Australia Zoo ~ Home of the Crocodile Hunter!

This zoo was easily the best zoo I have seen!!! Totally beats out San Diego and New Orleans (Dam good Zoo's) in my opinion. It is gorgeous and you can clearly tell that the late Steve Irwin and his family take great care of it. The zoo keepers are so passionate about the animals and walk around freely with different reptiles and birds for the kids to see and hear all about. Everyone is super friendly as well. 

It is not overly filled with animals what is there is spectacular. I really liked watching the Crocodile Hunter do his shows on Animal Planet in the famous Crocoseum. We actually sat in there and watched a Crocodile show! So so cool!!

When we entered the zoo the first thing that we came across were the Water Dragons and a zookeeper walking around with snakes. Naturally Ash and CJ went straight for it. No fear in these kids!

He was all about this snake!

Dingo's and sleep Koala Bears

ROO HEAVEN!! Kids never wanted to leave this part. Why would they want too. Not with all these "Roo's" running around!

No words can express her level of happiness!!

Who is more afraid of who?

This is the Kangaroo she tried hugging :-) 

Like I said - very pretty zoo!!

Mike's conversation right now is "exercise is to hard Daddy!!! I do not like this. I want a stroller!!" - Oh boy.....

White Rhino - CJ called it a horse :-)

CJ likes tigers!!

Condor - Will and I were impressed they actually had one here!!! Wing span was massive!

Munga the Crocodile - When Steve Irwin caught this one she was lable as a "problem Croc" with need of an attitude adjustment so she was not able to be released back into the wild. She kept making her way to neighborhoods :-) She was pretty fiesty!

Silly me for trying to make them cooperate after a long day at the zoo but oddly this picture turned out great!

And then there is these two - Always cooperative. It is the "small Fry" who is always not cooperative. He was just running around with his stuffed croc hanging out of his mouth yelling "No camera, My 'dile" - his nick name for the crocodile is cute and upsets Mike to no end. 

"Its a Croc CJ! Not a 'dile"  followed by "No Croc, 'DILE!"

Airlie Beach ~ Great Barrier Reef Prt 2

Will got out of the water and I got in. I was a bit nervous since it had been about 7 years since my last dive. There were 2 other people with me plus the guide. The guide was my partner. We started our descent and I was not going under... Even with the weight belt, I cold not sink. My BCD was not deflating either. I had a temperamental one. The nozzle needed to be at a complete 90 degrees to let air out. 

Once I got all settled, I continued. I will admit.... SCUBA diving in Cuba was much more clear. Knuckle Reef was beautiful but the visibility was much less than Caribbean waters. Much more fish here though. I was so shocked by he GoPro! It took great pictures!!

Parrotfish in the middle along with some Yellowtail Fusilier

Indo-Pacific Sergeant - close relative to Sergeant Major

One type of Sea Cucumber

Our guide Winston picked this Sea Cucumber up and we took turns holding it and touching it. I as suprised at how soft it was.

Different varieties of Coral Reef

Mushroom Coral

If you look closely there are brownish legs coming out - This is a Bristle Sea Star

Sea Star

This is a clam of some of some sort. When it was open it was a beautiful bright blue. As soon as I got close with the GoPro it closed up on me. Bummer!

I promised Mike and Ash that I would "find" Nemo for them and I did not disappoint. I FOUND THE CLOWNFISH! So freaking cool!!!! The bright little one is the male and the one above it (click on the photo to enlarge) is the female. She is much bigger and far less bright. She was very aggressive and kept charging my mask and camera. Maybe she has some babies in there. But It was so cool to see. I was swimming along and looked down at this and it looked like the anemone that clown fish lived in so I had to get closer.  

Cloudy visibility and more Yellowtail Fusilier

Ash in the underwater observatory under the pontoon!

This was a great dive we really enjoyed ourselves. 

On the way home we had another rough boat ride and this time our little lady tossed her cookies. Yep... she got so sea sick. The crew brought her cold towels and ice chips. Poor kid.... as soon as we were in  water again she was fine. Combination of sun all day plus lots of ocean motion got the best of her. We got back to the boat and the kids had dinner then went to Adventure Ocean so Will and I could have a dinner by ourselves. All in all a great day. 

I took close to 200 pictures with the GoPro. Obviously  can't uload them all so if anyone whats to see the whole reef album let me know!

Next stop.... Brisbane and Sunshine Coast!