Saturday, January 29, 2011

videos














These talking parrots were funny because they would say hello, but with an Australian accent.



Wednesday, January 26, 2011

more nature and animals

Recently, we went on a camping trip to one of the national parks on the coast about 1.5 hr south of Perth and stopped by Bunbury to see some dolphins and Harvey to eat some cheese and oranges, which they are known for in WA (Western Australia).  We also visited a wildlife park just outside of Perth where we got to feed the kangaroos, and see some other interesting animals like wallabies, dingos, emus, and a lot of crazy looking birds.  We got to touch koalas and a wombat too.  One of the kangaroos tried to eat my arm though, which really hurt!   We also visited the petting zoo farm area which was entertaining because when we fed the llama, its lips were so narrow it made us laugh hysterically and there was this rooster looking bird that had long white fur rather than feathers, which was so strange.  

a tree top walk at King's Park in Perth 
a sweet tree 
another cool tree

Some friendly camels at the creamery in Harvey that we visited to get some cheese- not quite sure why a creamery has camels? 



Seeing the dolphins in Bunbury was a really unique experience because these dolphins were completely wild, but they enjoy frequenting this particular bay to interact with people.  There were six total, some were babies, and they swam right by us while we were standing waist deep in the water.  They came as close as about 2 or 3 feet to us.
  
this one is swimming upside down


an emu

feeding some really hungry kangaroos

this big guy seems  like he was posing for the picture

That is long white fur, not feathers.  We were very perplexed by this .

The koalas looked like they were fake because they didn’t move at all, they just sleep all day.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Penguin Island

When we found out that there was a tiny nearby island with little penguins living on it, we decided that we had to take a day trip there.  It was a lot of fun!  The penguins that live on the island are the smallest kind of penguin (only about a foot tall) and are appropriately named 'the little penguin.'  So, we took a train from Perth to Rockingham, then a short ferry ride, had a lovely picnic when we got there, and went on a walk around the island searching for wild penguins.  Later on, we had the chance to get more up close with some non-wild ones.

Penguin Island

walking on the beach



having some fun


a little penguin hiding under a rock

These are the non-wild penguins that we were able to get much closer to than the wild ones




We saw a bunch of these things called 'skinks' on the island.  They sort of slithered around like snakes with legs.

we had some fun being goofy with the big shells and such