Wofford College - Study Abroad

Wildlife Aplenty on the West Coast

Greetings! We've been having exams, and thus far I have taken 3 of my 4 (the last one is tomorrow!) and so I did some travelling in the in between time of my exams.  For the past 8 days I have been in Western Australia- beginning in Perth and driving up the coast to Coral Bay, which is a small city right on the Indian Ocean just below Exmouth.  It is also the gateway to the southern portion of the Ningaloo Coral Reef, which is the largest fringing coral reef system in the world... oh and home to many of australia's whale sharks.. but we'll get to that later.

We arrived in Perth late last week, and spent the night in a hostel. We explored the city- there is a nice river that runs through perth and there are plenty of shops and cafes, but all in all I was unimmpressed with Perth as a city. I know its home to legends like Hugh Jackman and Heath Ledger, but from the parts I saw I was quite glad that I had not spent a semester there. We picked up our home on wheels, a campervan (who we fondly named Bertha), the next morning and began the week of driving (in total we drove over 3200 km this week..thats just over 32 hours of driving in a week). The first day we went to the small coast port of Fremantle, which is just below perth located right on the Indian Ocean. They have some world renowned markets in Fremantle, where we browsed and enjoyed the adorable town. It was full of character- lots of neat bars and tea rooms--very quaint. We then began our trek to the Pinnacles.

me pretending to be a pinnacle...haha

Pinnacles in Namburg Nat'l Park- there are soo many! look into the distance!

The Pinnacles are a natural wonder- no one is quite sure how they formed but it is believed to be remains of a fossilized forest that were buried in sand dunes over time. Anyway, they are these thousands of natural rock formations that spread for ages. They come in all shapes and sizes and colors, ranging from some knee high to some twice my height. They came in reds, yellows, and browns, and set against the blue sky and the yellow sand it made for a very pretty picture. It was awesome to walk through them and to see just how many there were! amazing! Also within Namburg Nat'l park we stopped at Hangover Bay and several scenic lookouts which offered us our first real taste of the Indian ocean beaches- the water is a stunning electric blue and the sand is beautiful powder white. We enjoyed seeing the coast set against the red rock of the australian soil-- such contrast was beautiful! It should also be noted that Perth is the only substantial sizable city on the west coast- with 2 billion people, and so the entirety of our trip after that first night was spent in small towns in the back of our van :) The stargazing was incredible though- so bright and clear away from the city lights. you can even see the milky way galaxy and plenty of meteorites every night.

The next day we drove up to Hamelin Pool, home of the stromatolites. Stromatolites are colonies of cyanobacteria that were responsible for giving our atmospherre the oxygen it has today. These have been studied by geologists and are estimated to be 3.5 BILLION years old, making them the oldest fossils in the world. Not to mention, being bacteria they are still alive so they are the oldest living fossils in the world. They only occur in Australia.  They aren't much to look at, just some rock formations in what appears to be tidal pools of the ocean, but the history and science of them is fascinating and soo cool to understanding the history of life on our planet. 

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool

From there we drove to Dehanm, a coastal town on Shark Bay, Australia's world heritage listed marine park of the west coast. It is home to the largest sea grass meadows in the world and as a result is rampant in sharks, fish, and dugongs (australian version of a manatee). We also stopped at a famous beach known as Shell Beach, which consists of literally millions of small white cockle shells. Scientists do not know why there is such a plentiful amount of these shells at this one beach, but the shell layer is about 30 feet deep, and the white tinkling shells set against the blue of the Indian is a breathaking sight. Plus, it was unlike any beach I had ever been to.  Denham itself was an adorable town with plenty of beaches, and we enjoyed spending our afternoon watching the sunset there.

Shell Beach


Shells that covered the entire beach!

Continuing northward, we hit Monkey Mia... a small beach town on Shark Bay where a pod of dolphins routintely visits. Upon stopping in the morning, we were greeting by about 5 or 6 endo-pacific bottlenose dolphins. The dolphins have grown accustomed to humans, as the park rangers feed them occasionally. (they aren't fed to the point of gaining dependency on humans, however). The water is so clear we got some amazing views of these graceful creatures, and some of them had recently calved as well so we got to see baby porpoises as well :) I have always had a soft spot for dolphins. From monkey mia we drove many long hours up to Coral Bay, which is a small town right on the Ningaloo Reef.

