Phillip Island

Over spring break I went to Phillip and Churchill Island. I woke up super early and a bus came and picked me up from the RMIT Village and took me to the tour company's main office. I loaded up with a relatively small group of people (10?) and headed out to Phillip Island. After about a 2 hours ride, the first stop on our journey was the Moonlit Wildlife Sanctuary. They had a ton of iconic Australian wildlife. It was like a lot of the small touristy wildlife places I have been to so far.
1. Wombat!2. Kangaroo and joey Then we left and and headed to a beach a few minutes away:
Afterwards, we went to Churchill Island which is a really old home stead. The island was relatively small and is a working farm. They had Scottish cows which looked like regular cows, but they had really long hair. I got to see a guy make a horseshoe, shear a sheep, and crack a whip and a woman did a cattle dog demonstration.
Then we went to the Koala Conservation Center on Phillip Island. They had a relatively large population of koalas and they would export koalas to the nearby French Island when there were too many for the Phillip Island park to sustain. They had plastic tubes around tree trunks and tree branches to keep koalas from eating there. Koalas are known for killing trees so in order to keep the area healthy they blocked parts of trees.Next, We went to Seal Rocks and the Nobbies. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. The Nobbies were a few rocks sticking out of the ocean-nothing special, and Seal Rocks were really too far away from the shore to see the seals. They had binoculars that you could look through, but they were $2 and I didn't have any coins. Something I thought about when I saw Seal Rocks-GREAT WHITES! You know they are there, lurking under the water, waiting for a poor unsuspecting seal to go for a dip! No seals were eaten though...that would have been cool to see. lol.The whole point of this trip was the Phillip Island Penguin Parade. Hundreds of fairy penguins cross the beach every night at dusk heading back to their burrows and bringing food back to their chicks. They wouldn't let us take pictures of them though. Apparently crossing the beach is super scary to them already and they don't want the flash of cameras to scare them further. They were so stinkin cute though!! They would all gather at the beach's edge in huge groups and wait for one brave guy to lead the way onto the beach. One would break off from the group and waddle a ways up the beach, and then turn back to see if anyone was following him. If so, he would continue...but if not, he would quickly turn around and run back to the group. You could see and hear the chicks calling to their parents so the parents could find their way back to their burrows. It was really amazing because they were able to recognize their young by call, and as a human you can still kind of hear the differences in the chick's voices.

After the penguin parade our tour guide took us back to the city and dropped us off at home! It was a really great day. The penguin parade was 100 times better than whale watching. For some reason with whale watching I was expecting to see something really cool-like them breach or slap the water with a tail of their fins, but it never happened. The fairy penguins were just so cute though!

Australia Zoo!

Saturday, September 18.

We woke up early to go to Starbucks before being picked up by our tour bus-Croc Connections. I got myself a present and had their delicious banana nut bread. Great decision. Then we headed back to the hostel to be picked up. The guy that operated our bus was friends with Steve Irwin apparently. He was telling us some stories and a bit about the Zoo and the facilities on it. He told us that the Irwins-Terri, Bindi, and Bob- live in a house in the middle of the zoo! On the way there he put on a Croc Hunter video. In it a ton of people who knew Steve were talking about him, and I wanted to cry. I almost did. Steve was a crazy guy, but he did a lot of really great things with his life.

When we got to the zoo, we immediately headed to the Crocoseum for the big show! The Crocoseum is a main show area with waterways connecting to each of the crocodile enclosures. People told Steve that he wouldn't be able to get a crocodile to swim from its enclosure at the beginning of the show on command, and then back at the end. But he did!


<-I also saw this funny sign posted in the Crocoseum.






Terri, Bindi, and Bob were there and did the show!












During the show, Bindi and the Jungle Girls sang some songs about saving the whales...and then Bob came out and performed with his jungle boys for the first time! After that, little Bob-bob sang the Australian National Anthem!







Then Wes got Graham the croc to come out and Terri and Bindi fed him!






They also got him to do the death roll, which is what a crocodile does when it latches onto its prey! Crocs wait by the waters edge for some unsuspecting animal to get too close, then they lunge out and grab them! They pull them underwater and try to drown them and they roll over and over to tear pieces off and kill them! Wes succeeded and we got to see Graham do a couple! On the end of the string is a big pig's leg. Yum!







