My (Short) Time In Singapore

With only a couple of days in Singapore there are only a few things I can mention:

1) With a S$500 (£250) fine for littering you'll not be surprised to hear that the streets are really clean.

2) There are some fantastic buildings about. Apart from the Supertrees there are many other big, modern constructions to see including a waterside football stadium with a floating pitch!

3) It's very humid. I don't mind the heat so much but I'm really not a fan of when it's humid and Singapore has been a suitably humid introduction to Asia!

Did You Know?: Singapore has four official languages (English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil). Can you work out which one's which? There is also an unofficial language of 'Singlish' which is when people speak the English language really quickly and with a speech pattern like Mandarin or Malay!

Singapore's Super Trees

These aren't your ordinary trees, they're made out of metal and concrete! There's a total of 18 'supertrees' at Supertree Grove with over 150,000 plants planted on them.

The tallest is 50m high and has a restaurant at the top. The others are 25m high and some have solar panels on the top to generate power while the others act like exhaust pipes to let out the hot air from the huge conservatories nearby that have thousands of plants on display to the public.

A Zoo In Darkness

Have you ever wondered why zoos open when most of the animals sleep in the day? Well, Singapore Night Safari's solved this by only opening at night! A zoo at night is very different to one in the day, there is so much more happening and I thought it was brilliant (And a little bit scary at the same time).

I started with a 'safari ride' (Think Longleat but with a long golf cart style vehicle) and drove past some very interesting creatures. The most dangerous animals, like Asian lions and hyenas, were only seperated by moats instead of fences or glass and the others could come right up to us. I don't think the lady who had two kiss-chase playing tapirs accidentally run into her part of the cart at high speed will forget those creatures for the rest of her life!

Afterwards I was free to wander the rest of the zoo and got to see fishing cats on the hunt, porcupines battling over food and even a rare Malaysian tiger come out of the darkness and roar so loud it was heard in other parts of the zoo.

Activity: Google a picture of a binturong and for smell-o-vision ask your parents to make some popcorn because this curious, bigger than you think creature, makes a smell like popcorn to mark it's territory!

Review Of Down Under

For me, a big part of my visit to Australia was about wildlife unlike New Zealand where it became an added bonus. There were so many animals that I was desperate to see so I was so pleased I got to see as many of them in the wild as I could before seeing the rest at Australia Zoo and luckily I avoided seeing any venomous snakes or spiders in the wild or under the loo seat.

Swimming on the Great Barrier Reef will probably be the greatest memory I'll take with me. It's one thing I would tell anybody to do if they're in Australia and it would even be worth travelling there to do only that. Start saving your pocket money!

I was a bit disappointed not to see more live sport though. I'm glad I got to watch football in Sydney, even if it was pretty bad, but I would've loved to have seen some cricket, rugby or Aussie rules football (Definitely worth checking out on YouTube) while here however I was never in the right place at the right time.

An odd thing I did notice, and was not a fan of, was the pedestrian crossings. It took absolutely AGES for them to turn green even when all the roads were on red. Not fun for an eager tourist in a rush to see exciting things! I was literally stood still, waiting, along with loads of cars that weren't moving while nothing happened. I wouldn't have been surprised if a tumbleweed had rolled through! When it comes to pedestrian crossings; 1-0 UK (An important victory I'm sure).

Overall though I loved my time in Australia. It's now time to leave the comfort of English-speaking countries and start the Asian leg of the trip. The third and final part, starting with a few nights in Singapore.

In The Photo: A signpost in Sydney. I was only just over 17,000km from home then!

One Direction Watch {Australia}

We rented a car for a few days and listened to the radio as we drove around Queensland, we heard plenty of Olly Murs and a bit of Adele but, oddly, no 1D. I did see their Comic Relief video on MTV a couple of times though and, of course, there have been a few magazines with their faces on the covers.

I also spotted the oddest piece of band merchandise I've ever seen. For just over £10 you could own...a singing toothbrush that plays two different 1D songs as you clean your teeth! That can be 'What Makes You Beautiful' in the morning (Clean teeth, apparantly) and 'One Thing' before bed.

Poorly Creatures

You would look twice if you saw a koala at a vets in Britain! This is Peri who fell out of her tree and broke some bones. Thankfully the vets at Australia Zoo Animal Hospital are nursing her back to health.

What A Bird

This is a photo of my favourite species of bird on the planet; the cassowary. They can't fly, only live wild in northern Australia and parts of Papua New Guinea and I think they are brilliant!

