Melbourne

Melbourne, which is pronounced MELBIN  That’s right, all of America pronounces it wrong, lol. Say it with me…Melbin….See? Now you sound like a local 
We had our workshop at Diana Cook’s Looney Bin, a fantastic space owned by a fantastic host!
One of the students, Penny, took us on an action packed adventure day to the Werribee wildlife park, and then to the Aquarium. Now the safari style wildlife park may not have had many animals on the tour, but the walk about was great. We discovered some really cool flowers, got some great pics of the lions, and saw that the kid park was built with a wicked sense of humor!! ! Yes, that is a picture of a peeing hippo statue with kids playing beneath it….ewwwww We had a great view of several hippos who sash-shayed like girlie princesses, which considering their size was absolutely hysterical! We also heard them make some crazy noises, imagine Darth Vader really cracking up at a punch line….it was almost creepy! Now the aquarium had some really neat exhibits including the BEST penguin exhibit ever made!! They would come up to the glass to check you out, and follow you around! As if that wasn’t cool enough, there were several Mama penguins nesting over eggs and baby fluff balls!! They were adorable!! There was also this crazy thing called an angler fish, that has a fake worm it shakes to lure other fish close enough for it to eat! We were leaning in to get a better look and all of sudden it started shaking it’s worm at us!!! It was a great day indeed 
The workshop was a hit and we made several new friends that we look forward to revisiting!

Sydney

First let us apologize for the slow blogging, we have had very limited internet access, something we were not expecting when we promised to blog frequently! So let us catch up!
We of course headed to Sydney harbor to see the Opera House, and also discovered the beautiful gardens close by! This was (I believe) the first government house and was quite beautiful! Down on the harbor we were amused to see Burger King under the name of “Hungry Jacks”. Personally, we think “Burger King” sounds better! Like all tourist spots there were street performers, but I am pretty sure Sydney is the only place that has Aboriginal didgeridoo players! This guy was pretty amazing & we dug his body paint! Around the corner from the harbor was a nifty little area called “The Rocks” with a huge street market going on. Lots of cool goodies including the coolest masks I have ever seen! We thought we looked pretty awesome in them  Our host, Annie Reynolds, took us up to the blue mountains while we stayed with her, which are pretty spectacular! Why are they called the “blue” mountains you ask? It’s because all of the eucalyptus trees produce a bluish vapor that hovers over the valley below, rather amazing in our opinion! It was a bit rainy and foggy that day, but I think it added quite a mysterious feel to it! Along the road going up there were tons of kangaroos!! Something that might be common place here, but we couldn’t get over how many there were! They kindly posed for a few pictures before bounding away. On Pashur’s birthday we went back into the city and visited Darling harbor, which is on the other side of the city from the opera house and home of the Sydney aquarium and Chinatown. The aquarium was pretty cool and featured GIANT spider crabs, and dugongs ( which are like our manatees) They also had an amazing shark display showcasing all the lovely creatures of the deep found off the coast here…guess which couple is NOT swimming in the ocean around here??? We also went to the adjoining Wildlife World, home of one of the biggest crocs in captivity…..he doesn’t appear to be the romantic type, having eaten his last 2 girlfriends, …needless to say Rex, is currently single! That evening Annie cooked a delicious dinner and birthday cake, making Sydney a wonderful stay!

The Australia Zoo

Well Crikey!! We went to one of the coolest zoos in the world! Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo was incredible! The wonderful and talented Beth Joyce was kind enough to take us, and wow, it was everything we hoped it would be! Of course the first thing we saw when we got there was a ton of crocodiles ( this is the Steve Irwin Zoo after all!)After that we were greeted by a line of elephants that we got to feed! We then immediately headed to our first "animal encounter" of the day, the red pandas!!! Now we have admired these cuties at countless zoos across the states, but we actually got to hold them here!! We felt rather special as the zoo keeper took us into the red panda enclosure, and as soon as she opened the door, the two pandas were rubbing against our legs like house cats! We then got to sit down next to each other and were given a fruit mixture to feed them, and voila! They jumped into our laps!! It was AMAZING!!! They ARE as soft as they look!! When our time was up we headed over to the next encounter with a truly odd Australian creature, the echidna. They kinda looked like a anteater and a hedgehog combined, strange but absolutely adorable!!! The keeper gave us this goopy mixture of unidentifiable bits ( pretty sure it was blended bugs) to hold in our hands, and the little guys came right over, crawled into our laps, and used their super long tongue to lap up the food! Turns out despite their diminutive size, they can topple refrigerators looking for food! It was then time to head over to yet another animal encounter ( can you tell we are obsessed with animals??) the Binturong or "bear cat" and oh my! These furballs are now some of our favorites!! They were so curious and playful! One cool thing was they had been trained to touch their nose to yours if you said "touch", needless to say both of us must of said "touch" a hundred times :) Then it was off to the wombats! They look like giant stuffed animals, but don't be fooled, they are SOLID sturdy critters! In fact, we could only pet them while standing behind them as they are known to charge and can knock down people! They have the weirdest defense mechanism...They can crush a dingos skull with their butts! Yes..their butts! They hide in their burrows with their butts sticking out and if a dingo tries to attack they flatten down just enough for that dingos head to squeeze in, and BAM! no more dingo. Last but not least, we went over to the Tasmanian Devils. Now you would thing with the word devil in their name they would be ferocious, or AT LEAST a bit bratty, but no...big cuddly babies! When they handed them to us, they just snuggled in as close as they could and snoozed out. They were very cute, but man did they reek! That was the end of our "encounters" so we walked around the park, which for the record, is the cleanest zoo we have ever seen in our lives! All the animals were in great habitats and were obviously very well taken care of! As we headed out we happen to catch the craziest scene, a little lizard had hopped onto the nose of a lounging croc, we snapped several pictures, but never saw the lizard hop down, it was the ultimate stand off! When we finally left we were exhausted but walking on clouds :) If you ever get the chance to go to this zoo, GO!! And the animal encounters are worth every penny, so if you love animals like we do, you will not be disappointed with this place!!

