Whale/Dolphin Sightings (Sorry, No Pics)

While Melissa and I were taking a sunset walk along Newcastle and Nobby's beaches (living by the beach should never be taken for granted - it's great even in the winter time), we were fortunate to witness several humpback whales jumping in and out of the water along the coast. Only minutes later, several schools of dolphins passed by as well. Apparently during the months of June/July, whales and dolphins migrate from the colder Antarctic waters up to the warmer tropical waters to breed, and whale/dolphin sightings are quite common. Today we learned a very important lesson - always take your camera down to the beach. We hope to have Tropical North Queensland/Great Barrier Reef pics up in the next couple of days.

State of Orgin

Outside ANZ (pronounced A-N-Zed) Stadium, home of the 2000 Olympics

In Olympic Park

Supporting the Blues

Pre-game trash talk on the Jumbotron

Intoxicated Aussies belting out the National Anthem

Picking off a pass and taking it 95 meters to the house for a try

Rugby's "extra point"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugby_League_State_of_Origin

We spent the past Wednesday at ANZ Stadium in Sydney's Olympic Park taking in State of Origin II. The State of Origin is equivalent to the All-Star Game, only it's a best of three series that takes place over the six week span in the middle of the rugby league season...and who you play for is determined by which state you grew up playing rugby in - either Queensland or New South Wales. Queenslanders think those from New South Wales are arrogant and "soft" (there are no clean words I can print here from what I actually heard), while people from NSW think Queeslanders are ignorant, country-bumpkin rednecks. The atmosphere was electric and entertaining - 85,000 intoxicated Austrailans (with a few random Canadians, Brits and Americans sprinkled in) tend to do that.

The NSW Blues lost to the Queensland Maroons by the score of 24-14, giving Queensland the series 2-0 and making it 4 in a row. The mood of NSW fans reminded us of Texas football fans in 2004-05, before they finally beat OU to get the monkey off their back. And we found out Drew looks like a notable rugby league player by the name of Robbie Farah (so says the drunk Aussies on the train after the game) - the running joke was that when he was pulled with 20 min to go in the game, he must have skipped the showers and was trying to beat the crowd. There's no point in Drew trying to pass himself off as him, b/c the way rugby league players are going, he'll probably be arrested in two weeks for assaulting a woman at a nightclub like this guy...

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sport/nrl/story/0,27074,25702756-5016552,00.html

Newcastle Tower/Sunset Pics...

A few pics from the top of the Newcastle Harbor tower, and a couple of sunset photos at Nobby's Point...

Taronga Zoo

Apparently sailing is quite popular on a Sunday in Sydney

Insanely huge condor

City view from Taronga Zoo

Melissa mocking Drew as he plans the day out

Anchorman immediately came to mind

Red panda

Meerkats trying to say warm under the heat lamp

More funny looking meerkats

Hippo

A Dingo ate my baby!

Common theme among the animals - the cold and rain kept most of them pretty inactive

Flying fox

Melissa has a longer wingspan despite being 10" shorter

Brazilian tapir - ugly...

Seals waiting to be fed

Little penguins

Penguins trying to stay out of the cold drizzle

Baby gorilla

Baby gorilla with the king silverback

Tree kangaroo

Turkeys roaming the food court

Sleeping wombat

Spider monkeys..."Shutup Chip! I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!"

The bear was awake two hours later

Freezing cold wallaby

Tapir

Himalayan Tahrs

Chimps searching for cover from the rain

Deep in thought

Tasmanian Devil

Melissa's favorite animal

Views from the cable car heading back down to the harbor

Socks probably would have been a good idea

Harbor view of the Opera House

Melissa and I spent a recent Sunday afternoon in Sydney at the Taronga Zoo, checking out the native Australian wildlife. We picked this particular Sunday b/c the forecast that morning called for sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-70's, but of course, in true Australian fashion, the forecast was completely wrong. In the train ride from Newcastle to Sydney, sunshine turned into a cold drizzle and steadily declining temperatures. However, we gutted it out and made the best of the day.

The Taronga Zoo actually sits on the northern shore of Sydney, so the trip there requires a ferry ride from Sydney Harbour to the zoo, which affords some pretty excellent views of Sydney. Furthermore, the zoo is sited on a large hill at the edge of a cliff - you can actually take a skyrail from the zoo down over the cliffs. We also met our first fellow Texans - a photographer from Dallas-Ft Worth working in Sydney, and another guy in the zoo who threw up the Hook Em as we walked by. Apparently Texas Exes are everywhere...