Botanic Garden and the Adelaide Zoo

G’day mates,

7/27: I enjoyed the tour yesterday so much that I returned to the Botanic Garden and walked around the entire property. Admission is free, so I can’t wait until the weather gets warmer so I can sit on the grass and read or have a picnic with my friends and taste wine. The garden was arranged in sections such as the edible garden, plants from Africa, and desert/dry climate plants. The edible garden contained a variety of fruits, veggies, herbs and essential oils and some of which, I hadn’t heard of before such as frangipani. Most of theses plants are native to other parts of the world and have been used for medicine and health. Next I wandered to the desert/dry climate plants which was my favorite since I saw many plants I recognized from Arizona and the desert southwest. One I remembered seeing around ASU was the Golden Ball Cactus because it reminded me of a (prickly) seat cushion. It was a nice sunny day so the different shades of green really popped out, especially in pictures. Inside the glass house (pictured below), contained many plants from Madagascar. I kept walking and arrived at this massive tree (pictured below). The base of the tree had multiple thick trunks growing from it with many long branches everywhere. Some of the branches were so long that they touched the ground and were buried under the leaves. The National Wine Centre of Australia is also located within the garden property. I walked around the building and some of the vineyards that were there. Fun fact: I’m 15,488 km from Verona, Italy and 17,071 km from Porto, Portugal. The grass here is quite green for winter. That surprised me. I walked inside the conservatory where the tropical rainforest plants were. It was warm and humid compared to outside. Then I reached the rose garden but there weren’t any roses since its still winter. Good thing the garden is free so I can go back multiple times once its springtime. Another reason I plan to return in the spring is for the wisteria flowers that grow along an archway tunnel. They have something similar to this in a garden in Florence but I went there after they were in bloom. I went inside the Amazon Waterlily Pavilion to see the large lilypads. It was very warm inside and more humid than the conservatory.

For lunch I went to Rundle Mall and ate a healthy Asian wrap from Bing Boy. These meat and veggie wraps are similar to the crepes I had in Florence. They are made in a similar way with a very similar ingredients. Never will disappoint me. Bing Boy is by far my favorite restaurant here and I had only been in Adelaide for a couple of days before I found it. Then I walked to East Rundle Mall where there is an alley with different colored umbrellas hanging above you. While walking there, I notice many neat restaurants and cafes that I cant wait to try. I walked back to campus to check out the famed Reading Room at the library. This room has seats for 200 people and was built in the 1930s. The desks were designed for people to read books while sitting there so there aren’t any outlets for modern technology. Afterwards, I walked to the Central Market and checked it out. I was hoping it was going to be like the Florence CM but it wasn’t. There were a few stalls that were cafes but most of the stalls sold produce and bread. There was a food court but that was part of the Asian town which is nearby.

7/28: I spent my last day of summer break (but only for <100 days) visiting the South Australian museum and the zoo. The SA museum is free; but the zoo is not. The SA museum had a variety of animals on display which were grouped according to their native region. Many animals including the hippo, lion, tiger, cheetah, and moose looked so life-like. There was also an exhibit for the aquatic animals found in the oceans and along the shores of Australia. There were some really interesting and peculiar creatures which I haven’t seen before. One interesting shark I saw was a Wobbegong. These sharks are called carpet sharks since they are well camouflaged with the sea floor and have a symmetrical pattern of markings that resemble a carpet. I also saw some interesting fish, sharks and a very large stingray. The basking shark is the world’s second largest shark. The Basking shark, the Smooth Hammerhead shark and the Broad-nose shark are all found in the waters around Adelaide. There was a model of the Giant Squid ever recorded which was found near New Zealand. From the top to bottom, the squid is 11 meters tall (36 ft) and spans over 4 floors.

Also on display were boomerangs, spears, weapons, shovels, and shields made by the Aboriginals. Some of the boomerangs that were made served different purposes such as for hunting prey and for ceremonies. The spears also served different purposes based on the shape, length and if it was barbed or un-barbed. The single attached heads of a spear were used for hunting and the multiple attached heads were used for spearing fish. The spears with two rows of barbs cut were used in ceremonies and for fighting, while spears with more than 3 barbs cut were used mostly in ceremonies and gift exchanges. Some of these spears were easily 10-15 feet long. Then I walked to the space exploration exhibit about the first Australian to go to space, Andy Thomas. He grew up in Adelaide, graduated from Uni Adelaide, and captured a satellite image of the city from space. The mineral exhibit was next which had the minerals laid out by color. This was interesting to look at since I wasn’t familiar with many of the names of the minerals. Some of these included Cryolite from Greenland, Wulfenite from Morocco, Dioptase from Namibia, and Jadeite from Myanmar. There were a lot of beautiful opals on display since it is found here, is the national gemstone of Australia, and the state emblem of South Australia.

I grabbed lunch at Rundle Mall and spent the afternoon at the zoo. There were a lot of animals I’ve seen at the zoos in the US but, there were also many native animals. The animals I’ve seen at the Houston Zoo and other zoos include sea lions, meerkats, lions, giraffe, elephants, alligator, tigers, monkeys, birds, and pelicans. The animals I will talk more about are the native animals to Australia or this part of the world. First, I went to see the little penguins since the zookeeper was there to talk about them. He told us these penguins can eat as much fish as the weight of 2000 burgers for one meal. Thats interesting since they are able to retain the same size and weight afterwards. Next I went to the petting zoo where I got to pet wallabies and a kangaroo. There were also a lot of chickens on the loose in the area which was interesting. There was a large wire cage that housed the birds so they couldn’t escape and where we could walk through on a path. The birds were flying everywhere and chirping constantly. I noticed these colorful ducks chilling on the ground near the sidewalk minding their own business. They were Mandarin ducks. The ring-tailed lemurs were chilling on the roof of their house. They reminded me of the lemurs in the movie “Madagascar.” The most interesting exhibit and perhaps my favorite was the tamarins (monkeys). I liked this one because they could run around through tunnel walkways to the trees or to their habitat and you could walk right under them. There was a large exhibit dedicated to the Giant Pandas and Red Pandas. One of the Giant Pandas was sleeping and the other one was eating bamboo branches. It was funny to watch him eat because he would grab some, start eating then stop and grabbed some more branches to chew on. He seemed indecisive. I visited the exhibits where the native animals to Australia were. I saw a wombat and two koalas. The wombat was eating carrots and the koalas were sleeping since thats what they do the majority of the day. They are cute regardless.

I finished walking around hitting the animals I hadn’t seen yet and then left since the zoo was closing soon. I headed back to my apartment to eat dinner and get ready for the first day classes in the morning.

I’m behind with posting this blog and the blogs about weeks 1 and 2 of classes which I plan to upload this weekend. There is a video below and hopefully it plays but if it doesn’t work, let me know and I’ll upload it in the next blog.