Sydney Museums!

While I hope to be working very soon, I have not worked yet, and find myself exploring museums around town. I have been to the Museum of Sydney, The Australia Museum, and to the Star Wars exhibit at The Powerhouse Museum (science).

A few weeks ago I went to the Museum of Sydney where I learned all about the first settlers here in Sydney. There were a variety of ships that sailed here from Europe in the 1800's full of criminals! It sounds terrible, but most of them actually had only committed smaller crimes, such as stealing things like bread. When they got to Australia they settled new colonies here. The sad part is that they brought with them many diseases that the aboriginal people here had never encountered before. Even simple illnesses like colds killed the aboriginal people, and over half of the original aboriginal population died from the common European illnesses. Much like the colonization of North America, the European settlers took the land from the aboriginal peoples and changed their entire way of life. Because of these upsets, as well as many forms of persecution in the over one hundred years to follow, aboriginals in Australia today struggle with many of the same problems as aboriginals in North America. 

A temporary exhibit was about the original transportation here in Sydney - which was by trolley! I also learned about the ten most influential people in the development of Sydney - including the man who designed the Sydney Opera House! 

It was an impromptu visit to this museum, and unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me, so there are no pictures.

The Australia Museum held many treasures - including a female mummy that was completely random, sitting in a hallway and not having much to do with anything (it was a donation to the museum and I guess they feel obligated to have it on some kind of display). I think my favourite part of the museum was the exhibit, on loan from Paris, featuring mammoths! ... Although the skeleton exhibit was pretty cool too (minus the creepy factor)... 

While there were never mammoths in Australia, it was neat to learn about them! The coolest part of the exhibit was a baby mammoth, perfectly preserved, even having some hair left on it! The scientists believe that the baby got trapped in a tar pit and with the heat, pressure and lack of oxygen, was never able to decompose. Sadly, I neglected to take a picture of the little fella! Too bad. They have erected a model of what the people would have lived in during the time of the mammoths, based on piles of bones found at various sites in Russia. The people used up to 30 mammoths, taking the meat for food, the hide for clothing, and then using the bones to construct shelters. Scientists believe that, as the people were hunters and gatherers, the shelters were used as hunting camps that the people would go to at various times of the year. Geez, how do I remember this stuff?!

There were a few areas on the animal life here in Australia. There was a giant room filled with every species of bird in Australia (stuffed now, but were once living), as well as all of the insects that can be found here, propped up neatly on little pins in their glass cases. Another room housed some of the marsupials, and other mammals found in Australia, and still another room was dedicated to sea life! (It's a big place!)

The dinosaur exhibit was pretty cool, but because there were fewer in Australia, there was not too much to see, as there have been very few bones found! (Australia was closer to Antarctica and so any dinosaurs that have been found so far were small and adapted to the cold. At other times during the era of the dinosaurs, Australia was covered in a shallow sea. Scientists believe that there are more bones to be found, but so far, no go!) Plus, I have been to some pretty amazing dinosaur exhibits: close to home at the incredible Tyrell Museum and at a museum in Chicago, so this held no comparison. What was interesting though, was to learn about the "megafauna" that was here in Australia. Picture giant wombats and massive kangaroos! Actually, the kangaroo is the last living form of megafauna from prehistoric times, though it is much, much smaller than it's ancestors. One part of the dinosaur exhibit that I thought was done really well was the connection of birds to dinosaurs, as birds are the closest relative to dinosaurs! They had a whole wall that showed the transformation over time from hollow-boned dinosaurs with claws and wishbones, to the eventual feathered friends we know today! Amazing.

The Australian rock and mineral exhibit was neat to see. My grandma lives in Bancroft, the "rock capitol of Canada" and being an audience to the "Rockhound Jamboree" held every year (buyers and sellers of rocks and minerals, all on display), has given me an appreciation for all things sparkly. There was an impressive collection, all from an Australian collector who made his fortunes in the mines here (mining is one of Australia's major industries), later turning his career into a passion, if not obsession, for collecting rare and interesting rocks and minerals. The crystals were especially neat to see. I was amazed at the shapes they grow into! Just beautiful.

