Saturday, November 3, 2007

Melbourne Zoo Trip

Thursday was a nice busy day with a trip to the Melbourne Zoo with all the prep kids from Isabelle's school. There were 2 parent helpers picked to assist with each class and I was lucky enough to go. The kids behaved really well and were so excited although with a busy schedule we didnt get to see every animal, so I have promised Isabelle that we as a family will do a trip and spend most of the day there and have lunch too. Here are just a few of the animals that we saw - Fairy Penguins which are just so cute. Soon they will move into the seal enclosure so they have a bigger area, which should be in January next year.
We saw lots and lots of peacocks around the zoo, and only one female one. Isabelle asked why they were different colors and I told her the males were pretty to attract a girlfriend. She thought it was hilarious. They are so noisy too screeching away, and sometimes your sure they are yelling out "help, help" to everyone. This one was perched in amongst the elephant trail path.
We also saw my favourite animals which I think are just so beautiful, the giraffes. This is the male one, and there are also 2 females as well. They always look so grand just walking around.

Another of my favourite animals which I think look just so beautiful is the tree kangaroo. Isnt it so cute. It was the only we could see. We also saw lots of meerkats, baboons (which smell really bad), lemurs which were quite funny and entertaining to us. We also saw the orangutans too in their new building. They came right up to the glass but it was too dark to photograph.


After all the excitement the kids went to the zoo school where they learnt about the animals, a snake, a bearded dragon, two little monkeys which are very rare and have been with the zoo for 28 years, and they would probably fit in your hand, and a hippopotamus skull. They dont have anymore hippos at the zoo as the male one has been taken to Taronga Zoo for breeding and the other hippo passed away a while ago. They are hoping that if the breeding program works they can get some more hippos in the future. That would be nice wouldnt it. Then just before we left we got to see the bears who were quite cute. I was so glad to go home though as Isabelle and some of the others were just exhausted from all the walking. We came home and slept for an hour and felt much better afterwards, as it is quite stressful making sure you dont lost 19 kids from our group.
Knitting Progress - I have been knitting a new baby jacket, and the duffle coat is up to the hood. I had to use 2 different dyelots though as the garter stitch just used up so much yarn and I didnt have enough in the color, so the hood and the cuffs of the sleeves are a bit darker, but I am hoping it will turn out okay. I really dont want to rip all that work out although I will wait until the end to see how it looks.
I do hope that everyone has a lovely enjoyable weekend and I am to knit!

9 comments:

Gillian said...

Hello Sue, I love the Melbourne Zoo. It's so well maintained and the enclosures are well designed. Taronga is short of space and some of the enclosures worry me.
Your knitting is racing along as usual. Hope you are all well,
Cheers Gillian

jessica said...

Trips to the zoo are always fun, you are brave going with her class ;O)

Can't wait to see your progress on your baby jacket, you always have such lovely knits to show!

amanda j said...

Oh, I love the zoo. Glad to hear those orang utans have a newish home. Last time I was there they looked hot and miserable!

NattyChick said...

Hi Sue, I love the zoo, we go quite often. I don't know that I could deal with so many kids though! My four are usually handful enough. Glad you had a great time though!

Helen Knits said...

I will keep my fingers crossed for you on the duffle coat but I am sure it will look fine. I love the zoo too but unfortunately we don't go very often.

Sandra said...

you should see ZOO in our Capital - I would leave it crying! Yours loks great!

Kate said...

It looks great! I love going to the zoo with kids and seeing it through their eyes - so much fun!

Sue H said...

It's been ages since I last went to the Melbourne Zoo, and I will have to go again as I really like it. I enjoyed the Perth zoo a when I went with Natalie and her brood.
For the duffle coat, could you perhaps do the front band in the second yarn too, so that the button band, cuffs and hood are all the same, that would really tie it all in.

PlumStitches said...

sound like a fun day! it's so nice that you're able to go on those trips .