At one point in the show, Terri got Graham to jump out of the water like he would in the wild to get food from a tree branch. They can just half of their body length out of the water.







Also during the show they had a bird show. It was amazing! They trained all of these birds to fly free around the stadium to certain marks. At one point they picked four people out of the audience to get birds to the land them. Or so we thought. I was really excited and practically jumping out of my seat to picked! But I wasn't and I was so disappointed. AND THEN I saw what they had to do. The guy told them that they had to make their best bird sounds and basically hump the air. He said that was the sign for the birds to land. So he let the birds out and the people started making fools of themselves and the birds just flew off! So it was all for nothing. I think the goal was to make people look like idiots. They succeeded. This was the guy's first show. It was an audition for future shows.

After the show we went and explored the zoo. They had a lot of great photo ops. This was by far the best zoo experience I have ever had. The croc show was free, AND they let people feed the elephants for free! It was fantastic. The elephants trunk felt really weird. Alicia said, "I expected it to feel like an ear, but really it felt like a nose." Not much of a suprise considering it WAS a nose. I expected it to be really soft, but for something so sensitive, it was really tough and wrinkly and hairy. Honestly, I didn't like it. lol.


We saw echidnas, wombats, kangaroos, emus, fresh and salt water crocodiles, cassowaries, and I finally saw a tasmanian devil! He was a quick little bugger though! And then the highlight of the trip, for me anyways were the TIGERS! We also saw a free tiger show! There were two females and one male. The handlers played with the females in and out of the water and showed us how a tiger could climb a tree. In the beginning, they used milk to bribe one of the female tigers to step into some nontoxic black paint and then onto an orange board. Then they sold the board with the tiger prints on it and the money went to charity. I really really wanted to buy it, but I knew I couldn't afford it. I did buy a "Wildlife Warrior-Year of the Tiger" bracelet though. It was $5 and the money went to charity. Did you know that $5 can feed one tiger for one day in the wild? Personally, I don't know how they got that...tigers don't exactly pay for their food, but HEY! I didn't come up with it. Seeing this performance reaffirmed my desire to work with tigers.After checking out some of the animals, we went around and took pictures with Steve Irwin and us wrestling crocodiles! I sat inside of this fake giant croc's mouth and got my picture taken, and then after me this lady put her baby in there. It was so freaking cute! She was so tiny-she couldn't have been a month old. It was just adorable. (Cue biological clock to start ticking.) Then we went and checked out the gift shops. I saw a piece of Australian opal for sale and it was $15,000!! Ridiculous. And weird that it was on sale at a zoo.

On the way back, the bus driver finish the movie we had started on the way there. My eyes teared up several times, but I never really cried. Thank god, I would have looked like an idiot.That night we all decided to go to the Pancake Manor to get dinner. We had to wait for a while to get seated (even though there were tons of seats open...curious.) so we went down to the bar where I heard REAL AMERICAN MUSIC IN PUBLIC for the first time since being here. It was great. Thank you Eminem for rapping. I took a picture with a knight and then we went upstairs and got seated. The food was ridiculously delicious! But their bacon isn't really bacon. It's more like fried ham. Not crisp at all.And later, while walking around that night we ran into a group of people dressed like cave people!
After a long day, we went back to the hotel and went to bed early again. The next day we were going Whale Watching!!

Brisbane!

Friday, September 17, I flew to Brisbane to meet Alicia and some of the girls from her school. My plane got in around 5 and Alicia and Zel met me at the train station. I have to admit, I am becoming a regular pro at flying. I think I could navigate the Tullamarine Airport with my eyes closed. While pretty big-it has nothing on O'hare though.So I met up with Alicia and Zel and they guided us back to our hostel, Bunk Brisbane. We slept in an 8 bed all female dorm. As much as I like men, I don't want some creepy mansneaking through my undies. With my luck-there is no way it would be a hot, intelligent Aussie. By the way, this hostel was the shit. It was really unique. They had a chandelier of barbies, a pool, and a jacuzzi. They also had a club and bar on the premises. Below is some random artwork at the hostel.That night I dropped my stuff off at the hostel and we met up with two other girls from Alicia's school (Lara and Savannah) and the five of us went to explore. We were actually searching for the night market that was supposed to be taking place, but we got side tracked along the way. The first thing on our to do list was food. All of us except Alicia got Subway, she got Maccas (McDonalds). The we stopped in a few shops that were still open and got some souvenirs. After leaving the strip mall we ran into a random, outdoor salsa class! It was free and they had salsa music playing and everyone was dancing! It was amazing!I fell in love here. You can't really see him, but there is a 16 year old Mexican lothario in this picture. I think he was one of the teachers. We gave him the name Superman because he was wearing a Superman hoodie. When I cradle rob, I do it right!

