My time spent in Australia was amazing!

The culture, the people, and the experiences that we had will be something that I never forget.  The Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Center provided an experience that I will probably never have again and the fact that they operate mainly based on volunteers and donations is impressive.  You can tell that the volunteers really care about what they are doing and are extremely organized in their daily operations.  Even if you only have one day to donate to the rehabilitation center, everyone is still extremely grateful for the help and willing to take the time to explain everything.  When not at the rehabilitation center, we were able to visit many of the local centers where some of the country’s natural wildlife reside.

One of my favorite parts of the trip (besides the turtles) was the opportunity to hold a koala!  It was amazing to see how differently the wildlife parks operate in Australia compared to the US.  Most of the animals are separated from the public by glass or enclosures in the US, while in most of the parks that we visited in Australia, the enclosures were just a waist-high fence, or we were able to walk into the enclosure and have the animals right next to us (like the kangaroo exhibit).  You can really tell that Australians respect their environment and wildlife and are very knowledgeable about the land and its history.

Overall, this program is something that I will never forget and will forever be thankful to the people who took the time to make us feel welcome in their country!

Today we went to the Cairns Marine Center and discovered all of the sea treasures that they have there…it was amazing!

The range of sea life that they have there is substantial and the fact that they care for it each and every day is impressive.  The day that we went, a new shipment was being delivered so we were able to see their process of new arrivals and understand the work that goes into getting the marine life off the truck.  For someone who does not have a lot of experience around water-based creatures, it was great to have such experienced people explain all of the work and husbandry that goes into caring for the center.

A lot of our time was spent preparing the meals that are fed to the tanks within the center…it was  interesting.  My prawn peeling and squid preparation for the turtles definitely came in handy at this point.  I will say that it was crazy feeding the coral and understanding how it absorbs its food; definitely something I won’t ever forget!

Some of the most notable things there were the baby hammerhead sharks (cute), pig nosed turtles, and the humphead wrasse.  It was an experience I will never forget!