Not only can they be taller than me when they stretch to full height but they also have a very strong 'helmet' on their head which they will use to fight. On top of that, check out the huge claws at the end of it's legs! This photo was taken at Australia Zoo but I was gutted not to see one in the wild despite always keeping an eye out.

Did You Know?: If you ever met a cassowary in the wild, one on one, you should never turn your back on it. They are famously dangerous birds that will ferociously protect their territory and they're are not afraid to attack people. The best thing to do is back away slowly until there's something between the two of you and it moves away.

Australia Zoo. Crikey!

Anyone who knows me, or just reads this blog, will know that I love zoos and animals. On Tuesday I visited Australia Zoo which was made famous by the Crododile Hunter, Steve Irwin, who was sadly killed by a stingray in 2006. What a great zoo! There are over 500 animals and all the enclosures I saw were a good size and well 'decorated' for the creatures.

There were still a few animals I was desperate to see before I left Australia so I made sure I was able to cross cassowaries (Scarily powerful clawed feet), wombats (Much bigger than I thought), echidnas (Just visible in a hollowed log), a Tasmanian devil (Having a dip to cool down), dingoes (Which look just like regular dogs), kookaburas (I got to hear their famous 'laugh') and koalas (Very fluffy if a little smelly) off my list. I even got to see more crocodiles, stroke a small alligator and hand feed some kangaroos!

Did You Know?: Kangaroos don't just hop about on their two legs. When going at a more relaxed pace they will sometimes use their front paws and even their tails too to move themselves along!

What Makes Us British?

You might have noticed in your local supermarket that, nestled down in the 'World Food' aisle, is a section that does lots of food for Eastern European people that live and work in the UK (I personally recommend some of the chocolate bars, very tasty.) and in Australia and New Zealand there's the very same thing but for all the British people that have moved over here.

It's funny to look at the things that seem to be 'typically British'. Things like mushy peas, PG Tips, Marmite and pickled onions amongst others. I didn't know we were so known for our love of Dr Pepper either?

What can you spot that you'd miss if you lived abroad?

No Cents. No Sense

Australian money makes no sense! They have; $2, $1, 50c, 20c, 10c and 5c coins just like the UK has those coins in pounds and pence but they have no 1 or 2 cent coins. It was the same in New Zealand.

This might not seem too odd as you'd just expect prices to be round numbers, but no! Things in shops still have prices like $4.99 etc and when you get to the till they just round it up and if your shopping came to something like $12.43 they'll round it down! Why not just have 1 or 2 cent coins or price things in round numbers?!? Bizarre.

Also, the 50c coins here are HUGE!

Halfway Day!

Today is the day where we officially reach the halfway point of the trip! It's scary how quickly the first two and a half months have flown by but it's also exciting to look ahead to the Asia leg that starts next week, after Brisbane, and getting to see family and friends again in June.

A lovely pancake breakfast seemed the perfect way to celebrate (Especially as the weather is rubbish and it's torrential rain!).

Look At What Ice Saw.

Behold, Coke and Slush Puppy combined; the Frozen Coca-Cola! I'd seen this creation in a few places around Australia and finally decided that it was worth a taste.

The best/weirdest thing is that it tastes fizzy! Thinking about the horrendous chemicals needed to make ice 'fizz' though is not good (My stomach's probably melting away as I type). Aside from that, it's nothing special and tastes a lot like coke when all the ice has melted and it's gone a bit watery. A one time purchase I think.

The Safest Place On Earth?

Our arrival in Yungaburra was not the normal one. As we were shown around the hostel we were told that there was no need for any locks on any of the rooms doors because "This is Yungaburra!". The idea of leaving our passports, gadgets and money in an unlocked room with the only explanation being because this town was this town made me a little nervous until the next bit of the day when I realised I had no need to worry.

A short walk down the road is a local jewellers, his shop packed with diamonds, opals, gold, silver and all other sorts of very valuable things. When Nads and I were looking around the owner just came over, opened up a cabinet and told us that we could do that to any of the cabinets. "I don't lock anything here, it's Yungaburra!". Amazing and lovely in equal measure.

When Trees Attack!

This is a photo of a tree-killing green fig tree! This fig tree started life centuries ago as a small seed dropped in amongst the branches of another tree by a bird or small animal and it would have started growing there. Once it got too big though it started to drop roots down over the sides to hunt for water below and, 500 years later, this is the result; a huge, 48m tall fig tree that has strangled the original tree to death and now stands up by itself. Who'd have thought trees could be so viscious?

