Brisbane, Queensland

I've spent the last few days in Brisbane.  The only reason I stopped in Brisbane was to go to Australia Zoo, the zoo Steve Irwin worked at.  It was about 2 hours north of the city in a small town called Beerwah.  The zoo was started by Steve's parents as a reptile conservation center and with Steve's popularity the name of the center was changed to Australia Zoo.  It was a hot day when I was there, in the mid 90's, but that didn't stop me from having a great time.  The zoo housed primarily Aussie animals with there being more species of reptiles than any other type of animal.  All over the zoo you saw Steve's face.  I found it to be done in a tasteful way though.  It was interesting to see that nearly 5 years after his death Steve is still the face of Australia Zoo.  There was a large emphasis on conservation of wildlife and animal protection, which was Steve's mission. 
There were a lot of opportunities to interact with the animals as well.  From photos to feeding, even behind the scenes ecounters with animals like tigers, lemurs, and rhinos - the last two weren't on display but the zoo houses them.  I fed an elephant, petted a koala (they feel exactly as they look like they should, like a teddy bear), went to talks about koalas, tigers, and watch a birds of prey show.  Highlight of my trip by far was the Wildlife Warriors show that Steve made so famous.  Steve opens the show by talking about his conservation mission.  Next the handlers bring out some bird species and snake species before the croc comes out.  The croc exhibit was led by Wes, who was Steve's best mate and the world's best croc handler.  It was quite a treat to watch him interact with the croc.  You could hear the quiver in his voice as he was talking and at one point he said, "If it sounds like I'm scared...It's because I am."  Seeing the croc move silently and stealthly through the water - the water didn't even ripple when he swam - and explode out of the water with jaws wide open was pretty awesome.  After showing how high the croc can launch itself straight up out of the water the handlers had the croc do a death roll while one of them held on to the end of a rope.  The whole show was exhilerating. 
That was the last thing on my to-do list here in Australia.  I leave Brisbane this afternoon for Sydney and will spend one day in Sydney before flying home on March 8th.  In the coming weeks/months I will go through all hundreds of pictures I took and post the highlights on the blog.