AQWA

Pineapple fish

Last Monday I went to the Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA) in Hilary's Harbour located north of Perth. After taking several buses and trains to get there, we finally found it!


The aquarium was small, but included several interesting exhibits of areas around Australia. One of my favorites was the "dangerous animals" section which included a blue-ringed octopus, jellyfish, and a rockfish. It was nice to be reminded that there are a lot of dangerous creatures lurking around Australia.

One of my favorite animals there was the cuttlefish, a mollusc . It has one "bone" inside made out of aragonite, a type of calcium carbonate. The cuttlebone is filled with air pockets and the cuttlefish can adjust the air to water ratio to sink or float. When I was at Rottnest Island yesterday I saw a few of the cuttlebone plates on the beach. They feel like styrofoam and are really light. Apparently, they are often sold in pet stores as calcium supplements. Cuttlefish also have three hearts, can produce ink , and are able to change color. Here is one below:


Another great part of the aquarium was a tunnel under a huge tank. Inside the tunnel was a moving sidewalk (like at the airport) where people could hop on and off. The children seemed to really enjoy it and so did I.

I also saw several rays and learned that the ray and shark have a common ancestor.

They have similar tails.

"Footy"

This afternoon I went to an Australian Rules Football game. To me, it seemed like a cross between rugby, soccer, and football with a lot of men in tiny shorts running around on a circular field. I went with a bunch of other exchange students and Gumby. We took the bus/train to the game in West Leederville, a suburb of Perth. The teams that were playing were the West Coast Eagles and the Gold Coast Suns. At the start of the game they didn't sing the national anthem. Instead, they released a real eagle out in the stadium! It must have been trained or something because it didn't fly away.

Here are some photos of the game in action (I probably shouldn't take up a career in sport photography):

Note the tiny shorts above.

I was slightly confused the whole time because there were referees that ran out into the middle of the field and they also threw the ball back in from the side backwards and over their head. The stadium was packed with about 35,000 people. Most were dressed in blue and yellow for the Eagles, but there were a few people in red and yellow for the GC Suns.
If you are curious: here are the official rules.



Oh, and the Eagles won! 85-67.

Pinnacles and More!

On Saturday I went to the Pinnacles National Park with some Willamette friends and our professor. We drove about 2.5 hours north of Perth along the Indian Ocean Drive. It looked similar because it was the same road we had taken to get back to Perth at the conclusion of our Easter break adventure. Along the way I saw an emu and a lot of burned bushland. We stopped at a small cafe where I ate a scone (pronounced "scon"). They had a surprisingly diverse selection of pastries for such a small place.

We arrived at the National Park and had a look in the Visitors Centre where I learned the origin of the Pinnacles is still a mystery. There are several theories, but most involve formation of calcareous sheaths around large roots. Eventually, the roots rotted away and the columnar shapes filled with sand. The columns may have been unburied and reburied by sand dunes over time, and fossil soil layers and other fossils including aboriginal artifacts have been found cemented in the pinnacles themselves. The estimated age of the pinnacles is about 500,000 years before present. More information here.


After walking around the Pinnacles and sort-of getting lost, we headed back south to Perth. We made a stop at the Yanchep National Park, where we took a cave tour and saw some kangaroos and koalas.

The cave was interesting because it was relatively shallow. There were tree roots inside that ran along the stairs and come down from the ceiling in search of water. There was also a small pool inside that housed a rare species of cave-dwelling crustaceans (family: Crangonyctidae). Water has to be pumped into the cave to support a root mat which provides a food source for the Crystal Cave Crangonyctoid. There are also other caves in the region with similar situations and species that are endemic to one cave. The last few winters have been dry in Western Australia, so water levels have been really low. Our tour guide seemed very concerned.

The thing coming down from the ceiling is not a pipe, it's a taproot!

On a happier note, I learned the Latin name for koala (Phascolarctos cinereus) means 'ash-coloured pouched-bear.'

Fun Things #2

1. Jus Burgers- I went here last Saturday and got a pumpkin burger with pesto and goat cheese. It was so delicious and a refreshing change from the dorm food. I had never eaten a burger made out of pumpkin before either! They use local ingredients too.


2. Royal Wedding Pub Crawl- where I dressed up as a chimney sweep and made a "broom" out of paper!
3. Quiz Nights! I went to two quiz nights in the past two weeks. I only won a prize at one though. I got a basket with "Australian" items in it; Tim Tams, a koala, Vegemite (gross), a bottle of wine, a candy bar, and a tiny Australian flag.

4. Macadamia nuts outside of my dorm! I have been collecting them like a squirrel. They are one of the most expensive nuts to buy because they are so hard to crack open. I had a chat with one of the groundskeepers and he said they were okay to eat.

Weekend on the Eastside-Melbourne!

I just returned from a trip east to Melbourne (there was a flight sale!). It was a lot colder (everyone was wearing scarves) and it rained. I traveled with Amanda and Kelly, both living at Trinity with me. We got a flight out of Perth Thursday night and stayed at a hotel just outside of Melbourne in Geelong. The next morning we took an hour long train ride into the city.