Anyways, the class was still going strong when we decided to move on. Then we saw a ferris wheel, which was really expensive so we passed on riding it. We crossed the river and looked back and the city and it was so beautiful! Next, we walked through a park where we happened to see a ton of flying foxes!We finally made it to the night market and it was closing! I was upset because the few places that were still open had some really pretty stuff. I bought 2 rings for $10...and even though they are pretty I'm not quite sure they were worth it. They turn my fingers green. But what ever.

That night we got back to the hostel and went to bed relatively early. I think it was around 9 or 10. The next day was a big day! We were going to the Australia Zoo-Home of the Crocodile Hunter!!

Esplande Market in St . Kilda!

Hello, people of the U.S!

So let me tell you about my week, well maybe just the end of it. So Wednesday night I went to bed at 4:00 a.m. and got up at 8:00 a.m. and didn't go to sleep until Friday at 2:00 p.m. Then I woke up Saturday morning at 3:30 a.m. ready for the day. lol. One of the nights I saw the sun rise over the Village!

The reason I was up so late was because I was studying for my Genetics midsemester test that I had on Friday. I'm pretty anxious to get my grade back. I don't think I did very well. Anyways, while I was taking the test my stomach start growling. I'm pretty sure the people behind me heard it. When I got done I wanted to get something on the way back to my room because I didn't want to cook and I didn't really have anything that I could just eat quickly before I went to bed. So I stopped in one of the cafes on campus because I forgot that they didn't take cards. There is nothing on the way back so I decided to stop in the cafe we have at the village. They did take cards and I was so excited. Food then bed. That was my main plan, but when I got to the cafe they didn't have anything normal. All I want is a turkey sandwich...I don't feel like it's very difficult. Turkey, cheese, mayo, bread. But no, they don't have turkey ANYWHERE here; I've looked. They did have meatloaf sandwiches, chicken schnitzel sandwiches, and faelfael sandwiches. WHAT THE HELL IS FAELFAEL?! All of the food here is weird and expensive. I was so upset. I went back to my room, made white rice, poured some soy sauce on there, ate and went to bed.

I woke up the next day at 3:30 in the morning and took a shower. I planned to go to the Aquarium, but I didn't make it. I decided to go to the grocery store instead. The problem with this is that every time I go I stop in every store I pass on the way there. One thing I really love about this city is all of the different shops. On this day, I happened to stop in a wicca shop. They had tarot cards, candles, tons of different gems and crystals, and books on all kinds of aspects of the religion. It was really neat. When I finally made it to the grocery store, I was shopping and Grandpa called me. I guess he forgot that I called him a few days ago and he had already called me back. lol. Unfortunately he told me that he wouldn't be able to come visit me. I am really disappointed, but I understand that it is a lot of money. I wish I wouldn't have let myself get so excited. It's just, I've been here for two months and I miss people. I actually considered coming home during the two week spring break I have coming up in a couple of weeks, but that would be really expensive also.

Today I went to the Esplande Market with Sytske. It is basically and arts and crafts market. It was right on the beach in St. Kilda. (I saw these massive palm trees...and Luna Park!(i.e. Six Flags)) There were a lot of neat things there, I got Granny a bracelet that a lady made. It's sterling silver and has her name on it. It also has some Australia flowers built into it. I think she will like it. I also got two bottle of wine, a pair of Australian opal earrings for myself, a half dollar coin keychain from 1927 (ironically I paid 5.00 AU for it), and a little tin money bank with the Australian ten dollar note on it. We walked along The Strand and saw some people kite surfing, and she had some fish and chips. Then we went to the Queen Victoria Market and I got some fruit and did some wine tasting. When we got back we went our separate ways for a few hours and got together for dinner. We had some of the wine and its pretty good. I have only had wine on a few occasions, but I like the ones that I bought. I don't know how I'm going to get it home...maybe lots of bubble wrap.

