Tasmania

I just got back from a week in Tasmania (or, as the Australians say, "Tassie")! It was pretty cold, but amazing! There were beautiful mountain ranges and rugged coastlines and lush rainforests. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

This cave is cool because it resembles the shape of Tasmania.

Tasmanian Devil! I named him Mephistopheles (from Goethe's "Faust" which I just finished a paper about!) This guy was in a wildlife park. There are hardly any left in the wild. Most of them have been wiped out by some unknown type of contagious cancer.

Sunrise on the East coast.
This place is called Wineglass Bay. See the round shape of the beach? In the 19th century, whalers would butcher their catches here and the bay would turn red with blood, hence the name. Gruesome history, but it's a beautiful place.

That water was really cold!


This looks like a small kangaroo, but it's actually a wallaby.

This little rascal is a possum. (Doesn't look much like the American possum, does it?) They're not shy at all and very curious. One of them came right up to me and gave my shoe a bite!

This is near Cradle Mountain. See the snow halo?


This is a wombat! He didn't seem to mind people at all. He just kept on digging for his lunch while I took his picture.

Waterfall in Mt. Field National Park.

This is a Fairy (or blue) penguin. It's the smallest type of penguin in the world and it nests only in Tasmania and New Zealand. They can stay out at sea for months at a time (because they can sleep while floating) but come to shore this time of year to mate and nest.

Mom, Lee, Hillary, Amy, and Audrey are arriving next week and I'm so excited! We'll spend a couple of days in Sydney before heading up to do some diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Then we'll go New Zealand and Fiji before returning to Texas! I'll be sad to leave Sydney and all of the wonderful people I've met, but I'm looking forward to seeing my family and going home. Check back for more pictures soon!

I've had a very busy last couple of weeks! I just turned in my last paper today, so I'm officially finished with class! The essay was about Liszt's portrayal of fantastic elements in his Faust Symphony. But before that, I had 2 symphony concerts. We played Kodaly's and Bartok's Dances of Galanta and Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin. The Governor of New South Wales was present and we all had to stand as she entered and left the hall! Then I had a recital, which went pretty well I think. And then this weekend I played at a music festival in Pearl Bay, which is about an hour and a half north of Sydney. It was good fun, but I'm glad that things have calmed down some. I'm leaving in the morning for a week-long tour of Tasmania, so check back soon for pictures!