Blue Mountains

Sunday 6 March
     Today I went to the Blue Mountains. The mountains are about 3 hours outside of Sydney so we took a mini coach bus for the day because there were only 12 of us going. We started off by stopping at Featherdale Wildlife Park.

Baby Wallaby! He's only 8 months old!

Here we got to see all kinds of Australian animals. It was different because a lot of the animals weren't caged. We were walking around the Koala area and suddenly there was a Wallaby right by my leg. I got to feed wallabies and kangaroos again!

Feeding Kangaroos. 

These ones were more in your face though... and there were emu in the same area and one almost poked my eye. Yikes! It was really fun though, I got to see a tasmanian devil up close (he went back in the shade too fast to get picture though) and a some wombats.

Wombat

  

















 After an hour at the park we got on the bus and headed up to the mountains. We arrived at about 11:15. We started by going to a lookout and I have to say, the pictures do not do it justice. Everything was so beautiful!

First lookout.

Stringy eucalyptus.

     After the lookout we headed on a mini hike down to another lookout, and on the way our guide told us about the different trees and the mountains. He told us about this one tree which is a called the stingy eucalyptus. This tree is very unique in that the bark is stringy, its hard to explain but there is a picture below. Anyways, the leave on this tree give off a specific oil and smell that linger near the leaves and when it gets hot it catches on fire. This is the only way to open the seeds of the tree. So the bark also  catches and falls away from the tree and covers the opened seeds so the tree stays alive, and the ash helps the seeds grow. These trees have been imported into California and have become a huge problem with the wild fires.
     After this we made it down to the second lookout and it was so beautiful. There was a little waterfall and we could see all kinds of walkways. We took a so many pictures! There was apparently a snake near one spot, but I stayed far away from that.
     Once we were done taking pictures we headed back to the bus and went to the town Katoomaba for  lunch. My friends and I found a little bakery that was cheap. (Its really hard to find anything cheap here so we were really excited and stocked up!)

Mardi Gras 2011

Saturday 5 March
     After going to the aquarium and Wild Life World, my friends and I made our way over to the Mardi Gras parade. One of our teachers at school was holding a place for students and we got there just after 4pm. You have to get there early because they shut down the street at about 4:30 and you can't cross after that. Our teacher had been at the spot since 6AM!!!!!!!!!!!! Now that is dedication. Once we got there we waited around and just talked since the parade didn't start until 7:45! Yes, we waited almost 4 hours for it to start, and it didn't end until after 10 pm. It was very long and very crowded but it was also a ton of fun!

Here is my favorite float from the night. 

     When you think of Mardi Gras what do you see? I think purple, green, and gold, everyone in masks and wearing beads. Well, just about the only thing Mardi Gras about this parade was people wearing beads because this wasn't just normal Mardi Gras it was Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras. Here everyone is very accepting and open about it. It was really refreshing, I didn't even see one protester during the 6+ hours I was there. And there was someone from every group in the parade including, the firefighters and police, all different religions and races, and a bunch of clubs from around the area! There was plenty to see, as I'm sure you can imagine. I won't go into detail except to say it was definitely a unique experience and I'm very glad I went!

My friend Jess and I showing our support for gay pride! 

HAPPY BELATED MARDI GRAS EVERYONE!!!