On our eternal search for all of Australia’s famous kangaroos, wallabies, wombats, emus, and koalas, we found ourselves disappointed in the lack of cuddly creatures we’ve seen out in the wild. But being tourists, we decided to take the opportunity to see these animals (and many more) up close and personal…at none other than Australia’s National Zooquarium (Zoo & Aquarium) conveniently located in Canberra!!
Our Zooventure took place on Saturday, February 5th, when the weather called for showers but alas, we stayed dry (minus the sweat). Leaving around noon, Marina, Alex, Dave, Mark, Jovi, Mandy, and I, took a bus into the city and then proceeded to wait at least an hour to catch the next bus headed to the zoo at 1:30. In our experience with zoos, we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough time to see the whole thing before it closed at 5pm, but we heard that three hours was plenty of time to do the rounds and hoped that was right.
After being deposited at the grand entrance and paying a generous $27.50 admission, we were greeted by our fellow primates at Monkey Island. We proceeded through the winding pathways to find a snow leopard, brown bears, and white lions. At this point, I was beginning to feel the heat of the day and couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor felines that sought refuge under the few shady spots in their enclosures. As we continued on our journey, we came across meer cats, an adorable red panda, various kinds of primates, zebras!, and giraffes! But the fun began when we entered the area where kangaroos, wallabies, and emus were let to roam around free and be pet by us visitors. Our fascination with marsupials had previously not yet been satisfied, as our kangaroo count had been at a mere 4 roos since day 1. But…I’m happy to say that we actually pet a baby wallaby, even though the poor thing must have felt violated by the camera (maybe not as violated as the emu that Dave felt the urge to thrust at from behind…). Cross that one off our to do list. After running into a koala, the cutest little penguins, and a couple of tigers, we ventured over to the aquarium.
Being titled ‘Australia’s National Zoo & Aquarium’, we expected to see an impressive display of sea creatures, but what we found was only mildly impressive. The fish, snakes, turtles, eels, sharks, frogs, and alligators were all interesting in their own way and it was fun for me to see all these animals, but the aquarium just wasn’t as spectacular as one would expect a National building to be. Oh well, at least the air conditioning was a nice break from the heat for a while.
On our way out of the aquarium, we stopped to watch visitors (who had paid an extra $30) feed the brown bears right out of the palms of their hands. The sticky goopy fruit mess looked pretty gross but I can imagine how cool it would be to have a bear lick the slop clean off your fingertips.
After a quick snack (the best chocolate milk I had EVER drank), our crew wandered out to wait in the scorching parking lot for the bus to retrieve us at 4:35.
(Dave's pic, hope you don't mind!)
And that was the end of our day at the zoo, we probably won’t spend our money on another trip, but we’re still on the hunt for unique wild animals and always have our cameras on hand in case we run into something new!
That’s all for now, stay tuned for another post about our amazing weekend in Sydney.
Love, Laura
photo cred appreciated haha
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