Hello, Iím Vijay Khurana.
Welcome to My Australia, the show about people from overseas having Australian experiences.
Coming up today
Akki meets some Australian animals at a wildlife park.
Ken goes to the races
and Faye and her sister try orienteering.
Australia is full of incredible animals.
Some of them are cute and cuddly but some of them are absolutely terrifying.
Personally, Iím really afraid of crocodiles.
Iím not sure I could do what our first guest Akki is about to do.
My name is Akimitsu Miyazato.
People call me Akki.
Iím originally from Okinawa Japan.
Itís a little island, southern Japan.
Born and raised there.
Grew up going to the beaches and play sports and I was there til 18.
My parents are teachers.
They teach English and also my sister is also teacher and I have a younger brother.
They are always there supporting me.
That was really important for me.
I come to the beaches, you know, read books and just be myself.
I usually surf, dive and I play the music too but I can't surf here so I just go to
the beach and swim.
Today Iím gonna do work experience at the Crocodile Farm and Adventure Park.
I think Iím gonna see a lot of Australian wildlife here.
There are crocodiles, koalas, wallabies and snakes and some of them are really dangerous
but some of them are really cute and Iím really excited about meeting them.
Cassowaries, um, that was the first, first thing I saw at the Crocodile Farm
and itís an endangered species and was a big bird.
Why donít we just go down there and feed them?
Well, they might look beautiful and all that but they can -
they do have the potential to be very dangerous.
You can see on their feet their very long inside toe.
It is a nail and when they kick they can actually face it forward so it can actually a little
bit like a dagger.
And when they eat, it was very fast eater.
They stole fruits from my hand really very quick.
It was impressive.
Okay.
So weíll head on in, and weíll give our koalas some eucalyptus leaves.
Yes, koalas.
So come on in.
Nice, soft.
Yeah.
Itís my first time Iím touching koala.
Oh really.
Yeah.
A lot of people love touching koalas the first time, very exciting.
Yeah.
Come on Abbey.
Abbey!
Alright, you ready?
Yeah.
There you go.
Oh wow!
Oh yes.
Sheís nice isnít she.
Yes.
See if she wants to have something to eat here as well.
Yeah, okay, donít eat me though.
You smell the eucalyptus?
Yeah.
Smells good doesnít it.
Oh yeah, smells good.
Yeah.
Yeah, she has a good breath.
Yeah, nice and minty all the time.
Okay Akki, these are chicken heads weíre going to feed to our two and three year olds.
Okay.
Itís a perfect diet for them, plenty of calcium, mineral, the whole stuff, and itís cheap
for us as well.
Yeah, thatís great.
What weíve got here is ...
three year old crocodiles.
Mm, yep.
These are done for their skins and meat.
Our crocodile skin here is considered one of the best leathers in the world.
Ooh, wow, nice.
And by actually farming the crocodiles weíre actually protecting the wild populations.
So people donít go out and shoot crocodiles indiscriminately, in the wild.
So you just feed down this side Akki.
Okay so just throw it in there?
Yep, yep.
Get them in a bit.
How powerful are they?
Something like this will take at least two men to control him.
Oh two men.
Yep, at least.
Whoa!
Due to those jaws.
The crocodile has the largest jaw pressure of any animal in the world.
So extremely dangerous at this size.
This is the crocodile we gonna feed here, okay,
we got the chicken and you got the pole.
Pole, the chicken, string.
Attach the string to the handle here and heíll follow chicken up into the air.
Oh but, maybe me and you and maybe we can wrestle with him.
Yeah, good on ya.
No, probably not, uh?
Alright, Iím just going to give it to him right?
No, youíre going to lower it down.
Down and now you move it up.
Oh, youíre right.
How ëbout this?
Yep.
Lower it a little bit.
There we go.
Oh!
Sorry.
One more time, give me one more time.
Okay swing it around this way.
You gotta swing up.
There you go, look at that.
Perfect.
Itís you know huge, like four metre crocodiles.
Itís very, very amazing.
They can jump like three metres or something.
If you imagine they can attack us like that, thatís kinda scary.
Yes!
That was good.
That was really exciting part.
Itís one of the highlights of the day.
Thank you.
That was good.
Good jump.
I actually have a volunteer whoíd like to come and help me today and that is the lovely
Akki over here.
Come on out.
Alright.
How you going?
Youíre nice and brave.
Well, itís kinda nervous.
Augh, bit of a heavy one.
Alright, come up here.
You know, thereís two things Iím really, really afraid of.
Yeah.
One is a snake and the other is my mum.
Oh, your mum.
Well, Iím just kidding about my mum.
Sheís not here today is she?
No, sheís not here.
Turn the other way, thatíll help.
Alright guys, youíre gonna love this one and Iíll just sneak behind over here.
Come here.
Huge!
Ohhh, no, no, no, no.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Itís big.
No, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Oh watch out, the crocodile can jump sometimes.
There we go.
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Itís not poisonous is it?
Uuuumm ... no.
Itís actually kinda nice.
It is, hey.
The snake was wrapping around me and I couldnít you know, put my face down, so see them,
and actually I donít really wanna see his face either.
To be honest I was yes, really, really frightened and if someone say I was screaming I could
deny.
I probably did.
I donít know if I did or, but I think Iím alright.
I was alright wasnít I?
What they actually do is they bite their prey first.
Yeah?
I hope not.
And then they actually wrap their body around
Woooah, woooah!
even tighter, like this.
So he squeezes and squeezes until the prey suffocates to death so, sounds lovely doesnít
it?
What are you ..?
Whatís he?
Yeah, I learned a lot about wild animals so that was great
and all the keepers, you know, the animal keepers.
They have so much knowledge and they can handle a lot of animals and that was great.
Great stuff.
Next time, you know, that snake, I can probably do a bigger one.
I can probably do a bigger one.
I think.
I once had a snake around my neck but it was nowhere near as big as that one.
Youíre a braver man than I Akki.
Next up today, Ken goes to South Australiaís biggest horse race, the Adelaide Cup.
Letís see if he backs a winner.