A trip to Australia wouldn’t be complete without meeting some of the locals and while on the Gold Coast for the Australian PGA Championship, Sergio and Angela Garcia got up close to some Australian wildlife.

Visiting Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, the Garcia’s met a koala, wedge tail eagle, a Black-headed python, visited the kangaroos and handfed a family of rosellas.

“It was amazing. I have never been to Australia before, I have seen a lot of images and videos of the animals here. But to actually get to come and hold a koala, a snake and an eagle as well as feed kangaroos it was an incredible day,” said Angela.

“We learned a lot about the animals and what they are doing here at the Sanctuary is really important. They are helping a lot of animals that are injured or sick. They are trying to release them back out into the wild.”

Animal lovers at heart the Garcia’s were grateful for the opportunity to meet the unique Australian wildlife.

“We are animal lovers. Any time we see a dog or any kind of animal, Sergio always wants to pet the dog and I love animals as well,” added Angela.

“I am often yelling at Sergio to stop catching lizards because we have to be somewhere, we have lots of funny stories about that.”

While Sergio added, “That was amazing; it was a great experience to be able to see all the amazing animals they have here. It was an unbelievable treat and we really enjoyed it.

“I love animals, I always have.”

While the Garcia’s enjoyed meeting and learning about all the Australian wildlife, the kangaroos stole their hearts.

“I loved the kangraoos; there was a little joey (baby kangaroo) that I wanted to take home with me but I don’t think they would like that.

He was pretty cool; to get to feed him was really neat,” added Angela.

But for Sergio it was the large male kangaroo that caught his attention.

“He was the kind of guy you don’t want to mess around with,” said Sergio.

“He was big; you could see he had a big chest. He was lying down but every time he got up a little bit you could see he had a massive chest.

“He was still very cool, I fed him a little bit and pet him and he was still really fine.”

While Sergio Garcia is on course in his pursuit of the Kirkwood Cup at the Australian PGA Championship, it’s activities like this away from the course that makes his visit to Queensland so memorable.

“To be able to come to Australia and see all the amazing animals, pet them and spend some time with them, listen to the trainers talk about all the things they can do, it’s something you can’t put a price on and they are memories we will have for a life time.”