We headed out to the coast today, to the area now known as Currumbin. We’re still in the Yugambeh nation’s land, but Currumbin is the lands of the Kombumerri families or clans.
Today was a visit to Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary – primarily just for Eliza’s birthday present of an Echidna experience, but we also enjoyed a wonderful day all over the park. It’s been a bit of a difficult path to get Eliza’s birthday present over the line. We’d originally hoped / planned to do the experience at Australia Zoo – but to be honest, they stuffed us around for 7 months as to whether they were even running them (despite other experiences being open for July bookings), and then 5 days before the day, they finally said no. Disappointing, but not surprising after 7 months of waiting. Thankfully, at the last minute, we were able to tweak a couple of things in our trip plan, and dedicate a day to visiting Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, where they were running an Echidna Experience with exactly 6 spots! It was meant to be. (So although we did have a wonderful time at Australia Zoo two days ago, it was done with somewhat of a bitter taste in the back of our mouths given how frustrating their communication had been with us.)
It was about an hour’s drive over to Currumbin – but given we were all coming back to Tamborine for the night, Mum jumped in our car with us and we headed over together. We arrived a bit before 9am, which was great to be able to get in to the park and work out where we needed to be for the start of the echidna experience at 9:40am.
We met Bella, our guide, and she took us out to a little behind the scenes area with a little pen – and inside was a beautiful echidna named Cooee! He was very active and adventurous. Bella had brought some food along for him, which was a pasty sort of mince with all the nutrients he needs. They do try and get termites when they can – but apparently echidnas can eat up to 40,000 termites in a day! So trying to find a nest with that many termites can be tricky. Once he’d finished eating his breakfast, he just wandered around his little pen – right around our feet! Bella was wonderful at telling us so much about echidnas. Debbie and I had mentioned at the start of the experience that we were here for Eliza’s birthday present, and so we particularly loved that Bella then really focused on Eliza throughout the experience – she included the boys as well and any questions they had, but she really went out of her way to make sure Eliza felt special. To be honest, it was all we wanted for her birthday present! Eliza even got a chance to slightly hold Cooee (with Bella holding her as well), and seeing Eliza’s face light up for that was beautiful. Before long, the half hour was over (it was only supposed to be 20 minutes, so we definitely enjoyed the extra time), and we headed out of Cooee’s little enclosure and back to the rest of the park.
We headed to a couple of shows and talks before lunch. First up we headed to the free flight bird show – which is something that we’ve now seen a few different times on this trip, but it’s always so awesome to see. We definitely loved seeing a huge wedge-tailed eagle at this show! And then after that we headed straight to the Wildlife Hospital for their talk, which we were really looking forward to. As they arrived behind the glass to get ready, we realised that the animal they were working on today was an echidna! The people at the hospital talked through what they do, and that it’s a hospital for any native wildlife that’s found in the area and has been injured or isn’t well. It’s a brilliant service, and they rely solely on donations for that. Similar to Australia Zoo, they did a great job at letting us know that just by attending the Sanctuary today, we’ve helped contribute tot he running costs of the hospital and their ability to keep helping injured native animals. Our little echidna friend wasn’t too badly injured – he just had a sore of some sort on his belly that needed to be treated, but it was something they couldn’t just do in his enclosure. So he needed to come into hospital, have a bit of sleeping gas, and then get treated. (Side note, seeing an echidna having a sleep with all his limbs laid out flat is actually really cute!)
The kids had been dying to jump on the little train that runs around the Sanctuary – so at this point, we jumped on and headed back to the main entrance end of the park. We visited an area they call the Repturnal Den – essentially an area for nocturnal animals that has the day/night swapped over. After a wander through there, we headed to the main cafe / seating area for a bit of lunch and a short break.
The next areas we wanted to see were back up the other end of the park, so the kids convinced us that we needed to jump back on the little train to head up there. We wandered through a few different areas, seeing animals like a red panda, capybaras (think giant guinea pigs!), some lemurs, and even tree kangaroos! We also headed to a cultural presentation from the Yugambeh Aboriginal Dance Group. After a bunch of different chances to learn from First Nations Peoples on this trip, one thing we hadn’t had the opportunity to witness was the importance of dance to different clans. It was a really amazing show, and I really appreciated their descriptions of each of the dances and what was important about them.
We finished up the day by heading out to the lorikeet feeding. This is what started Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary back in 1947, so it’s fun to see it still a part of the daily activities today. For a gold coin donation you get a silver tray, and the volunteers and staff fill it with food. I assume it’s perhaps different food on different days? But today was a liquid mixture that they referred to as a nectar of sorts to supplement their normal food. The kids each had a chance to have a lorikeet feed from their dish, which was an awesome experience to finish the day off.
Tomorrow morning we say farewell to Mum – she’s heading back up to Hervey Bay, and we’re going to be crossing the border and getting back into NSW!
