Australian Reptile Park, minus Big Red

 Back in March our wonderful friends Jade and Levi took us to the Symbio Wildlife Park so that Clark and I could experience some native Australian animals first hand.  It was unbelievable.  There was a huge grassy area where you could pet and feed grey kangaroos, and kangaroos were in abundance.  We were also able to pet a cuddly koala.  Unfortunately, the park didn't have any red kangaroos (these are the massive kangaroos) and the wombats the park did have were burrowing in their hollowed tree stumps and chose not to make an appearance.  

About a month after that experience, Clark and our two other wonderful friends, Joanne and Ivan, went to the Reptile Park (Not Symbio.  This was a totally different park North of Sydney)--without me!  Due to my work schedule at the time, I was sleeping and decided to rest instead of make the trip to the Reptile Park with them.  And I missed out big time!  They all got to pet a red kangaroo AND wombats!  I was so bummed out and told Clark that we would have to go back to that exact park before we left Australia. 

So at the end of July, we did.  We set out with our friends Graeme and Jade, looking forward to seeing and petting a red kangaroo and wombats.  When we first got inside the park, we didn't see any kangaroos.  There was a rest area (aka kangaroo sanctuary) for the kangaroos, so we checked out that area, and there they all were.  Resting where no humans were supposed to cross the single barred fence to annoy and touch them.  We didn't see Big Red (the red kangaroo we had nicknamed prior to our entrance into the park) but assumed he would be around somewhere.  We walked through the park, viewing alligators (Yes, American alligators.  The park only had one crocodile and he was mostly submerged in water and hard to view.), tasmanian devils, emus, grey kangaroos, bats and birds, koalas, wallabees, a massive tortoise and WOMBATS!  I don't think I've ever been as excited to see any animal as I was when I saw the wombats.  Well, kangaroos are pretty exciting too, but wombats... my goodness, they are just too cute.  I can't imagine that they can get that aggressive in the wild, but supposedly it happens.

After our afternoon snack of meat pies and fries, we asked a park employee where the red kangaroo might be hiding out.  And the dude hit us with devastating news: Big Red died a couple of months ago and the park is currently awaiting the autopsy. DAMN.  I even asked the employee who sold us our tickets if the park had a red kangaroo and she responded in the affirmative!  Clark was lucky, he must have seen Big Red right before his death.

I have to admit, I was pretty devastated.  We drove all that way to see a red kangaroo and wombats.  At least we did see the wombats!  I guess this just means Clark and I will have to travel back to Oz in the future and work in the Outback, where red kangaroos are often roadkill due to their overabundance.

Now for your viewing pleasure:

Outside the gate to the park!

 The artificial crocodile was pretty intimidating and hostile.

The slowest turtle I have ever seen.  And largest.

Fruit bats.  These guys are so awesome and massive.  I've never seen such huge bats before coming to Australia.  These are the same bats we saw back at the Sydney Botanical Gardens.

Look at him hang on to the wire with his....hand?  Foot?

A little Joey getting all cuddled by the momma koala!

An American alligator.  Clark and I were shocked to learn that the park only had one crocodile and several American alligators.

More gators.

Turtles lovin' on each other.

Our friends, Jade and Graeme.

Clark appearing less than enthused in this photo.

The kangaroos at Symbio were better in my opinion.  These kangaroos were so disheveled and dirty...and lazy.  Unless you shook a bag of food in front of them, they didn't socialize at all.

Yes, we shook the bag of food in front of this fellow, and he got up for us!

As if the kangaroos weren't getting enough to eat, one snatched an empty paper bag from an unsuspecting person and started to eat it.

An exhausted dingo.

An echidna.

Common sense.

Tasmanian Devil.

We couldn't really manage a picture of a platypus since they live in dark water and require that habitat and such. So I figured a picture of Clarkman and the sign would do.

And last but definitely not least, the WOMBATS!!

I just love how they lay on one another like kittens do.

Hello, cutie.

He's smiling in this one :)

Ohhhh, look at that adorable face!  Wombats actually get much, much larger than these guys.  Typically adult male wombats weigh 50 kilograms or approximately 110 pounds.  These guys are only young teenagers.

Petting and feeding the wombats.  Their teeth are actually very strong and they can eat through just about anything but steel or an equivalent type of metal.

