4/13/10 (gosford)
Gosford - Hunters Valley
We woke up to the sun shining and lots of bird chirping. We have seen some crazy looking birds and some of them sound like children talking. There is a bird that has a head that looks too big for its body to support and no neck. All the birds have very bold distinctive colors.
We arrived at the Australian Reptile Park where we were greeted with a cartoon crocodile figure who is supposed to represent Elvis. He is their resident crocodile who weighs about 2 tons and is over 5 meters long. The park is very well equipped with a huge picnic area and bbq grills. We saw all sorts of creatures: American alligators, birds, platypuses, koalas, kangaroos, emus, Tasmania devil, and more. The kangaroos and emus are not caged so they just run around the park, which was pretty cool. I had a certain image of how the Tasmania devil was going to look based on the cartoons I had seen growing up but they looked a bit different. They look like a huge rat and are quite strong. We went to various presentations about the animals to learn more about them. It seemed like the park does a good job in educating the public and they have very successful breeding programs. We saw the alligators, Elvis, and Tasmania devil feeding, which is quite a scene since you see the keepers dangle a kangaroo leg in front of them. My favorite animal was the koala and I even got to pet one of them. They were quite soft and fluffy.
It was really cool to see animals that are so foreign to us. They look weird and interesting all at the same time. We don’t get see many of these animals in the states and to be so close to them was awesome. We even saw birds that look like turkeys fly up onto trees and jump around in them.
Next we headed to Hunters Valley to settle for the night. The valley is known as one of the best wine regions in Australia. We are looking forward to tasting some Shiraz and Semillon tomorrow.
Australia, New South Wales in Daily Adventures
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