Friday, August 6, 2010

Down Under: Day 12, Part 1

This was the day I had been waiting for: koala and kangaroo day!!

Since my husband wanted to spend his weekend relaxing instead of a tour bus, I decided to go on a tour of the blue mountains by myself. The main reason I wanted to go on this tour was because I wanted to go to a wildlife park where I could feed and interact with the animals. I've been to zoos and they're not for me, even though everyone told us how beautiful the Taronga Zoo in Sydney was (I guess the giraffe enclosure looks over onto the harbour, where the bridge and opera house are).

I met my tour guide in the lobby of our hotel at 7am. It was pretty cold out and it would be even colder where we were going, so I bundled up and hopping in the very small (and nice) bus. This wasn't one of those huge tours with 50 people on it and a tour guide over a loudspeaker. The bus sat maybe 15, but I think we only had like 9 people on our tour. I got to sit up front since I was alone and got a really awesome view.

Our first stop was Featherdale Wildlife Park, about 45 minutes outside of the city.


The first animal we saw when we walked in was the wombat. It was just like a puppy and loved to be scratched on it's rock hard backside.


These wallabies were hopping around everywhere!


This dinosaur-looking bird was totally freaking me out, but I held it anyway.


Here I am cuddling a koala! They were so chill, they just hung out on these branches and ate eucalyptus leaves while people pet and posed with them.


Ok, for some reason I was looking super horrible that day, so I had to cut myself out of this picture. The koala, however, was making this adorable face while sticking his tongue out.


See? I told you I looked hell-ish.


This Emu got hold of one of the cones of food.

I really wanted to get a kangaroo hopping and I did! Please excuse my obnoxious voice (don't you hate listening to your own voice on video?).


Kangaroo! from Amy Carter on Vimeo.

They were so cute!

I saw many more animals at Featherdale...


like penguins,



this beautiful turkey,


a very vibrant rooster,


an albino peacock (stunning),


albino kangaroos (dirty),


some type of lizard (maybe Gila monster?),


very cute and cuddly dingos,


and a crocodile! Crikey!

While some of my husband's coworkers said that Featherdale was "ghetto," I completely disagree. It was well-maintained and the animals had plenty of room to roam. I would have preferred to see them in the wild, but this was good enough (and I DID get to see some wild 'roos and emus - coming up next!).

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