I made my item a fish because I enjoy fishing, even though I don’t do it often, and going into the trip the Great Barrier Reef was the part I was looking forward to most. I figured a fish would fit the theme of the Great Barrier Reef well. It ended up working out that when I went to the Great Barrier Reef I ended up giving my item away. After about two hours of me snorkeling on and off in the Reef I took a break. When I was on my way back to going in I had to sit on the bench in the water to get my flippers on and a little seven year old boy named Isaac, from England, came up to me and Tom at the time. He was not scared to talk to older people like most young kids are so it was cool being able to see what he thought of the Great Barrier Reef. Turns out it was his first time there too and he also enjoyed it. He proceeded to tell me to follow him into the reef as he wanted to show me some cool clams he found. Long story short he ended up showing me a few of the big clams and they were actually very cool as they had a bright blue outline on them so they were easy to spot. I remember he swam down close to one and then came up and was all excited because he saw the pearl inside of one. Therefore, when we got back on the boat at the end of the trip I saw the kid downstairs and I gave him the little 3D fish that I printed because he is a little kid and thought he would enjoy it and hoped it would remind him of the Great Barrier Reef. What was meaningful about this experience is that Isaac reminded me of my self even thought I am three times older than him because no matter the age we both loved marine life and it was our first times being there. We both found joy in seeing all the colorful fish, clams, and coral in the reef.

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Right before Serena Williams blew a huge lead in the last set!

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After visiting Sydney, Cairns, and Melbourne I can say that the way that Australian culture was depicted in the movies was accurate for the most part. In all three of these places I found the people to be very friendly and kind. You could always catch someone smiling and saying cheers back to you in any of these places. The movie that best represents the attitude of the Australian culture would be “Red Dog.” Even though this movie takes place in Perth, which we did not visit, I felt that the way the Australians talked and how friendly there were to one another related to the places that I visited. At the pub especially, all the people would sing and dance and have an upbeat vibe to them and I even found this to be true when we would visit pubs at night. Another similarity that I found in movies to the culture was that of the aboriginal people. When we went as a class to the aboriginal village and learned about their culture and way of life it reminded me a lot about the aboriginals in “Crocodile Dundee.” In the movie some of the aboriginals had their body painted and looked a lot like the people we saw at the village. We learned all about why they paint their body and what some of them even meant. Also, in “Crocodile Dundee” it was clear how well the aboriginal people new the bush area and the animals. When at the village the people told us about how they know the bush area very well, and they knew all of the animals and trees that are in the area around them.
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The Melbourne City Tour was very cool as there was a lot of art throughout the whole city. I found it to be very interesting how there were lots of alley ways used throughout the city and all of them had painted walls. Some of the walls had small paintings and then some had huge murals of Australian people. For example, I remember one of the alley ways having a huge Ben Simmons mural on the wall as he is a big time NBA player from Australia. I find it ironic that most of this art takes place in a more concealed area like an alley because it was beautiful but yet most people don’t see if just passing by unless they go through the alley. Throughout the tour I learned many small facts about Melbourne. The first was that just like Wellington it is one of the world’s top most livable city. Next, I learned that Melbourne was a huge producer of rags back in the day and contributed massively to the rag trade. There were several buildings that we passed on the tour in which our tour guide told us they used to be a factory where rags were produced. One of the buildings in which she told us this for was one called Majorca Building. This was a tall building that was right beside Centre Places. The building now has a retail store on the bottom and apartments above it. Centre Places is a very unique area as it is once again in an alley way so it was like walking down a sidewalk with tables on both sides of you. There were small food and drink places on both sides of the area with many of them being about coffee. However, there is a place we learned about in this area which is called The Soup Place. People go there to buy soup and then they are able to donate $3.50 to the homeless people in the area and they can come up and get soup which was bought for them. When doing this the person leaving the money is required to leave the homeless person a note and they give it to the person and then hang it up on the wall after. I found this to be very thoughtful for this place to do as homeless people are usually forgotten in society so it is nice for people well off to be able to give back to those who are not. After this we got to see the city hall which was a very beautiful looking building that had three main windows in which a rainbow flag hung from each of them to add an extra touch.
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The Australian Center for the Moving Image was really incredible when I visited it. Being able to see how over time the film and the video game industry has improved is really amazing. The first exhibit that caught my eye was the one on “The Piano” because we were required to watch the movie for class. The exhibit had a replica of the one used in the movie and it was awesome being able to recognize a piece that I would have not known where it was from if I had not watched the movie. The description of the piano talks about how the piano was purchased in London and shipped to New Zealand for filming. What I found interesting was the description talked about how there were two replicas of the piano made in order to help with filming. The first one was a lightweight version that got carried through the bush on the opening scene on Karekare beach. Whereas the second one was made with a steel frame to help with the underwater scene and make the filming of it easier. The piano was one of the most important objects in the movie because the main character didn’t talk but instead talked through the piano and felt at home when she was able to express her emotions through it. I am glad I had the opportunity to watch the movie before visiting the exhibit as the piano was only meaningful due to the connection.
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Fish are friends not food!

