Taking my friends to the zoo and botanical gardens
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I have several Chinese friends that I study alongside, and I thought it'd be nice to take them out to the local Rockhampton zoo and botanical gardens over the Easter weekend during some downtime in our studies and work.
The photos taken throughout this adventure by me were more focused on the friends that joined me rather than the animals, as they did an excellent job taking photos and videos of them and I felt it was more valuable to take photos of them reacting to the various enclosures.
Anyway, we missed that the zoo was closing not long after we arrived, but we still got to see several enclosures before it closed. The first enclosure we checked out was the local Macaws, whom were having a bit of a fight between each other.
My friends checking out the Macaws and Sun Conures
Now's also a good time to mention that I forgot to turn off my camera's timestamps from a previous adventure - I hope it doesn't distract you from what I captured regardless.
We proceeded to check out the otter enclosure, although they were hiding up towards the rear and so it was quite difficult to see them or get any photos of them. The area we were standing was also quite busy, so I only managed to get this photo of them up in the corner before we moved onto the next area.
The next area was the meerkats, completely cute creatures as usual. They seem pretty used to people which is to be expected, and some were even walking along the window ledge right past us to get to where they wanted to go.
Yes, the second image was taken seconds before the meerkat left some droppings for us
It was about this time though that the zoo was closing (that timestamp isn't completely accurate) and so we made our way back towards the entrance area where we could still check out the reptile and insect enclosures.
Botanical Gardens
Right next to the zoo is the Botanical Gardens, which was the next place we went towards. The entrance towards it immediately captures your interest with this extremely lanky tree that feels like something right out of Jack and the Beanstalk.
To the left, we found a tree full of Ibises, complete with one crapping in full view of us. This won't be the last we witness such welcoming behaviour.
Once we got to the gardens themselves, a sign pointed us towards either various gardens and memorials, or the playground. The playground was a lovely distraction as we climbed the playset among children and remarked how much we've all grown up and that the set was definitely not sized for us.
Some well timed photos of my friends on the playground and coming down the slide
Once we had our fun, we continued onwards toward the Japanese gardens.
I wish I had the words to best describe the gardens other than lovely and beautiful; there was quite a high level of detail given to the area. There was a word that my friends used to describe the pond and how it mirrors a specific type within Japan, but unfortunately that name escapes me.
We went around the back of the Japanese gardens to find a large, open area likely intended for future expansion. Even so, it was quite a lovely setting to take a nice evening photo and enjoy the slight cool breeze.
And that pretty much wraps up our trip at the gardens! I hope to revisit the zoo with the same friend group at a better time both so we can check out all the exhibits and to also coincide it with any events happening at the time such as crocodile feeding.
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