Kangaroos and Koalas

We officially live in Australia! We've seen kangaroos! Yesterday we went to the coolest place! Lone Pine Park is a small zoo of strictly Australian animals. And it's so interactive! First thing we got to do was feed lorikeets, which are beautiful birds! Just gorgeous! We've seen them in our yard even, but not this many!












Then we went to hug a koala! Omigosh! How many people have done that? Actually, lots of people have. They had a wall full of famous people having had their pictures taken with a koala. Jackie Chan, Taylor Swift, Mikhail Gorbachev, just to name a few. Apparently we run with an elite crowd. We paid for a picture, but we all got to have a turn holding him. His name was Matt and he was warm and cuddly. His fur was thicker and coarser than I expected it to be. But seriously cool! Fortunately, the photo we paid for was a lot better than this one. But they were nice enough to take this one with our camera. Lydia was elated, I promise, although here she doesn't look it.


Then we went off to feed kangaroos! Yahhh! It doesn't get any cooler than that! You walk in a gate and you're in this huge kangaroo paddock! There are a couple emus walking around looking like they're gonna stab you, but apparently they're docile. The kids walked up and pet one. Over in a far corner are the kangaroos just hangin out. They weren't as big as I imagined. I guess everyone thinks of the 6 ft tall red kangaroos, but these were the eastern grey kangaroos and are smaller.





The rope is to divide the common area from a private corner that is for kangaroos only. Look at them!








We went to a bird of prey show, saw a platypus (which was also a lot smaller than I expected, about a foot and a half long), saw sleeping wombats, and saw the kookaburra. The second day we were in Australia we were woken by the strangest noise ever. I thought it was a monkey, but nope, it was a kookaburra. It was nice to finally meet one.


Another thing we loved about the park was these lizards! They were huge! 2 feet long! I had a great video, but I couldn't get it to post...





What a neat place. We got a year's pass so we can go back. And it's only 25 minutes from our house! Sweet!