Australia Zoo

We arrived at Australia Zoo just after 9am, after a 45 minute drive.  Although Steve Irwin has been dead since 2006 (yes, it's been that long and yes, you are old), it seems that no successor has come forward to take over his 'Crocodile Hunter' mantle, as the zoo signage on the lead up to and within the park still heavily features him.

We expected a pretty standard zoo experience when we arrived, but this is pretty far from a standard zoo.  Rather than a walk past a number of living display cases, as you normally get, Australia Zoo favours a more interactive approach, with a number of large open paddocks and avairies where you can walk amongst some of the wildlife.

In addition to this, you are also free to get up close and personal with a number of the zoo inhabitants. We managed to get our grubby mitts on Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, Wombats and Elephants and handlers would often be seen walking the paths with birds of prey, parrots and cockatoos.

There were also the obligatory crocodile and alligator habitats, which were about the only areas where you couldn't get too close to the animals!

All in all, we spent about 5 hours at the park and went away feeling that the admission fee was very well spent.

In the evening, since it was our last night in Australia, we decided to have a celebratory last meal.  We had been eyeing up the food at the surf club in Coolum during our last couple of visits and it looked very good.  As in Brisbane, we elected to go for a seafood theme and ordered a seafood platter for the two of us.

The platter consisted of battered and chilled prawns, salt and pepper calamari, Moreton Bay Bugs, battered fish mini fillet and oysters, with chips and salad.  This feast went down very nicely with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc.

On the way home, we stopped off for some frozen yoghurt for pudding before walking our bloated carcasses the kilometre walk back to the motel.  It was an excellent finish to an excellent first half of our honeymoon.

So, this is the end of part one.  Our flight to New Zealand is due to leave Brisbane airport at 2pm tomorrow.

TTFN