Welcome to Part 2 of my Canberra Escape!! If you are interested, you can click on Part 1 to see it. So, let's get back to it. We pick up the adventures on Monday Morning.
It was my Mum's birthday!! I gave her a birthday card when we both got up and we had breakfast at the Crown Plaza (where we were staying) and took it easy for the morning in preparation for our Zoo experience. We were so excited we arrived at the Zoo almost two hours early! The Arboretum is close to the Zoo so we decided to stop there for lunch and spent some time in the Bonzai Gallery. Check out these photos.
Now for the main event... our visit to the National Zoo and Aquarium was the whole reason we travelled to Canberra and is a once in a lifetime experience. We stayed one night at the Jamala Wildlife Lodge.
Arriving at 1pm, we drove into our reserved parking space (a real luxury after all the trouble we'd had parking) we were welcomed to the Zoo and our luggage was taken and delivered to our treehouse. No lugging bags for us! Afternoon tea was delicious and included a selection of savoury and sweet finger food as well as fruit. Tea, coffee, water and other cold drinks were on offer too.
Arriving at 1pm, we drove into our reserved parking space (a real luxury after all the trouble we'd had parking) we were welcomed to the Zoo and our luggage was taken and delivered to our treehouse. No lugging bags for us! Afternoon tea was delicious and included a selection of savoury and sweet finger food as well as fruit. Tea, coffee, water and other cold drinks were on offer too.
After some obligatory paper work and a lovely snack, we enjoyed our first wildlife encounter. A cheetah cub, called Solo (he's nearly two years old), came to visit with his surrogate litter mate, Zama (she's a dog). If you want to read more about their story, check this out. We headed out to our first tour which included feeding an emu, watching the meerkats, communicating with the monkeys and learning about the Zoo in general. This tour finished at our Giraffe Treehouse (which has deer and an alpaca in the front yard. After about 10 minutes to settle in, we had another encounter, feeding the Giraffe who lives in the "back yard" of the Treehouses. Hummer, the giraffe, walked right up to the balcony so you can hand feed him a couple of carrots! He also has a feed box attached to each treehouse balcony so when you run out of carrots, he still comes to visit you and eat grass/ hay from his box. It's amazing! |
Hummer really enjoyed eating food from our balcony.
We really enjoyed spending some quiet time watching him.
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I'm not going to tell you everything we did at the zoo, I'm just going to show you some more photos!
As you can see, we enjoyed several animal encounters, gourmet meals, 5 star luxury, and guided tours (yes, more than one) of the Zoo. We also had two opportunities to explore the Zoo outside of trading hours, which meant no crowds!!! Everything was included in the price. An added perk was the 15 % discount at the Zoo gift shop.
The service was excellent and the staff were all so friendly, helpful and professional. I have to say, I probably won't enjoy visiting any other Zoo as this experience was top notch! It was well worth the luxury price tag.
After leaving the Zoo we went to Parliament House for lunch on "The Queen's Terrace" and a guided tour. We also got an obligatory selfie on the roof with the big flag in the background! Then, we headed home, tired and happy.
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The view from The Queen's Terrace Café at Parliament House.
You can see Old Parliament House (the white buildings)
Anzac Drive and The War Memorial in the centre back.
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| Soup of the Day at the Café, the food was delicious. |
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The Australian Flag that flies on the roof of Parliament House
could cover the side of a double decker bus!
It doesn't look that big, but it is very high!
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If you are Australian, you MUST visit Canberra at least once in your life and enjoy all it has to offer. Visitors to Australia, if you are coming this far you should definitely plan to spend at least a little of your time in Canberra. Visit the Library, the Art Gallery, Parliament House, the National Zoo, the markets and the glassworks, check out the Arboretum, reflect at the War Memorial, walk along the banks of Lake Burleigh Griffin and enjoy the fine foods at restaurants in Kingston. I haven't even mentioned Questacon, the other museums and galleries or the special events and festivals on offer.
I wonder where I will go next?
