Rock Pool

Along the strand, there is also a rock pool. Where the water is filtered into, so it is safe to swim in, or so we hope! This is my favorite place to go to for the day. One, its free! Two, its close to all the chops and restaurants in town. And the view of the ocean is beautiful from here.

So I officially have made it through my first week of classes in Australia! (Since I do not have classes on friday!!) So far they are going pretty good, and I think I know my way around the campus pretty good now! It sucks walking to class in the morning though, because it is sooo hot and sunny in the morning, and I have a pretty good walk to anywhere on campus.. But hey, its a good workout right!?

I need to go out on a mission to find a job! Theres a career center on campus so I am going to go talk to them and hopefully they can point me in the direction of a good daycare that is pretty close to campus. Apparently minimum wage is $17 here, so that is very exciting!! I could use that back home. Sure explains why everything is sooo expensive here, because the guys working at Macca's(McDonald's) are making bank!

This where we walked to, along the Ross River. It was about a hour hike, but it was worth it! I climbed up a tree and swung from a rope into the river. I am prettyyy sure there are crocs in there, but I tried not the think about that!

Lovely Rock Pool

Billabong Sanctuary!

One of my favorite places I have been to so far was Billabong Sanctuary. I thought it would be alot further away but it is actually just outside of Townsville. Due to cyclone destruction, we did not get the full experience that used to be available, but it was still awesome. I got to hold a koala, snake, bird, and a baby croc. I am nottt a snake fan, but hey i'm in Australia :) Thats kind of the attitude I am trying to have with everything. I want to try new things and do things I would not normally. Good news!!! My mom is coming to visit me in April for my birthday!! Were in the process of planning out our trip, but we are thinking of going and exploring Cairns, I am pretty pumped!! :D

 

Koala scratching his ear.

I contemplated kidnapping him..

This is what they do for about 20 hours of their day. If they are not doing exactly that, they are eating a leaf.

ROO

Turtle :) Theyre everywhere in the rivers around here. 

I got to hold him! They have sharp talons haha. Luckily I was not left with any scratch marks, but many were.

You paid a dollar for a bag of food, which was basically bird food. And they just roam around and you can feed them!

bum :)

I kept feeling like he was going to fall off of  my arm, its a bird, its not going to. But I did not really enjoy holding him..

Baby croc!

It felt nothing like I expected it too, he was....squishy and slimy. I thought he would be rougher and scaly feeling.

Wombat.

They are very similar to Koalas in a way.

It was veryyy humid out.

YES, I held a huge snake. No, I did not freak out even a little bit. I was pretty proud of myself.

He started wrapping around me..eek :)

So Aussie possums are adorable!

DADDY!!! :D

Creepy huh?

The tour guide had a huge hunk of meat on a stick he was using to tease him.

I would nottt want to see that in a river!!!

Castle Hill

In my last blog I mentioned how I went to Castle Hill during the discovery ride during "O Week"

Here are some pictures from it :)

This was Toga Night. It's a pretty big deal here apparently haha.

Love the view from up here.

Townsville!

The sky is always sooo blue

There's trails around here that you can hike on, i'd probably not make it hiking up here though..ha 

OCEANNN!!!

You can see the shore line from here

Me

Vinegar, in case the stingers get ya!

Haha I always see these birds, I think they're adorable!