ANNNNDDD I did something for my mom today. She doesn't know what it is yet, but she will soon.



The End. Love you!



P.S. I decided today that if I have a daughter I will name her Delanie. (No, I'm not preggo. lol.)

Not Much Is Happening.

Honestly, there isn't much going on down under these days, so I haven't updated in a while.

This past Sunday I went on a field trip for my Ecology class. Something that is pretty different here is that you are expected to meet at the field trip location. We don't just get on a bus and all drive somewhere together, which isn't good for me because I don't have a car...or any idea where I am going usually. This trip was at Williamstown Beach. I had to find my own way there via public transportation. I HATE public transportation! I always end up somewhere different than where I want to be. I have been actively avoiding taking a train because I figure if I end up blocks away from my goal via tram I would end up towns away via train. But I actually made it. I took a taxi to Southern Cross (one of the train stations) and then took a train to Newport. I felt like an idiot because I didn't realize they were doing track work between Newport and Williamstown. I sat on the train waiting for it to continue because when I looked at the map I still had like 2 more stops until I got to my destination. Then an employee came up to me and was like, "Dear...we are at the last stop." All I could think of was "SHIT! How did I miss my stop? I was staring that the Next Stop sign like it was going to tell me my future and I still missed it!" But then she told me I just had to get on a bus to take me the rest of the way. Crisis averted.

We basically spent all day exploring rock pools in Port Phillip Bay. We were divided into groups and given a species to search for. We were to devise an experiment answering an ecological question that we can up with. Our original species was red algae, but it wasn't that abundant and we were finding a lot of crabs. So we switched to crabs. We decided to discover whether crabs were more abundant under big or small rocks. We also wanted to ask if their were more crabs toward the beach or toward the ocean. I pretty much spent all day searching for cool things. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures really. I snapped a few with my cell phone, but they aren't that great. I saw two jelly fish that were stuck in small pools, a few shrimp, TONS of crabs, starfish, a few small fish, and and anemone. I really wanted to touch the jelly fish, and I had decided that I was going to touch the next one I saw, but the I didn't see another one. It was probably for the best.

On another note, I haven't been attending any lectures. I feel bad about it, but I just can't make myself go. I hate school. And the fact that I have done really well on all of the assignments I have done so far is only egging me on. I attend tutorials and labs and do really well so I'm not too worried yet. I just hate going to class. Skipping is a vicious cycle though. I miss classes because I am tired and don't want to go, and then I miss the ones after that because I don't know what is going on in them and I will just be lost. I know I am digging myself a hole, but I just hate school. I'm done. I just want to go home, have a great job, and get on with my life. I have been in school so long! Also, I would rather just sit in my room and do nothing than go. I am really down lately. I know I should go, but I just can't make myself care. I have a midterm in my genetics lecture this Friday, and I'm worried about it. The class is hard to begin with and I haven't gone to basically any lectures. I'm in trouble, but I got myself into it.

Depressing things aside, I booked my flights and hostel for Brisbane a week or so ago. Alicia and I are going whale watching and to the Australia Zoo Sept 17, 18, 19, and 20. I can't wait! I love the zoo, and I really hope that we see some amazing whales!

I am trying to decide what else I want to do. I'm looking at day tours to Phillip Island and a weekend tour of the Great Ocean Road. I want to book them, but I can't until I pick the scuba diving course I want to take. I need to pick a company and a date, but I haven't yet. It's just so expensive, but it is something that I want to do so I want to find the perfect one (read cheapest). They all have hidden fees and I hate that. I found one that I really liked but it was SSI not PADI.

Also, I can't wait for Grandpa to visit. It will be nice to see someone. I need to call him and talk about what days he wants to come.

I know this is a really boring post, but that's pretty much my life lately. I am going to go to the aquarium this weekend so I will probably post after that. Hopefully things are looking up by then.

Love you and I miss you.