Dolphins at Monkey Mia


We took a tour the following day which took us to snorkel on the Ningaloo Reef and to swim with Whale Sharks! the world's largest fish/shark.  The reef was beautiful, the coral not as diverse as the Great Barrier but still plenty of fish life, sea urchins, starfish, and other echinoderms. The water is so clear, and being a fringe reef the reef is much closer to shore. You could swim to parts of the reef from shore and reach the outer reef in a short 20 minute boat ride. I really enjoyed snorkelling, but I always do. Next they took us much further out to sea, about 10 km off or so and we waited to hear of a whale shark siting. The company uses planes to spot the whale sharks, they are such large animals you can spot them from the air. Whale sharks can reach up to 16 meters- which is well over 50 feet. They are HUGE beasties. The one we swam with was only about 8 meters, or 35 feet (which is still GINORMOUS!). It was such a cool experience, the shark is quite inquisitive and very gentle. You can just swim near it and marvel at its size. The sharks are also quite pretty- they are a brown color with white spots and they are filter feeders on plankton, so not dangerous at all to humans. It was without a doubt the most humbling and most amazing experience of the week, and quite possibly one of my favorite memories of Australia and all time. SO COOL! They don't mind the humans at all.

Ningaloo Reef- stunning water color and clarity

Whale Shark!

Also on the boat that day we were lucky enough to see sea snakes and a pod of humpback whales- again amazing creatures who are huge and also so intelligent and graceful in the water. It was my first experience seeing whales, so I was also quite excited about it from that perspective too.

On our last day we stopped in Kalbarri, another coastal town. We visited some of its famous beaches, notably Jacques Beach, and also visited a Parrot sanctuary where we were able to view many of australia's tropical and colorful avian life. Within Kalbarri national park there are also some increcible river gorges which we hiked to, amazing red striated rock formations set against the green river water was so picturesque. It reminded me a lot of the grand canyon.  Just driving around wildlife was rampant as well-- we saw so many emus, kangaroos, and parrots.. as well as some of the smaller australian marsupials.  All in all it was a busy but wonderful week.

Me at Jacques Beach in Kalbarri

 it is time for me to leave this wonderful place and return home to wonderful people. I get home around 11 pm on the evening of June 23-- so expect to hear from me soon!

New Zealand

 I just returned from a whirlwind tour of the South Island of New Zealand.  I flew into Christchurch with my best friend from high school, Monica only to find that New Zealand is currently experiencing its earliest and coldest winter in about the last 10 years. We were expecting weather in the upper 40s and got weather in the lower 30's , with lows into the teens at night.  While we had some warm clothing, we dressed in layers and the same clothing practically all week.

After the 4 hour flight, It took forever to get through customs and border control, and to check out our rental car. We had a cute little rental car, a baby toyota hatchback in navy blue that saw a lot of miles.  Anyway, after we finally checked in we got to our hostel and then had an amazing italian dinner and some great red wine that night (including a white chocolate raspberry dessert pizza OMG so good).

Then next morning we woke up early and began the 6 hour drive to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. Skydiving and bungee jumping are abundant there, but neither of us felt the desire to do that so instead we went hiking and horseback riding. Queenstown is also a site of where much of the filming of Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia took place. Along the way we stopped at 2 glacier lakes, Lake Tekapo and Lake Pukaki both of which are gorgeous. Blue turquoise clear cold water set against the dramatic southern alps-- so pretty. All the while when we were driving around New Zealand we felt as though we were driving right through Middle Earth in LOTR- rolling green hills, snow capped mountains, and plenty of sheep and alpacas as well ;)   We drove through Lindis Pass, a mountain range on the way to Queenstown, and had steady snowfall for at least 35 minutes, the entire countryside was filled with white powder. We got anxious and started thinking about putting our chains on our tires (which would have been funny considering we're both from SC and neither of us in our lives have used snow chains, but we got them and learned how to use them nonetheless).

