Making a difference

We got the opportunity to visit an Australian Seabird Rescue Center today for a field trip in my Australian Life and Culture class! We learned all about marine life and the dangers they have to deal with on a daily basis due to our pollution. Everyday seabirds and sea turtles are dying from plastic bags and other garbage that has made its way into the ocean. It is up to us to clean up the beaches and reduce the use of plastic around the world in order to save the marine life. Even though we were not able to see any seabirds (because the center didn't have any at the moment) we did get to see sea turtles that were being nursed back to health. There were two sick turtles and about four that were getting ready to be released back into the wild.




We learned all about how to catch seabirds and what goes into taking care of one. This is how big a seabirds wing span is! Just imagine catching one of these large birds...it takes a lot of skill and patience!

Half of the group looking into the tank of sea turtles

This sea turtle was nursed back to health and is about to be released back into the wild...and he was a feisty one!

The turtles would come up to the top of the water and blow water at us!

Squid for lunch! The rescue center doesn't like to feed the turtles a lot by hand so most of the time they have to catch live food in order to mock their natural habitat however, sometimes they are fed dead squid to help them gain weight.

This particular turtle was found by a fisherman and has fishing wire coming out of its behind...this is extremely bad for the turtles and proves that it thought it was food. We need to be extremely careful about our waste products making their way to the ocean...this turtle could have died if it had not been taken to this rescue center.

Some sea turtles, such as this one, eat plastic and can no longer swim underwater to get food. You can see the right side of the turtle floating as the left side sinks. This turtle will need a long recovery after the plastic is removed, but he has a fighting chance thanks to the rescue center!

The turtles that come to the center even have medical charts!

This rescue center was such a great place to visit! I love knowing and learning how we can make a difference when we are here and this place even offered us to come back and volunteer. I will definitely be going back to volunteer and make a difference!

Climbing all around the world!

This weekend has been an interesting one. Friday was spent relaxing at the beach and canoeing on the lake. Then later on in the day two of my roommates moved out and a new one moved in...there was a little bit of drama with a new cabin opening up and some misunderstandings with the people moving into it but everything worked out for the best! I love my new roommate and everyone is getting along much better now. Then on Saturday I took an hour bike ride on the beach to the North Point where there is a secluded beach and natural rock climbing. It was amazing to say the least! I absolutely loved it and is probably one of my favorite spots in Australia so far! Climbing on the rocks and finding little places to sit and look out over the ocean was so serene and relaxing. I could sit there for hours just thinking...everything about this place amazes me. I enjoyed the four hour morning trip and after getting back by 2pm I was able to spends the rest of the day skyping for the first time with some friends back home and relaxing my feet after the brutal barefoot climbing I did in the morning.



Here is a picture of the rocks I got to climb!




More Rocks




The view :)




Sitting on a ledge looking out at the ocean




I climbed to the top of a huge rock hill!





The group!




Riding home on the beach...its a lot harder than it looks!



A trip to Tenterfield

For my Australian Life and Culture class we got to spend the last three days in Tenterfield while the rest of our classes got cancelled. On this trip we got to experience a little bit of the outback and the real Aussie way of life! It was a blast and we all learned a lot from each experience.

Day one: Monday!
We boarded the bus in Lennox Head at 8am and started the trip with a three and a half hour bus ride. On the way we enjoyed Aussie music and movies. Some people slept...we did have to wake up quite early! Around 11:30am we arrived at the Golfer's Inn Motel in Tenterfield where lunch was awaiting us. The girls were taken to one part of the camp and the boys to another and divided into rooms/cabins. We soon found out that the girls got the better end of the stick! Our rooms were amazing...here are some pictures


My bedroom for three days :)



Our living room

The bathroom...my favorite part! The shower was amazing!!!!!

Kitchen...even though we didn't use it

After getting all settled in to our place we departed for Bald Rock! On the way we stopped off at Thunderbolts Cave and a few Tank Traps as well.



The Group in Thunderbolts Hideout!

Hiking up Bald Rock was beautiful and along the way we stopped to look at wildlife including a wallaby! It was a nice moderate hike.

The first wild Kangaroo we saw on the trip :)

Our path up to Bald Rock

It is amazing how big our world really is

Bald Rock!

If only I was a little stronger...haha

Resting after our walk down the mountain!

Next up was a visit to Deetswood Winery! Ball State actually paid for us to drink on a school field trip...pretty awesome!

In the evening we had a delicious dinner at the motel/camping area followed by a BSU concert. A few people put together a talent show for some entertainment! We had singers, jugglers, stompers, comedians, and dancers.

Afterwords we all went to bed...exhausted

Day Two: Tuesday!
Waking up at 6:15 was hard! Breakfast at 6:30 and then we were off for another plan packed day. First on the list of things to do was a trip to Inverell to do some sapphire fossicking at Billabong Blue! It was a hard and time consuming job but it was also very rewarding. I found a few small sapphires and a few other gems...it was neat to find these gems on my own from the digging to the sifting to the picking them out!

Step one in finding Sapphires!

Step two...cleaning the rocks and gems

Step three...picking the gems out from the rocks

Me with the gems I found!!!

When we were all finished fossicking we boarded the bus again and headed off to have lunch and explore an old Australian pioneer village. There were 25 historic cottages and buildings from Australia's past to look at and they were all filled with authentic and historical items. Jess and I even won 5 dollars each for finding our professors name (Lockery) in one of the buildings!

Old Australian Pioneer School House

Pioneer bathroom

I found a phone!

I was worn out!...naps on the bus are a lot better than getting bus sick!

The day was long and tiring but we had about an hour to relax once we got back to the motel. After that we headed off to a Golf Club where we had a delicious dinner! Fish for me...with a brownie and ice cream for desert!

Our group at dinner

Day Three: Wednesday!
Again we woke up around 6:15 this morning to have breakfast and head out by 7:45. First on our day plan was to go on a historical tour of Tenterfield with a guide. There was so much history to learn about that it took us all day...and we got to meet the Mayor of Tenterfield! Finally we were headed back to Lennox Head...our home away from home...after an exhausting three day field trip.

Tenterfield school of the arts museum

Tenterfield Mayor

Railway museum in Tenterfield 

Each state had a different sized railway

I slept the whole way home!