My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
After a whole season in Australia and New Zealand on the Golden Princess, I didn’t see one live koala or kangaroo. I wasn’t going to let another contract go by without taking the chance to interact with them! Everyone said that the best place to go was Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. Our homeport was in Brisbane for a while, but turnaround days are always very hectic, so we decided to wait until we went to Brisbane on a regular port day. Our first one was cancelled due to weather, so we were especially anxious to make this happen before we lost the chance. Luckily a crew tour was organized and enough people signed up that we were able to get a deal on the transportation and admission. We took a bus of 37 crew members to the sanctuary, which is about 35 minutes from the port.
We walked in and, right away, there was a koala snuggled up in a tree.
Most of them were sleeping.
There were lizards walking around everywhere- which is unsurprising for Australia.
There were some sleeping Tasmanian devils!
The koalas were everywhere! They had these trees set up like columns and almost every one of them had a sleeping koala slung in the branches.
This one was doing quite a stretch!
We went into the kangaroo feeding area and found some Emus ready to be fed. They didn’t mind that we pet them while they were eating.
We each had a little bag of kangaroo food, but there were so many people, the kangaroos didn’t seem to care about the food.
There were so many of them!
There was a mama nursing her baby:
I love this guy:
We remembered to take a selfie with the lounging kangaroos
Then we got in line to hold the koalas. I think this picture would be appropriate for my Tinder profile:
The koalas were more concerned with getting their snacks than they were with being cuddled,
but when they held the leaves just the right way, they posed for the camera
Afterward we found the koalas with babies, and they just climbed all over each other.
The whole day was extremely satisfying. I loved that the animals could move around in a more natural environment. It was really fun to be able to touch and feed the animals.
If these aren’t enough pictures for you, I’ve posted videos on Facebook as well.