Hall of Famers

Did you know there's a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame? We discovered its existence today when we went to a Hall of Fame member site and were absolutely blown away by its sheer amazingness. The Lone Pine Koala Preserve has been around for almost a century now and still wows tiny children and jaded world travelers alike with its cuddly creatures and amazing demonstrations of animal prowess.

In addition to koalas, the preserve has kangaroos, raptors, platypus, sheep (and sheepdogs!), local birds, wombats, and more. We started off our day with the sheepdog show, starring Hunter (the border collie) and Dusty (the rambunctious 2-year-old Kelpie).

Our host was a lifelong sheep farmer and former professional shearer who adored the two dogs and boasted about them like a proud father. We watched the dogs round up the sheep, lead them through an agility course, and then round them up into a pen. We learned that Kelpies are trained to "back" the sheep in addition to herding them. This involves actually running along the backs of the sheep while they are in the pen.

After the sheepdog show, we went to hear about the koalas. These fuzzy little creatures, whose slow movements, long naps, and hilarious sleep poses have caused many a comparison to town drunks, are really so slow and silly because of their food offer little nutrition and, as a result, they have to have slow metabolisms. Lucky for us, this meant it was easy to stand and stare at them and take pictures to our hearts' content.

Some other fun koala facts:
- They have 5 digits on their hands, just like us, except that TWO of those forepaw digits are thumbs.

- After a 35-day gestation, a 0.5 gram joey the size of a jelly bean crawls up into its mother's pouch
- Koalas look different in the south and north of Australia, though they're the same species. In the colder south, the koalas are bigger, fuzzier, and darker-furred.
- A ton of koalas are currently dying of chlamydia (but don't worry - the Lone Pine koalas are clean).
Since this was probably Josh's most highly anticipated day of our trip, I had to get pictures of him with the little guys.

Post-koala fest, we fed kangaroos and wallabies, which I didn't know you were allowed to do...

... but they sell packets of kangaroo food pellets in the gift shop and the roos definitely knew what was up when we stepped into their enclosure.

We also watched a falconry show, which included the usual flying to and fro but also a peregrine falcon diving to catch a swinging lure (and the trainers definitely didn't make it easy). Then there was a park guide talk about platypus. Platypus are so tiny! Who knew? Finally, we saw the various other park creatures - including some beautiful birds and some truly enormous bats (1.4 meter wingspan!) and, at last, it was time to call it a day.

Haven't had enough cute koala and kangaroo pictures? Scroll to the end of this post for more.

Tips for visiting the Lone Pine Koala Preserve:
- Bring sunscreen and a hat
- Bring a camera!
- Buy kangaroo food from the General Store ($2/bag - 1 bag is plenty)
- Try to see the koalas when the employees are changing the eucalyptus branches. This wakes all the koalas up so you get to see them be active.
- You can fill water bottles from the tap in the baby changing room in the General Store.

Spotted: Free wifi! Everywhere we go, from restaurants to koala preserves, it is not only offered but aggressively advertised. Certainly makes planning easy.


More koala pics: