Australia Day

On Australia Day (January 26 for the uninitiated) Patrick and I, along with a gang of friends and new acquaintances, went on a hike to the Kondalilla Falls in Montville, which is about an hour and a half North of Brisbane. Sadly, my camera's battery died early on in the hike (which was about 10km altogether) so I only got a few pictures.


There were so many fantastic trees in the rainforest! So many strangler figs, strangling big trees. This one's actually rather ordinary compared to some of the ones we saw later on.


A view of Lake Baroon.


Looking out the other way, over the Obi Obi Gorge.


A real live kookaburra! Pat took this one. There were three, but the other two had just flown off. Cutest birds ever!


Pat and I, exhausted, in front of the Kondalilla Falls. Yep, that's the bottom of the falls. It was bit more impressive higher up, but it was pretty dry. The rockpool was nice. We went in with all my clothes on.

It was a good way to spend Australia Day, enjoying the beauty of the country. We had gotten up at 4am so we were both asleep again by 8pm (a few celebratory drinks helped with that).

Videos of Animals

The title pretty much sums it up. These are all from the Melbourne Zoo, where we went on New Year's Eve during the day. It was upwards of 35 degrees and we walked around for hours. The animals weren't the only ones who were hot and exhausted.

Here are some meerkats, being cute and hot.


This one is a gorilla through the glass pane. You can't see her too well, but near the end there is a nice close up on her face. If you like gorillas (Mum...) it's worth it.



This one is a monkey (I forget what kind, there were LOTS of different monkeys) carrying her baby around on her back.



We were lucky enough to get to the elephant area right at feeding time! The keepers just tossed apples and squash into the water and the elephants right dove in!



And now, more pictures, from the zoo and aquarium:


From the open aviary, which just had a suspension bridge you could walk along and be surrounded by dozens of free-flying exotic birds.


Zebra et giraffe.


Meerkat in the shade.


The oceanarium at the Melbourne Aquarium was so cool. They had tunnels where the sealife would just swim above and around you. Awesome.


Duh-nuh, duh-nuh, duh-nuh...


A leafy sea-dragon! Talk about ultimate camouflage!

Here is a video of some penguins from the Melbourne Aquarium:

37 degrees South

Patrick and I went to Melbourne (and the surrounding area) for a week over the holidays. We visited friends and did so much it went by so fast! It was so much fun and we took far too many pictures. What a beautiful city! I highly recommend visiting if you never have. I'm going to do two posts. because there is just too much for one!

First, some history. The state of Victoria was founded by a man named John Batman. In fact, Melbourne was known as Batmania for a while, among other things. Hence, Batman St, Batman Ave, Batman's Hill and Batman Park.



And now, the photos...


Patrick at Parliament House.


The Forum on Flinders Street.


They had all these little painted shacks along Brighton Beach, people would store their stuff in them or have them decorated like tiny little cabins. They were all painted very colourfully!


There were abut 75 - 80 along the length of the beach, some open, some locked up.



The train station at Flinders St.



The City Circle Tram in front of Parliament. It was so old-timey! It goes in a circle around downtown Melbourne for free so tourists can see all the sights. They have new trams as well (and buses and trains as well), but this one is for the feel of "old Victoria".


Chinatown! Two blocks of awesome!!


A beautiful view of the skyline from the South Bank of the Yarra River.


The Royal Exhibition Centre in Carlton Gardens.


The Princess Theatre! Jersey Boys was playing. I didn't really care to see it, but the theatre was gorgeous!


This is up at Cape Schank, way down the coast of Port Philip Bay. It was soooo windy.


This is at the Fort Nepean National Park, which is by Portsea. It was gorgeous.


One of the lookouts from Arthur's Seat.

More to come! Stay tuned!

Recent Adventures

So, I've been keeping myself busy of late, hence the lack of updates. My most exciting bit of news is that I got the part of Olive in "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" with the Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, which is based in Beenleigh (just South of Brisbane). They did an excellent production of "The Last 5 Years" which Pat and I went to see, so I feel like I'm in good hands. It's a great cast with a lovely director and I'm doing what I love the most, which is singing with a group of people who also love to sing!

In other news, those of you who follow Pat's blog will know we went to the Moreton Bay Research Station on Stradbroke Island to do some volunteer work for their once-a-year Open Day. We made some new friends (aquatic and human!) and had a great time on the beautiful little island.



Pelicans on the beach!



The beach itself. The texture of the sand is due to millions of crab and clam holes! It was very cool up close.



