I've just seen a kangaroo - so exciting.

[ClaudiaSchiffer]

It bounced in front of the car whilst we were on the way to nursery. Was totally brilliant.

Also it's an amazing sunny clear morning.

So cheering.

What makes your place great?

I've never seen a koala, despite going to Port Macquarie TWICE where apparently people have them wandering into their back yard and just generally hanging around the streets.

I spend all road trips with my head hanging out the window staring into the trees.

But on a similar note I have also never seen any huge horrid spiders.

so, rough with the smooth.

We had one try to race the car in Flinders Ranges a while ago...they sure can move!

Honestly Califrau it hopped, nay, it BOUNCED. They are amazingly springy. But also v. lazy - I don't think I have ever seen one hop in a zoo/sanctury. Perhaps you need to drive a car right at one

oooo Ozziegirly we had a koala in the tree next door - I could see it from my kitchen window. We are blessed.

BUT we also have huge spiders and 100000s of BASTARD flies. They are feckin' annoying. I thought the spiders would eat the flies but no such luck. It's like the Amytyville Horror in here some days. ugh.

Sandcastles did you take the kids to the Flinders?

My DH is always harping on about going up there "so amazing" blah blah blah, but I wonder if it's all that great for little ones??

Yes, we took dd1, in 2007.

She loved seeing all the Roos, Emus, birds, different flowers etc.

But mostly she enjoyed making fire with dh & having a BBQ everynight!

She wasn't overly taken with the gorges & dry creeks, but still managed to have a good time.

Oh & of you go to Cleland, the Roos will move...as long as you are offering them food!

Not only have I seen wild kangaroos hopping I have also seen a koala JUMP. Not just move - JUMP.

I've also been privy to the sounds of Koalas mating, which is all very interesting when you're trying to explain what the grunting is to a 4 year old.

Jump? Really are you sure? Jump up and down or from tree to tree?

I can vouch for the grunting tho.

Phew, have just cleaned the whole house, it looks splendid. Do you think I am within my rights to ban children and dh from coming home as they will only mess it up and really feckin' get on my nerves.

Didn't see a moving symbol of the nation, but after a few days of damp, cloudy weather here, today dawned bright, crisp and with not a cloud in the sky. Perfect autumn weather. I was driving to work (south of Tokyo, on the coast) and got to the top of a hill above my town, and....WOW! there was a snow-capped Mount Fuji in the distance, picture-perfect. It always takes my breath away, it is such a gorgeous mountain. I climbed it once, in my youth, too!

Where are you based ClaudiaSchiffer?

Am of your jumping koala story.

I nearly wet myself with excitement when I saw a couple of kangaroos grazing by the side of the road near Donvale, Melb (about 15 minutes drive east from where we live and we live in a busy city 'burb)
I love seeing the cockatoos that fly around all the time and the beautiful parakeets ...
I wasn't hugely impressed by the bats the size of cats that fly around our heads at night feeding off the fruit trees though - they freak me out a bit.

I had emu for lunch on Sunday. Was ok, but not as nice as crocodile.

that is cause they are active at dusk and dawn hours califrau - I have hit two with my car. On two separate occasions - not nice. That is when they are usually most active as it is cooler.

Used to see them all the time when I lived in the 'bush' we got them on the school oval - the kids were so blase about them but I was like look a roo.

We live in a koala area and so see them all the time. They are often in the gum trees in dd1's school grounds - very cool

I have hundreds of photos of 2/3/4/5 year old DD trying to feed lethargic kangaroos.

The koala jumped between trees. I was amazed.

We did some fun koala and wombat stroking a couple of weeks ago. But the best thing we saw were the peacocks. They were so VAIN.

We saw a kangaroo scratching its ba's in Bunbury. My sister has a photo.

Other wildlife encounters have been pitifully lame.

Fed chicken crackers to possums while camping in Margaret River (I know I know it's tantamount to feeding rats but they have BIG EYES and were v cute).

oh VF - On a school camp - other teacher and I were up chatting after the children had gone to bed. We fed the possum that used to appear nightly for its feed of fruit.

Hilarious watching year 9 boys chase a scrub turkey that had run out of the scrub and taken off with their loaf of bread.

NZ wildlife is quite tame compared to OZ (thankfully, in the case of spiders). I can offer you a couple of squashed hedgehogs?

actually, to be fair, I have heard a few bellbirds in our neck of the woods recently, which is v.cool in the city.

other than that, nada, other than the 2 huskies that live next door

IIRC New Zealanders will go out of their way to run over a possum. Urban myth maybe?

One of DH's mum's favourite things to do on the farm was possum shooting