VISIT TO THE ROCKHAMPTON ZOO..

 The children were very keen to see the latest addition to the Rockhampton Zoo.  After attempting to go a few days earlier it was time to head back to the zoo and see if we could meet the meerkets..

We made sure that we had plenty of time to enjoy the zoo today..

A visit to the Rockhampton Zoo

Once again we had to fill in paperwork to get into the zoo,  the covid entry requirements...

We were still having to wear face masks when going out in public

 

The kids were keen to head to the Meerkets first...

From the Meerkets we headed over to visit the Chimps.  They are all time favourites of the children.  We were entertained by the baby chimps...

Of course we also had to have the customary photos taken with the chimp statues in the park..

Unfortunately this baby chimp didn't make it -  it is the 2nd baby Mum Samantha has lost

From the Chimps we went to see the Otters.  They are so cute but we couldn't find them in the water today... 

Max was real keen to see the rest of the animals expecially the Kangaroos.   Before heading there though we decided to check out the eagle and baboons...

From here we headed off to the other main enclosure.  The kids really wanted to go through the bird Avery but it is closed for repair at the moment so we were unable to see the cockatoos and cassowaries. We were able to visit and see the emu's though..

From the emu's we moved on to see the Monitors or as Max calls them the "Vomitors".  He was quite active today and out in full view for us...

Steve is always keen to check out the native bees and was keen to show them to Max and let him know how the native bees are different to the italian bees.

There was a big concrete crocodile on the path... At first the kids were a little anxious about it.  They wanted to make sure that it wasn't real before stepping up on it. 

Next it was off to check out the Koalas.  Apparently there is only one Koala at the zoo at the moment, and he was not at all interested in checking out the tourists this afternoon.  In fact he slept the whole time we were there. 

"Donna"the Wombat was our next stop.  We were fortuante today that she was out in full view and we got to see her and see her little antics.  She is rather quite and very very special,

WE still had the crocodiles to check out.. These also are favourites of the children and as we made our way around to them, we checked out more birds and the dingoes..

 

 

 

They had a cage full of Australian birds and Max loved the white cockatoo... Wasn't impressed with the black ones but did lvoe the white ones...  My favoutire was the Major Mitchell Cockatoo...

Our last stop today was to check out the Crocodiles.  Saltwater crocodiles are the largest of all living reptiles and are the apex predator for their aquatic environment. Male saltwater crocodiles can grow up to seven metres long, with females averaging around three metres.

The Rocky Zoo saltwater crocodile, 'The Colonel' was born in the wild in Northern Queensland,  and relocated to the Koorana Crocodile Farm in Central Qld.  He didn't adapt to his new surrounds and was quite vicious with the other crocodiles so in the he he was gifted and relocated to the Rockhampton Zoo.  He is a massive brute measuring a mighty 4.3m in length..

My now it was time to make our way home.  Steve was keen to get home before sunset as he wanted to hitch up our van ready for an early morning take up for the following morning as we were due to head off on holidays.  We were heading to Maryborough as a half way point so that we could meet up with Sarah to deliver the children back to her...

We had one last stop off on the way to the car.  Max was particularly keen to see the Kangaroos and whilst Willow and Steve headed to the car, Max and I made a brief shortcut to check out the roos...

We decided to spoil the kids for dinner tonight.  We were packed to head off first thing in the morning so by now most of our food was packed in the van.  We decided to pick up a couple of pizzas on our way home from the zoo for dinner tonight.   Then it was getting the kids into bed as soon as possible as we wanted to be up at the crack of dawn to take off the next morning...

We were very conscious of the fact that Sarah had a huge drive ahead of her to drive to Maryborough to pick up the children and then she had to turn around and head back to Brissie.

We have had such a lovely time with the children at home.  We love having them and taking them on adventures.  We are so blessed to have a daughter and son in law who are happy for us to spend quality time with our grandchildren.  Our only wish is that we didn't live so far away from our other grandchildren as we wish so much we could the same sort of adventures with them also...

Never mind hopefully one of these days soon we will be able to have some more wonderful adventures with them also....