Today was spent at one of the premier tennis tournaments, the Australian Open. This is the only grand slam event played in the Pacific/Asia Region.
Many of the students (and faculty) decided to upgrade from the ground passes that were purchased to tickets in the Vodafone arena. The Vodafone arena used to be center court, but when Rod Laver Arena was built it became the off arena. New policy has it that you need tickets to go in. Many decided to upgrade so that they could see players such as Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. However, there were also some matches by male players ranked in the top 10 (Dayvadenko and Gasquet).
Some of the students also took in matches on the show courts. The two matches that drew most attention was the morning doubles match by Bob and Mike Bryan. They are currently the number one ranked mens double team in the country and are from the USA. The afternoon saw the Williams sisters play doubles (and win).
It sounds like everyone had a great time at the Open. Mallory and I decided to get a nice meal in Little Italy. Here are a few photos from our day, please Enjoy.
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Yesterday was a very long day. We were picked up from the hotel at 9 am and met our guides from the University of Melbourne (Andy and Phil) and did not get back in until midnight. Just in time to see the end of the last tennis match on TV.
We started off the day with a long bus ride to San Remo where we took a short break and watched the feeding of the Pelicans. A local eatery feeds their leftover fish and scraps to the pelicans. After our break we went on a beautiful coastal walk which had some great beaches and views.
After our walke we went to the town of Cowes and grabbed a quick bite to eat. From there we went to a Koala Conservatory and the Phillip Island Wildlife Park. Both of these spots allowed the students to get some great pictures of native Australian animals. Many of the students took advantage of the opportunity to feed many of these animals. Below you will see a few of the pictures. I will label them for you also.
Here is a great picture of a younger Koala (not bear).
Here is Mallory feeding a Wombat, her favorite animal.
David and Matt stalking a kangaroo and her joey.
Here is an Emu.
Here is a Cassowary, Mallory talked about these in Daintree.
We also saw some Tasmanian devils, snakes, birds and a few others.
After the wildlife park we went to dinner before heading to the Nobbies (picture below). The Nobbies usually have some seals on them but because of the sunset it was hard to see them, but did offer some great views.
After the Nobbies we went to see the Penguin Parade. This is when many fairy penguins come in from the ocean and march up to land to rest after days/weeks of fishing in the ocean. The Penguins are very cute but don't come in until after the sun is set which is why we got in so late. The picture below is of a fairy penguin that some of us saw at the Nobbies. We were not allowed to take pictures at the Parade.
G'day to all who are still reading.
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This is just a quick update to let you know that we have arrived in Melbourne safely. Mallory and I spent the evening walking to Federation Square and along the river before grabbing dinner.
We will probably not be able to update the blog for a day or so because we have an all day activity planned tomorrow. Please tune in for when we get back. Take care.
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Today was a free day for the group so that everyone could go their separate ways. The students were very boring, they went to the Lagoon which is a local pool and got some sun and did some shopping. A few of them went to the local casino, okay, not what you think, on the top floor is actually a zoo, so they went and saw some wild life and had a good time.
Mallory and I decided to do something different. We had heard about the town of Kuranda which is at the top of a mountain and can be accessed by car, scenic train or skyrail. We have had enough of cars and buses so we decided to go up via scenic rail and then down via skyrail. As you will see from our pictures, we had quite a good time and some amazing views of the area North of Cairns.
One of the major scenic sites in the area are the Barron Falls which were quite brilliant and you could hear the power in them when we saw them both by train and skyrail. The interesting thing about the Barron Falls is that they are used to generate power and are considered a green source of energy that is used in Cairns and surrounding cities.
After some shopping in Kuranda and walking the town and enjoying the sites, we were able to head back down towards Cairns.
Once again the sites were amazing, but it is also interesting to know that the skyrail was built in such a way that the natural environment was not harmed. Most of the materials for the towers were brought on by helicopter and manufactured on site so that trees would not have to be destroyed. We saw a video of the building, it was quite amazing. After watching the video I am considering adding this to our course on ecotourism because of the sustainability principles used to create the skyrail. Besides, it was fun also.
The last photo is of what they call the "Flying Fox." When we were coming up via train they talked about this was a common way to transport materials and that some people even "commuted" to work via the Flying Fox. Now that might be fun.
Mallory and I finished off tonight with a dinner at a restuarant where we sampled the local fare. We enjoyed the "Ozie Trio" which consisted of Emu, Crocodile and Kangaroo. It was quite tasty, YUM.
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Today we headed up to the Daintree Rainforest, the oldest rainforest in the world and it was a great day to be out exploring -- despite being a "rainforest" it stayed pretty dry on us -- perfect!
(This is a speed bumb sign were someone decided to make the speed hump look like a cassowarie)
Our three guides Tom (owner of Wilderness Challenge), Evan, and Dean were a wealth of knowledge and we learned loads about the different fauna and birds -- we all hoped to see a Cassowarie (a giant bird similiar to an emu or ostrich), but instead we saw plenty of flying foxes (otherwise known as bats). The other thing that was prevelant on our rainforest experience were spiders -- we saw a ton of golden orb spiders and one of them was just slightly smaller than the size of my hand -- don't worry, they're not poisonous -- ugly, but not poisonous!
On our bush walk through Daintree we saw some pretty neat wild life, a King Fisher bird and we saw a rather large lizard (the name is escaping me at the moment). In addition to walking in the bush we also got to walk along Thorton beach -- it was beautiful and one of the neatest things to think about as we were walking was that the beach looks like it did when Cook discovered these shores back in the 1700's -- pretty cool! While we were on the beach we found pumice stones that had washed up on shore as well as mangrove seeds, one had actually sprouted, which was unusual!
After the beach, we headed to lunch and then we dropped by a fruit grove and bought homemade ice cream -- the flavors we got to eat were Jakefruit, Wattleseed, Blueberry, and Coconut -- we got all four -- it was served that way and the flavors were determined by what was ripe at the grove -- yummy!
From ice cream we zoomed off to our boat trip down the Daintree River, where we actually got to see a mother crocodile nesting -- it was hard to get the right picture through the brush, but were hoping someone got a decent shot! While we were out on the river we also saw a python curled up sunning itself in a mangrove tree, and then of course the bats sleeping in the trees! We definitely got to see some great wildlife on today's excursion.
Today was full of learning and experiencing new things -- I think the students really enjoyed what we saw and the knowledge that was imparted to us. Our guides were great and answered so many of our questions - there wasn't anything that they didn't seem to know (or know how to get the answer to)! Great day!
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