In a Big Country

. . . dreams stay with you, like a lovers voice, on a mountain side . . . stay ah-live. Ok, ok, enough of the song lyrics, it's time to brag.

Yes, that is me feeding a kangaroo, yes that is me holding a koala, and yes, that is Micah getting killed by a snake. Don't be jealous. Micah and I made our way up to the Gold Coast where the souped up cars race through the streets like when we were in high school and where towns have names like Miami, Palm Beach, Mermaid Beach, etc. Sound like Florida to anyone? That's what I thought.

We arrived at our old buddy Sarah's house, where she lives with her Australain boyfriend Corey, or "Coco" as I like to call him. We went to dinner and went straight to bed afterwards because Micah and I knew we had a big day ahead of us. We woke up bright and early and headed to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary. We took a stroll through the reptile exhibit where Micah was strangled by a giant plastic snake and was spitting reptile facts at me left and right. We got up close and personal with a couple of crocs and saw one chow down on a little critter, I think it was a big mouse.

We then rushed over to the koala exhibit. We paid a small fee to hold a koala, and let me tell you it was worth every penny. The koala we got to hold was named Elroy. He was quite soft. I think he really liked me, he reached his arms out, grabbed on to me tight and became quite comfortable when he layed his head on my, eh-hem, boob. Micah was a little jealous. That's right people, I got a new boyfriend and his name is Elroy.

We saw a snake show which was pretty cool, we learned that Australia has eight of the ten most deadliest snakes in the world and got to see a few of them. We meandered through the walkways and saw some cassowaries (world's dealiest bird), wombats (cutest thing ever), a twenty foot croc and then it was kangaroo time! We walked into a big open enclosure, a petting zoo if you will, where we were immediately surrounded by kangaroos. We fed them, pet them, and jumped aound a bit. Some females even had little joeys in their pouches! It sounds cute but honestly, it lookes like and alien or something. All you can see are these long feet and a couple of hands with long claws poking out of a stomach, very Total Recall-esque.

The next day we were off to the Australia Zoo. This was the zoo that belonged to Steve Irwin, which his wife now runs. It was really cool, a big focus on crocs. We saw some of the most beautiful tigers and the cutest tiger cubs! Oh yeah, and dingos too! I got to pet a wombat and a baby croc. Geez, I am the luckiest girl in the whole wide world, or the nerdiest. Either way, Micah and I had a blast!

xo
Brooke