Conservation Volunteers of Australia=)

Before I got to Australia, I had the chance to sign up for a volunteer weekend. Now, I hate the idea of paying to go volunteer, but I thought it would be a good idea to give back to my community while abroad. So I chose to travel to Inverloch, a seaside town in Victoria.So Saturday morning I woke up a 6:30, ate brekkie and began the adventure to find the CVA office. The walk ended up being about 30-45 minutes so it wasn't too far away. I was the first person there, and the door was locked and I didn't see anyone around so plopped down on the front bench. I must have looked like a loser. But then another girl came in a taxi and we sat on the front porch and talked while we waited for people to show up. We realized we had been in Cairns together. Her name was Liz.Once everyone arrived, we packed up the van and headed off. Two and half hours later we pulled up in Inverloch at our first site. I thought that we would go to our place of accommodation before we started to work, so when we pulled up and a saw a tiny shack with two walls in the middle of a field I was not prepared.The first place we went was called Thompson Estate. It was just a big field surrounded by bushland. The task was to remove an invasive species of tree. The tree above is an example. The tree we were cutting down is originally from Sydney and looks like another indigenous (native) tree. The tree below is a hybrid of the two. It shouldn't be an issue because most hybrids can live, but not reproduce. So we didn't bother removing it.I HATED the first day and I was so disappointed. The reason I hated it was because we were not forewarned that we would be working in a wetland, and I only brought hiking shoes, so obviously my feet were soaked. But I survived. We took a break for tea..then another for lunch. Then we got back to work. When we were done we headed to where we were staying. We stayed on a house which was basically right on the beach. So first order of business was to claim beds, then go explore. Unfortunately it was freezing, so swimming wasn't and option. But it was beautiful!
...And I saw a rainbow!-->

So that night, we had to decide what we wanted for dinner, then breakfast, then lunch for the next day. This was chore. We had 12 dollars a person for all three. We decided on pasta for dinner, scrambled eggs for breakfast, and sandwiches for lunch. 6 People went into town. 3 went to the store and 3 went to the pub. I went to the store. This was the first solo trip for the lady from CVA, Wendy. So everything was more difficult than it needed to be. In addition to making everyone agree on every little decision, she was a pain to shop with. I feel bad for saying that because it was nice to see someone who so obviously cared for the feelings of animals and the effects we have on the environment, but JEEZ! She wouldn't let us get packaged mushrooms because there was excess packaging. And then she wouldn't buy anything that she thought wasn't ethically farmed. She wanted us to shop cheap, but then when caged eggs were cheaper, she "splurged" on free-range and made me feel like I personally was the one caging the chickens and taking advantage of them.

BUT I'm off topic. (Just a side note, one of the guys that went to the pub HAD to be an alcoholic. He was talking about how he hadn't had any in four months....then he came into town to go to the pub. lol.) Anyways, we got home, made and ate dinner and went to sleep right away. The next morning I woke up angry. Why you ask? Because Wendy thought opening curtains to wake people up was a good idea. It wasn't. This automatically pissed me off. But that's besides the fact. We had breakfast, cleaned up and headed to our next location.....Where we were greeted by terrifyingly large Grey Kangaroos! There are four in this picture.



The land was public land owned by Victoria Parks. We planted 760 Eucalyptus trees. There were three different Australian species. Our goal was 1,000, but I feel like we did pretty darn good with only 10 people! The first picture is a before shot with the kangaroos, and the next shot is after.



The Process:
1. Someone dug a hole.
2. Another person dropped a tree by it.
3. The next person came by and planted it.
4. The last person used bamboo sticks and a carton to cage the plant in.

The Purpose:
They used round up and killed all of the plants that were previously there, so the young trees had not protection from the wind. The carton also served the purpose of making it difficult for the kangaroos to eat them. I guess eucalyptus sapling is a yummy dish to a roo.

After planting, we headed to an old rifle range. Vic Parks bought it and $150,000 later it was restore from an empty field back to a bushland with two wetlands. The wetlands not only provide habitat, but they take storm water and route it to farms to water crops. Wetlands clean the water and make it drinkable as well.

We left Inverloch about 3 and returned to Melbourne. 45 minutes later I was at my home away from home. 47 minutes later I was in the shower. I was too afraid to take a shower where we were staying because I saw a dead spider. Up until this point I had myself convinced spiders couldn't survive in such cold temperatures. Apparently the can up to a point...so now I'm paranoid.

