Roo Arrived

A kangaroo named Roo arrived ready to travel with Granby and Henry Down Under. Roo has a joey in her pouch.
Before starting a two month long journey with Granby and Henry, Roo and her joey visited granddaughter Lindsay who helped Roo to name her joey.  Roo’s baby girl now has the name Ester, a name that means Star.  Lindsay will be following Roo and Ester’s travels in Australia and New Zealand during March and April.

While traveling in Australia and New Zealand, Roo and Ester will be looking for other stuffed animal friends to bring back to Lindsay.  Who knows?  They might find a friendly koala, a Tasmanian devil, and even a kiwi bird.

Kangaroos are the largest of the marsupials, carrying their young in a pouch. The average lifespan of kangaroos is 6 to 8 years.  They have powerful hind legs, small front legs, large feet, and a strong tail that they use for balance when jumping.  They can travel more than 30 miles per hour and leap some 30 feet in a single bound.    They live in large groups called mobs that might include 50 or more.

Kangaroos are herbivores.  They chew their food before swallowing it.

Baby kangaroos are called joeys.  At birth joeys are about the size of a grape.  When a Joey is about 4 months old, it emerges from its mother’s pouch for short periods of time.  By about 10 months, a joey is usually mature enough to live outside its mother’s pouch.

Hunted by wild dogs called dingoes, kangaroos are also challenged to survive in the Australian outback from a lack of water due to drought and hunger from vanishing habitats.  Kangaroos are commercially hunted in Australia by government permit and kangaroo meat is sold in grocery stores and is listed on some restaurant menus.  The slaughter of kangaroos even with a government permit and quotas is a controversial topic.

Animal Planet video about kangaroo mothers (1:10):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DZnx1mGyq4

Some Comparisons Between Australia and New Zealand

Comparing . . .	Australia	New Zealand
Land Features	Mostly flat with its highest point at 7,310 feet. Flat plains and deserts. The Great Barrier Reef is built from the same Pacific hard corals as the reefs surrounding the islands of Hawaii.	Extremely mountainous with its highest point on Mount Cook (12,000 feet), part of the Southern Alps mountain range. Rugged terrain with permanent glaciers and white water rivers. Wintry alpine heights remind one of Alaska. Consists of two main islands separated by the 15-mile wide Cook Strait. From the top of North Island to the bottom of South Island is 1200 miles. No point on either island is more than 70 miles from a coastline.
Area	2.97 million square miles – about the same size as the 48 continuous U.S. states	103,737 square miles – about the same size as Colorado in the U.S.
Shoreline	A smooth coastline with few inlets or bays.	Similar to Norway with deep fjords spelled fiords.
Climate	Varies with most of the country desert or semi-arid. The southeast and southwest corners have a temperate climate. The northern part has a tropical climate.	Varies from warm subtropical in the far north to cool temperate climates in the far south, with severe alpine conditions in the mountainous areas.
South Pacific Cyclones — similar to hurricanes with wind flow moving clockwise instead of counterclockwise.	From November 1st to April 30th averaging 11 per year. The number of tropical cyclones peak during February and March when the water is warmest.	Usually has only one ex-tropical cyclone that brushes or directly hits the top of the North Island.
Southern Hemisphere Circle of Latitudes	Darwin is only 857 miles from the Equator. The Tropic of Capricorn runs through Australia so that the northern half of Australia is between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Equator.	It is 1,584 miles from the South Island to Antarctica. New Zealand lies south of the Tropic of Capricorn and north of the Antarctic Circle.
Seasons	The reverse of the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.	The reverse of the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere.
Indigenous Peoples	Aborigines	Māori
Population	22,905,184	4,454,277
People per square mile	7	37
Nickname	Aussies	Kiwis
National Rugby Team	Wallabies	All Blacks
City Populations	Sydney 4,627,345	Auckland 1,397,300
Economy	Agrarian and service based with less than 15 percent of the GDP generated by manufacturing.	Agrarian and service based with less than 15 percent of the GDP generated by manufacturing.
Sheep Population	23 million	60 million
European Settlement	A country settled by convicts, ranchers, gold prospectors (discovered in 1851), opal prospectors, and miners provided a wild west frontier spirit not unlike the United States.	Settled by immigrants as a regulated welfare state beginning 1852.
Wildlife	Home to hundreds of species that exist no where else in the world, such as kangaroos, duck-billed platypus, koalas, Tasmanian devils, etc.	Home to just a few indigenous species, including the flightless kiwi bird.
Snakes	Home to the top 11 most venomous snakes in the world and 19 of the top 25.	No snakes.

