When Kim first announced she was thinking of a trip to Australia, I don’t think the words had barely come out of her mouth before Australia Zoo got added to the list of things to do. It was a no-brainer, the Irwin family are basically Australian royalty, and the zoo is incredibly popular overseas. Living only 20mins from the zoo ourselves, sometimes we forget just how famous it actually is.
Well, today was the day we were visiting Australia Zoo, and it would prove to be one of the biggest highlights of their trip to Australia.
(If you’re just catching up, you can read about Day 1 and Day 2 first.)
We also had a new addition to the group for the day, A2. She’s a family friend of ours, and we had invited her along to hang out with Kim’s daughter, A. They’re similar in age, and we felt bad for A. Her younger brother had my son to play with, and while she had hung out with the adults a lot, I’m sure she was hanging out for a friend as well. A2 is such a cool little kid too, we knew they’d have fun together.
Stop 1: Working our way through the exhibits
With all of us spread out in two cars, we arrived early, about 30 minutes before the park opened, and busied ourselves with putting sunscreen on. The carpark can get extremely full during school holidays, so we wanted to make sure we got a park.
Normally when we visit the zoo, we head straight for the shuttle and beeline for the Africa enclosure, the furtherest part of the park. It’s also one of the more popular ones.
This time though, Kim’s family had a Ripper Rhinos experience booked for 11.00 am (10.30 am check-in) so we stayed close to the entrance and worked through those exhibits instead.
We got to see Komodo dragons, lizards, a tortoise, the tassie devils, alligators, and the cassowary, which is apparently the most dangerous bird in the world. So just another day for Australians really – everything is trying to kill you here.
We also got to see the stoner koalas (just kidding, they don’t actually get high from the eucalyptus leaves), who were just hanging out on their branches. They’re seriously such cute creatures.
We also passed by some dingoes out for a morning walk on their leads. You can tell the zoo look after their animals, as these two were looking suspiciously well groomed and content.
When I pointed them out, Kim asked “are they really dingoes?” She wasn’t sure if I was joking or not. They really did just look like domesticated dogs, completely chilled. Whereas if you see them in the wild, they’re normally much thinner, much hungrier, and a lot more intimidating.
(Side note – as I write this I’m again kicking myself for the lack of photos. I will never, ever take holidays and not act like the papparazzi ever again. How am I meant to write about it when I don’t have all the pics to share?)
Stop 2: Kangaroo heaven
By now it was just after 10am, so we headed to the Guest Services area for Kim’s family to check in for their tour.
After they checked in, we had about half an hour spare, so naturally, kangaroos was next on the agenda.
The enclosure is a giant park in the middle of the zoo, one that everyone must walk through to reach the back section. It’s a huge sprawling area with valleys, and kangaroos everywhere just hanging out.
The second we walked in, Shaun asked if I could hold his coffee so he had both hands free. I was more than happy to oblige, as I understood the desire to pat them. They’re really cute and very chilled, so I held his coffee and told him to get in there!
I mean, check out this mumma enjoying the scratches from my husband! Also, can you see the joey’s legs sticking out of her pouch? That’s gotta be such a snug fit, she’s not even that big herself!
One thing I really love about this area of the zoo is that they have a dedicated section for the roos where people aren’t allowed in. I mean, it’s a tiny timber fence, but incredibly, everyone follows the rules. I love that the roos have their own safe space to retreat to when they need it.
We also made sure to show the kids how to tell if one wanted to be left alone, so they weren’t bothering the kangaroos. For example, if the roo started hopping off, ignoring you, that sort of thing, then it was a safe bet they didn’t want to hang out, and you shouldn’t follow them.
Stop 3: Africa, and a tiger named Hunter
After we dropped Kim’s family off for their tour, L, A2, and my husband and I decided we would head out to Africa.
On the way we stopped in to see Hunter, a gorgeous tiger with a congenital eye condition. He developed cataracts young, and despite the zoo’s best efforts, he lost both eyes. Now he proudly wears these striking fake ones.
If you didn’t know they were fake, I think it would be extremely hard to tell from afar. He has clearly worked out the location of everything in his enclosure, and walks around pretty naturally (then again I don’t exactly have an uncoordinated blind tiger to compare with). While we watched, he was able to sniff out the meat hanging off the post, and easily climbed it and devoured his snack.
We reached Africa, and were rewarded with zebras, rhinos (not the ones that Kim’s family would see), meerkats, and giraffes. In fact, one of the giraffes, Forest, holds the world record for the tallest giraffe – how cool is that?
During the school holidays, they also set up a large inflatable area for kids to play on. The line was relatively small, so A2 and L managed to have a few fast laps racing each other. Eventually they wore themselves out, so put their shoes back on and decided they were hungry.
Stop 4: The main event, the croc show
We grabbed some lunch from the Crikey Cafe at the Crocoseum, opting for some burgers and nuggets for the kids.
