Day 4 - Merry Christmas - Tarango Zoo

Merry Christmas!!!! Wow, it doesn’t feel like Christmas when you have to wake up your kids!!! The kids sent a note to Santa telling him to leave the presents in China since we didn’t have enough luggage space. No presents, warm weather, waking up your kids, heading to the zoo – not a typical Christmas for us but one I'm sure we will not soon forget! We discovered, prior to arrival, that not much was open on Christmas except for the zoo. They had a package that gave you a backstage tour of the zoo which we decided would be really neat. The Zoo is on an island. We took a ferry over to the zoo, then a cable car to the top of the zoo.

View from the ferry


View from the ferry


They were given these masks at the gate - don't they look scary??


Waiting for our tour to begin....

Our tour started at 10am & the first stop – the koala enclosure!!! Once again, Amanda was so excited. We were not allowed to touch these koalas but we were able to get very close to them. They even woke up & moved around for our tour – which the guide said was rare as they usually are sleeping this time of day – Merry Christmas to us!!!





Wait for me mommy...

Phew, I made it!!!

Aren't I just the cutest thing??

Being this close to the koalas, for such a long period of time, will definitely be a

memory we won't forget....and to have them awake & moving around was

awesome!!!

We also fed the kangaroos, went into 2 enclosures of nighttime animals, saw the kitchen where they prepare the food for the animals (gross!), & learned so much information about the native animals of Australia.

Come on kangaroo, there are people that want to feed you...

The smell of food was too much for him to resist!

The kitchen.....what can I say....it was disgusting, neat to experience

but disgusting

The daily feeding schedule

They breed mice to feed to the animals - those are baby frozen

mice

Food that we took to feed the nighttime animals. We don't have any pictures from our encounters with the 2 different nighttime animals. You couldn't use a flash & the one's Ron took didn't turn out. It was a really neat experience!

We ended our tour at the outdoor snack cafeteria where we relaxed & had fabulous desserts. Since telling Amanda we were going to Australia she kept saying that she needed to see a Kookaburra. Apparently her music teacher told her that you can see Kookaburra's in Australia & that they might even laugh for you. Well, she was determined to see one & even more determined to hear it laugh. The whole day she kept asking to see a Kookaburra. The poor guide was trying her hardest to look in the trees but to no avail. However, when we got to the snack cafeteria a Kookaburra landed on the railing, which completely thrilled Amanda, & better yet, it LAUGHED!!!! That made her day, I think her trip! She never asked to see a Kookaburra again but did buy a few Kookaburra souvenirs to bring back.

Enjoying her encounter with the Kookaburra!!!

More photos from our adventure at the zoo!



Tanner's favorite animal - he got so many Platypus
souvenirs!

The monkey below was trying his hardest to get the Sprite bottle out

of the water. He tried several different methods & was finally able to

achieve his goal!!!

At last, a drink...wait there is nothing in here....

Rumor has it that the giraffe's have the best seat in the house (view of the

Opera House) & that the other animals think it is unfair

The elephants Christmas treat. It took them awhile to get the frozen

block off the chain. Once it fell, they stood on it to crack it open & eat the

fruit inside.



The seal show:

Look...someone else that is my size!!!!

Our ferry ride back to Darling Harbour with some great shots of the Opera

House

Darling Harbour


What a great day!!!