Proof You Can Get Too Close To Nature

The boat I travelled on when croc-spotting is solar powered so it's good for the environment but also very quiet which means it can get a lot closer to the wildlife than boats with noisier petrols engines. However, a few weeks ago it got a bit too close...

Scarface was having a fight with another crocodile and when these animals fight they will tend to bite something close to kind of say "Hey, look how strong I am!". Scarface went for a big branch and shook it hard, sending leaves and bugs everywhere while his opponent went for something a little bigger, the boat!

Luckily, no one was hurt but I've attached a photo of me comparing an average-sized saltwater crocodile tooth with my average-sized human teeth and a photo of the dent and bite mark left by the croc as he chomped on the boat's hard metal railing! A reminder to the tour guide to not get quite so close in the future.

Dangerous Waters

Meet Scarface, he's a 50-70 year old saltwater crocodile and the alpha male on his stretch of the Daintree River (Home to crocs, bull sharks, box jellyfish and sea snakes, not a river to swim in!). Being alpha male means that he is the top croc around and if you want to get an idea of his size ask at school if you can put four metre sticks end to end and you'll have it, he is huge!

I've now seen the smaller caymen in Brazil and these Australian saltwater crocodiles in the wild and, although I was a fan before, my love for crocodiles has grown. I just love how dinosaur-like they are, they're brilliant!

Did You Know?: The sticky up bits on crocodile's tails are called scoots. One of their main uses is to add power as the crocodile attacks it's prey. Think of them as lots of tiny oars pushing water back as it thrashes it's tail through the water.

Aussie Pizza

Fancy an Aussie-style pizza? Just add an egg on top! I'd heard about this before I had ever been to Australia and I've got to say that it was pretty nice. Next time you're making a pizza at home why not be inspired by Australia and ask Mum or Dad if there are any eggs in the fridge?

Cairns

Cairns, Queensland, Australia is a city just like Plymouth, Devon, England in that it's a city by the sea that doesn't have a natural sandy beach for people to use.

To overcome this problem in Cairns they decided to build this huge pool next to the sea called 'The Lagoon'. It's absolutely free for everyone to use; young, old and all those in between and sometimes there's even live music from a stage by the pool. It's very inviting on a hot day!

Different Kinds Of Sports Stars

Back home the biggest sports stars seen on adverts tend to be male footballers, cricketers or F1 racers but on this side of the globe there are more female stars advertising things than there are in the U.K. which is great to see.

In the photo you can see Laura Geitz, an Australian netball player, on a huge poster just like Ronaldo, Lewis Hamilton or Andy Murray can be found in shops around Britain.

Netball is huge in this part of the world with games on TV, pages in the papers and top players getting recognised in the street so if you enjoy playing netball at school, work hard and maybe a career as a famous netballer in Australia or New Zealand beckons!

Natural Wonder

Here's a photo of me as I head out to snorkel around one of the Great Barrier Reef's coral reefs. I've got the black suit on as it's 'stinger season' and it helped protect me against any jellyfish that may have brushed past me with their stinging tentacles.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the most famous natural landmarks on the entire planet, and it is so beautiful with clear turquoise waters, tropical islands and coral reefs. Once I had swum from the shallow sandy beach and through a large lawn of seagrass I reached the coral of all colours; pink, green, blue and yellow.

Just below me, in amongst the coral, there were many, many creatures swimming around. I saw so many colourful tropical fish that I couldn't name as well as some very colourful unicorn fish, black and white angel fish and a group of small squid swimming together. I even saw a couple of blue spotted rays that looked like they were flying instead of swimming. My best spot, though, has to be an octopus lurking on a rock, it moved across the stone after watching me for a while changing colour as it went to remain camouflaged before going a dark, dark red. I left it at this point deciding not to cause it any alarm, after all I was the intruder in his home not the other way around. Finally, on the way back to the boat home Nads had time for one more spot, a large sea turtle swimming amongst the seagrass! What a day!

Did You Know?: The Great Barrier Reef isn't one long coral reef but lots of smaller ones close to one another over an area of 350,000 sq km.

Not Your Usual Burger

It might look like your ordinary, run-of-the-mill burger but this one's slightly different...it's a kangaroo burger!

Nads found them in a supermarket and because kangaroo meat is actually really good for you (It's nearly fat free and has lots of protein and iron in it) we thought we would try them. It turns out that they're pretty tasty, like a really flavoursome beef burger. It was definitely nicer than the guinea pig in Peru!

Australian Internet

Just a quick one to say that I'm up in Cairns at the moment and wifi isn't as easy to find so it may be a few days or so between blog entries.

