Dragons Alive!!

Last thursday I had the pleasure of encounters with three different kinds of dragon(no pictures though I'm afraid!), two being the sea monster variety and the other, the heaviest living lizard on the planet...

In the morning, me, Keith and Devon headed into the city to visit the Waikiki aquarium before I started my reptile shift at 1. They had stayed over the night in Mililani with me, to keep me company, eat pizza and watch our regular Wednesday night Lost installment on TV! We had a really nice time and though small, the aquarium was excellent, with an interesting selection of animals(including all kinds of colourful fish and some unusual stuff such as ENORMOUS giant clams, weedy and leafy sea dragons- an australian fish related to seahorses, with lots of sea-weedy appendages and interesting colours- and even nautilus!), great information (that came out of a talking wand that you had to carry round with you and type in the exhibit number to get the relavent info) and immaculately maintained exhibits. They specialize in breeding corals, something not many places do, and their different species were beautiful.

An upward view into a banyan canopy (I was lying on the ground). You can actually swing, tarzan-style off these ropey branches, that are actually roots that come down from the top of the tree into the ground.

A view of Waikiki beach park from beneath a banyan tree. This is right accross the road from the zoo entrance, and something I get to enjoy most mornings with my coffee before work.

A Hawaiian Monk Seal, a threatened endemic species

How cool is this jelly?!

A Close up of the nautilus. So cool! An actual prehistoric creature... in the flesh!! The Waikiki aquarium is the first place in the world to have successfully bred these amazing sea critters. They even had some live developing eggs on show.

Thursday night I watched Disneys Atlantis while eating my tea and a scene came up that I thought bore an uncanny resemblence to the pics I had taken earlier of Keith and Devon, so I snapped the telly... what do you think?!

And my final bit:
I had such a great time at work in the afternoon!!! The take home bit was only cuddling a fully grown KOMODO DRAGON!!!! A survey found that in the wild, 10% of the Komodo Dragons diet is PEOPLE!!!! Brilliant! Her name was T.W. and unfortunately I didn't have my camera on me (dammit!!!) but Linda, her keeper promised me we would get a photo done at some point. I was so taken aback, lost for words and just in awe of this animal and being able to touch it. An unforgettable encounter. She was so beautiful and compact, really powerful but unbelievable agreeable, a captive bred, hand raised individual, 15 years old. She is one of 6 at the zoo, including the adult male, Doc theird babies. All of them are handlable, though it had taken 17 years, Linda was telling me, for Doc to trust her (and even some days he won't tolerate being petted). Now that's dedication! Later in the afternoon, Linda presented me with a komodo dragon tooth from one of the 5 year old youngsters. Needless to say, I beamed all the way home.