Melbourne is located in Victoria and it takes about 3.5 hours to fly there from Perth.

After disembarking from the train, we went into downtown to find some breakfast, explore, and find our hostel. We took a free tourist bus around the city and saw some sights. Then, we got off the bus and went to the visitors centre, one of the nicest I have been too. From there we kept walking around and went to the Victoria Art Museum. I saw a few paintings that we had discussed in my Australian Culture class including ones of Ned Kelly and artistic interpretations of the drought.

We then found the graffiti alleyways that Melbourne is famous for. They are covered in artistic graffiti that must have taken years to paint/spray. Here are some photos:


We spent the rest of day eating at tiny cafes in the rain and exploring. We checked into our hostel and then went to the grocery store to get food to make dinner. It is a lot cheaper to make your own food than go to a restaurant in Australia!

The next morning we got up really early for our 7am pick-up at the hostel for the Great Ocean Road tour. It was a lot of driving with many views of this along the coast:

We had morning tea at one of the Bells Beach, a famous surfing location. I didn't see any surfers because the waves were too big. We also stopped at the memorial arch, where the great ocean sign was:
We continued on to look at some wild koalas, king parrots, and Crimson rosellas. We got birdseed to feed the birds and they ate it straight out of our hands!

After that we went to Apollo Bay for lunch and then to Otway's Rainforest where I saw my first moss of Australia! It was rainy and there were tree ferns everywhere! Here is the group, Me, Kelly, and Amanda:

We then went to the 12 Apostles which used to be called the Sow and Piglets, but they changed the name for tourist reasons. It slightly foggy and cold but it was cool to see the sedimentary rock material being hammered by the waves.
There are actually only 8 remaining stacks because they erode about 2cm a year and eventually collapse into the ocean.We also went to the Loch Arch Gorge (below), where the Australian version of Titanic occurred. Read more about it here.

Our last stop to look at some rocks was London Bridge:

Behind us is where it was connected to the mainland before the collapse

This landform partially collapsed a few years ago, but we were still able to see the remaining portion. There was a story with this rock too, apparently two lovers went there during the week for a vacation. They became stranded on the rock when the bridge collapsed that connected it to the mainland. They were safe, but had to wait until someone found them. Luckily, there was an older couple who had just visited the bridge and they drove into town to alert the police. The policeman did not believe that the “bridge” had collapsed but after a while he went to look for himself. Sure enough, there were two people stranded. He called around to ask if anyone had an available helicopter and they only one not broken/at the shop belonged to a news agency. They agreed to rescue the people only if they could film the event. When they flew up to rescue the couple, the reporters noticed the man and woman below covered their faces and tried to hide. Apparently, they both were married, just not to each other, and they had both called in “sick” that day!

We stayed overnight at Ned's Beds, a hostel near the Grampians National Park. It was basically a Ned's grandmother's house with bunk beds in every bedroom.

We got up the next morning ready for some hiking!

SECOND DAY OF THE TOUR

The second day of the tour we woke up and walked over to a nearby field for a look at some “wild” kangaroos. Then we drove to some falls. There had been a huge landslide//flood in the area and the riverbed was full of debris. The path had recently been reconstructed.

We then went to the Brambuk Aboriginal Cultural Centre where we looked at some displays of Indigenous artifacts, art, and went on a stroll through some trails.

After that we went on another hike in the Grampians National Park on Hollow Mountain. We hiked all the way to the top and the views were amazing. The limestone rocks had been heavily weathered by water and there were caves that we crawled through.

The tour ended with a free wine tasting at Best’s Wines!

We then drove back to Melbourne, where we were dropped off at Base Hostel. We ate dinner at one of my favourite restaurants so far called Lentil as Anything. It was a pay-what-you-feel vegetarian restaurant with an interesting history. I ate dahl with bread, a small salad, and chai!

Happiness!

After dinner we explored more of Melbourne in the dark. We went down to St. Kilda's beach, a few min away from our hostel. We heard there were penguins down by the rocks so went went to check it out. We saw three "fairy" penguins and one water rat! The penguins were so cute and they made funny noises! I tried to imitate them...

We also imitated angry-looking statues:

The last day in Melbourne we left the hostel and took the tram into the city. We went to The Pancake Parlour for breakfast where I had buckwheat pancakes! Yum! They had some crazy combinations like cinnamon and banana with ice cream. After that Kelly and I went to a fancy hotel to look at a free view of the city from the ladies restroom:
We felt really out of place there with our backpacks and raincoats on amongst the wealthy business people. We split up that afternoon to explore on our own. I went to the Royal Botanical Gardens which were quite large. I didn't even see it all. Here are a few photos:

They had a fern gully.

A delightful herb garden where I saw a honeycreeper drinking Pineapple Salvia nectar.
And a childrens' vegetable garden.

After walking almost all day I meet up with Kelly and Amanda back in the city. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant where I got pumpkin soup. Then we took a bus to the airport and headed back to Perth!