I could not get enough of these wombats!  I kind of want to blow this picture up into a poster and put it in my room when we get settled.  Kind of like the popular kitten posters that people used to put up on their walls in the 90's.  You know you remember that.

I know what I want to be for Halloween this year.  A wombat. I wonder if I could fit my body into this child's costume?

  So even though we didn't see a red kangaroo, it was still a successful day and I came to the decision that if we do go back to Australia to work in the future, I will strive to become a wombat carer.

The last of our Aussie culinary adventures

Two days before we left Oz we finally fried up some kangaroo steak.  It's a red meat and it's really lean.  We decided to buy the pre-marinated meat since we had no idea how to season it.  But Clark thinks he's an expert seasoner, so he seasoned the meat in addition to the marinade.  

I'm a meat lover, but I even have to admit that it looks disgusting.

Clark taking his first bite...

And the verdict is: good.  Clark claims it tasted like chicken.  I didn't think so.  It tasted like a cute, cuddly baby kangaroo to me.  

Then, the day before we left we decided to try a pie from the Cronulla Pie Shop.  Meat pies are mega popular in Oz, and Clark and I would often buy the frozen packages of pies at the store.  But we had never been to an actual pie shop for a real fresh pie.

We decided to eat our shared pie down at water, to soak up our last day on Cronulla Beach.  The pies look similar to the American chicken or beef pot pies, but they have more of a pastry crust.  Also, they just seem to taste better than the American frozen pies. It's got to be that pastry crust.

Though I didn't like the kangaroo steak, I am glad we gave it a try because I will never have to wonder what it tasted like.  If you ever have the opportunity to try kangaroo, give it a go.  I would love to hear how it goes for you.

BITTERSWEET

Boy gang, what an adventure!  I feel like I've said this before in a post, but I'm just not sure when.

After 5 extremely short months, we are back from our working holiday in Australia.  It has been bittersweet, to say the least.  Hence the picture of bittersweet chocolate.  Whenever I think of the word 'bittersweet' I think of chocolate.   

Anywho, we are sad to have left our friends, the beach, wombats, marsupials, Tim Tams, and ginger beer, but we do look forward to what the future holds.  Philly, here we come.  Grad school, I guess I'm ready for you.  I don't really have a choice now, do I?

Man, I need to update my blog with our last couple of weeks in Oz.  I will get on that as soon as we get organized here in the U.S. of A.

Can't wait to see many of you soon!  We look forward to the reunions that we have scheduled thus far!

Time Out for Women

Last weekend I joined several ladies from our church to attend the Time Out for Women tour presented by the Deseret Book Company here in Sydney.

Now, I'm typically not the type of person who wants to go to these events but somehow I found myself telling a lady at church that I would be glad to buy an extra ticket from her.   And so it happened that I invested money in an event that I wasn't really interested in attending.

But I am so glad I did.  

It was so uplifting and such a breath of fresh air.  Waking up at 6 am to travel to the Olympic Park for the event was definitely worth it!  All of the presenters were so earnest and personal, and they made me realize that I have great potential as a person, and especially as a woman.  The speakers were Laurel Christensen, Virginia Pearce, Brad Wilcox and Sheri Dew.  Hilary Weeks also introduced each speaker and performed many songs that I'm sad to admit I'm not familiar with.  Each of these five individuals had fantastic messages to share.  If Time Out For Women stops by your city, I would definitely suggest checking it out.  And that's all I have to say about that.

Love me some free stuff!  I'm lame, I only took three pictures the entire day and didn't even bring the DSLR.  

Location of the event, at the Sydney Olympic Park.

Inside the venue.

AUSSIE grocery post!

Get excited, y'all!  

True to my word, here she is! My official grocery post in OZ!  Now, Clark was embarrassed to be seen with me taking photos of various items in the grocery store, drawing attention to ourselves and whatnot, so my friend Joanne kindly accompanied on my photo quest.  Joanne has no shame.  She is awesome and I can always count on her.  I did, however, use our point and shoot in my small effort to be discreet.  So I apologize for the flash dots in many of the pictures.  May the Gods of cameras shine upon us in the future and grant us a new point and shoot.  Or maybe Clark will just give in and let us replace his mission point and shoot (yes, it's that old) with a much more advanced one in the near future.  They are so handy to have when you want to, say, take a photo of something at the grocery store.