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary

So the adventure began when the awesome talented tribals queen Samm Stars dropped us off at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I was so excited when we arrived  ( Jennifer here) that I was grinning like a cheshire cat!! We walked in and the first thing we saw were the flying foxes, that both Pashur and I were shocked to learn are native here! We both thought they only came from India, but apparently not only are they native, but are quite the pests to fruit farmers here in Australia as they love mangoes! While standing there we discovered another abundant native, the water dragon! Now these are NOT the little geckos back home! These guys are huge lizards, and they were everywhere! Quite unafraid of people, the seemed to have the attitude that regardless of where they chose to sunbathe (which was everywhere and anywhere), we were to walk around them! As we ventured further down the path, we saw that there were Koalas all over the place! There was even a little enclosure that had the cutest baby koalas! We saw a platypus, which has to be the oddest creature we have every seen, saw Tasmanian devils being fed (which was hysterical as they run around like they are on speed) and got our first look at dingos. We went over to the Koala cuddling station where we both got to hold a Koala and pet the cuties! They are so soft! Their fur feels kinda like a sheep, super thick and dense. They also were rather hefty little guys!! After that we headed into the Kangaroo feeding area, where you could buy roo food and hand feed all kinds of kangaroos and wallabies :) There were dozens of them, and they would hop right up to you to be fed, and even let you put your arms them! It was very very cool!! Then there was a bird show where we discovered Aussie natives like the Sea Eagle (this guy puts our gulls to shame) the wedge tailed eagle and the barking owl. After taking another trip around to see all the koalas one last time, we caught the bus down to the South Bank in Brisbane.  There was a neat little market going on that sold some strange things including kangaroo balls made into bottle openers....yes, you read that right, kangaroo balls!!!! Giant ibis were everywhere, looking for food, on the tables and walk ways....We heard people complaining, but we thought it was pretty neat!! We also grabbed some ice cream while we were there, and my new favorite flavor is honey with butterscotch :) Since we were down on the water we hopped on a ferry and headed back to our new friend Beth's house, where we proceeded to have fantastic time with Beth and her lovely family :) It was all in all, a truly AMAZING day!!

Last Day in Gold Coast / Upper Coomera

Well the boy design workshop was a hit!! Everyone had a great time, and one thing I have learned about Aussies, after 10 mins you are all old friends :) We all went to dinner at a local pub where I was tickled to find 'Strongbow Sweet" ( yes that is just for you CJ!!) So nice to be in a country that appreciates hard cider!! We had a great time, and made great friends! We went back to Robyn's place, and the Demon must have crawled back to whatever level of hell it had escaped from because I didn't see it again thankfully! We woke up to Laughing Kookaburras and another beautiful day. On our way to Lisa's for the girl design workshop we saw a giant cockatoo perched in a tree and tons of magpies! Tonight we head to Brisbane, and tomorrow is Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, we are sooooo excited!!!

Our first night in Oz!

So after arriving at the Gold Coast airport the lovely Robin picked us up and we began our Aussie adventure! I have to say, this country is breathtaking!! I ( Jennifer typing here) think I was expecting the outback ( I blame Hollywood and that Hugh Jackman movie)instead it looked like we were in some kinf of tropical paradise! Palm trees and jungle like weather, so green and beautiful! We stopped by a little beach restaurant with an amazing view, took a stroll by the water and grabbed some dinnner, roast lamb & Strongbow on tap, I am in love with this place already!! We then went to Robin & Lizabeth's where we are staying for 2 days, way on top of this beautiful mountain...we actually passed Koala bear crossing signs!! How cool is that??? Once we got to the house, there was an incredible view of the valley, but we were exhausted and decided to head to bed. I put my hand on the rail to the stairs and from underneath it ran the BIGGEST spider I have ever seen in my life!! Now for any of you Aussies reading this, it might be nothing to you, but we just don't have 'em like that in the states! It was black, bigger then my hand, and with legs so big you could hear the pitter patter of it's 8 legs as it ran across the stairs!! Robin said it was a "huntsman" spider and not to worry, but Pash renamed it the Demon spider...and I think that name is more apt, lol. If you know me at all you know I suffer from true arachnophobia, and I was reduced to a shaking crying mess, sooooo embarrassing!! We finally went to sleep but our internal clocks are so messed up witht the time changes we were up and ready to go at 5am, oops!! Off to the first class at the lovely Lisa's house, promise to post some pictures soon!!

The Australia Tour Begins!

So right now we are sitting in the Sydney airport waiting to fly to the Gold Coast! The first workshop is tomorrow, so stay tuned for pictures!!