Tip for anyone visiting Australia Zoo – don’t expect much from the food. It always feels dry, and a bit…eh. I think you’re allowed to bring your own food in (which is great for kids with dietary needs), but we didn’t want to lug anything around all day. I still haven’t tried food from the other cafes around the park yet, but truly, it always does feel like a bit of a let down when we eat at the main joint. I guess I don’t visit enough to remember to try somewhere else.
After eating, we headed into the Crocoseum itself. The show wasn’t due to start for another hour, but we wanted to grab some of the best seats in the stadium.
Another tip for anyone visiting – grab the seats behind banisters covered in rope. That’s where birds land during the show, which means you get a literal front-seat view to them.
Unfortunately quite a few people had had the same idea, and we were only able to snag one of the higher seats – normally we’d prefer to sit a bit lower. But we knew the kids would appreciate it regardless.
They also walk around during the show with snakes, which I was more than happy to stay away from me!
Kim’s family rejoined us just before the show kicked off, buzzing from their tour. They’d gotten to get up close with one of the rhinos, for photos and a patting sesh. Apparently he’s a “very good boy” and basically the male of the harem. It sounded amazing! Despite being local to the zoo, the only tour I’ve ever done was a behind-the-scenes segway tour, which was incredible and I would totally do again.
Kim and her family grabbed some lunch to eat in their seats, and after efforts to distract the kids while they waited (with only mild success), it was finally time for the show to start.
And we got lucky – the Irwins were there!
Well, minus Robert, but we had Terri, Bindi, and Chandler running the show. Watching them all joke together is genuinely one of the best parts. They’re so entertaining, and just such a class act every time.
It cracked us up pretty hard when they were describing some items they were auctioning for their charity, Wildlife Warriors. Bindi was explaining how they had all contributed, and said “Robert has signed his name on some of them, which… is… great for him.” So funny, and said so sarcastically, exactly as a sister would. I bet she’s fantastic at bringing him back down to earth if his ego ever gets too big.
The show was fantastic as always. Chandler was responsible for guiding the croc around the stage area, a giant saltwater croc called Charlie. He played ball for a while, then started to do his own thing. As the Irwins explained, Charlie was trying to throw Chandler off, so he would make a mistake and Charlie could pounce. Spoiler alert – Chandler didn’t make a mistake, and thankfully is still alive and well.
Terri even got in there, and I swear to god if that’s not goals for me when I get older. If I can be in my 60s, and still running around feeding crocodiles (which is more than I can do in my 40s), I’ll be stoked!
We also watched Bindi feed Charlie from the stand that reaches out over the water. She dangles the food over the edge, and enticed Charlie to launch out of the water to catch the food. Once again, Charlie was following his own rules and didn’t want to jump, but Bindi’s patience was rewarded and eventually he launched pretty high!
It was also hilarious listening to Terri tell a story about if the croc came around the edge (or something like that, basically insinuating Bindi could get eaten), and Bindi nervously saying “thanks, Mum”. They’re crackups.
The final part of the show was quite a treat, and not something that I recall seeing before. Essentially, Chandler got the croc to take some meat, then played tug of war with him, until eventually Charlie performed a death roll! If you’ve not seen it before, Animal planet has a 10min YouTube video with Robert Irwin demonstrating it with Graham, a croc that once took a bite of Steve! Click here to cut straight to the death roll part.
It was a great show, and from looking around me, I can confidently say that Kim and her family were all enjoying themselves a lot.
Stop 5: One more lap
After the show, we went back for another round with the koalas, then the kangaroos. We also walked through the bird aviary, Bindi’s tree house, and the snakes.
There’s honestly so, so much to do at the zoo, and I haven’t even talked about the time we spent at the playgrounds. There’s also a water park there, but given it was winter we skipped that one.
Before we went home, we also visited the Animal Hospital across from the zoo, where you can wander through and see if any animals have been rescued and are being helped by the team.
It’s so much fun, but so exhausting – summed up perfectly by old mate having a nap on the job!
Home Sweet Home
Back home, we finished the night with a pizza night for our friends. We had invited our neighbours around, along with their kids, so it was quite the crowd. It was amazing to watch the kids running around playing, having a great time. Eventually we put a movie on so they could have some quiet time, while the adults all sat outside talking and having a few wines, beers, etc.
Huge credit to my husband and our pizza oven for yet another night of spectacular pizzas. It’s not easy feeding nearly 20-odd people, but he smashes it out of the park every time.
Kim had been hanging out for these pizzas, since being tortured with all of my husband’s Instagram stories for years. My favourite turned out to also be Kim’s favourite, a beautiful burrata pizza that just melts in your mouth. It’s so good.
Interestingly, despite our requests to my husband for some hawaiian pizza, they never actually surfaced. Quite a shock for someone who prides himself on “giving the people what they want”. Just kidding – my husband only puts pineapple on pizza under a lot of protest, and on this night, he was too focused on pumping one pizza out after another. So, we gave him a pass.
Yawning, we finally all called it a night, and another successful day on the holiday itinerary.
