Gold Coast Day 3 - Visit to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary

I was undecided if this place would be worth my time as the reviews online were mixed. Some said it was old and rundown or small while others had a good time. So I think the only way to find out was to visit and judge for myself.

I checked out the story behind this Sanctuary and it has quite an impressive record of helping and caring for native animals in Australia. Even though the place is rather old, as long as you adjust your expectations, it can be a pleasant ramble-in-the-park kind of day.

Quoted off their website:

Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary founder Alex Griffiths started caring for sick and injured wildlife 63 years ago. As the need for specialist care became obvious, the first veterinarian started work in 1989 and the Currumbin Sanctuary Wildlife Hospital was born. Since that day, the Wildlife Hospital has now grown to admitting over 7000 patients every year and is one of the busiest Wildlife Hospitals in the world.

To date, over 40,000 native animals have been release back into the wild!

Just as a tip: If you are intending to visit this zoo, do check out the various promotions online that may get you up to a whopping 40% off the entrance. Incidentally, there are also Segway tours available for the fun seekers / lazy walkers.

The nice oft-overlooked part of this park are the friendly staff, many of whom have worked for decades in the Sanctuary. Like this senior train operator...

He tirelessly drives the mini-train around the park, making a full round every 20 minutes. I was astounded to learn that he has been working here for 40 years already. He has a stern demeanor but warmed up when we went to speak with him.

And so, this little train took us to see these mammals who were absolutely at home with hoards of visitors treading amongst them. This one had no qualms lying in this obscene position, exposing his underside to amused tourists like me. I almost feel like I need to pixelate his man-parts for decency's sake.

The park wardens explained the differences between kangaroos and wallabies to bewildered noobs like us. Usually the wallabies are smaller in size. (But then again, so are baby kangaroos). This one below is an oversized joey wanting to get into his mommy's pouch.

And here we are, with the entire 'family'. The warden informs us that they respond by names. I really wonder how they can tell the 50(?) members apart.

It is also good to know that animal feed is available FOC or if you want more, a small donation can be made at the cost of $2 at a vending machine.

Jason looks visibly tickled as this wallaby nibbled off his hand.

There is also a trough where the animals get to feed all day so if you went over to the area where these were, you would probably get the cold shoulder from them.

These emu's eat the same stuff but they are really proud and didn't seem up for any physical interaction. Besides, I wouldn't want to be at the receiving end of that sharp beak.

Some other animals in this park:

Some animal related to the porcupine. Very shy, it preferred to stay hidden among the bushes in its enclosure.

Some wild random gecko.

The elusive Tasmanian Devil. Unfortunately, it moves rather fast so a clear shot isn't available.

The last time I posed with a snake was ages ago when I was eleven. Memories ah!

Fortunately, none were trying to eat me like this wooden one here.

And not to mention the koalas. This is a really bad picture of one, but trust me,
there is actually a whole koala behind my head. No marks for a lousy selfie.

Other fun activities you can do here:

Pretend to be crocodile dundee. Or....

Take a walk in the cool evening breeze and pose with huge buttress roots....Or...

Invade the kids' playground...Or...

Crawl into tiny kid-sized caves...Or...

Take silly pictures with even sillier hats. The staff are cool;
they generally leave you alone as you fiddle with their merchandise.

So, is it worth a visit to this park?

I would say, go for it! Schedule 3 or 4 hours in the morning and you will be done by lunch time. There are a few restaurants located in the park itself in the area where they have a wonderful bird-feeding session with pretty, techni-colored wild parakeets. The friendly wardens make it such an enjoyable experience and I felt right at home even though the park has seen better days (and so have the wardens).

Gold Coast Day 2

With time on my hands and no plans, I had searched the Australian Groupon to get ideas and this is what came up.

