FUN EVENTS DOWN UNDER

                                        Some of Many Surprises

Punt Ride

      My first and only punt ride was on the River Avon in Christchurch, New Zealand. A punt is a flat-bottomed long boat, square on both ends, and wide enough to seat two abreast that is propelled with a long pole. Standing on a platform on the stern of the punt, the pole is placed on the side and pushed from the bottom. Punts are used on shallow rivers and originally were made to transport cargo. Punting is quite a sport in certain parts of the world. Most often a punt can carry six passengers. We leisurely floated down the river admiring the many mansions and beautiful gardens along the way.

It was a new and fun experience.

A Dining Tram   

      I’ve had meals in the dining car of trains but had never had a meal on a tram until I was in New Zealand the second time. We boarded the tram at dinnertime to find the tables set with white linen. As we circled the city several times, tux clad waiters served a delicious lamb meal with all the trimmings, including wine. It was great fun. I’ve heard about similar experiences in a few other cities so if you ever are where one exists it will provide a unique dining experience and  fun time.

Orphaned Kangaroo

      We were surprised when we walked into a store on Kangaroo Island, Australia to see a baby kangaroo swaddled in a sling hanging on a coat rack. The owner told us that Mama had been killed by a car, so they’d been raising the little one. She was wrapped in the sack because it confined her like she was in her mama’s pouch.  We all took turns holding and loving the baby while cameras clicked away.

A Flightless Airline?

      We arrived at Kangaroo Island from Adelaide by ferry over a rather rough channel. But we returned on Emu Airlines---remember the emu does not fly, so why would anyone name an airline after the animal? We didn’t think too much about being weighed with our packs, but it was a little disconcerting to watch the pilot load out packs in the wing and then climb up on it and crawl through a window to his seat! It was a short flight, but I was happy to be on the ground and off the small 6-8 seat plane.

Koalas in the Wild

      While travelling around the island we spotted many koalas up in trees, and  a couple of moms even were carrying a baby in her pouch. It is a bit unusual to see the nocturnal animals during the day. Daytime is when they usually curl up in the fork of tree branches and sleep. We stopped to admire several doing just that when suddenly a baby started crawling down from a tree.  When on the ground the baby walked several feet to where a gal was standing and started to climb up her leg!   

      Her pants were almost the exact color of the tree trunks, and she figured the little koala thought her white shoes were rocks. The driver wiggled him off her leg, but not before he left a puncture wound in her lower leg. What an adventure!

      Lots of fun times down under!

KOALAS

 A Furry Cutie

        One afternoon on my first trip down under we rode out of town to visit koalas in a zoo. A local guide told us, “Koalas are  a marsupial. They have very sharp claws so we wean them from their mother onto a stuffed koala. They can cuddle with the toy, and in captivity we can handle them without too many nasty scratches.

         “Koala is an aboriginal word meaning does not drink. Koalas derive all of their fluid from an exclusive diet of eucalyptus leaves. They are very susceptible to human illness. Virtually all of the koalas on Phillip Island are infected with clymadia and are dying out. They are on a preserve there and when they are all gone, healthy koalas will be reintroduced to the island.”

         Koalas are nocturnal and can travel as far as five miles in search for food. They are a small animal, not much bigger than a good size teddy bear.
        New South Wales and Queensland climates are warm so the koalas are grey with white on the inner ears and chest. Victoria is cooler so the animals are larger with a darker fur, more of a charcoal grey.

        At birth a koala is a furless newborn that looks like a pink jellybean. This tiny animal claws and climbs its way up mama’s stomach to crawl into her pouch where it spends six months. When it emerges the baby clings to mama’s back until it reaches full maturity. Koalas seldom have more than one baby and if they do only one survives as the pouch is only big enough to accommodate one baby. The normal life span is 16-18 years.

        It was awesome to hold a small koala as it clung to its toy.

        In Tasmania we saw koalas in the wild. One actually climbed down from a tree and tried to climb up a gal’s pant leg. We figured the little guy thought her white sneakers were rocks and her pants were the same color as the bark of a tree. The guide rescued the koala but not before he left a couple of puncture holes in her pants.