Australia Zoo

Today we visited the Australia Zoo and enjoyed our visit.  Personally I found it a bit commercial after visiting the Lone Pine Sanctuary yesterday.  Both facilities are nice and have their strengths. The people at Australia Zoo were very friendly and put on a great show, but they played Steve Irwin videos everywhere like he was still alive and I found that disturbing. 

We are both glad we visited it, but would probably not go back.  I know I'd like to visit Lone Pine again if I get the chance.

You can see the money in the quality of exhibits at Australia Zoo.  Very top notch.  There's a new Southeast Asia section with elephants and tigers that was very nice.  We enjoyed the Asian otter exhibit as well.  Then again, what was the name of this zoo?

Mary and I found walking around the large croc ponds where Agro, Acca and others live was very cool, having seen them on numerous TV programs. Most of the crocs were visible, but unfortunately Agro was hiding underwater in a pool of warmed water so we could not get a clear look at him.   

The show in the Crocaseum was very good, displaying snakes, birds and a crocodile.  But it seemed a bit formal to me.  The people were good, but....   I found it amusing that, at the end of the show the crocodile, Monty, did not want to leave! They had coaxed him out of the water and I think he was enjoying sunning himself so much he thought he'd just stay in the center of the Crocaseum.  But they finally splashed the water enough to get his attention and once in the water he ambled off to his pool. That's a picture of Monty jumping for some meat at the top of this post.  I added 5 pictures to my Picassa page (see link on right) and to the scrolling slideshow if you want to see more.  

I am impressed with Brisbane.  The downtown is modern and bustling, they have a great public transportation system with one pass allowing you to use buses, trains, and the CityCat boats that take passengers up and down the Brisbane River.  Very vibrant and clean - overall a nice city to visit.

That's it for today.  Tomorrow morning we fly to Cairns.  We're looking forward to the Postie run on Thursday.