We arrived at the Zoo then made our way to the Safari Shuttle which took us to the far end of the park. From there we could walk back to the entry, through all the exhibits. Our first stop was the African animals; giraffes, zebras and rhinos.
As we continued walking we came to Bindis Island. The island was home to lemurs, turtles and a macaw. In the 3 storey Tree house were a number of enclosures with different snakes.
We left the Island and stopped at the Tigers. They were amazing to watch, chasing each other round the enclosure and letting out a few ROARS. One walked right in front of us at the window.
From the tigers we made our way past the Red Panda.. a surprisingly small animal that lives in the trees.
On the other side of the Panda was a baby Cheetah which was very cute.
We then made our way to the Crocoseum and found a seat and enjoyed some lunch while we waited for the show to commence.
The first show was 'Bindi and the Girls' doing a few songs about saving animals and a final song about her dad 'Steve Irwin'. Lots of kids got up to dance in front of the stage - Karli was loving it! Now she can claim to have danced with Bindi!
Following Bindi's show was another show introducing different snakes - taking the around the stadium so everyone could get a close look. Then came the birds. Flying in from different perches throughout the stadium they flew across the crowd to another perch. It was spectacular... big macaws, racing lorikeets, different birds of prey as well as a parrot which flew to a member of the audience to pick up a $5 note.
Then came the much anticipated Crocodile Show. The big croc was enticed to swim out of the enclosure to the pool in the stadium - by a staff member splashing up the water. He was then fed different pieces of meal. We were given a great education on crocodiles and water safety (ie.. there's none if there's crocs!!) which was very timely as we headed up into crocodile infested waters.
To get the crocodile back into it's enclosure the staff member jumped into the water then splashed his way through the enclosure gate to entice the crocodile to follow him. The show concluded with more information from the Irwins about safety around crocodiles and how we should promote conservation rather than culling, etc.
We exited the Crocoseum then headed over through the kangaroos to the koala where the kids were able to have a photo next to the koala and give it a pat.
As we made our way over to the wombat enclosure we watched as the zookeeper put the harness on the wombat to take it for a walk around the zoo!
We found the Snake exhibits and spent some time there the continued on to the Australian animals, where we saw Koalas, Dingos, Tasmanian Devils and Cassowaries.
We stumbled across another Crocodile show in a smaller exhibit which was also really interesting.
Even the staff get a little edgy when the croc starts following them around!
We headed over to the Birds of Prey demonstration, although by this stage of the day this kids weren't engaging quite as well and probably lost a bit of interest!
We finished off the day at the Otters which was more appealing for the kids, the otters were very active and eager to find their food in the different hidey-holes.
Late in the day we left the zoo and headed out to pick up the caravan from the mechanic. He was just finishing up so that was good timing! Apparently the brakes were gone on the caravan and some other issues which were all fixed up! From there we made our way back to the Showgrounds to set up again, get dinner sorted and kids to bed!
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