Koalas aren't bears and other animal facts

Australia has been a great adventure so far. We have really enjoyed being here with our friends Bret and Nicole (and Dan, of course).

We were always told that Australia was quite different than New Zealand - so far this is true in a number of areas. For example, Australia has dill pickles and regular coffee. This is good. They also have scary spiders and a lot of lizards and weird bugs that I don't like. This is bad.

Some of the wildlife is not so bad, though. Most of our wildlife viewing so far has been done in the zoo or at Sea World. But we did see a number of things in the wild too. Here is just a sample.

1) Kangaroos - Obviously. We got up close and personal with some in the Australia Zoo. They are kind of fun. Not all that exciting (as evidenced by below photo), but pretty good. Bret and Nicole saw some of these guys in the wild - the rest of us still just have the zoo. Funny, I thought we would see them everywhere.

2) Snakes - Mark is very paranoid. He has been on edge since we got here. The other day I accidentally brushed up against his leg in the movie theatre and he freaked. Quietly and in a manly sort of way, of course. Anyways, still only seen these guys in the zoo as well. Thank goodness.

3) Crime fighting sea lions - Only at Sea World would you ever find such a thing. Sorry, I was too busy watching the show to get a good photo.

4) Wombats - Who knew wombats were so cute? Not me. I still don't really know what their purpose is, but oh well. They waddle.

5) Bats - In the wild! I'm not kidding. I don't have a photo, so that doesn't really help with my credibility, but honestly, these huge bats fly around at night. It's like Gotham City.

6) Koalas - My favourite! They are seriously cute. I did not expect that I would find them so endearing. But come on, look at that face. They sleep 20 hours a day and eat leaves the other 4. What a hilarious existence. No contribution to the world at all except for being cute.

There were a lot of other weird things at the zoo, but it's late so I am going to try and sleep when I know there are lots of big red ants and other such creepy crawly things infiltrating this less than flashy hostel room. Yuck. I wish they were just koalas....