g'day mates! 

     This morning was rough for some after a night at the Bay.. but we all got ready and headed to Southern Cross University in Lismore to pick up our tour guide, Peter. On the way most of us saw our first kangaroo, unfortunately it wasn't alive like we hoped.  When we arrived at the University Peter took us to go see a koala that was up in a tree. It was actually the first one that I've seen outside of a zoo, so it was pretty exciting! The first thing Peter showed us was interesting, it was an oil tea tree.. Remedies the bark is can be used for is wrapping injuries or wrapping food and the leaves are the main source of the tea. He then showed us leaves that smelled like licorice and lemon when they were ripped apart. 

     We finally arrived to the Rocky Creek Dam, we had our packed lunches, and started our journey into the rainforest. I'm glad that we were able to walk across the spillway of the dam, because Peter mentioned that since the dam was 100% full he wasn't sure if there would be too much water spilling over. When we got deeper into the rainforest we saw heaps of trees and plants, but my favorite was the strangler figs. These trees survive by wrapping around other trees and strangle them eventually causing the tree inside to rot and die.  

A plant that most were having issues with was called wait-awhile. This plant has spines and when we walked into them we literally had to wait awhile while detaching it from our clothes. Peter showed us this seed called a black bean and he told us an ingredient in the seed is used in chemo therapy to cure cancer. I never would have guessed!

     After we left the rainforest and dam we went to look at Minyon Falls which was inside Nightcap National Park. We were at the top of the falls looking down at the trees below us, which were roughly 100 meters down. After the long bus ride back to the cabin Thuy-Vy and I made some pasta with a side of salad. The rest of the group either made breakfast for dinner or went into Lennox to get food. 

     We've had some pretty eventful days so far and they all are catching up to me today.. Can't wait to relax and lay on the beach all day.. and on that note I'm going to bed!
  

                                                    
                                                                                      Night Y'ALL! 

                                                                                              <3 Marissa