Elise is in Australia!: Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

Here are the pictures that everyone has been waiting to see! This weekend I had the opportunity to travel over to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary to see all the weird Australian animals.

Lone Pine was established in 1927 and is the world's oldest and largest koala sanctuary. They care for over 130 of the little bears. I'll have everyone know that I spent $47 on a gold pass card, which gets me discounts for an entire year including 15% off tickets for my guests, and free kangaroo food! Yet another reason to come visit! Of course the main attraction at Lone Pine is the opportunity to 'cuddle a koala', which I took advantage of. I was impressed with how they run this operation - they have a very specific protocol in place and it's obvious that they go to great lengths to prevent stressing the animals. The pictures are $15 a pop, but they'll also take as many as you'd like with your digital camera. It was so neat! The bears are as fuzzy and cute as they look (although mine too the opportunity to poo on me a little!), and I was really surprised at how strong the eucalyptus that they're always munching on smells.

Lone Pine also has a vast collection of other Australian animals, including a big field full of kangaroos and wallabees that you can meander through with a bag of food. Most of them weren't very interested, check out my friend who just lazed around while I hand-fed him!