The skeleton exhibit was very unique, showing the bone structures of Australian and African animals. They had a bike that you could ride on, and as you ride, a skeleton on the same bike behind the glass mimics your actions so you can see what your bones are doing! I'm the one riding the horse - Yee haw!

On the weekend Kurtis and I ventured to the Powerhouse Museum to fulfill Kurtis' curiosity for the "Star Wars" exhibit. We didn't have time to do the rest of the museum, but I will definitely check it out another day. I think, for those of you "Star Wars" fans, that the pictures speak for themselves! And to be perfectly honest, I have not been living under a rock, I recognize many of the characters and can even name some of them, but I have never seen an entire "Star Wars" movie! How crazy is that?! Maybe some rainy weekend I will lock myself in and do a "Star Wars" marathon... or maybe I just have no interest in seeing it, much to the utter disbelief of Kurtis. Did I mention we stood in line to get in, for 45 minutes? Oh the things we do for love.

So those are my museum adventures so far! I am actually impressed by how much I remember from reading and seeing the exhibits! And I can tell you, it was much more fun and interesting than getting information from a book or online. :)

Taronga Zoo, Sydney

There is so much to do in Sydney! Whether it is a special event going on around town, or one of the sights that Sydney always offers, I don't think you could ever be bored here! Despite the rain, last weekend Kurtis and I decided to head to the zoo!

After taking a bus, a ferry and a gondola, we reached the top of the zoo! The view of downtown Sydney from the top of the zoo is incredible! The zoo itself is on a hillside. When we got off the ferry, I thought, that's weird, where is the zoo? There are so many trees around and in the enclosures, that from the ferry it just looks like a forest on a hill... but what we found under the trees was a spectacular zoo, filled with active, happy animals from all over the world.

Zoos are one of my favourite places to visit, and the Taronga Zoo is certainly one of the coolest zoos I have ever seen. If it weren't such a trek to get there, I think I could happily visit the animals once a week! The photos speak for themselves, but one thing that really struck me was how active the animals were! It was incredible to see them this way because it didn't feel like they were in enclosures necessarily, but in their habitats. My favourite photo of the day is the tiger! He was napping under some leaves and then all of a sudden opened his eyes. 

We checked out the reptiles (which always gives Kurtis goosebumps!) and got to see an endangered Fijian lizard, which was only discovered in the 1960's. It has very unique blue, green and white colouring. Another neat animal was the pygmy hippo (like a large hippo, but smaller, and with longer legs). The chimpanzees were pretty cute and I loved seeing one of them at an ant hill with his little stick! He pushed the stick into a tunnel in the ant hill and pulled it out, sucking off the ants which had climbed onto the stick! A tasty afternoon treat! We laughed when we saw the platypus in their tank: they were frantically swimming around, chasing a shrimp! Sometimes they would disturb a crab on the bottom, who in turn would put out his claws as if to say, "Hey! You want a piece of me?!"

The giraffes were not very happy about the rain and all cozied into their little hut to wait it out. You can only see 3 giraffes in the photo, but in total their were 5 giraffes in there! They kept peeking out to see if the rain had stopped, and when it finally did I could just imagine the sigh of relief that they made as they ran out of the crowded little hut!

The red pandas were munching away at their bamboo. It was all I could do to restrain myself from reaching over the ledge and plucking one into my purse to take home - they're just so darn cute! The snow leopards were exquisite. I had never seen a snow leopards face straight on before and was surprised by how different their eyes are then those of a lion or a tiger. There were 3 snow leopards in an area and they were all very playful with one another. I love their gorgeous fluffy tails! It is so sad that they are endangered in the wild!

