Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

So we headed out to Lone Pines Koala Sanctuary today. Of course, Ellis didn't want to go. So I told him he could go in the stroller and eat his cheerios. We did find Cheerios here
but they are called "Uncle Toby's Cheerios
and they are full of sugar and crunchy. That convinced him.

We took the ferry to Southbank and hiked to the pier in front of the State Library. I had been hustling along as I usually do (Cyp told me that the boat left at 9:30)

This got modified as we went along -"actually, it boards between 9:30 and 10:00" and later "it leaves at 10:00"

So of course, we were pretty much the first ones there and were sitting on the boat waiting for it to leave - watching the captain chow down on chips that they sell on board - those must be free with his pay or something. Of course this led to:

"I waaaaaant chips"

"no - have an apple"

This lasted for 30 minutes and then thankfully the boat took off. They announced the rules that no people should stand on the main deck so of course Ellis ran around the entire time (perhaps the cheerios). It was a good tour - learned lots about the different neighbourhoods along the river. Learned the river is salty where we live and gets brackish as it heads inland. Because it is salty, sharks can swim right up. The tape stated "people go trolling for sharks on the weekends - they're called waterskiers and they use live bait." You can see one in the picture above. Our new Vancouver friends had also told us that there are sharks in the river and that is why you don't swim in it - not because it looks disgusting. Would you swim in the Fraser River? On our trip down the river we did see people jumping off docks into the water. It is tempting, until you think about the sharks and the fact that a rather large city is just downstream about 1 km.

We docked at the koala sanctuary - aka zoo (if you can call it docking - we tied up to the tour operator's old boat that looked like a shipwreck on the pier, walked down a skinny gangplank onto the old boat's roof and then down a rather skinny gangplank from the old boat's roof to the dock). Plus, we had Bob. Tricky. Did I mention that Aussies seem a tad more casual here about things? They don't have litigious US neighbours I guess. Then we had to hike up some stairs to get to the zoo. You couldn't be in a wheelchair on this tour.

First thing we saw were some flying foxes (fruit bats - big - apparently they fly around where we live too), cute except for the wings which are creepy. Then we went to cuddle a koala - Ellis got to be the cuddler - next time I'm going to as adults get to actually hold them (they drape the koala's arms around the cuddler's neck). I got to touch Rodney a bit - he had wiry and course fur. I better go soon as they are thinking of declaring koalas endangered - probably won't let joe schmo cuddle with them anymore when that happens.

We wandered around a bit more - had to find some kangaroos so Ellis will finally believe me that we are in Australia (he thinks we're still in Canada). Found the kangas - they were in a giant field with a flimsy door to stop them from getting out. Anita saw a news article in Vancouver that the kangas are hopping around the city looking for things to eat - perhaps they escaped the zoo. They seem to breed like rabbits - look closely at the picture above. You can walk right up to the kangaroos - there was not a zookeeper or staff person in sight. Nor were there any warning signs, but colleagues or Cyp had warned that if you start feeding a kangaroo, don't take the food away as they get mad. Cyp got a bit worried when a kangaroo hopped up to our food laden stroller and started eying Rowan. Ellis was worried about all the kangapoo in the field so we soon departed the enclosure. Saw a crocodile, cassowary (that was cool) and a rather sad looking dingo. Oh and a wombat - it looked deranged - it was pacing back and forth. Kinda like the deranged lions at the Vancouver zoo. Really, when you think about it, it's sad, but man those koalas were cute. I want one!

Bad incident almost near the end of our visit. I was picking Ellis up to look at a snake (all the exhibits were dumb - too high up for kids to see) not really noticing that he had stuck his finger in part of the cupboard where I was lifting him up -ouch squished finger! I'm not sure if Ellis will go back to the zoo - when I asked him if he had liked it, he said no, his finger got hurt. Darn.

We exited via the gift shop (a la Vancouver Aquarium) and as Ellis was still sobbing about his finger, his mom decided he needed something to cheer him up. Panther now has a new friend - Tree Frog. I was thinking stuffed koala, but nope - Central American tree frog it is. Ellis probably knew I would swipe his koala.....the tree frog is not very cuddly.

The captain and his mate had rejigged things for our way back to our boat. This time we walked onto the old rotting boat - up onto it's roof and across a gangplank to ours. Interesting.

The way home seemed long, so I took pictures and left Cyp to manage the kids. About 10 minutes left on the boat trip, Ellis made a friend - Amelia. She and her parents are here for 6 months from St. Louis. Her dad works for Boeing and they have an office here. She is three too. So I got her mom's number. I'll try and call her. They live in Spring Hill, which is yet another suburb we could consider. Too many decisions. Where I really want to live is in one of the beautiful houses along the river (heh). Ah, they'd be a pain to clean.

It was only about 2:30 when we got back to South Bank, so I considered the water park, but poor Cyp was done in (he has a bladder infection) so we went home, which was a good idea, cause when we got home I realized I was done in too. We put a movie on for Ellis and then just sat around all done in like.

I made Australian salmon for dinner - people complain about the prices here, but I got 2 rather large fillets for $10. It more than fed us - I think that's not bad? $26 per kg - $11/lb? There was some question as to whether it was farmed or wild - After confusing the store staff with my questions, I decided it must be wild (as I wanted it)