Lake Tekapo in New Zealand

Anyway, we didn't need them b/c the snow passed and we arrived in Queenstown that Evening. Our hostel was located next to another Glacier Lake, Lake Watikapo, and was gorgeous. From our bedroom window we had a  great view of the snowy mountains and blue water (such a great sight to wake up to!) We did some horseback riding the next day, which took us to Glenorchy where we went into the New Zealand Beach forest (very mossy and green), and up the mountain to get a great view of the river system where many LOTR scenes and Narnia scenes were shot.  It was freezing, but so worth it!   The following day we toured some wineries, notably the Gibbston Valley winery, which won best wine of the year in the pinot noir category in 2000. It is the oldest vineyard in New Zealand, and it also had a cheesery attatched so needless to say we enjoyed ourselves. Queenstown is located in the Central Otega wine region, so there are many many wineries and they are all well known for their Pinot Noir. (apparently the weather conditions are ideal for that type of grape).


Lake Watikapo and the Southern Alps in Glenorchy

Anyhow, after that we headed back to Christchurch (having to take a detour becuase of road closings due to snowfall!!) and had some more time to hang out in christchurch. We went out a little bit, and saw the Christchurch cathedral.  The following day we did a Lord of the Rings Tour, where they took us to Edoras to Mt. Sunday and Mt. Pots where the city of Rohan (from Two Towers and Return of the King) was built. They had some fun replicas of the movie weapons, and monica and I had a great time sword fighting... We also watched lots of interviews and commentaries and learned fun facts and myths about the movies and how they were made.  a very geeky, but entertaining day.
On our LOTR horesback tour, this river system they filmed scenes from the Fellowship of the Ring and Prince Caspian.

Sydney

One of my best friends from high school, Monica , arrived in Melbourne this past Friday. We traveled to sydney together this weekend. Sydney is such a lovely city! It is about the same size as Melbourne (5 million people) and is approx. a 1.5 hour plane ride away.

We arrived, after a few flight delays, and managed to figure out the public transport system to get to our hostel. We then went to Sydney Harbor to see the beautiful bridge and opera house!  We took a tour of the Sydney Opera House- which actually has 6 theatres- covering everything from opera (who'd think??haha) to ballet to concerts to drama to musicals, etc etc.  We got to walk through some of the 'behind the scenes' areas which was cool, as well as learning more about the construction of this iconic $120 million dollar, 10 year, "world heritage" building. That night we went to a performance of Amadeus, which was a compilation of Mozart's symphonies and Opera- it was a great show, and even better because we got rush student tickets, which meant we got $75 seats for $25.  good deal!  We explored around the city a little that night, the harbor is so beautiful all lit up!

Monica and I in front of the Sydney Harbor Bridge

Sydney Opera House

The next day, we awoke really early and took the ferry to Darling Harbor to see the Sydney Aquarium. I love aquariums- and Sydney's didn't disappoint. They had an incredible selection of sharks and turtles, freshwater fish of Australia, Crocodiles, and a HUGE great barrier reef display. I loved it! And it makes me even more excited for when I get to visit the Great Barrier in another week, once my mom arrives :)  After the aquarium, we hopped on the train and then took a bus to Bondi Beach.. which is a rather famous surfing beach outside of Sydney. The water is beautiful pacific blue, with white sand and plenty of fit males geared up to surf.    Along the beach from Bondi there is a BEAUTIFUL5 km coastal walk that takes you along the cliffside to allow you to walk to the neighboring beaches, which include Tarramana and Bronte Bay (both of which are also gorgeous!). It provides excellent views not only of the beach, but of the cliff front, vegetation, and the horizon.

Bondi Beach in Sydney- the litte dots in the waves are surfers

We finished our trip with another ferry ride to Manly Beach, another well known beach area of Sydney. The ferry ride is great there as well since it takes you through the Sydney Harbor, allowing you a great view of the Opera House and the Bridge. We had hoped to do the climb up the Sydney Harbor Bridge, but it proved to be really expensive and we just ran out of time. All in all, it was a great trip- and though tiring and very fast we saw a great deal in our 2 days.

View from the coastal walk of McKenzie Bay

Australian Sport: Footy!

So, ever since I arrived in Oz I have heard so much about Australian Rules Football. It is a favorite topic of all Australians, and is especially popular here in Melbourne. (As several teams play out of Melbourne, and there are 2 stadiums the matches are held in). Everyone has their team, and is die hard faithful to them. However, AFL (Aussie Rules Football) is not at all like American Football, or soccer for that matter. It is kind of a cross between soccer, football, and lacrosse.  For a start, there are lots of attractive muscular Australian men running around in short shorts and sleeveless tops. The game is similar enough, there are goalposts that you are aiming to kick the ball through. But the football is dribbled, passed and kicked, and there is tackling. Full tackling. I mean it gets aggressive, and there are no pads or helmets involved.

