Melbourne Zoo

Wednesday, Feb 8^th

We took the tram to a LuLuLemon Outlet, a nice workout clothing store.  What great deals!  Then we ate at a café and Kim, Kristy and I talked about life and relationships. 

Vick Market with Kim

Later, we went to Vick Market.  We had sangria and beers and meandered through the booths.  Vick Market has food, crafts and trinkets from all over the world.  We met some of Jerome’s friends.  They plan to visit Texas this year so I told them of several places to go. 

Thursday, Feb 9^th

Kim, Kristy and I chilled out at an internet café and checked our email.  I was able to skype with Becca J  We didn’t get to talk for too long since the connection was slow, but it was fun to see a familiar face.  Then Kristy and I went to the Melbourne Zoo.

We had to take a train and then a tram to the zoo.  It has been a learning experience figuring out all the different modes of transportation.  Kim lives in Richmond, which is outside of downtown Melbourne.  We walk or take the tram everywhere.  I wish we did that in Austin, however, having a car does have its perks.  It takes a bit to get anywhere we want to go.  And you have to plan out your route.  But we made it to the zoo and it was so fun.  We saw Australian penguins.  They are the smallest penguins in the world.  They came over to Australia from Antarctica thousands of years ago, when the continents were close together, forming one super continent, Pangea.  These adorable penguins have adapted to their environment, now living in a subtropical climate.  When the molt, they cannot swim, since their fuzzy feathers aren’t waterproof, so they have to store up food for the time they molt. Unfortunately, my camera died before I could snap a shot of them.  But I did get pictures of other animals.    We saw Kangaroos and Koalas.  There are many different types of Roos in Australia.  Kangaroos are marsupials, mammals that give birth to their young, before they are fully developed and then carry them for many months.

A joey can be in the pouch for almost a year sometimes.  A mother kangaroo can have up to 3 joeys at a time.  In Canberra, the capital of Australia, there is actually an overpopulation of kangaroos.  They are coming into the suburbs and have adapted to their new environment by searching trashcans and dumpsters for food.  However, many are dangerously crossing roads and some have even gone in homes.  

I haven’t seen any kangaroos in the wild yet, and I probably won’t since I have been mostly in the cities.  Other marsupials include Koalas and opossums.  Monotremes are similar to marsupials; however, they are egg-laying mammals that carry and feed their young.  All living Monotremes are indigenous to Australia and New Guinea.  Examples are the Platypus and Echidna.  A few of the other entertaining animals we passed by include the roaring Lion, clapping seals, legless lizard, and grumpy gorilla.  (The male gorilla apparently isn’t interested in any of the women in his camp, so the zoo has actually had to inseminate a few of the females in order to breed more gorillas.) 

Have you ever heard of the song, "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree..."  Well, I saw one!  And I heard them too.  Kookaburras are large terrestrial kingfishers.  Their call sounds more like a human laugh, hence the song lyrics.  How fun to see Kooaburras in real life!

Kookaburra 

Emu, largest bird native to Australia

After the zoo, we went to a hot yoga class, or a Bikram yoga class.  It runs 90 minutes and consists of 26 different positions in a heated room of about 105°F.  I have never sweat so much in my life.  Actually, I take that back- it reminded me of summer camps at Twin Oaks Ranch outside on the fields in Texas.  People actually pay to exercise in heat that we get for free all the time! We should appreciate it, I guess.  Surprisingly, it felt good to stretch and work out in this unusual way.  I felt it afterwards, but it really rejuvenated and refilled me for the rest of the day.  I would actually recommend it, but not for the faint of heart.