Although we didn't spend a lot of time in national parks or wilderness areas on this trip, we still noticed many plants and animals that are strikingly different from the birds, flowers, and trees we're used to seeing in our north-central part of North America. In addition, we were in the Outback's semi-arid desert, tropical Cairns, and New Zealand's temperate rain forests close to the southern hemisphere's summer solstice - which meant plenty of greenery, a constant delight. We also learned about the struggles in both countries to prevent introduced plants and animals from completely replacing indigenous species....many of which exist nowhere else in the world.

Camels live wild in outback; this one works at Camel Safari	Sensible dingo napping in the shade	Dingo emerges to check out tourists
These kangaroos live in mini-zoo at Camel Safari	Kangaroos napping in midday heat	Flocks of noisy galahs occupied several trees
Australian desert oak at Uluru	Flower near the trail at Kata Tjuta	I snorkeled among schools of fish like this on the Great Barrier Reef (commercial photo)
Koala in Cairins Wildlife Dome	Kookaburra at the Wildlife Dome	Flowers in Sydney
We saw many lorikeets in trees near Bondi Beach, Sydney	Known as "New Zealand Christmas tree", Metrosideros excelsa blooms red in December	Grand finale of "sheep show" at the Agrodome near Rotarua
Trees near Rotura, North Island, NZ	Teatree (Manuka), Leptospermum scoparium	Forest near The Chasm, South Island, NZ
Lichen on rocks below Franz Josef Glacier	Tree roots, on path near Franz Josef Glacier	Lupine, one of many species introduced by European settlers that then ran wild
Brought by Europeans: yellow gorse, sheep	More dairy cows than sheep in New Zealand now, but flocks still have right of way (creating classic "New Zealand traffic jam")	Alpaca, another part of New Zealand wool industry