We've had some pretty bad Internet connections since we left Gold Coast, so please bear with us as we catch you up on our adventures.
We looked at the birds first. Brightly colored Princess Parrots, big Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, and chatty Sulfur Crested Cockatoos greeted us at the gate. Cole tried to make them say hi and I snapped a few photos before entering the Platypus area.
The sanctuary had two platypodes (I had to look up what the plural was) a male and a female. They were a lot smaller than I expected, but that only made them cuter.
Coming out of the platypus area we got our first glimpse of the koalas: moms and joeys. Some of the joeys were really little and clinging to their moms' backs or fronts. I was freaking out a little from all the cute.
One of the things I really liked about the Sanctuary was that they had a lot of different areas for the koalas, and they were free to roam high in the trees if they wanted to, and some did! They had a retirement area for the old koalas who mostly just slept, and a bachelor pad for male koalas, and even a kindergarten area for joeys recently separated from their moms.
We passed by the dingos, something Cole had been looking forward to, and the Tasmanian devils (who are much sweeter than the cartoon portrays) on our way to the highlight of my day. We got to the main koala enclosure - which wasn't very enclosed, the koalas were free to climb as high and as far as they wanted - and no one was there! After a brief moment of panic where I thought it might not happen because the ticket machine for the koala cuddling wouldn't take the bills we had, I went to the front and waited for them to bring me a koala.
Kiaper is a really handsome three year old male who was super into the eucalyptus leaves he was being fed. He was heavier than I expected he would be and his fur was soooo soft and thick. I was feeling a little bit like Kristin Bell when she met a sloth for the first time, only without the outward hysterical crying. On the inside I was totally losing it though, don't worry.
After they made me give Kiaper back, I vowed to work there one day so I could hold koalas all the time and we went into the kangaroo enclosure. Wallabies, kangaroos, and a few emus were wandering around. They were all super tame and happy to let you pet them. Even the moms with joey feet sticking out of their pouches were just lying in the dirt, soaking up the sun and the attention.
We headed to the main enclosure for a wildlife talk, where some of the keepers talked about their favourite animals. We met a young crocodile named Doug who was the king of his enclosure despite being the smallest croc in there, a Lorakeet that had been found obviously domesticated and unable to be released into the wild who was scared to fly down from trees, and a dingo that was so in love with his keeper that he stared at her the entire talk.
After a meander over to see some sleepy wombats, and a peek in at the adorably fat kookaburra, we called it a day and had some lunch at the parking lot picnic tables before heading into Brisbane for a look at the city.
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