Gumnuts Half Day Farm Stay

http://www.gumnutsfarm.com.au/

Gumnuts Farm Resort
400 Biddaddaba Creek Road,
Canungra, Queensland
AUSTRALIA 4275
Tel: +61 7 5543 0191 Fax: +61 7 5543 0668

Staying at Surfers Paradise meant I had to make a 45min journey to reach the farm. It was a great drive and my trusty iPhone5 did a great job directing me to my destination. The route is pretty straightforward and there are great views too! The only drawback was the gravel dirt track for the last 15min of my journey. My 1.3L Mazda clearly wasn't cut out for the road and I was crawling at a snail-ish 15km/h.

Tip for drivers: Do get a car charger. The iMaps app sucks up quite a bit of battery. Sometimes, reception in these rural areas is 'iffy' so the 4G may let you down. Best to get some general directions before venturing off. 

Gumnuts is a huge place with a vast expanse of land. They have about 30 horses, several goats, some cows and a cute free-loading wild possum who stays in the roof of their shack. He comes out for food and eats from our hands. Apparently, he is partial to their Australian breads. After he has his fair share, he will retire to his corner on the beam of the roof and wait for dinner time.

When I reached, I was brought to visit the goats and cows first. Theses goats have a knack for escaping so they chain up some of them to prevent them sneaking through the holes in the fences. They were like dogs and looked rather happy.

Feeding time! When you step in with a bowl, suddenly you're one popular guy. The goats throng around you in anticipation of tasty morsels. That said, they are one choosy herd. They were picky about which part of the cabbage they got to eat and they specially liked fruits! 

I like the speckled one who behaves like a dog. Maybe being pregnant makes her a little twitchy. I found out from the farm hand that a goat can be bought for AUD40. 

This is Daisy the cow who has a head-butting habit. Her horns are shaved down because she doesn't like the workers on the farm and likes to rib them from behind. She has really pretty eyes and lives on the farm with her son. I tried to milk her with some success. So the technique is to really squeeze the teats from the top to the tip, applying moderate pressure starting with your index finger. I felt slightly weird having to handle her udders. It was warm and the teats were coarse and dark, but aha! some milk did come out after a few attempts.

This is her son who wasn't very friendly. He was in the enclosure with another two cows. One of them had a calf who died and since then, she hasn't been able to produce milk. Many people see cows as just meat; but when we hear stories like this, we see that they have personalities, thoughts and emotions too. And death and sadness affects them adversely just like humans. Maybe it's time to really cut out steak from my diet. It's really hard to eat that piece of meat and interact with them. Makes me feel like a bit of a hypocrite. 

Part of the package includes traditional whip cracking and boomerang sessions. I definitely have little talent in these departments. Whip cracking involves quite a bit of triceps strength I discovered. Speed is needed to land the leather whip hard upon the grass before a satisfying crack can be heard.  When done properly, the crack resounds and echoes throughout the area. It is used to call the horses back to their stables in the evening. After having to dodge my own boomerang and whipping my own back and arms several times, I decided to call it a day.

Now we get to my favorite part - HORSE RIDING! 

As you can see, I have specially brought a light long-sleeved top for the ride. The sun was really a killer and even though I had almost doused myself in sunblock, I still got a tan. Do bring along protective gear against the Aussie sun! As we had Japanese tourists in the group, we were accompanied by former Japanese workers of the farm who would visit to ride the horses. 

Much of the boring reluctant ride was up the hills into a sparse forest. The horses didn't seem to enjoy it and mine kept stalling. Much nudging and kicking was needed to coerce him to move on. Only at the end of the ride were we brought into an open field to do a bit of trotting. In total it lasted about an hour, but for AUD39 for the whole day, it really is a steal! Thank you Groupon! heh heh!

Incidentally, my horse has a quaint habit of wearing shoes. We're talking about shoes that covers his hooves. I was told that without those, he refuses to move! 

The whole trip was really worth it. If you are like me and enjoy nature and animals, do take time out of your Gold Coast trip to visit a farm. I had such fun on this trip and am totally falling in love with Gold Coast. Where else do you get the sea, the sun, the mountains, the animals and yet retreat to the safety of a city at night?