Good bye to Bankstown City Library - wonderful lunch and tea...despites their arguments that Australia is a much better place to spend the next 4 months I am NZ bound.

Starting March 1st 2007 I will be offering a NZ BLOG celebrating my third and final job exchange. This is the new BLOG address:

http://newzealandjournal.blogspot.com/

Sydney Aquarium - This is a really magical place where the creatures of the sea give you a fantastic show just being themselves. They glide and twirl and float without effort above your head, beside you, underneath you as you are surrounded by their sea world. The sea turtle seems to be suspended and appears to love to float upside down. He or she was there a long time and didn't seem to need to breathe. The sting ray was so huge you just see his/her great big white belly. The low swimming fish are flat head sharks and they were huge.

Rookwood Cemetary and Sydney Aquarium - my time in Australia is coming to a close and so I am just putting my final parting shots from paradise up on the BLOG. The first shot is the grave marker of "Copper Lady" aka Margaret Newton who had the foresight in the 1800s to preserve her photographic image from that time with a multimedia copper flap that can be retracted upward to show the photo but normally resides over the photo to protect it from the elements and the sunlight. The other two shots are of the colourful flora in the Sydney Aquarium, red coral.

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - take note of the laminate floor, the well used 'sound and vision' area for youth, and the area for patrons to plug in their laptops or use their wireless. What a bright and airy hi tech atmostphere that is obviously attractive to the youth.

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - the first two images are of the high visibility group meeting rooms that are popular with youth who are planning projects as a team. The final image is of an area where people can "chill out" and just relax and enjoy the beautiful gardens and fountain outside.

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - Wanted to show you the task lighting in the multi-media area populated with youth. The graphics are appealing, colourful and youthful. The middle shot shows the importance the Library places on attracting the business community and entrepreneurs.

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - Signage is big, cheerful, and clear. Look at the RFID self-checkout. Book returns are a snap with RFID because the return bin itself can sense the item's return and issues the patron a receipt immediately.
Note the excellent, modern computing facililties and the task lighting.

Sydney - Castle Hill Library - the whole effect of this library is one of a chic bookstore/boutique in a high tech world. No ones

has to question what is housed where or what an item's functionality is. The first shot is an innovative idea and its called "Titles from the bottom shelf"...just like in a food store where the loss leaders are placed on the bottom because they require more work to retrieve, great books can be relegated to the bottom shelf by the classification system even though more often than not they are "winners' and Castle Hill celebrates them.

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - the tigers are quite moody and were affected badly by the heat. To make matters worse the male tiger was Siberian and he was considerably bigger than the female bengal tiger. Also the Steve Irwin Australia Zoo does not believe in forcing the tigers to entertain so when they would not play with the toys the keepers were flinging around that was kind of the end of the show. The first shot is of a 'cub' [pretty big cub if you ask me!] drinking milk out of a bottle. This was one occasion when my instincts for animal rights were outmatched by my desire to see something entertaining but it never happened.

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - I really found it relaxing watching the elephants enjoy their shower.They love to roll and get caked in mud to fend off the heat and scorching sun and then have all that mud washed off.

Steve Irwin's Australian Zoo - in order the animals are an emu [as big if not bigger than an ostrich! and socialable too!], a koala with some kind of skin problem but at least in an natural place up a tree and not being bothered by humans, and a green parrot that appears to be camouflaged.

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - there is a "show" at scheduled times and they have fantastic trained parrots who fly amongst the audience and crocodiles who are so huge but so fast it is astounding. The sun was very strong and we moved to a part of the bleachers where we were in partial shade. The 'roos' were very friendly. A joey was putting on a show for everyone making a big drama about getting in his mother's pouch. He looked kind of big for the pouch as his feet were dangling out. It was emotional seeing the tribute wall for Steve Irwin. He really does promote animal welfare in his show and gives a large portion of the proceeds to animal welfare projects.

Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo - as an animal rights advocate I always think twice about going to a zoo but this was a wonderful place. There was no litter anywhere and the animals lived in clean surrounding. There were no piles of dung and flies, and the water was clean, the vegetation well watered and every animal and bird was engaged and happy. Even the staff were really great and trying to do their best for the people and the animals. The pictures here are a koala [sleeping again!], and American crocodile, and an elephant. For a small fee you could go up and feed the elephant a portion of a cob of corn and have your photograph taken. If you went up the elephant slimed you with its trunk and/or its mouth.

Ettamogah Pub - I couldn't believe that the genie from the movie "Big" with Tom Hanks was just out in the courtyard. No one else noticed it. I went and looked and decided to go back and get money and have my fortune told but I found it confusing that your fortune was told to you out of a speaker and not in writing. Being the lawyer type ['I want that in writing!'] I walked away so I never got to experience what the genie would have for me.

Glass House Mountains - Panoramic View- Aren't the shapes of the mountains amazing. It defies logic that so many extinct volcanoes could be situated in nature so close together. Apparently hikers like to climb them. I was happy just to admire them. The Pacific Ocean is just beyond them at the blue horizon.

Secrets on the Lake - Lake Baroon - Montville - This is a really ritzy and fantastic resort complete with a treetop walk for guests. This cute little wooden structure is high up in the trees over the driveway leading up to the resort.

Kondalilla Falls in Kondalilla National Park near Montville in the Blackall Range in the Sunshine Coast hinterland - We hiked to the falls and this very enticing pond and swimming hole to put our feet in the cooling water. Youth were jumping from a cliff into the pool of water. One young woman was afraid to jump but felt committed. We hiked 20 minutes away and came back and she still had not jumped but finally made the plunge. There is a lovely valley near the pool of water. The final image is a rather big lizard that lives beside Lake Baroon at Montville near Maleny. Its a man- made lake formed when a dam was constructed.