Pictures, pictures, pictures...and kangaroos

All right, just a warning, this'll be a bit of a picture dump. It may take a bit to load, but there are a bunch of adorable animals, so be patient.

All right so I haven't posted in a bit, so here's what's happened in the meantime. (Also, these are the dates this stuff happen here, so it likely happened the day before from where you're reading. That's not confusing at all.)

After a long day Wednesday with a lack of sleep and what-not, Thursday most of us decided to take a wander about town and find banks and money and such. Also, this flower bush is right outside our apartment, so that's cool. They kind of smell like lilacs.

After walking a bit and stopping at a bank we found the Hunter Street Mall, pictured left. It's several block of street lined with shops. All of the doors and windows are wide open, giving the whole street an inviting feel. You'd think you'd get lots of bugs then, but they really haven't been that big of an issue. There's a few mossies (mosquitoes) on campus and at dusk, but not bad.


We've also been to the beach most everyday we've been here. The one pictured below is Newcastle Beach and is my favorite so far. There's lots of open room so it's not so crowded and surfers tend to stay at one part of the beach.

There's also several parks around town. This was taken in Civil park, which is the nearest one where we're staying and the one we cut through to get most anywhere. The tree is a Gum Tree if I remember right. (Also, I have pictures with me in it, not just of animals and such. I've heard some complaints in the past about that.)

On Saturday, we went to Oakvale Farms, an animal reserve, to see some Aussie wildlife. They had your normal farm animals, pigs, chickens, cows, and lots of lots of baby goats wandering about, but there was a bit of OZ wildlife as well.

There was a reptile area where some alligators were just laying in the sun.

Some of your basic farm animals.

I had hoped to get a picture a little earlier of this guy, because he had been sitting in the driver seat with his front hooves on the steering wheel.

Emu!

Then came the best part, which was the kangaroos. They were grey kangaroos, so they were the smaller of the species and were super friendly. We all had bought feed so we could feed them. They were a bit grabby at the bags (they were paper and one actually ended up tearing mine), but it was awesome. There were a couple joeys in their mom's punches, but they were upside down in there and I couldn't get a good picture.

Camel!

Below are wallabies. While in the same family as kangaroos, they are smaller, darker, and far less friendly. None of them wanted to come any closer.

Birds of many varieties and sizes.

And the last stop was the koalas. Well, not last. We went on a tractor ride after, but that was pretty uneventful. Not pictured: I did actually get to pat one of these, but lightly and no one could use flash photography, as they were asleep (because koalas are nocturnal).

On Sunday we went to a nearby suburb (Hamilton) for a food and music festival. There were about 4-5 blocks of booths and tents with various crafts and food. I didn't actually end up buying any souvenirs, but I got a good sandwich and a great caramel cupcake there. Also later that afternoon we went up to Nobbys Beach, which is furthest on the peninsula. It was a bit smaller and a bit more crowded, but it was still lovely. 

Monday was the first of orientation week. We got a free pancake breakfast and free BBQ lunch (which usually means sausages on the grill). We had to listen to speakers for a while and then walked around campus and went to a club expo (I'm now part of a software engineering club and a women's robotics club). We're going again today to campus to do our first cross-cultural experience class and a scavenger hunt.

Here's Cole with a little seashell I found on the beach. Kind of reminds me of a snowflake.