Small marsupial on the street!

This is the last update before we leave tomorrow morning. Just one sleep!

We spotted this little animal on the way home from the park on Saturday. Nate and I immediately thought it was some kind of marsupial...being in Australia and all.

We got home and whipped out the Wildlife to Greater Brisbane (Thanks again, Penny and Peter!) and tried to give a name to this little creature.

We decided that it looked most like the Yellow-footed Antechinus or maybe the Brown Antechinus. Both of these species are quite rare within city limits because of competition with mice and rats in urban areas, and because of the vicious Felis catus.

Antechinuses reproduce only once a year, and the male yellow-footed antechinuses die after mating from the stress of it all. Hard to compete with the fecund house mouse!

If you haven't figured it out from the pictures, it turns out that our 'marsupial' is the lowly Mus musculus. We were really hoping it wasn't, but it makes more sense that we would see a mouse in the gutter of a busy street than a rare and threatened marsupial. Shoot! If only her snout was just a bit longer... and she had a pouch under there...

It's amazing how similar the antechinus and mouse look considering how distantly related they are! Science!

Next stop, California! Well, technically, our next stop is Aukland, THEN California, but let's not get picky.

Five!

Five-ish hours.

Five days.

Five weeks.

Five months.

Labour Day Weekend

Nate had Monday off from work for Labour Day, so we took advantage of the long weekend and stayed two nights in the Gold Coast hinterland to celebrate my birthday. We stayed in a resort in the Binna Burra section of Lamington National Park. It's about 30 km from the Pacific and 900 m above sea level. It was the first time in months that I've felt cold - it was wonderful.

Most people travel to this area for bushwalking. There are over 160 kms of walking trails and we managed to squeeze in about 12 kms. It is the one of the largest patches of subtropical rainforest in the world and has a lot of endemic flora.

Inspecting the leaves of the Antarctic Beech, Nothofagus moorei. Nate has described an insect species that occurs on this plant and the stand in Lamington NP is the northernmost occurrence of the plant in Australia.

Kweebani Cave - Aboriginal hiding spot from inclement weather.

Pademelon! This was the best picture I could get of this cute little marsupial that crossed our path early one morning.

We were so stoked to see these Frogmouths, or Froggies, as the locals call them. Do you see the one on the right has turned his head to look at us? They roosted on a stump just down from our balconey all morning. (Mom, are you jealous!?)


Our 'rustic' room. No tv, radio, internet, and we had a lovely Huntsman living in the shower door. It was great.

This spider scared the living daylights out of me. I pulled down the bathmat that was hanging over the shower door and she was underneath it! She stayed in that position for so long that I thought she was fake! She finally moved when we moved the door to take a shower.

Our resort's dining room at sunset. At dinner, we sat with a man who studies koala ecology for the National Parks in New South Wales. He told us he saw koalas during his walks in the park, but we didn't spot any.

Another sunset shot from the resort's BBQ area.

Queenslanders love Lord Lamington, their governor in the late 1800's. Not only is a beloved National Park named for him, but the cake pictured above is called a Lamington. It is a sponge cake dipped in chocolate and coated in dessicated coconut. Eaten with cream, of course, just like every other dessert here. This was our first delicious Lamington... the first of many, I hope.

Just like a real Australian! Eating cake with my tea!

Roxy used Daddy's hands as walking poles and held onto them for the duration of our hikes. She'll be ready for the John Muir Trail in no time....

Well, maybe we'll give her a few years...

On the way home we stopped at a roadside cafe and enjoyed a delicious pizza on their patio protected from a rainstorm. It was a fantastic weekend and a wonderful way to welcome my 30's!

Nate calls this my, "Hey! I'm 30!" picture.

We will definitely return to this park, but we will probably camp instead of staying at the resort - that was definitely a birthday treat.