Australia Zoo

It sure has been a while since I posted! I've suppose I've been busy, though I have been mostly doing things that don't really afford many exciting photo opportunities (mostly volunteering at the local bookshop and the Metro Arts Centre, also teaching the little kids). Spelling Bee was a great success but now it's over. We're in full swing with Wizard Of Oz rehearsals. I haven't danced this much in ages. We danced 5 hours in 31 degree heat with no air conditioning. Phew!

A little while ago, though, Pat and I found some time to hit up the famous Australia Zoo, home of the late great Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter. It's in Beerwah, up the Sunshine Coast (I love that they have a Sunshine Coast here, too). I've got tons of pics, but since it was while ago, I can't remember the names of all the animals! I'll do my best. We spend a good 6 hours there - it was a huge place. All of the animals had nice large habitats, which made me happy.


Aw, a kookaburra. I love these guys, even though they laugh in the middle of the night like some sort of crazy hyena-monkey.


The classic Australian sheep.


Red panda!


Ganesh, part of the elephant exhibit.


The Buddha that welcomes us to the South East Asia part of the zoo, with the tigers, elephants and red pandas.


A happy little wombat (I call the wommas). I got my own little souvenir womma from the shop. They are so cute, but apparently quite vicious (a man in Victoria was attacked by one after he accidentally stepped on it).

I totally thought this guy was dead, but he was breathing. Just extremely lazy.



I cannot for the life of me remember what these birds are called. But they sure were beautiful!


Pat with his 'roo friend.


A sweet little wally-B.


Echidna!! Here is a video of him trundling about.




Oh, sleepy koalas. Such a tough life.




Crocodile! There were so many of them! We even watched Terri and Bindi Irwin feeding them. It was pretty awesome.


Emerald tree snake, absolutely the prettiest snake in the whole place (and non-venomous). The snake exhibit was quite impressive, the deadliest ones are actually pretty small.


This is Sabu, the elephant me and Pat fed! Feeling a trunk grab a piece of fruit from you really gives you a taste of how powerful these animals are!


The super-cute Asian small-clawed otters! I love the noises they make when they are getting fed!


Don't forget to check out Pat's pictures (there are some of me, and he's got a nicer camera) at his blog: www.patswalkabout.blogspot.com. To finish things off, here are some tigers hoping for some milk from their trainer. I'm sure glad I'm not him, but they were beautiful animals (and they really love milk).

WB Movie World!

The Gold Coast is the theme park capital of Australia! Since it's only a 45-minute drive from Brisbane, last week I went with some of my theatre friends to Warner Brothers Movie World! The only amusement park I've ever been to is Playland/PNE (well, and Splashdown, does that count?) so this was a pretty epic adventure. After all, anyone who knows me knows I love movies!


Me at the front entrance!

First we went on the Batman ride, which took us through Wayne Manor (complete with listless teenage Australian tour guide who couldn't act his way out of a paper bag - which just made the experience all the more awesome), then through the Batcave with animatronic Batman, then into some sort of Batpod simulation that flew us through Gotham City. Super sweet.


This is the Batboat Val Kilmer rode in Batman Forever.


And this is the Batmobile he rode in it. Yes, the actual one. Nerdy Mary secret: Batman Forever is my favourite Batman movie, just because Jim Carrey is in it.

We wanted to go on the Superman Escape (my friend Nikki's favourite ride) but it was closed. It looked pretty awesome though.



It was sure a beautiful day for it. Next we walked through the central area, where we saw Batman fighting the Scarecrow, Catwoman, Marilyn Monroe with some backup dancers and the Flash.




Also, the awesome Harry Potter shop:



From there, it was on to the Lethal Weapon ride, which was a roller coaster, but the kind where your feet dangle. I'd never been on one of those and it was actually pretty scary and awesome. It knocks your head around, though, you go upside down and everything. The wait was about 1/2 an hour.

Then we went and watched Hollywood Stunt Driver, which was an excellent stunt car show (again, something I'd never sen before). It was so well choreographed, the cars were always so in sync, and then of course it ended with a big explosion, the heat of which we could feel from out seats.

Then we went on the Scooby Doo ride, which Nikki kept talking up as the "best ride EVAH!" I will say one thing about Movie World - it sure didn't have as many rides as Playland, but they make up for it in atmosphere. The waiting lines are really well decorated - behold the gargoyles in the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster castle:



Nikki was right. It was the best ride ever. At first, it's this little ride through a spooky castle, with suits of armour attacking you with swords and swooping blades just missing you and all that, but then a spooky elevator takes you up in your little tiny car and then you fall backwards and then turn around and you're in a big dark room with lasers and fog going on a Mouse-like coaster of death. We went on it twice.

Then, it was off to the Wild West Falls, the water- log ride. Vultures welcome us to the Old-West style part of the park:







This is the chute you shoot down. But it's so much more than just a water-coaster. You go up in a pseudo mine-shaft, get shot at by toothless varmints and float down a river through a ghost town. Then you get completely soaked.


The Looney Tunes Carousel


Wait a minute! How did I get to New York City all of a sudden?!


Haha, it's just painted backdrop like they used to use in the old-timey movies.

As our last hurrah, we went on the Shrek 4-D adventure. What is 4-D you ask? It's the next big craze, apparently. More immersive that 3-D, that's for sure! It was lots of fun.

There's still plenty more parks to explore on the Gold Coast - SeaWorld, Wet n' Wild Waterpark, DreamWorld and Australia Zoo. I'll have to ration my trips - but it was fun inaugural experience!

GOMA and Queensland Museum

Not last Saturday but the Saturday before, it was off to the Cultural Centre for some free culture (art galleries and museums are free here, as they should be everywhere). There was a fantastic exhibit at the Gallery Of Modern Art known as the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art. Here are some wacky pieces to contemplate.



This was great - the Buddhas started out as plain white ceramic and there were stickers that anyone could come and stick on them, anywhere they wanted. The stickers were all sorts of fun things, Scooby Doos, hearts, stars, candy, flags and what have you.


"Road To Tomorrow" by Rohan Wealleans



Toshitomo Nara's art studio, a camper van with a little cabin on top. Look closely and you can see his art in the top, all little cartoon girls. Kawaii!


This is "People Holding Flowers" by Zhu Weibing & Ji Wenyu. Such tiny little men. So tiny.



This is called "Line In Control" by Subodh Gupta. A mushroom cloud of pots and pans. Awesome.

You can see more wonderful Asian art from the GOMA if you click this link.

Also, take the virtual_tour! It's worth it, if you can get the website to work for you. Highly recommended:

So much of the art was interactive. You had to go into rooms and you were surrounded by it. There was a small glass room that you could walk-in (barefoot or socks only) that had varying lengths of a shoelace-like substance. It's almost impossible to describe, but it was so cool. You had to walk very slowly, because you couldn't see anything, and sound was muffled, too.

I'd go back there in a heartbeat! Whenever there is a new exhibit, I will be there.

Also, after perusing the gift shop, I rediscovered one of my favourite contemporary artists, Marion Peck. Check her out if you haven't heard of her and you like creepy/cute.




This one was from the Queensland Museum. I just loved this genuine old-school fire truck - a quadricycle. The gold things in the middle are the fireman's helmets. The museum was very cool, though not quite as awesome as the Melbourne Museum. There was a lot of great old cars, planes, boats, carriages as well as a parade of stuffed animals mingled with life-like prehistoric creatures. There was so much there that I don't feel we saw everything, and we should definitely go back a few more times to really digest all the information. It's free, so why the heck not!

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!