Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Vacation 2013 - Tasmania, Australia - more animals, old trees, and sheep

We arrived at the port in Hobart, Tasmania after a day spent at sea (sea days will be addressed in their own post).  We were off on another day long shore excursion.  We started with another Animal Park/Sanctuary - Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, where we saw, petted, and fed some more:

Kangaroos
We also saw some kangaroos with Joeys in their pouches,
Notice the legs and tail dangling from the pouch
more koalas (we didn't get to pet them this time, though),
Koalas


more tasmanian devils (Bonorong had quite a few more than Ballarat),
Tasmanian Devils enjoying running in circles
more Wombats (when they are born, they are about the size of a jellybean),
A baby wombat (Ballarat also had a fairly young Wombat)
and a few other animals (including birds) as well.

After Bonorong we headed to Mt. Field National Park, where we were able to see some of the tallest trees in the world (Swamp Gums)
A fallen swamp gum tree, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Russell Falls,
Russell Falls, Mt. Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia
and some Wallabies in their natural habitat.
Wallabys and Mt. Field National Park, Tasmania, Australia


Interesting tidbit: A cross between a kangaroo and a wallaby is a Wallaroo.

We left Mt. Field National Park, traveled through areas affected by the recent fires,
Tasmania bush fire aftermath


and stopped off at a sheep station/farm to enjoy a barbecue, a sheep shearing demonstration,
Bah, bah white sheep have you any wool?
a sheep dog demonstration
After the demonstration the dogs took a swim in the pond
and a tour of the farm.

Our tour guide was good at talking up all of the many wonderful aspects of Tasmania, including how it has the purest water and air in the world, how it produces ~50% of the poppies used to manufacture narcotics, and more (as you can tell, I didn't remember most of it).

After Tasmania, we spend two more days crossing the Tasman sea before we spent a day cruising around Fiordlands National Park in New Zealand.  I'll write more about that and other vacation adventures in the coming days.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  Can anyone recognize the denomination of this church we passed on our bus ride?

??

1 comment:

Beee said...

I read an article or maybe it was a segment on CBS sunday morning, recently about how the Tasmainian devil is losing a big chunk of their population due to some virus (I think that was what it said) . They had to set up new colonies with unaffected devils to try and head off extinction.