6:00am. Friday morning wake up time. Today has been the day that I have been looking forward to for some time now. Why you ask? Koalas, kangaroos, and aborigines. Yes. Breakfast was quite yummy. I actually indulged myself in some Vegemite!

Now, the way to eat it is to:

1. toast the bread. Like golden toast.

2. lather on the butter like nobody’s business. One might say, butter up the toast as Paula Deen would do.

3. gently, gently, spread Vegemite over the butter. A very thin layer of Vegemite.

4. eat.

Vegemite is not so bad folks! I actually liked it to my own surprise. It is very salty when consumed by itself, but on buttered toast, it is quite scrumptious. I may buy myself a jar to bring back to the states!

After breakfast, we set out to RainForestStation to bond with Australia’s animals. When we arrived, our first little event was the Army Duck ride. We got onto this neat, make shift boat/truck and I felt like I was in Indiana Jones.

Our lovely guide. (I forgot his name…. oops)

So we began our journey, and to put it gently, it was one bumpy ride. It was great though. Our guide would stop every now and then and point out some leaves to tell us how deathly they would be and would demonstrate. There was one particular leaf which had a very flat, smooth surface, but the sides had jagged edges which could make you bleed for hours on.

This particular berry, was described to us as the most deathly of all berries. The purple berries are covered in thorns. If scratched by one, or if you touched one, the feeling you get is like getting stung by hundreds of bees while experiencing an electrifying sensation. “ouch” is an understatement. By this point, our Army Duck car has transformed to a little boat and are now floating on some muddy water. (rained heavily last week). Since we were the only group out on the water, me and two other gals got to steer the boat! It is a lot harder than it looks.

KOALA BEARS. I almost peed myself in excitement. You know when you see something so cute that you just want to squeeze it to death? Like Agnes in Despicable Me with the white, fluffy unicorn? Yea, this Koala bear was beyond the cutest. His name was Bundy, and supposedly is named after Ozzie’s rum, Bundaberg. Anyways, as I jumped into place (where the zoo keeper directed me), he grabbed the koala bear by its arms and placed it into my arms. My heart melted and I was just captivated by his charm. It was the best 10 seconds of my life.

I was just gleaming afterwards. THE MOST PRECIOUS THING I HAVE EVER HELD. gah. I’m gushing now just talking about it.

Afterwards we went to go feed the roos. When we walked into their territory, or “territry” as Ozzies would say, they were all just lounging around, scratching themselves and enjoying their surrounding’s company. The kangaroos were just the cutest things. We even saw a Joey sitting in between two adult ones! Guys, lemme tell you. The way the jump is just the darnest thing. I even had the urge to hop with it, but decided to restrain myself from doing so.

Their tongues are quite soft. So awesome.

then shortly after they all starting growling at each other, and the next thing we know, all them jump to feet in boxing like motion. Us group girls let out a little squeal just because… well probably just because and maybe it happened a bit too sudden and we were caught in a fright? Eh.

We curbed around and visited some crocodiles. Well just one.

His name is Jack the Ripper. The largest croc I have ever set my eyes on, but then again this is the first time I have seen a crocodile so I can’t really justify the former statement…
The reason for his name is because the zoo keepers have tried many times for this male croc to enjoy himself. Meaning, they would put in a good looking female croc to mate with the guy. But the poor thing just won’t and is so feisty that he just ends up eating them up instead.  The zoo keeper then gave us a comparison on how Jack consumes his prey. If you take a grape and put in between your thumb and index finger and press the two together… you would end up with a squishy grape and two sticky fingers. Well that process is the same thing Jack would do to a cow’s head. I cringed when I heard the fact.

Moving along to something less lethal, we came back to some koala bears. Embrace yourselves (hug yourself) because this next picture… you will just die. I did.

Gah. Dyyyying.

OKok, dingoes. This dingo was the most playful, loving dingo we all have ever seen. Dingoes are actually quite dangerous and one has been reported as to have eaten a baby. A baby hunan that is.

so loving. If you sat on the metal tube (what I’m sitting on), he would run up, and jump right next to you and just lick you all day long.

A Cassowary. 

The females are the dominant ones and the males… well not so much. They are more used by the females. For instance, a female will give the male a head nod to indicate that she would like to enjoy his company, and then the male cassowary will scurry along to her side, satisfy her, impregnate her, then she leaves the eggs for him to take care off and skip town. She will then find another male Cassowary and do the same thing. Then when the eggs are hatched and the baby cassowarys are just roaming around, the female would trot on back, scare away her babies, and mate with the daddy cassowary again. She likes to go for the young males at times too. A cougar? A promiscuous bird? sure.

Did I mention they are also the most dangerous bird too? They lacerate anyone that comes into site. For example, at a different zoo, a zoo keeper wanted to just snaggle some fresh eggs from the cassowary’s nest, bad idea in the first place, but he did so and the cassowary confronted him, kicked him and dugged her nails from the middle of his chest all the way down to his naval. Organs were spilled and scattered around. Just lovely isn’t it? I just couldn’t wait to touch it….

Time for some aborigines. Goodness me these people were awesome. Their paintings are made mostly of dots and so we painted ourselves some aboriginal paintings… er we at least attempted to. Then the fellow aborigine took us to listen to some Didgeridoos! Coolest thing ever. I tried to play one and failed miserably. You’re suppose to flutter your lips and stick them into the hole of the Didgeridoo. You’re fluttering your lips while sticking them in by the way. Not the easiest task let me tell you.

Then we went and threw a boomerang! Pretty sweet. I threw one and it curved, then as it began to turn around, it dove straight for the ground. Baseball players would be excellent candidates.

He was superb.

We then walked over to watch some Aborigines dance. That was marvelous. Beyond marvelous. Also, by this point we were all starving so we were a tad bit delirious. They asked for volunteers and I rose my hand. Dancing with them was probably the funnest thing I have ever attempted to do. It was great. I was cackling up a storm.

All in all this day was a great day. Tomorrow we head on out to the Great Barrier Reef. So. Excited. I can’t even contain it. I’ll be scuba diving with nemo and whale talking with Dory. The ocean is just going to look like pure magic and I just can’t imagine swimming in it. I’ll let you guys know how the world is like upside down.

See ya laterr alligator.

“You lose sight of things… and when you travel, everything balances out.” — Daranna Gidel