However, everyone gets all decked out in their team colors and paraphenalia.. scarves, hats, shirts, jerseys, signs, giant pom poms... you name it. I felt like I was at a Quidditch match. The stadium was huge, 70,000 people attended, and EVERYONE was into the game. The game I went to was the Hawthorn Hawks (Of Tasmania) and the Carlton Blues (of North Melbourne). We were going for the Hawks, and luckily they won...after a very exciting and close game. 

Some friends and I at the game. Go Hawthorn!

Footy players- and the ridiculously large pom poms in the background.

Other fun activities of late have included going birdwatching with my Australian Wildlife Biology class, exploring lots of new cafes, gelatterias,tea shops, and bars. I went on a pub crawl with the University and we went to many exciting venues, including a Science Themed bar, where you could have drinks out of test tubes. It was awesome!  We also went to several really neat local places, kind of the 'hidden laneways.' 

School is on the downward trend, I still have 3 more weeks of class, and then a few weeks of exams..returning home in Late June. A good friend from home is coming to visit this week, and we'll be going to Sydney and New Zealand so more to come soon :)

Tasmania

Ahoy!!
I am finally home from my spring break adventures. I went to the Outback and Northern Territory for the first half of break, and then went to Tasmania for the second half.  Our flights both going to and leaving tasmania were each delayed for about 3 hours each, so I spent some quality time in the airport during the duration of hte trip. 

Tassie is a beautiful mountainous country. As soon as you fly over it you see lots of green trees and fog surrounding the tops of the mountains- its quite scenic and we flew in around dusk so the purple pink colors were a nice highlight to the scenery. The drive to our hostel the first night was all along the coast, so we got to look at the moonlight sparkling on the ocean as we drove through the darkness. The first full day was spent at Coles Bay and the Freycinet National Park. The day began with a torrential rain that turned to sun and off/on misting . We did a 6 hour hike to the top of the mountain to an overlook of world famous wineglass bay, one of the most pristine beaches in the southern hemisphere. the water is a great turquoise blue with white sand and rainforest leading down to it. we saw lots of green rosella parrots on the descent, really beautiful birds. There were also several wallabies hanging out on the beach- which was an interesting twist on normal beach fauna.

Olivia and I after our hike down to Wineglass Bay

The next day was spent in historic Port Arthur- an area that was originally a prison for all of australia's convicts. The area dates back to teh 1800s and has some interesting history surrounding the area. its also in the top 10 most haunted areas in the world- so we did a ghost tour one night as well. no apparitions though. (thankfully). We then went to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation park- where we watched the tasmanian devils get fed and learned a bit more about them . The species is currently in danger due to a contagious facial cancer that is decimating wild populations in the Northern part of the island. I also attended my first English tea- complete with scones w/ cream and jam. soo delicious.

Port Arthur

We then drove back to Hobart, the main city of Tasmania where we stayed for the duration of the trip. We visited the Cadbury Chocolate factory, went wine tasting, and did some strawberry/apple picking. We also went on a boat tour around Bruny Island, an island of 700 people off the southern coast of tasmania. We visited several fur seal colonies [we even saw babies!! soooo adorable], more penguins,  and saw the giant kelp forests that grow in the Tasman Sea. The coast is incredibly rugged and has many cliffs and caves. We drove through some of the caves and saw lots of crazy rock formations. The water was also a great green jolly rogerish blue- looked like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. We also saw giant Albatross..we were hoping for humpback whales since its the migration season but sadly we saw none.

Red Rumped Parrot- so pretty and quite a chatty bird

On our last day we went on a 6 hour white water rafting tour of the Picton River. It was the most pristine river I've ever been in, no houses are along the river. The water was so clean we drank it.  Straight through uncut forests, and several class IV rapids, so it was pretty exciting as well.

Australian Fur Seals on Bruny Island's coast

Really Neat Cliff Cave we boated through. very misty inside.