I decided that I like planting trees. I just put my headphones in a jammed while I planted. Alysha Farson, saving the bushland, one song at a time!! I think when I go back to Carbondale I might volunteer for some projects at Crab Orchard or Giant City. It felt good giving back to the environment, and the time flew by on the second day.

More later! Love you and miss you!

Alicia Marty's Section of Australia!

For those of you who don't know, one of my best friends, Alicia, decided to study abroad as well. She picked James Cook University in Townsville, Queensland. Queensland is in the North Eastern part of mainland Australia. The temperature is significantly warmer there than in Melbourne, where I live. I went to visit her this past weekend, August 13-16.The first night I got there I arrived at around 9, so we didn't get back to her room until around 11:30, I think. We went back to her room and hung out and watched a movie. Well, we turned a movie on and then turned it off and went to bed.

The next day was a full one. We woke up, ate breakfast, hopped on a bus, and then climbed Castle Hill. The trail we picked was called the goat trail, which was a set of stairs all the way to the top. There were over 1,300 steps! I felt so accomplished when I got to the top!One the way down my legs felt like jelly! They were shaking and twitching and it was really hard to stand still!After that we went to the beach to relax for a while. We had lunch and sunbathed for a while. Then we collected seashells!
When we left the beach, we headed to Rowes Bay to look for creatures in the tidal pools. We found some really neat things! I saw a chiton, a starfish, a sponge, anemones, tons of snails, crabs, and two sea cucumbers=) Rowes Bay was beautiful, and it was so fun climbing the rocks.
To get there we had to wade out into the ocean to get around this fence. Alicia said that the last time she was there on a field trip and they barely had to touch the water to get around it. Alicia was curious about what was at the end of the bay and so was I. So I climbed up some rocks and looked and it just ended! There was a steep drop off and a few feet on the other side of it the rocks continued. I'm thinking it might have been a fault? But that's not the moral of the story. The point is, it was really fun=)
The next day we went to Magnetic Island, or Maggie Island, as the locals call it. We had a blast! We bought cheap snorkels, but we didn't really go anywhere we could use them, so it was kind of a waste. BUT I have them now, so if I need them I won't have to buy them. We went to Horseshoe Bay which was on the opposite side of the island from where the ferry landed. You could rent any kind of water craft you wanted there! Even a sea plane!! It was really expensive there. I wish that I would have had money because I definitely would have rented a scooter to drive around!
While at Horseshoe Bay, we buried ourselves in the sand and had some guy take a picture of us! I think I would like to add, "Get buried up to my neck in sand," to my bucket list. I was only waist deep this time. Right after this picture, I busted out of the sand like the Hulk!
As we were leaving Maggie Island, we saw rock wallabies! They were so adorable and there was a little boy feeding them crackers. Once we got back to the mainland, we went to the Strand (the name for the beach front) and play on this awesome climbing thing and the playground! While waiting for these annoying kids to leave the rope part, I heard a man refer to it as "The Drunk Ropes." haha. In my opinion, YOU WOULD DIE if you were drunk and climbed it. I wouldn't let my kids up there! You can see pictures of the ropes course on my Facebook. The first picture in this post is me and Alicia at the playground.

My last night there, we got gelato at Juliette's and at it under the stars on the beach. It was so romantic<3 It might have been a date considering she bought my ice cream! lol. The whole time we were eating our ice cream we were basically panicking, waiting for a saltie (salt water crocodile) to climb out of the ocean and chase us up the beach. Speaking of crocs, Alicia told me that people actually swim in the rivers up there! They say that they do it because only freshies live in the river, and they only bite, unlike the salties which will eat you. Either way...I'M not getting in a river up there.

On Monday, Alicia took me around her campus which really wasn't that different from Southern. It was very spread out and laid back. People went to class not wearing shoes! It made me jealous because its so warm and pretty there, and so cold and wet here. We live in two completely different places! They had turkeys running around campus and we saw possums in her back yard!

I am excited that time seems to be moving quickly. This weekend I am going to volunteer in Inverloch for two days. I will be camping, which will be fun. I'll post more later! Love you!