Brisbane Australia

 

Brisbane Australia
Brisbane: Our final port of our 32 day back to back cruises. Brisbane is the capital city of the Australian state of Queensland.  Population of Brisbane 2.25 million. Their Rugby team is known as the Brisbane Broncos, their colors maroon and gold, and their emblem is a horse head similar (sorta) to our Denver Broncos.
Today the temperatures were very pleasant, I think around 77 degrees, which is so nice, since its been so, so hot and humid since we returned to Australia from New Zealand, a MONTH ago. New Zealand was wet and cool, for most of our days there, but once we reached Melbourne to start our circle around Australia it started warming up, and its been mighty warm all the way around, until we got here in Brisbane. The weather is wonderful.

Today we visited the Australia Zoo, which is actually the zoo built and owned by Steve Irwin and his wife.  He was known as the ’Crocodile Hunter’. He actually was better known in the United States for being the TV star of that show, than he was right here in Australia. Not anymore of course.  It was about an hour plus ride to and from the ship to the zoo, so our time at the zoo itself was limited. We found ourselves rushing to see the little bit we did see. We wanted to make sure we were able to see the Wildlife Warriors Show, and we did!!!!! I’ll get to that a little later… Scattered throughout the park were employees each handling an animal, a reptile, or a bird.

Snake



 

Kookabura



Wedge-tailed Eagle

You could have your picture taken with them……. it’s a beautifully arranged zoo, everything neat, clean, manicured and very organized. Crocodiles, crocodiles….many many of them, big small, in between…. You had to watch where you walked because there are a lot of different variety of lizards roaming around, some very LARGE ones too.


ALL kinds of these things though out the park.

Every pen and pond were large, almost too large. The zoo itself is on 100 acres of land, the Irwins own another 900 acres in addition to that. So much Australian wildlife, like the Cassowary...they have a bright colorful head.

 There are so many kangaroos,

and the area that they roam has lots of trees and grass and shade.  There are risers around several of the ponds so zoo visitors can watch each animal be fed throughout the day.


Crocodiles....many different ponds and areas for the many croc's on the property.

This place is huge. It is landscaped so beautifully.

These are called 'Staghorn' Ferns. They are native to Australia. These line most of the walkways though out the park.
 

AND...of course, lots and lots of Koalas!

 

 

They are just so DARN cute!!!

Now about the show.  The most amazing show EVER!!  It is Easter weekend, and ALL the Irwin family was participating at the show yesterday, today, and will be tomorrow. The first show was at 11:30 and it was ‘Bindi, and the Jungle Girls’…..(a girl band created when she was younger),

they sang and danced on stage prior to the Wildlife Warriors show. There is a Jumbotron at one end of the stadium, so you could actually ‘see’ her. It was in the ‘Crocoseum’ Stadium. She’s good, the group performed about 5 songs. One of the songs was about her 'Dad', and a video showed lots of pictures of a young Bindi and her Dad. A lot of young girls from the audience danced to the music on the ground below the stage, and Bindi commented many times how good they all were.  Those little girls were excited to say the least.
The Wildlife Warrior show started off with birds, beautiful parrots, a condor,

a wedge tailed eagle, pink cockatoos, that were released and flew around the stadium, a black parrot that flew from the arm of the trainer to a girl sitting in the row behind us.

The girl folded up a $5.00 Australian bill, held it in her hand and the parrot flew right to her arm, put the money in its mouth, and flew back to the trainer. Then the bird returned the $ to the gal. Then the Crocodile show began. The Irwin family came out and spoke to the crowd. Its amazing when Terri talks to her children how natural they seem, not as actors, just as a regular kids. Terri is so good, she was the one who informed the audience what she and the kids, or the helping handlers was going to be doing, and the kids just seem to do what they naturally do and have done all their lives around the crocs.  The boy, Robert, was first to ‘handle’ a croc. It was a cute one

 but as Robert slapped and kicked the water, …it was aggressive and it took the meat quickly. He did find a way to actually pick up the small croc.

He did a good job, then it was time to bring out the big croc. His name is Murray. Robert did NOT handle Murray. It is certainly dangerous, but Robert was right out there trying to get the croc to go after the meat. Now its Terri's turn to get 'Murray' out of the water....

 There was some filming going on, and they were actually going to do 2 croc shows, but our time was limited, so we only saw the one.

And this is Bindi, feeding this croc.

 Terri (Steve’s wife) was doing most of the speaking and conversing with her children.

Discussing some of the dance moves she did on Dancing with the Stars.

They of course showed video on the Jumbotron of Bindi on ‘Dancing with the Stars’, her brother had very kind words about his sister, and her dancing. They are proud of her that she won the Mirror Ball trophy. Bindi had a lot of very kind words about her brother.
An amazing family. There are wooden message boards scattered about the zoo, of things Steve said, and just the way it is worded, sounds just like how he would say it!  His most word he liked to use is: "crikey", it means Gee Whiz.

This is mentioned on the Zoo's website:
"In July 2006 Steve had set out his 'ten year business plan' for his beloved zoo. He couldn't know he would be gone just two months later, but he believed his conservation work would go on. His two beautiful children and his wife Terri will make sure it does. "

Very sure they have done an amazing job of continuing his work.

 

     Next port: Sydney Australia, where these 2 back to back cruises began 32 days ago on Radiance of the Sea. Then our long flight back to the U.S. and HOME!