After Melbourne our ship headed to Hobart, Tasmania for the last Australian stop on our cruise. Tasmania is located below the main continent and is Australia's only island state. We visited the lovely city of Hobart. The city has a pretty small population and our tour guide portrayed a very laid back and quiet existence there. We took a guided tour around the city and then made our way to Bonorong Park for what I would consider one of the highlights of our entire vacation. I knew that we would be seeing kangaroos and koalas at the park, but I had no idea how many kangaroos we would see and how close we would be able to be with them. The entire park was filled with kangaroos! I loved watching them hop around. We were able to feed and pet the kangaroos, which was very cool.
We even saw a little baby in a mother's pouch!!
It is funny because we talked to several Australians during the cruise about how thrilled we were to see the kangaroos. They laughed because to them kangaroos are not only not terribly exciting (because they are everywhere), they are also a big nuisance. They run out into traffic and cause car accidents the way deer do in the United States. For this reason you will see many "Kangaroo crossing" signs on the Australian highways.
After our visit with the roos we visited a very famous resident of Tasmania. Can you guess who it is?
Last but certainly not least we visited with this cute and fuzzy little koala. Everyone was crowded around him and wanted to pet him. I was surprised that he seemed so calm with all of the attention so I asked the park ranger if koalas like people petting them. He said that if you pet them near their head they can get angry and bite a chunk out of your hand. As he was saying this I saw people walking up to the koala and petting his head! When it was my turn to visit Mr. Koala I kept my hand far from his head just in case. He really was very cute so I think maybe it was worth the risk of a koala bite.
We had an amazing day at Bonorong and were talking about it for the rest of the trip. I would have brought a little kangaroo home if I could, but I don't think it would have cleared customs. I highly recommend this park if you are in Hobart!
No comments:
Post a Comment