As part of my duty as a future ambassador to Australia while in California I decided to take a trip to the Australia Zoo. The zoo has come a long way since the days when the highway from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane passed by it doors. It seems even though Steve Irwin wants to create some amusement park in Brisbane, he is still putting money in to the zoo with the crocesium. They are working overtime to get it open for Christmas 2003. From the looks of it they must get *really* busy around then.
My favourite bits of the day was meeting Harriet the golapogas tortoise who was found by Charles Darwin when she was five. She is now over 170 years old. I liked coconut the tortoise who was in the enclosure next door – especially when I found out that Harriet and her shared an enclosure but Harriet didn’t like her. The keepers had to shove a wooden board between the two to stop Harriet from shoving her in to corners.
I understood how coconut felt, as I had only just come from a walk through the wetlands where a goose had taken offense to me and went after me like she was going to attack me. Pauline reckons I looked petrefied which wasn’t hard because I was. I know how hard those things bite!! I’m not sure why the goose didn’t like me, perhaps she recognised one of her own kind in me.