Outback and Underground

I am currently on my spring break! I just returned home from a trip through the Northern Territory and South Australia aka the Outback.  We visited Alice Springs, Uluru, and the Olgas. Uluru is the largest rock in the world (aka ayers rock) and is of great significance to the Aboriginals, particularly Aboriginal men as a climb to the top of the rock is a special journey for young boys traveling into manhood. I did not climb the rock, as the park and the aboriginals discourage you not to, but many individuals were still doing it.  We did some hiking through Walpa Gorge in the Olgas, really beautiful landscapes of desert vegetation and red sand.  There are so many stories and myths surrounding these two natural wonders that the Aboriginees have passed down, and it was really interesting to get to hear some of that.


Uluru at Sunset-- the base is 11 km long. its HUGE

After Alice Springs I went with a tour group down to Coober Pedy, the Opal Capital of the World. It is a city quite frankly in the middle of nowhere, as on the 7 hour drive there we passed through 1 town and 2 gas stations..the rest was all isolated, untouched outback..seeing nothing more than the occasional kangaroo, camel, or wedge tailed eagle.  It is a city that during the summer months can reach upwards of 56 Celsius, which is well into the 100s in fahrenheit...it is not that hot there now b/c Its  winter. But as a result, all the homes are build underground. We stayed in an underground hotel while there.  By living underground it serves two purposes, first whenever the miners would dig through an area, they ended up just living in it since it was already burrowed out. eliminating the need to ship building supplies hundreds of km away from the nearest city. Additionally, the underground temperature is a stable 23 C year round, which eliminates the need for air conditioning or heat.. it stays about 70 F year round which is really neat.  The rock there is sturdy and so there is no real risk of collapse, so it is a great system that makes sense for them.  Coober Pedy only receives only 250 mL of rain a year, so water is a precious resource and quite expensive.


Underground living in Coober Pedy. The homes are typically built 15-20 meters below, and bonus if you decide to renovate your home by adding another room and you find opal, you can keep it tax free! :) incentive to expand..eh?

After Coober Pedy we drove again another 7-8 hours to Adelaide, the main city of Southern Australia. On the way we stopped at Lake Hart, one of the salt lakes in South Australia. The lake itself is currently dry, and only fills up every few years when they have heavy rains. There wan't much to see there other than some shopping, gardens, and Wineries outside of the city. I have finally returned back to Melbourne, and I will be leaving again to head to Tasmania in the morning. But until then I've got some more schoolwork to work on, as I have mditerms the week I return from Spring Break. Additionally Wofford' schedule is now finally pu so I can pick out classes for Fall.

Lake Hart--minus the lake part. Whats left is about a foot of salt deep all over the surface. The salt was so clean we used it on our food that night while camping.


At the border between North Territory and South Australia...kind oflike being in two places at once :)

Flower Festival and the Mornington Peninsula

Good Evening!

The last week has been filled with many tasty explorations! I have discovered a delicious and healthy frozen yogurt place called Mahoni's that has the best green tea fro yo.  I've also been exploring lots of cafes- and have had delectable lemon thyme pancakes, eggs Benedict, and salmon and eggs. [not in the same sitting of course]  We also discovered some fabulous new places for night life, including a place which gives out free champagne for ladies on Thursdays. Our apartment complex hosted a Toga Party this past week for all the residents at a nearby bar, which was also pretty fun.  It reminded me of Tri-Delta's annual toga function and Wofford.  But outside the social sector, there have also been some neat events going on in Melbourne.

My Wildlife Biology has been on some fun excursions lately. We went to the zoo to see the reptiles and amphibians, then went to the Botanical Gardens this week for Birdwatching. We saw 25 species of bird in about 2 hours- pretty impressive. The amount and commoness of wildlife is so surprising here. Every evening walking around you can seem cute possums in the trees (not to be confused with the ugly oppossums of North America) and fruit bats. Outside the city kangaroos and wallabees and echidnas are plentiful, as well as cockatoos and parrots.  There are Rainbow Lorikeets that live in some trees outside our apartments, and every night you can watch them fly out for the evening. Rainbow Lorikeets at the apartment. Kind of blurry- but you can see how colorful they are.

