Day 19 - Adelaide Zoo - PANDAS

Our much anticipated day at the zoo visiting Australia's brand new pandas, Funi and Wang Wang. It all got off to a stressful start... leaving 25 minutes after we wanted to, to allow time to call in at some shops on the way. So we skipped the shops, and then part of the way to the zoo I casually informed Jeanette that there was a huntsman on the dashboard of the car and I would need to make an emergency stop!! Fortunately there was some where to pull over nearby and we pondered our predicament! Tried to get it with a stick but it got itself between the dashboard and the windscreen... but not wanting to let a silly spider, albeit a big one deter us and keep us from our pandas, we bravely continued. We took the stick with us too.

We found somewhere to park close to the zoo, but the Adelaide City Council were cashing in on the pandas and wanted $9.20 for 4 hours parking... all in a parking meter that only takes coins. Who carries nearly $10 in coins with them? So we put in all we had and it gave us about an hour... will risk a fine... what can they do... extradite us from Victoria?

We got straight into the zoo with our pre-paid internet tickets and went straight to the pandas... we were booked for the 10:15 viewing... along with several other people. By 10:30 we got to see them... Funi (the female) was curled up on a rock at the back of her area... and didn't move the whole time we were there. Wang Wang (the male) was a lot closer to the front, and was quite active, going for several wanders and at one time played with his toy tyre. They are both indoors and in seperate enclosures - still in quarantine and don't get to roam their outside spaces till next week. The kids were excited and wanted to pat them. Our photos were not brilliant through the perspex which reflected heaps, but we did get some good video.

The rest of our day at the zoo was spent exploring and checking out the other animals. The tigers were hiding and were nowhere to be seen, as were the orang-a-tangs. A lioness gave us a stare. The lemurs were a hit with the kids... 'I like to move it, move it...' from the film 'Madagascar' was what they sang! Gemma enjoyed seeing the hippos and giraffes. Ethan got excited about the frogs, snakes and lizards and Zac kept asking for monkeys.

We bought lunch and sat in the shade and ate before seeing everything else. Not as extensive as Melbourne Zoo, with a few notable absences... they had no elephants for example. There were a couple of old flamingoes - the oldest animals at the zoo, arriving from in Australia in 1933 and 1948. One was quite white... perhaps he'd faded over the years. I thought they were a lot pinker!

We headed home via the supermarket... where the kids all got souvenir pandas as they were $6.95 instead of the $34.95 the zoo wanted! Here's them with their cuddly souvenirs...



Exhausted after a big, but fun day out we had some yummy tea (thanks mum) and then we're thinking of heading for the pool after that...