The cost of bananas is OUTRAGEOUS!  I haven't had one since we left the states in February.  The floods in Queensland damaged much of the banana crops, hence the steep price.  To make it easy on you--since the price of bananas is in kilograms-- a pound of bananas would cost roughly $6.50-$7.00 a pound.  I can't believe people still buy them, but thankfully they do.  At least there are people out there who like bananas enough to support the farmers who had a lousy year.  

Proof that eggs don't need to be refrigerated.  We now leave ours out, too.

Kangaroo steak.  I know I mentioned in previous posts how excited I was to try kangaroo. But after seeing them and petting them, I am now hesitant to eat them.  They are such cute marsupials!  But we must. I know we must.  Our Australian adventure would not be complete without trying some kangaroo steak.  This week...

Cordials are super popular here.  In case you don't know, cordials are drink mixes, simple as that.  Lemon Lime and Bitters is outstanding, by the way.  America needs to learn.

Also known as Sun chips.  Australia needs to learn.

Ginger beer.  AMAZING.  America needs to learn this also.  Has America learned this?  I've never seen it before in the states, but then again, I never even knew it existed.  Love us some Ginger beer.

I would be so cool rockin' a 40 oz bottle of some Ginger Beer.  Totally in with the barely 21 college crowd still.  Totally.

Long neck or stubby, it's all good.  Yum yum yum yum yum.

Tim Tams, our chocolate cookie of choice.  I wish we could show some fellow Americans the Tim Tam Slam.  But no one came to visit us.  I'm not bitter at all.  Ok, just a little.   American friends and family of ours, you totally missed out.  

Our other cookie of choice?  Orange Slices.  I do believe that Americans have a very different acquired taste than Australians.  We haven't met any Aussies who like these.  Whenever someone brings an assortment pack of Arnott's cookies in to work, Orange Slice cookies are always the last ones left.  I'm always the one to finish them off.  And I am more than happy to do so. 

Anzac cookies, aka oatmeal cookies.  Aussie patriotic cookie of choice.

Weet-Bix, an Australian staple for sure.  The cheapest cereal by far.  Load on the sugar, they have no taste.  We happen to fancy Weet-Bix and it keeps us regular.  Just sayin'.

Sultana Bran, aka raisin Bran.  Apparently the Aussie version is made with white grapes while the American version is made with red grapes. 

Chocolate bar of choice.

Muesli bars, aka granola bars.  Muesli is just too hard to say.  Granola may have more syllables, but it is easier to pronounce.

Vegemite.  Tastes like bouillon.  Definitely an Australian acquired taste.  

Teach 'em while they're young.
The children in our Sunbeam class at church bring snacks each week.  Two of the children always bring Vegemite sandwiches.

Ice cream is sort of expensive. Two boxes for $13??  But they do have the awesome Magnum bars that are all over Europe! Yesssssssssssssss!

Cute Cadbury chocolates with Australian animals.

Don't worry, the alcohol has been removed (fine print at the bottom of the label).  Australia has not driven me to drink.  I just couldn't help but try this.    

  I really wanted to take some pictures of the Confectionary sign in the candy aisle.  But I chickened out as a few employees were restocking shelves.  And capsicums.  Green/red/yellow peppers = capsicums.  The sign was too small to see with our antiquated camera.

I hope you feel as if you were strolling the grocery aisles with me, looking at foreign foods with strange names.

Thanks for joining me.

Fail.

In our attempt to be righteous, we did not succeed.  Clark and I had it all planned out.  We would leave our apartment at a specified time and take three different trains to Carlingford, the closest train station to the Sydney Temple, and walk another 15 minutes to arrive at the Temple doors.  A total travel time of about 2 hours one way (meaning over 4 hours both ways).  Only when we got to the doors they were locked.  They didn't want none of our Americana-ness inside the House of the Lord.  

Actually, it turns out that the Temple is only opened in the morning and in the evenings, not during the middle of the day when we decided to go.  Guess I didn't check the schedule properly on the website.  A total fail.  And a lot of train riding for not a whole lot of action.

Maybe next time?  

If there is a next time...time is running out!