Island Hopping: Samoa to Down Under

After being evacuated from Easter Island, flown to Tahiti, and then being back on track with the tour schedule and heading to Samoa, we were utterly exhausted. Three islands in three days... Make that four by the time we got to Australia. Talk about island hopping.

Flying over our hotel in Samoa.

By the time we arrived in Apia by the late afternoon, it was almost time for dinner. We put our lavalava, also known as an 'ie, which is traditionally worn as a skirt by Polynesians. 

Wearing the traditional lavalava

In the evening, we were treated to some traditional dancing, drumming, and fire dancing. 

Quick iPhone shot

The following morning, we said goodbye to Samoa (it was meant as a fuel stop hence the short visit) and hello to Australia. We landed in Cairns, considered the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. As it is monsoon season in northern Australia (usually lasting from December to March), it was not a surprise that it started pouring rain. After hopping onto the buses, we were off for a one hour drive along a windy oceanside road en route to Port Douglas.

The following morning, I had planned my own special day... a behind the scenes tour of the award-winning Wildlife Habitat. Port Douglas's Wildlife Habitat was constructed in 1988 and is divided into four distinct North Queensland environments: the woodland, wetlands, rainforest, and the savannah. In the woodland you find a plethora of richly colored birds, the wetlands features wading birds, the rainforest features fish, amphibians and birds, and the savannah features macropods (kangaroos and wallabies) as well as the predator plank... the world's first plank walk over the giant Estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles. As part of our behind the scenes tour, we spent time with a zookeeper, Hollie, and went into the koala enclosure.

Koala crossing!

Hollie informed us that we were going to be the first people to enter Marri's enclosure as she is quite shy and still young. Marri is a 12 month old northern koala born at the Perth Zoo and flown across the country to hopefully become part of their captive koala breeding program within the next couple years. The interaction was a success, with us feeding her lots of eucalyptus. Koalas can be quite particular with the kinds of eucalyptus they'll eat. Australia has over 700 species of eucalyptus and out of all of those, any given koala will only eat a handful of those species. Koalas get their name from an Aboriginal term translating to "no drink" because koalas get almost all of their moisture from the eucalyptus leaves they eat throughout the day. Eucalyptus leaves are super tough and poisonous, but koalas have a digestive organ called a cecum which allows them to break down the leaves unharmed.

Koalas weigh roughly 30 pounds and though people often call them koala "bears", they are not part of the bear family. Koalas are marsupials, the same as kangaroos, with pouches to carry their young. When an infant koala is born, the deaf and blind joey makes its way to up to its mothers pouch using its strong sense of smell and touch. The joey grows and develops in the pouch for about six months and once strong enough, the joey rides on its mothers' back for an additional six months, only using its mothers' pouch to feed.


After spending some time in the koala enclosure, we headed to the wildlife care center. Zookeepers here care for sick, orphaned and injured wildlife. Currently, there are tons of babies in the wildlife care center. At night, the zookeepers take the young ones home in little pouches to care for them. In the wildlife care center, they sit in tote bags full of blankets or in blanket pouches.

Baby wallaby sucking its toe

Baby wallaby in its tote bag

Baby wallaby

Bernie the Rufous Bettong

Holding a baby Rufous Bettong

We then headed to the macropod area to see kangaroos and wallabies (Wildlife Habitat has one of Queensland's largest collections of macropods)! Here, we fed kangaroos sweet potatoes.

A joey's first day out of its mothers' pouch

Say cheeeeese!

Feeding kangaroos

Mom making a new friend. This was the joey's first day out of its mothers' pouch

Being swarmed by kangaroos

Kangaroo with a sweet potato

Later in the day, we even got to hold a python and baby crocodile.

Mom with baby crocodile

Baby crocodile

Huge python!

The following morning, we went back to Wildlife Habitat so we could hold a koala. Queensland is the only region in Australia where you can hold a koala, and they are only allowed to be handled by people for 30 minutes every other day. Because one koala had an eye infection and therefore couldn't be touched and the other koala had been touched the day before, we weren't able to hold a koala yesterday. However, today was our lucky day and we got to briefly hold Rochy!

I walked around for a bit photographing the birds, which Wildlife Habitat is renowned for. More than half of Australia's bird species are found within the Wet Tropics region alone.

I also went back to the koalas to photograph Marri again. However, she was very sleepy. Koalas don't have much energy and when they're not eating, they're sleeping. They can sleep for 18 hours per day! Although koalas are protected by law and not endangered, around 80% of koala habitat has been lost to human homes, drought, and forest fires.

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After a one hour drive back to the airport, it was time to head off to Cambodia. Thanks for reading about my adventures… Stay tuned for what’s to come and be sure to hit the subscribe button to be notified of new posts! As always, follow my Instagram @elissatitle for more pics.