Melbourne hosted the Melbourne International Flower Festival last week. It is the 5th largest flower show in the world, and has huge floral displays and garden exhibits.  Florists and growers from across Australia and Asia were showing their creativity in full.  There were also competitions for top floral designers and floral design students, who were building floral mannequins made completely out of plant products. So cool. Kind of like an episode of Project Runway where the contestants had to build clothing out of nothing but flowers.  Being the daughter of a florist, I have a great appreciation for flowers. The tropical anthuriums, orchids, and birds of paradise were exquisite.

This dog i'm with is made completely out of flowers...too cool.

Additionally, I took a day trip today to the Mornington Peninsula, a popular vacation spot for Melbournians. Its about an hours train ride away, and there are many marine parks and sanctuaries there. Surfing is a popular past time there as well, along with kite boarding and wind surfing.  There was also the Australia Sand Sculpture contest which was so detailed and interesting, sand art is always really inspiring.  I also had some really delicious fish and chips. Fish and Chips have become a favorite pastime here-I guess its the British colony influence. haha. I hope to find a place that does them well in the states too.

Another part of the Melb. Flower Show- this guitar was HUGE and is made entirely out of oranges.

I am closing in on mid-semester, its so hard to believe! We have Easter break after this week. I am going to the outback (uluru, alice springs, coober pedy, and adelaide) and then to tasmania for the second part of the break. It should be really exciting and I will have lots of neat pictures for my next post. Till then...Cheers!

The Great Ocean Road

GOOD DAY!!
Ihope everyone is enjoying the extended daylight hours (even though you lost one initially) that now puts us at a 15 hour time difference, rather than a 16 hour difference.  This past week has actually been fairly busy, classes are really beginning to require some effort  and the  nightlife scene/events to do around melbourne are always plentiful. 

This past weekend I went camping with some friends from IES. We rented a car and drove (yes on the other side of the road! I even drove for part of the journey) through Geelong and Torquay out to the Great Ocean Road which runs about 90 km along the coast. It also runs through parts of Great Otway National Park, the Otways are a mountain range along the coast that have lush green rainforest, lots of giant tree ferns and waterfalls a plenty. There was also a great variety of bird life, I recognized some of the species of cockatoos and parrots from my Australian Wildlife Biology class.

We left early afternoon on Friday and arrived at our campsite at Stevenson falls around sunset. We immediately set up camp and started dinner so as to finish before losing the last bit of daylight. The campsite was really nice, grassy areas and we saw wild kangaroos and wallabees. They were hanging out at the site, about 30 m from where we had set up camp. We also saw wild koalas on the drive down.


Early the next morning we hiked to Stevenson Falls. It was a really nice walk there, through redwoods and fern gullies. very verdant. The waterfall itself was kind of neat too, because you could climb on the surrouding rocks and get really close to it.
Beauchamp Falls

 That afternoon we packed up camp and headed to the 12 apostles, a famous rock formation along the great ocean road. I'm attathcing a picture here, its breathtaking. The blue water against the rugged rocky coast are not captured in the photos. We had gorgeous weather for it, it was sunny, clear and a warm 85 degrees.  There aren't actually 12 apostles any more (the apostle refers to the rocks in the middle of the ocean), several have now fallen down so it should be renamed the "8 or so apostles".  In any case, they have lookouts that run along the coast for you to observe them from...its quite possibly the most beautiful thing i've seen while in Australia (and maybe ever). You feel so dwarfed by their size and beauty.



The 12 Apostles on Great Ocean Road. Absolutely Spectacular.

After the 12 apostles, we headed to Johanna Beach which is a beautiful beach along the surf coast.  Since its good for surfing however, its not good for swimming. Reef and rip tides make swimming tricky business. So we enjoyed the sun and played in the shallows.  That night we camped at Beauchamp Falls, and had a similar routine of setting up camp and cooking while daylight was still there.

This morning we woke up and hiked to Beauchamp Falls and then went to another trail and hiked to Hoptoun Falls, both are waterfalls within the Great Otway National Park/Rainforest. We then did another hike around the state park before packing up and heading back to Melbourne. All in all it was a great, but tiring weekend. I'm now trying to catch up on all the homework I didn't do while I was gallivanting playing in the coast and forest.



