March 26. Burnie, Tasmania, Australia. Cruise Day 11.

Today we docked in Burnie on the northwest coast of Tasmania. Population 20,000. Burnie has a long history as a community of artisans that make things. It was another industrial port where we had to take a bus five minutes to the city center. 

We were greeted by the city's mayor, Teeny Brumby. She was a bubbly excited personality who gave us a four minute intro to the city and thanked us for coming.

Though we did walk all around the cute city center shopping district (hey Kmart, didn't know you were still such a big thing in Australia,) our main activity of the day was heading to Wings Wildlife Park.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Wings, in the middle of farmland that looked like Wisconsin, but with more hills. It is a little private family zoo where all the animals are either in rehabilitation or had some other case where they can't return to the wild.

It was magical! We got to feed kangaroos and pet a koala, Blinky Bill. There were both so soft. The kangaroos were friendly and the koala was actually awake, no small feat since they sleep 18 hours a day. Also, the tasmanian devils are crazy!!! They are in mating season and basically scream at each other and beat each other up to mate.