Travelling thousands of miles to volunteer at the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital each year has become a trek of love for Maria Kovac and Stefan Theiler.
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The came across the Koala Hospital on their first trip to Australia in 2010, and since 2013, have spent one month a year coming back and volunteering.
The pair take their love for the gorgeous animals one step further when they go home, spending the rest of the year raising money for the hospital through holding stalls at the Zurich Zoo and other wildlife and travel festivals, according to Maria.
“The first time we found out about the hospital we fell in love and have made it a yearly adventure to come back and spend a month helping out,” Maria said.
“We clean out the koala’s homes, collect leaves and sometimes we are able to go and assist when the volunteers release the koalas back into the environment which can be sad, but also happy to know they are healthy again.”
Stefan said that after coming back to Port Macquarie a number of times it feels like home for the month they are in town.
“We have made lots of friends here in Port Macquarie and it is really great to come back every year and volunteer at the hospital,” Stefan said.
“Each of the koalas have their own personality and spending a month here means we can learn a lot about each of them.”
On this trip, the pair arrived in Australia at the end of January before spending the month of February at the hospital. They said it was lovely to see the koalas who permanently live at the hospital again.
“Each time we come, it is nice to see the koalas who always live at the hospital because we think about them and talk about them all year, and to be able to keep an eye on their progress is wonderful,” Maria said.
“It is sad that today was our last day but we will definitely be back again next year.”