I'm currently making the most of the free wifi at the place where we've gone for our fish and chip dinner. That means updating on here, frantic checking of Facebook and emails and downloading of football and Radio 1 podcasts (To keep up with what's happening at home) all before we've eaten everything and have to leave!

Spot The Fish

In this photo you can find the most venomous fish on the entire planet, the stonefish! Can you see it?

Stonefish can kill a person and are the second highest cause of anti-venom injections in Australia, behind snakes. That means they hurt more people than spiders! One diver who had been stung said the pain was so bad that before getting the anti-venom he would rather have had his leg chopped off!

Spotted it yet? If not, here's a clue: it's quite large, in the middle of the photo and you can see where it get's it's name from.

A Peculiar Creature

The creature in this photo is so unusual that when explorers first took a body of one back to Europe people thought it was a fake made from different parts of different animals! It is called a platypus and it can only be found in Australia. The one in this photo is called Jackie.

Jackie may look like she has odd eyes but they are, in fact, closed. Platypus close their eyes, nostrils and ears when swimming and use electrical impulses to find their way about underwater. The bizarreness doesn't stop there though; the males are the only venomous mammals on the planet and the females are one of only two mammals that lay eggs (The other is the echidna)!

I was really excited at the prospect of seeing a platypus here in Australia so I'm super chuffed that one was swimming about at Sydney Aquarium today!

Did You Know?: A baby platypus is called a puggle.

Different From Home

Look closely at this map and you'll see it is different from the ones you see in the UK but similar to many others here in Australia.

All the countries are in the right places but instead of Britain being in the centre Australia is instead! Did you spot the difference?

A World Famous View

I went for a sight-seeing wander around Sydney today and headed straight for this place where you can see two well known constructions right next to one another. Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge are famous across the world and symbols of Australia as well as just Sydney.

Did You Know?: Sydney Opera House is covered with 1,056,006 tiles! Up close they look like regular-sized square shaped kitchen tiles.

Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine...

Look who were wandering around a park near the waterside in Sydney. Seeing as they are the only 'seagulls' I've spotted around the city it means they must be the 'mine,mine,mine' birds from Finding Nemo!

'Soccer'

I managed to fit in my second football match of the trip by going to watch Sydney FC v Gold Coast Mariners play in the A-League (Australia's version of The Premier League) today.

The game finished 2-0 to Sydney and I got to see ex-Premier League player Brett Emerton and Juventus legend Alessandro Del Piero play for the home team but they are coming to the end of their career and the quality of football from both teams was not great (The teams would probably be lower Championship/League One in England) but it was football so I was more than happy to be there.

Did You Know?: The Allianz Arena, the stadium where the match was played, is also home to Sydney's rugby league and rugby union teams.

Double Decker Trains!

Check this out; Sydney's underground has combined trains and double decker buses to come up with...double decker underground trains!

One Direction Watch {New Zealand}

I can't really comment on whether or not I heard them on the radio. Lady Luck's radio was truly shocking and didn't pick up any station for longer than one song and we eventually gave up on it but we did hear Adele, Ellie Goulding and The Wanted so I'm sure they were played at some point.

However, in the shops I did spy 1D trading photos and many books plus a huge photo of Harry Styles on the front of a girlie magazine. I think NZ has been successfully conquered.

New Zealand Review

Two words; 'Amazing' and 'Country'! I have absolutely loved my time in the country that's probably the furthest from home on this trip. If anyone ever gets a chance to go to the land of ferns and kiwis I would urge them to go. I loved travelling around in our campervan Lady Luck and seeing beautiful mountains, forests and my first ever glacier plus I even stepped into the magical world of Hobbiton too.

The wildlife has been a big part of the visit and it wasn't planned that way which makes it even more amazing; I've swam with dusky dolphins, watched rare blue penguins come home from a days fishing, walked near fur seals and seen a wild kiwi wandering through a rare kauri forest at night and the bit that makes it all is that every one of those animals were 100% wild.

It's probably the first country where I can't really think of anything really bad happening like getting ill, lost, having bad weather etc so long may this luck continue into Australia and beyond!

The photo: In one part of Christchurch, after the earthquake, a shopping precinct was created out of those huge, metal shipping crates you see on massive ships. There are two storey clothes shops, little cafes and even this bank in an area called Re:Start.

The 2011 Christchurch Earthquake

On the 22nd February 2011 the Christchurch Earthquake killed 185 people, injured thousands more and made international news. It has been just over two years since that day and lots of people are working hard to get Christchurch back to it's best but the city is still recovering. There is the occasional aftershock, a large area in the centre of the city named the 'Red Zone' is fenced off and closed to the public because of unstable buildings, houses on the city's outskirts are empty and boarded up and roads are uneven with cracks in the pavement centimetres wide.