Some Aussie Facts

Australia is located in the Southern Hemisphere between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  Australia is the smallest continent that is also a country and an island.

Once in the air, Granby and Henry will fly 35 hours, 35 minutes (including time for layovers in Los Angeles, California and Sydney, Australia) and 10,059 miles from their home in the United States to Melbourne, Australia.

Because Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are opposite of how they are in the United States.  Summer is generally December, January, and February.  Autumn is March, April, and May,  Winter is June, July, and August.  Spring is September, October, and November.  The southern eastern region of Australia has a temperate climate with warm to hot summers and mild winters.  Rainfall is spread throughout the year.  The northern part of Australia is closer to the Equator and has a tropical climate with a wet season in summer and autumn with heavy rainfalls, and a dry season in the winter and spring that has sunny and humid days.

Deserts cover much of central and northwestern Australia while snow can fall in the mountains of southeastern Australia and Tasmania.

The Commonwealth of Australia consists of six States and two Territories. The largest State, Western Australia, is about the same size as Western Europe.  In size, Australia is the 6th largest country in the world after Russia, Canada, China, the United States of America and Brazil.  Australia comprises 2.968 million square miles compared to 2.959 square miles in the 48 contiguous United States (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).

For its size, Australia has a relatively small population of 22,015,576 compared to the United States with a population of 313,847,465.  Most Australians live in cities along its coastline.  Sydney is the largest city with 4.429 million; Melbourne is second with 3.853 million; Brisbane is third with 1.97 million; Perth is fourth with 1.599 million; and Canberra, the capital only has a population of 384,000.

Currently, Melbourne, Australia is 16 hours ahead of the time in South Carolina because it is on daylight savings time which in Australia begins the first Sunday in October and ends the first Sunday in April.  When Granby and Henry’s airplane lands in Melbourne, Australia at 11:20 am on Monday, March 11th, it will be 8:20 pm on Sunday, March 10th in South Carolina.  We will only be 15 hours ahead of the time in South Carolina when we arrive in Australia because daylight savings time will begin in the United States on Sunday, March 10th.  While you will “spring forward” one hour at 2:00 am on March 10th, Granby and Henry will be springing forward 16 hours!

Not all the states in Australia observe daylight savings time.  Without considering daylight savings time, Australia has three time zones with Perth on the west coast being two hours behind Sydney on the east coast.

The government in Australia is both a federal parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy.  Queen Elizabeth II of England is the official Chief of State.  On the recommendation of the Prime Minister, the Queen appoints a Governor General as her representative.  The Prime Minister is the leader of the majority party or leader of the majority coalition as determined by popular election. The current Governor General representing the Queen as Chief of State is Quentin Bryce.  The Prime Minister is Julia Eileen Gillard. The legislative branch of government is a bicameral Federal Parliament consisting of an elected Senate and a House of Representatives.

The Aboriginal people arrived in Australia about 40,000 years ago.  In the early 1600s, the Dutch sailed to Australia and made maps of the west coast and the northern coastline.  In 1770, Captain Cook, an explorer from England, sailed along the east coast of Australia and named it New South Wales.  On January 26, 1788, the British First Fleet landed at Sydney Cove and established the first European settlement in Australia.  This date is now celebrated annually as Australia Day, a national holiday to commemorate the founding of Australia.

Until 1901 the Commonwealth of Australia used Britain’s flag, the Union Jack.  Today, Australia’s flag has the Union Jack in the top left corner. This shows that Australia is part of the British Commonwealth. Beneath the Union Jack is a large white star with seven points.  The points represent the six states and the territories.  Originally this star had six points.  The seventh point for the territories was added in 1908. On the right hand side are the stars of the Southern Cross. The Southern Cross was chosen because it can always be seen in the Australian sky at night.

