Final Post

G’day mates for the final time. Though the trip has ended, the memories I had in Australia will never end. But to recap the trip, here are my top five favorite adventures in Australia.

The first one was for sure Orpheus Island. The island was so pretty the site and the sun down was absolutely breath taking. The snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef was so amazing and because I liked it so much, I want to be a marine biologist just so I can go and explore the under water world as a job.

Above the trees at the Otway Fly it made me feel incredibly tall, but also incredibly scared of falling over the side. But that would not happen, we were perfectly safe.

The third most favorite thing I did in Australia was definitely the banana farm. One of our teachers had really white skin so she rubbed mud all over herself and called it a tan. But along with some of the goofy things we did, there was some learning. I did learn that a banana is a flower!!!! Never in a million years would I think a banana is a flower.

My fourth favorite thing we did in Australia was the Australia Zoo. The Australia zoo was founded by Steve Erwin’s dad but before he died he gave it to Steve. At the zoo we got the great opportunity to watch the croc show which was amazing! We also got to feed some kangaroos!! But after feeding them, I discovered that kangaroos are pretty intimidating when you hear them come up behind you. All you here is this boom, boom, boom get louder and louder as it gets closer.

The fifth and final favorite adventure was Ayer's Rock. The sunrise there was so breath taking. The way the sun rose on the rock made it look like it was on fire. It was really pretty and I got some amazing pictures. We also got to get up close and personal with the rock and view ancient aboriginal paintings inside of the rock which were miraculous too.

Wow, sometimes I wish I could rewind it all and go back to those sweet two weeks of my life and see the friends I made all over again. But some day I will go back to Australia and redo those adventures once again.

Saying Goodbye to the Island

Today we came back from the island, but before we headed off the island we woke up 5:30 to start to get ready to catch our ferry/ boat ride. I will defiantly miss being there in paradise. So we headed from the island to back to the Aquarium. There we analyzed our data and graphed it. We said goodbye to Duncan and every one. Then we made our way to the mall!! There we went store to find gifts and stuff for family and Friends. And that end's are day till our next adventure to the Australia Zoo.

The Island Adventure

On Wednesday, the Discovery team spent the day at the aquarium. There we visited all of the exhibits. But the real amazing thing was the night tour. We got a behind the scenes look on how everything works. But before the aquarium we took a Snorkeling 101 class on every thing that would really help me in the water. On Thursday we woke up bright and early...a 4:00 am!!!! Ahhh!!

But it was worth the breath taking views of the ocean sunset and sundown. Orpheus Island - it's paradise here and you can't deny it. The really cool parts of the day was going snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef which was sooo cool. Except for one thing - the coral on the Great Barrier Reef is extermly sharp. I have two bad scrapes one on my hand and the other on the back on my foot. Other than that, underwater see life is a whole other world still waiting to be discovered. Another cool thing that happened today was that we saw a baby black tip shark and it was so cool. The island is a nice peaceful place and time seems to slow when your here but time is still going fast because to think we 3 days left in paradise.

The Night at the Oorainna Bush Camp

So at Oorainna bush camp we were going to sleep under the stars but... It turned out little differently. Alice springs is the driest place in the out back. But it has been either raining or cold since we got here witch doesn't surprise me I think were cursed Americans. Oh well hey we're here and that's all that matters to me. We did not sleep under the stars because of the rain but in my opinion it wasn't that cold. The next day we spent six hours on the bus wahoo!!!!! Not. But the more fun parts of the trip was doing the aboriginal paintings. I messed my first one up and my second one, but I tried to make mine pretty. To the aboriginal people it is not just a painting it's a story. They also use symbols to represent different things about the story there telling. I really enjoyed the aboriginal painting because I like how there's its own story in each of there paintings. So why tell a story when you can tell one. Then later that night I had an interesting dinner I had a kangaroo skillets and emu sausage yummy the emu was great kangaroo was fine but hey I tried it! Well that ends my day. G'day mates.

The Cocrodile Farm

Today we enjoyed walking around on a camel since the camel ride got canceled because of the rain. But some other adventures we had was spending 2 and a half hours on an air plane which wasn't that bad. Especially when you slept the whole way.

But the really fun part was the crock farm we learned about the salt water crock and fresh water crock and salt water crocks can live in fresh water witch was really cool!
We also learned that the koala has smelly glands on its chest and the male koala rubs that odor all over the trees to attract females. I am liking it here in Carin's because of the good weather and I don't really want to leave this place but I do have to admit I am a little home sick.

Day 3 of my adventure

Wow today was really cool. We went to the Healesville Sanctuary. I learned that sugar gliders babies are so small that they are half the size of a grain of rice. While we also there we watched an autopsy on a dead kangaroo. It was sooo cool but it smelled so bad. I really wish I could live here there's so much to see but so little time. Every thing here is so magical and breath taking every
place that we go all the things that we see is like a 2 week dream that doesn't want to end. I am afraid that I will take advantage of every thing and just speed through things with out taking it all
in and enjoying this once in a life time experience. I'm learning so much I don't know how to describe all the things I'm learning.

A Day in the Rain Forest

(Tonight’s blog post was a group effort. All students collaborated to create the post.)

There was a spiral road that never seemed to end. After three hours on the bus, one of our teachers even got sick. (And no – it was not Mrs. Jensen.) On the way to the rain forest we got to see our first wild koalas in the trees along side the road.

After arriving at Otway Fly, it was fun getting our hands dirty as we each planted two trees, one Myrtle Beech and one Mountain Ash.

The Mountain Ash tree is the second largest tree in the world. It can grow up to 150 meters in height. You can tell how old a Mountain Ash tree is by measuring its diameter at about chest high. For every centimeter it is one year old.

The moss grows on the south side of the trees because it avoids the sunlight. This was surprising to us because back home it grows on the north side of trees.

Some of the trees in the rainforest are shaped like a boomerang because another tree has blocked its sunlight. It curves to find the sunlight. This movement of the tree was interesting. The aborigines would make their own tools out of trees, mollusk and kangaroo tail.

We also learned that there are lots of threats to the rainforest including people cutting trees. In just one minute about 10 regular-sized football fields of Amazon rain forest is cut down. Realizing how much forest this actually is, it seems that it could all be destroyed in a matter of years. Without our rainforest, we would have less oxygen and water…both are necessary for life. Yesterday we learned about many endangered frogs. They are endangered because their habitat is being destroyed, due to deforestation.

We walked up the Otway Fly, which was 47 meters high. We got to see a great view of the rain forest below. The rain forest gets 2 meters of rainfall a year. While in the rain forest we got to drink some of the fresh creek water. We were surprised at how clean this water was.

Our second day in Australia was successful. Although it was raining most of our time in the “rain forest” we were still able to soak up some great information along with all the water.