  Me at the 12 Apostles

Adventures Around Victoria

Hello!!!
Classes are going well, thus far I'm really enjoying my Australian Wildlife Biology class, the instructor is incredible: she's a wildlife biologist who has done field work all over asia, south america, australia, and antarctica. She's worked with so many different animals: the koala, the platypus, fur seals, possums, you name it.  The lab component of that class is in the field, not the lab which is a nice change from spending my afternoons in chem lab in milliken (not that I don't enjoy that too, but its not as much fun as going to the park or zoo).I've truly rediscovered my love for the ocean and wildlife in general since I've been here- field work can be great fun. 

On a different note, This past weekend I did a fair amount of traveling about victoria. On Thursday I visited the Fitzroy gardens and saw Captain James Cook's cottage On Friday I braved 4 forms of public transport to reach Healesville Sanctuary, a nature preserve/park about 2 hours outside of Melbourne. While there I got to see Tasmanian Devils (whose whole species is currently under danger of extinction due to the development of a contagious facial cancer), Koalas, Platypi, echidnas, wombats, wallabees, kangaroos, all types of parrots and cockatoos, 7 of the 10 deadly snakes found in Australia, scorpions, spiders and a variety of other marsupials such as bilbies, different possums, sugargliders, bats, etc etc. It was marvelous and gorgeous. Although, while driving there we did drive through the Yarra Valley , a famous wine region that was hit pretty hard in places by the bushfires. I saw many blackened fields and trees that were evidence of the blazes that came through on Black Saturday.

Tasmanian Devil Echidna

On Saturday I visited Brighton Beach again, home of the adorable colorful beach huts.  The weather was nice and sunny so we enjoyed a day of shelling and photographing at the beach. I 've seen quite a variety of shells here, which for those of you who know me know how much I love to pick up seashells along the beach and then try to identify them later (I have a field guide already! haha). 

And finally, on Sunday I travelled the 2 hours to Philip Island where we saw the famous woolamai beach- home of many surfers. The water was a beautiful green/blue and it was a glorious sight.  After seeing the beach we went to a mangrove park to look for native bird species, and also saw some wombats and wallabees in the wild.  Following that we venture to the Knobbies, a mountainous region of the shoreline that is home to the largest fur seal colony in australia-hosting 25,000 seals on an island about 1 km off the coast.  They had cameras focused on the island so that everyone could see the seals up close, as from afar you can't see much detail. It was incredible- the seals are absolutely so graceful to watch.  And following that, we went to the penguin parade. Which was the main event, after all. You sit on a beach from about 7 pm onward (to get a good seat) and wait until about 20 minutes following sunset to watch the fairy penguins (the smallest of the 17 species of penguins in the world) come ashore after their fishing trips. The penguins are so adorable- only weighing about 1 kilo and they come up in groups to waddle up to shore to go home to their burrows.  After watching them come in from the beach, you can then walk around the shrubbery around the shore and see them in their burrows or outside in groups socializing. It was one of the coolest experiences I've had whilehere. This is me at Woolamai Beach on Philip Island

Australia's Rainbow Row

This weekend has been action packed! I visited the Royal Botanical Gardens of Melbourne, which were established in the 1800s and are located within the city.  There I got to see both native and non native plant species of Australia. Many of the species, however, actually are found in Queensland and not in Victoria. Victoria's climate is too dry to support some of the same habitat.  While at the gardens I also saw a lot of birds, including the Rainbow Lorikeet. One of Australia's most brightly colored and beautiful feathered friends.  The Gardens also host a "Moonlight Cinema" every weekend, which we attended. You bring a picnic dinner and sit outside to watch a movie on one of the grassy lawns. We watched Will Smith in "Seven Pounds", it was such a good movie and all the better since it was outside!  It reminded me of summer movie nights at home in Columbia's Finlay Park.

Neat Topiary at the Royal Botanical Gardens

We also took a train up to Brighton Beach, which is located about ~30min train ride outside of Melbourne. At the Beach there are heaps of these brightly colored Beach Huts.  They are fondly known as the "Rainbow Beach Huts of Brighton Beach." They are so picturesque, and happy. We spent an afternoon basking in the sunlight and taking photos at the beach. It was glorious. Brighton is also really popular for kite boarding and windsurfing, which you can see in the photo below. You also have a pretty good view of the city skyline.

The Melbourne Skyline and the Rainbow Row of Huts on the Right from Far Away

A closer view of some of my favorite houses.

All in All it was a very nice weekend, I enjoyed getting out of the city and exploring some new areas.