 

Getting Ready to Travel Down Under

Granby and Henry are getting ready to go on a 43-day voyage Down Under to New Zealand, Australia, and Indonesia.  We will leave home on Saturday, March 9, 2013, and our flight will finally land in Melbourne, Australia on Monday, March 11th.  After spending almost a week in Melbourne, we will board Princess Cruise Line’s ship, the Dawn Princess (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nQgQr2uXOE), on March 16th.  This will be Granby and Henry’s 5th cruise on the Dawn Princess, but our first time since the Dawn Princess was relocated for cruises from home ports in Australia.  One of the differences for Granby and Henry will be that as an Australian ship, all currency and charges on board the Dawn Princess will be in Australian dollars instead of U.S. dollars.  We will cruise around New Zealand and also circumnavigate Australia, ending our cruise in Sydney, Australia.

See lots of pictures of the Dawn Princess taken by Nathalia Rayfield on a weekend cruise the end of May 2012:
1.)  Click on this link:  http://cometravellingwithus.blogspot.com.es/2012/
2.)  Scroll down the page and click on May 31 – “A Weekend on the Dawn Princess”

Day	Date	Port of Call/City	Arrive	Depart
1-3	3/9-3/11 3/9 3/9 3/11 3/11	Air travel to Melbourne, Australia USAir Flight 1431 to Los Angeles United Flight 839 to Sydney, Australia Sydney, Australia – Customs Mebourne, Australia
4	3/12	Exploring Melbourne – Tourist Shuttle and Yarra River Cruise
5	3/13	Puffing Billy Steam Train, Healesville Sanctuary
6	3/14	Exploring Melbourne – City Circle Tram
7	3/15	Yarra Valley Gourmet Food and Wine Tour
8	3/16	Embark the Dawn Princess at Station Pier Cruise Terminal at the Port of Melbourne		16:00
9	3/17	Crossing the Tasman Sea
10	3/18	Crossing the Tasman Sea
11	3/19	Crossing the Tasman Sea
12	3/20	Auckland, New Zealand	10:00	21:00
13	3/21	Tauranga, New Zealand	9:30	20:00
14	3/22	Napier, New Zealand	13:00	19:00
15	3/23	Wellington, New Zealand	8:00	18:00
16	3/24	Akaroa, New Zealand	8:00	18:00
17	3/25	Dunedin (Port Chalmers), New Zealand	8:00	18:00
18	3/26	Fiordland National Park, New Zealand	8:00	17:00
19	3/27	At Sea
20	3/28	At Sea
21	3/29	Melbourne, Australia	7:00	18:00
22	3/30	At Sea
23	3/31	Sydney, Australia	7:00	16:00
24	4/1	At Sea
25	4/2	Brisbane, Australia	8:00	18:00
26	4/3	At Sea
27	4/4	Airlie Beach, Australia	7:00	18:00
28	4/5	At Sea
29	4/6	Port Douglas, Australia	7:00	17:00
30	4/7	At Sea
31	4/8	At Sea
32	4/9	Darwin, Australia	9:00	18:00
33	4/10	At Sea
34	4/11	At Sea
35	4/12	Lombok, Indonesia	7:00	17:00
36	4/13	At Sea
37	4/14	At Sea
38	4/15	At Sea
39	4/16	Fremantle (Perth), Australia	8:00	23:00
40	4/17	Bunbury, Australia	8:00	16:00
41	4/18	Albany, Australia	9:00	18:00
42	4/19	At Sea
43	4/20	At Sea
44	4/21	Adelaide, Australia	8:00	18:00
45	4/22	At Sea
46	4/23	Melbourne, Australia	8:00	18:00
47	4/24	Burnie (Tasmania), Australia	8:00	16:00
48	4/25	Hobart (Tasmania), Australia	12:00
49	4/26	Hobart (Tasmania), Australia		16:00
50	4/27	At Sea
51	4/28	Sydney, Australia – Disembark Dawn Princess United Airlines Flight 870 from Sydney to SFO Overnight at The Dylan Hotel
52	4/29	USAir Flight 685 from SFO to Phoenix USAir Flight 1546 from Phoenix to Home