Cute and Cuddly

One of the things I expected to see lots of when I went to the Melbourne Zoo were the animals that we associate with Australia. The kookaburra, the koala, the wombat etc. I don't remember seeing a kookaburra but I have to assume they were there somewhere - we didn't make it round the entire park. The wombat's both had their noses in their feed bowls and were scoffing it down so fast I am surprised they didn't try to eat the stainless steel bowls as well! There were a few kangaroos about the place but they were all laying about resting. I found them rather boring to look at, I would much rather have seen them bounding about in the outback totally free than looking rather bored in a smallish enclosure.

The koala's (there were two of them that I saw) were both up in a tree. Ok so that's where they are supposed to be but it wasn't easy to either see them, or photograph them which I found rather frustrating. I have always thought they looked cute and cuddly but to be honest I didn't much to make me want to hug one. They have rather beady little eyes and appear to be watching everything that is going on around them from their perch up high, and of course if they see a camera pointing at them they hide behind a pole or a branch! Well that's my story anyway.

There were four tiger cubs at Melbourne Zoo when we visited. They were in an enclosure with their mum and they were all cute and fluffy. Big playful kittens! Their paws looked oversized for their bodies so I am assuming they will grow into those paws and will become a force to be reckoned with. I shot lots of photos of the tiger cubs but only a couple of them were actually any good. They were so fisky and bouncing from place to place in their play that it was almost impossible to get a good shot. A missed opportunity perhaps - or a learning experience.

More from Melbourne Zoo

When we were visiting the Melbourne Zoo park I have to admit I wasn't at my best. The 4 hours on the plane the day before had taken a huge toll on my back and I was not in a good way. It may have clouded my judgement somewhat of the zoo itself, reading back I was rather harsh about it. It most certainly did cloud my photography on the day. Pain has a way of interfering with how you see things in general and when you add a camera lens you can look at something and just go "bleh" when another time you might have seen an awesome image.It has been a couple of weeks now and my back is still in recovery mode (another four hour flight home!) but I am getting there. I haven't picked up the camera much but I do intend to change that very soon.

The Canon Photo5 competition is on again and I am going to have another go at entering. Last year was a learning experience, this year I have more of an idea of what to expect. You get sent a box with 5 objects in it and 5 challenges. The images must contain the objects in them and you can be as creative as you want to be. It should be fun!  I will post copies of my entries here once they have been uploaded to the competition site. Wish me luck!

Melbourne - Day Two

Our first full day in Melbourne and it started with breakfast in the hotel restaurant. Simply put the food was good. They even toasted up some really nice gluten free bread for me. After breakfast we headed out in search of the tram that would take us to the zoo. We probably left a bit early but our body clocks were still on New Zealand time and it felt much later than it actually was.

We arrived at the zoo before it opened and it looked promising in that there was only a couple of others there waiting. I thought it was safe to assume that there wouldn’t be too many other folk wandering around with us but boy was I wrong! I reckon just about every school in Melbourne choose today to go to the zoo.

On the whole I felt the zoo was a bit of a let-down. New Zealand zoos are much better in regards to providing opportunities for viewing without ugly netting in front of you. That may seem somewhat harsh, there were some newer enclosures that were good and to be fair the whole zoo looks like it is in the middle of a major upgrade but for me on this trip I was somewhat disappointed. Perhaps my expectations were too high.

After the zoo we headed to the markets and shops to spend some money. First on the list was sim cards for the phones so we had a means of being contacted by friends while are in Melbourne. Should have been as simple as buying the card and inserting into the phone but no…  you have to activate it. You have to know the exact address of where you are staying, their phone number, street number and post code before it can be activated.

“I am sitting in the market; I have no idea what street number the hotel is.”
“One moment please I will just check with my supervisor.”

After about 20 minutes of spelling things out to the person on the other end of the phone letter by letter we got the following response from her supervisor.

“It might be better if you activate your phone using our online system.”  ARGH!!!

So the phones had to wait until we returned to the hotel and had all the relevant data to fill out the form. I have yet to do this task as I am sure it is going to be as unpleasant as the phone call was.