Two Beers and a Pretzel

Back on may 9th Aaron and I went to the Australia Zoo in Beerwah (love that name), Australia.  The home of the late, great Steve Irwin.  It’s 1 hour South of Noosa, and we nabbed the bus transfer plus admission for $46AUD each (about $38USD)

Unfortunately, commercialism is prevalent and every TV monitor is touting his daughter Bindi’s videos and the stores are all selling her tween clothing line.  It’s like Disney came to town and mixed The Croc Hunter with the Olsen Twins (BTW: Yuck, what happened to them).

Once you get over that, it’s actually a pretty nice small zoo full of mostly the large native Aussie species that Steve loved…  snakes, lizards, crocs, koala, kangaroo, etc…  with tigers, elephants, and the occasional komodo dragon mixed in for good measure.  Another great thing is that Steve’s message of habitat conservation and preservation of wildlife come thru loud and clear over the obvious money making endeavors.

There are nowhere near as many exhibits as the zoos in Ohio, but it is growing, and the exhibits are very open and well crafted for the animals they have.  We were there from 10:15am to 3:45pm, and that was plenty of time to see some exhibits, eat lunch, watch the main show, see the rest of everthing, and grab a snack before leaving.

There’s also a hands-on, kid friendly focus - where you can feed the tortises and elephants, pet koalas, and wander among the kangaroo - all for free.

The twice daily crocodile and free flight bird show was pretty good (again, free).

My favorites were the red panda exhibit…

…and the tasmanian devil.

Tomorrow (the 10th) Aaron and I are catching a bus to Rainbow Beach on the South end of Fraser Island, then early next week we go for a 3 day self drive around the island with an 11 person SUV full of people we haven’t met yet.  Of course, we’re hoping for female, European, 20-somethings.