Sydney is sunny and warm, hot even. Melbourne is cool and rainy. "Hurray," sez the wife, "Just like home!" We're being put up by our friends Ben and Fahey, who live in the suburbs. Their home is beautiful and their children are charming, and I'm not saying that because they read this blog.
Yesterday was a trip to the wild animal preserve, which serves as an educational center, and a place for tourists to go to see a koala without having to go out into the woods, because that would be too much trouble.
The wife has Fahey and Ben's youngest, Mo by the hand. In the background you can make out Ben the and their older son, Spike. No telling where Greg got to...maybe taking pictures or something.
This cockatiel isn't a resident of the zoo, they're just around. This place is full of tropical birds, even parrots turn up in backyards I'm told (though I haven't seen one yet).
Koalas sleep 20 hours a day. Zookeepers use this fact to give us a chance get up close and personal. At this point I began to think we were being rude.
Australian tourism rules require at least one picture of a kangaroo on every visit. So here it is.
This is a rock wallaby. On a rock.
Tasmanian devils are exactly as aggressive and insane as you may have heard in bugs bunny cartoons. When we walked up to the enclosure, this one raised his nose and sniffed my wife like she was on the menu. And they're little. But apparently, size is meaningless to a little devil.
The kids are climbing on a replica of a giant iguana that roamed around Australia a while back.
I included this pic because it's cute. No other reason.
After the sanctuary, it was a trip through wine country and lunch. Lovely.
Fun. My phone is misbehaving tell Ben not to take me too seriously; except that maybe he could use some of my comments as material for his writing! Now I want a Koala; do you think one would get along with the
ReplyDeleteKoalas are cute, but their smell isn't.
ReplyDeleteHealesville is the actual name of the wildlife reserve we took them, and I forget the name of the winery we visited afterward but the lunch menu wasn't suitable, so we actually ate at a chocolateria before coming home.
This is all up north of the north-eastern suburbs of Melbourne where we live. We're kind of on the edge of town so the countryside is 10 mins away, and has lots of upscale wineries which make up almost all the tourism appeal of our area.