While we were a little wet and chilly at the end of our afternoon I was so glad we had gone! It wasn't very busy (most people aren't crazy enough to go out in the rain!) and sometimes it felt like we had the whole zoo to ourselves! Also, we got to see a lot of the animals at their feeding time, which is when they become very active. What a great place to visit! I love the zoo!

Oh, and if you are wondering what I am doing with my umbrella at the top of the photos: I was trying to make the peacock show it's tail feathers! It didn't work.

Easter Roadtrip!

With Easter weekend approaching I was feeling a little bit sad that we wouldn't get to spend it with family back home. I was also sad because, after looking high and low, we could not find mini eggs anywhere in Sydney! It was the best surprise to receive a package from my mom with a nice little note, and a whole lot of mini eggs! To celebrate, I baked an Easter cake and decorated it with some of them. Thanks mom!

While we couldn't spend time with family, we decided to do the next best thing, and spend the weekend with friends. Five Canadians (including Kurtis and I) set out on the Thursday before Easter on our first road trip in Australia! We started our weekend off in Newcastle. This was my first hostel stay ever, and all in all, it was fine... well, apart from the odd stain on my sheets. At first I was really nervous about leaving our stuff in a shared room, but after meeting the 3 other people in the room I was ok. The two guys were from Canada (one from Kelowna and the other from Vancouver), and the girl who accompanied them was from Maryland, where we vacationed a few times growing up! They were really nice and had their stuff all over the room, so I figured our overnight bags would be just fine, and they were.

The next day we drove the rest of the way to our final destination: Port Macquarie. We met up with five other friends for a weekend of exploring. The first thing we did was head out for a rainforest walk. We had a volunteer guide: a friendly older man who knew all there was to know about the plant and animal life in the rainforest. I was amazed at the strangler figs! When the seeds of a fig are dropped by a bird onto a tree, they take over a host tree by spreading their roots all around it. Over a long period of time the host tree eventually dies, and all that remains is the fig tree. It's a beautiful phenomenon to see. 

Kurtis was trailing a bit behind the group, when we heard him yell, "snake!" I couldn't help but laugh, because of course the person who has the biggest phobia of snakes would be the one to see one! We all stopped to watch the snake from the safety of the boardwalk. We weren't sure what kind of snake it was, though the guide thought it might be a red-bellied black snake (not poisonous!) As it turned out that was the only animal we spotted on our walk, apart from the wild turkey running around the parking lot! We also saw a stuffed bird inside the information centre (the green one in the photo). This is a "catbird" and gets it's name from the awful sound it makes - like a cat in distress or a baby crying. It just so happens that one of these birds lives right outside my window, and now I know the culprit!

Our next big event was to drive into a nearby valley to a vineyard. There was live jazz being performed and we sat and relaxed, picnic style, with cheese, crackers and olives, while listening to the music. There was a really neat hedge maze there that kids could run through. The area was peaceful and beautiful and it was really neat to see how they grow the grapes.

On Sunday, while we were driving to go go-karting, I was enjoying the views of the area, when all of a sudden I saw it! I tried to tell the rest of the car, but I was so excited I could barely get the words out: "A...is it? It's a... KANGAROO! " My first wild kangaroo sighting!!! Unfortunately we were driving by and I didn't get a chance to snap a photo, but it was so cool to see the kangaroo grazing in the field - just like deer or elk! There was actually a few of them all sitting together, and as we drove we got to see many more in the fields.

Our final weekend event was go-karting! All ten of us were zipping around the track, along with some kids who were spinning out all over the place - yikes! Around and around we went, and while it was fun, I think that going fast in a little car is not my very favourite activity... Kurtis loved it though, so that's good!

Port Macquarie was a really beautiful place to stay and we had lots of fun while we were there. The best part of the weekend was getting out of the city and seeing another part of Australia, and of course spending time with new friends! Now that we've ventured out we are excited to plan our next road trip!