Hellooooo koalas! I went to Perth twice and both times I didn’t get to see any koalas, even at the zoo. How silly! When I went to Gold Coast, not only I got to see lots of koalas, I even got to carry one!
Thank you Risa Aris once again for recommending Featherdale Wildlife Park.
After collecting the tickets, the staff gave us a map and a passport where we can collect stamps for 8 animal stations we visited: Koala, Kangaroo, Wombat, Crocodile, Platypus, Emu, Dingo and Tasmanian Devil. Just like Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, most of the animals were not enclosed. My PIL had fun because it’s not everyday you get to see bilbies and kangaroos hopping around freely.
They also have a full fridge filled with grass and shrub in an ice cream cone that costs AUD2 only for everyone to feed the kangaroos.
Finally my MIL got to see and touch a koala as well as kangaroos. Unfortunately we couldn’t spend the entire day at the wildlife park so we only got to watch the alligator feeding.
They also provided benches for those who wanted to have a picnic. We sat and walloped our anchovy fritters, tuna sandwiches and grapes. This time round, the kiddos had peanut butter sandwiches instead. Luckily no animals or birds came to us for foods. We finished off with souvenirs shopping and headed to the town to shop for the very last time.
Paddy’s Market reminded me of Queensway Shopping Centre except that there also had multiple stalls selling souvenirs. Apparently, it is the only factory outlets in the CBD but hubby and I did not bother to take a look since we already shopped at the other factory outlets. My only reason was to shop for souvenirs. We went our separate ways to shop and agreed to gather at the meeting point at 3pm. Hubby and I finished very fast so searched for a place to sit while waiting for the rest. It was really, really tough to find decent seats because most of them were blanketed with bird poops, fresh and dry. We felt so icky! We found a clean spot but there was no shelter and it was glaring hot. We didn’t have any choice so I asked my kids to sit while I go to McDonald’s to buy ice creams and drinks. Perfect treats for that kind of weather.
Fortunately, we limited ourselves to 3 hours shopping only because the car park fee was extremely exorbitant. 3 hours of parking cost AUD22! Totally outrageous! It made me wonder whether the souvenirs were really cheap if I added the car park fee. Anyway, too late, wasn’t it? Ok let’s just forget about that. Time to eat!
We headed to Anzac Parade once again but we had Indian food instead. The beryani was tantalizingly yummy! You can really taste all the spices in the rice and curries. As usual, they gave huge portions and again I managed to finish the whole plate. Hahaha…
We definitely had fun in Sydney despite getting lost twice, paying for expensive car park fees and tolls, and being stuck in traffic congestion. Till we meet again.
Do share your views and post any questions you have in the comments box and I will have them answered in an instant! 🙂
Later,
Teana