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The first thing that I learned about the Great Barrier Reef was that it is around 30 miles out from shore and is away from the continental self that extends outward from the Cairns shoreline. This was something I previously did not know as I thought the Great Barrier Reef was way closer to shore. Next, I learned that the Great Barrier Reef is made up of over 3,000 separate areas of coral and extends upward to 2300 km long. There are over 600 different types of coral that lives in the reef. Some of the coral is flat, colorful, or pointy. When on the snorkeling safari that I took I learned that the coral actually fights with one another over area in the reef. If you look closely you can see a white edge around coral and that represents a separation between the areas of the coral. Something that I already knew going into this experience is that the Great Barrier Reef is dying out and is predicted to be almost completely gone in the next ten years if things don’t start to change. Many factors are to blame such as global warming, overfishing, farming, and tourism. Global warming can impact the temperature of the water and make it difficult for types of coral to live and succeed in the reef. Overfishing impacts the fish chain that exists near the reef and in it. For example, if sharks keep getting killed at an alarming rate then the next fish in the food chain becomes too populated and can set off an imbalance in the food chain. This will create an unhealthy reef and coral can be impacted by an overflow of types of sea life. Farming is very harmful to the water ecosystem, especially the Great Barrier Reef, as the runoff of hazardous sprays can be washed off into the ocean and find their way to coral. Lastly tourism impacts the reef as anytime a person touches coral it can die, which is why we were told numerous times not to touch any coral. Also, if people wear sunscreen, there are many types that can be harmful for the water ecosystem, it will wash off into the water and kill off coral or fish.
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After visiting both aboriginal tribes, I noticed many similarities and differences. The first similarity that I noticed was that both tribes use their body as a canvas to show their family origin. For the Maori people they would get tattoos specifically on the face to show their background. However, they wouldn’t let the woman get a face tattoo because it was very painful and they never want to put their woman through that pain. Also, the higher up the Maori person ranks in their village the higher up on their face the tattoo goes. If someone has a tattoo all the way up on their forehead then they are most likely very important. The Tjapukai people did the same thing except they wouldn’t get tattoos and instead would paint themselves every day. Most of the Tjapukai were named after an animal or something in the wild. Both tribes were very proud of their family origin and made it public to everyone who look at them. Another similarity between the two tribes is that both tribes would use spears to hunt with and protect themselves with. When visiting the Tjapukai we learned how to throw a spear and when watching the Maori perform their dance they were skilled with a spear. A difference that I saw between the two cultures is that the Tjapukai could only marry from dry to wet season and vis versa, they couldn’t marry the other tribe in the same area otherwise it would be marrying a cousin. When at the Maori village I never learned about anything similar to this, and thought they just married within the tribe. A second difference that I learned is that the Maori tribe has a very serious dance whereas the Tjapukai dance seemed to be more for fun. When at the Maori tribe we were not allowed to smile at all during their ceremony or laugh as that would be considered disrespectful to them. They would use spears and yell throughout the dance and made it seem very intense. The Tjapukai included the whole audience in their dance and made us clap and sing along with them. They also used a digeridoo and other instruments to create sound whereas, the Maori only used their voices and spears.

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The Sydney Opera house and Sydney Bridge!

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The first thing that I learned on the Sydney City Tour was about the Sydney Opera House. I learned about how the construction price went way overboard as they were only meant to spend seven million dollars but ended up spending 102 million. This really blew my mind when I heard this because usually when projects go that much over the contractor can’t afford to keep going but someone they did on the Opera house. Due to this, the project ended up taking 16 years while it was meant to only take three. However, after seeing the finished project anyone can clearly say it was worth the time and money to put in extra. The building got finished in 1973 however the Danish architect left the country in 1966 because of the pressure he had to finish the building by. It is ironic that the architect who designed the whole building never got to see the finished project. Next, I learned that there was very limited space in the building therefore, one of the first renovations was putting in a warehouse underneath the building. This allowed for the props to be brought up straight from the bottom via an elevator, rather than having everything brought to the Opera house by truck or boat.
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