I met a lady who was in the city centre when it happened. She was in a shopping mall and just sat on the floor, being near the food court she could hear all the crockery smashing as it hit the ground and she had to walk past so much rubble and damage on her way home. She told me that it took her three weeks before what had happened had properly sunk in.

Did You Know?: The earthquake did so much damage (Like destroying Christchurch Cathedral, pictured) because the centre of the 'quake was only a few miles outside Christchurch and it happened around lunchtime, a busy time for any city.

Nature's Natural Gobstoppers

This is me on one of the 55 million-year-old Moeraki boulders, famous for being naturally spherical/ball shaped.

Weirdly, they all started off as a regular sized pebble or shell that sunk to the bottom of a quiet seabed. As they settled, lime formed around them and as the many, many centuries passed they grew and grew. That original seabed is now raised above the sea, in the form of cliffs, and as the water washes away the softer rock it leaves the boulders for all to see.

There are loads on the beach, big and small, and who knows how many more still to be revealed?

Labels

You may have spotted labels at the bottom of my blog entries. Some of the most recent have been 'New Zealand' and 'Wildlife'.

They're pretty clever really; If you click on 'New Zealand' it will take you to all my entries about New Zealand, click on 'Wildlife' and it will take you to all my entries about wildlife, 'Food' to all the ones about food and so on. Give it a go.

Penguins Crossing

A roadsign with penguins on is not your everyday roadsign. Oamaru, though, is not your everyday place, it is home to the world's smallest penguins; the blue penguins. While staying in the town I went to the colony which is looked after by scientists to help protect these rare birds.

My visit kicked into life just after sunset (About 8:30pm) when I heard some squaking on the water from my viewing seat. Within a few minutes these penguins, which don't get much taller than a 30cm ruler, had negotiated the waiting seals and waddled up the rocky beach face on their way home after a long day catching fish at sea.

In the first gang, 32 tiny blue penguins emerged together and made a run for their holes through the fence that protects their colony from predators. These are possibly the cutest animals I've ever seen and every so often one would fall over onto it's belly before getting itself back up and running that extra bit quicker to catch up with the group. Once through the fence they all split up and head slowly towards their nest boxes to share their catch with their chicks.

Blue penguins pair for life and when those parents in the nest boxes know penguins are coming back they call out to their partners to direct them home. It didn't take long before the colony was alive with penguin calls. In total nearly one hundred penguins were at the colony that night and it was great to see such rare birds in the wild being cared for by conservationists.

Did You Know?: A blue penguin chick only takes two months to fully grow and will have around 10,000 feathers when it heads into the water!

Rock Art

Here is some Maori art painted on a rock face. Maori are the native people of New Zealand which means they lived here for many centuries before any European explorers landed in the country. In fact, there was one drawing at this site of a European boat arriving on the nearby shores.

Rock art like this is now very rare as lots of other sites have unfortunately been destroyed by nature or people. Takiroa is one of only three remaining sites in the whole region (There used to be at least twenty).

F-f-f-frozen.

This is a photo of Fox Glacier. A glacier is pretty much a frozen river and it moves through a valley shaping it as it goes. It might not look like it's moving at all but it is and it is immensely powerful, it will rip boulders the size of cars from the mountainside and carry them along with it while it crushes smaller rocks to dust. To give you an idea of it's size; in this photo there are a group of people walking on the glacier's surface. Can you spot them?

Did You Know?: Fox Glacier is moving at a speed of just under 1m a week. That's about 10 times faster than most other glaciers in the world. It's a speed demon!

Most Memorable Day Yet.

What a morning, the 4:30am wake up was worth it! I am currently sat enjoying a breakfast after spending the early hours of this morning swimming in the sea with wild dusky dolphins! After donning a wetsuit, some flippers and snorkel mask onboard a boat I slipped into the sea, started to swim around and within a couple of minutes some dolphins were darting past me.

The visibility wasn't fantastic so we were encouraged to make noises but not splash, the noises make the dolphins curious so more come to investigate but splashes scare them off. We did three separate dives and at one point I had two circling around me under the water as we studied each other.

The company we chose to go with also work hard to not do any damage to the dolphins or their environment. The animals are truly wild, not trained or encouraged to interact with people in any way so the fact that we got to see and swim with them was absolutely incredible. A day to remember.

Did You Know?: A group of dolphins is called a pod.