Sunset as seen from the outdoor bar. Yes, an outdoor bar. I would go back just for that, honestly. You come in through the front door and there's an open room with one wall (where the drinks are) and then it just opens out into a field with a beautiful view.

I've also been volunteering at the Australian Cavy Sanctuary in Cashmere, just North of Brisbane. I get my cuddly little animal fix and I get to feel like I'm helping out as well. There are so many little guinea pigs! I know you don't need a hundred pictures of guinea pigs, so here is just one:



There were also two cats and a dog on the property, not to mention this little guy, who showed up around feeding time (hard to resist those fruits and veggies) and shamelessly entered one of the cages for a snack:



A possum during the day! Well, that's Australia for you.

Yesterday we went to the Botanical Gardens at the bottom of Mt. Coot-tha. There was so much to see and it was a gorgeous day. Needless to say, I took a lot of pictures. Below is a small selection of them. I apologize for not knowing the names of most of the plants.


Patrick with some gigantic flowers.


An ibis by the water.


There were so many ducks bobbing for underwater treats! I caught one in the act.


There was a little fenced off section where the ducks could rest in the shade.


A pomegranate tree! They all sorts of fruit trees, including quince, carob beans and olives.


Pat had a close call, but managed to escape from the man-eating plant. Phew!


Some sort of gigantic aloe or cactus. Apparently no one has ever figured why the giant tree/flower grows in the middle, especially since the plant dies from the exhaustion of growing it.


A view from a little bridge in the rainforest section.




More strange and beautiful plants!


The view of Brisbane from the top of Mt. Coot-tha. It was a nice hike up and we got there just before sunset, which was unfortunately blocked by trees. Still a great view!

Interesting Places

I thought it was time for a little update, since it's been a few weeks! I've got some nice pictures from places I've been, so here we go.



This is in Morayfield, which is about an hour North of Brisbane by train. Patrick and I went to visit my Auntie Rose's Australian family. The property is about 40 acres, complete with chickens ("chooks"), sheep, 5 dogs and a mini-lake. Apparently wallabies lived in a small forested area on the land, but we didn't see any. It was a gorgeous day and they were all super-nice people, lots of them couples our age, so we had a great time.



This is Jazz, the oldest of the dogs, the "queen bee", enjoying a rest/dry off in the sunlight after a tiring swim.



This is a lovely little area I walk past when I come home from Greenslopes (which is right by Annerley, where we live). There was a water dragon, but he'd already jumped in by the time I got my camera out.



This is on one of the lakes at University of Queensland, where the water is covered in algae. There are so many birds there I'm going to have to devote an entire post to them. Also, I need to remember to bring bread so we can experience the feeding frenzy. All in good time.



A sailboarder enjoying the insanely windy day at Surfer's Paradise beach. There was sand in everything, pretty much from the get-go. It was a great day, though. Wave-jumping was ridiculous fun. It took a few hours to get there by public transport, but I really would like to go back, perhaps spend a weekend. It reminded me quite a bit of Honolulu.

It's been raining a lot, here, though I'm sure not as much as Vancouver. We've had some pretty epic thunder/lightning-storms which are fun to just sit on the porch and snuggle up with some tea and watch. The hot days are hot and humid, but it's what I expected.

That's all for now. Stay tuned!

P.S. You can make the pictures bigger just by clicking on them! :)

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

My favourite day here so far was definitely me and Pat's anniversary (October 10th). We went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Fig Tree Pocket. Not only do they have over 100 koalas (which you can cuddle for a fee - and we totally did as you can tell by my user pic), but there were all sorts of other wild and crazy critters! Here are just a few!

I have no idea what this bird is called. But he's so poofy!

Mama and baby koala!

Sleepy little koala... most of them are like this, just sleeping in the trees, content and fat.

There was a huge fenced field filled with kangaroos, wallabies and emus. The marsupials were very friendly and you could pet them and feed them the special kangaroo chow they sold at the little cafe. The emus ... you kinda want to steer clear of the birds that are taller than you, with their beady eyes... not to mention the stories I've heard of them chasing people. 

Pat petting a wallaby

a mama wallaby and her joey!

Pat feeding a friendly kangaroo.

He was a cool 'roo, very chill.

I like this picture very much, if I do say so myself!

Aw, a rainbow lorikeet! Pretty, no?

So many kangaroos!

So many lorikeets!

Aw, tired little Tasmanian devils.

Goodnight, little koala, even if it is only the middle of the afternoon!