Outback Adventures At The Wildlife Park

In the US, Cockatoos are sold in pet stores as 'exotic' birds; the most common birds are crows or pigeons. Things are different in the outback. Sydney: where flocks of Cockatoos chill harder than the iceberg that sank the Titanic. No birds are 'boring' and, as visitors to this continent filled with exotic creatures, we find that most are the exact opposite. At the Featherdale Wildlife Park we encountered some of the most interesting, colorful and playful birds I've ever squawked at...


Mom and Uncle Tim made friends with some oversized Cockatoos...


Here I am about twenty-five feet into the wildlife zoo, getting some action from an Aussie chick. Check that off my list...


In honor of little cousin Dave's obsession with "Surf's Up", the animated movie, here is a cute little penguin.


Though the expectedly-colored peacocks were very pretty, the purely white peacock was especially beautiful.


Here are just a few of the other birds we got to see and touch at the zoo...They all seem to pose for the camera, what's up with that??





Even the Australian Chickens are funny looking!


The Kangaroos and Wallabies were so strange...and lived up to all of our expectations after years of anticipation (from childhood) for the outback's most famous animals. And the ones here are so tame they're like puppy dogs - when Shabd started petting one it laid down and rolled over onto its back so she would scratch its belly!



We even saw an albino kangaroo...It blew my mind!


Koalas sleep in the cutest seated position, camping out in the groove of meeting tree branches. It doesn't seem comfortable to us humans, but they really do enjoy it.


It is safe to say that the koalas are everyone's favorites from our trip to the petting zoo...I mean come on, just look at this guy. His name is Larry, and he wants a hug.




Shabd took Brooke on a little ride through the farm portion of the petting zoo!


Cousin Irene loves the pigs! She and Mike want to get a farm sometime soon.


Who knew a baby goat would give a full on hug.


Shabd was kneeling down to see some of the animals when she felt something pushing on her back...It was a goat licking her sweater!! What a hilarious experience to add to an already great adventure through the wildlife zoo.


Yaya Vicki took little Lukey to see some of the goats as well. She is so great with the kids!


Dad fed the wombats through their cage...They're much, much bigger than I had expected. Still really cute in a weird sort of way, aren't they?



The spiny Echidna - we saw one later walking around in the wild! (We also saw wombats along the side of the road, but they weren't walking anymore)


And then there was Nick...Oh Uncle Nick, you never stop making us laugh, and we love you for it!


The zoo had an entire reptile section as well, including a crocodile (which was really cool to see up close) and...


A tree-huggin' hippy lizard.



Mom approves...