enclosures. Normally when you go to a crocodile farm, the water is so murky and muddy and the crocs are so dirty and even have algae growing on them.

This zoo, it’s sooooo clean. And the space they give the animals are really big and spacious, which I like! And I’m sure the animals like it too. Birds love it there so much they don’t even fly away.

Picture below, see the bird opening up it’s wings? It felt it’s territory has been invaded… by a zoo staff sweeping and cleaning it’s enclosure to make it nice an tidy. The head of the bird was following the staff to keep an eye.

Australian wild dogs, they are sooooo cute! After I saw them, I was wondering why nobody keep them as normal pet dogs. I think the name describes it. It’s wild, it needs lots of space.

Notice this dog in the water, it’s fur not even getting wet… waterproof!

Of course there will be koalas. As usual, they are asleep. There was a touching koala session later in the afternoon. The queue was so long, and the only place you can touch the koala is the Ass!! Why would I want to queue so long just to touch the backside!?

The main attraction of this zoo is the crocodile show in the Crocoseum.

They brought in a large snake.

Swam with it.

There’s one section of the zoo where they put all the snakes. Most of the time when you see snakes in other zoos, it’s almost always sleeping… boring! In this zoo, all the snakes are so active!

And there was a bird show as well. They birds just flew into the crocoseum when called, very cool!

Talking about birds, we bumped into this type of bird a few times around the zoo.

It looks abit like a turkey, but it’s not a turkey. There are quite a few of them around the zoo. They are not in an enclosure, unlike the other animals. They are free to do whatever they want, wherever they want. And all they do is, dig a hole. It’s really funny, because they leave such a mess on the walking path. They are digging their nest.

We were very lucky indeed, because the whole Irwin family came out. Terri (Steve’s wife), Bindi and Robert (his children), were hosts of the croc show. They rarely come out I heard, but we came during a school holiday, so maybe that’s why the whole family’s out.

Bindi fed this croc.

I lounged around with a kangaroo.

This family, bidded more than a thousand dollars to spend time with the Irwins and some animals of course. Robert Irwin, the blonde hair boy with the famous khaki shirt and shorts look so much like Steve. He even talks like him.

Bindi on the left, and Terri on the right touching the elephant’s knee.

I really like this zoo. Well maintained, clean, the animals look happy, and most importantly, the space given to the animals is fantastic! And the zoo is still expanding.

It is very pricey to come to this zoo, AUD54, but if you like zoos, it’s totally worth it!