Mount Kuzko!

Spider we saw! ARGH!

After Canberra we headed to Mount Kusciouszko National Park. On the way to the park we were suppose to be crossing a big lake. We kept looking at the map and then looking out the window, trying to spot this vast fresh water lake. We then realised that we were already passing the lake, it was just all dried up. It was sad to see that all the water and wild life that had lived in the water had all vanished due to the intense heat.


Esmee started feeling sick on this drive...

We drove into a small town outside the park called Jyndabine, and stocked up on some groceries because of course there is no supermarket in the bush. Mount Kusciouszko is the highest mountain in Australia, therefore the national park is one of the only places in the whole country where you can ski in the winter. We had to pay an entry fee when we entered, and spotted a baby deer in the bushes. We kept driving up hill into the mountains, which to me just looked like hills. We kept driving and passed heaps of ski fields and a couple of ski villages until we reached a short walk to a look out of Mount Kusciouszko. It was an easy short board walk up a few stairs to the look out. It was hard to spot the mountain as there was a lot of haze. Along the walk they had gum trees that were hundreds of years old. It was getting cold, and I had to start wearing a jumper.


Lookout

We drove back and camped at a campground in the park. Out of all of the campgrounds we had been at, this was the first campground that had a proper stove and oven! Amazing for a campground in the bush where there isn’t much supplies. Dad and I cooked dinner while Camiel and Esmee played cards and waited for the pool table to become free. Mum set up camp, and then joined us for dinner. As the sky turned dark, Camiel, Esmee, Dad and I played a game of pool in teams. Camiel and I won - just. Mum soon came running in and said ‘Oh my gosh you won’t believe this!’ and showed us some photos she had just taken on her camera. She was sitting in one of our cheap Bunnings camp chairs in the pitch dark when she felt something at her feet. She shined the torch to find a possum greeting her. The possum then jumped into the boot of the car and started rummaging through all of our stuff!



An abandoned house

Later on when Esmee and I went to the toilet, we came across another friendly possum, who tried to nibble our fingers. It was a cold night as we were high up in the mountains, but we managed. Mum warned us about the 6 hour walk she wanted to do the next day. Noooo......

Haha
Fem
xox

Canberra - The Nations Capital

After we said goodbye to everyone and Esmee had a swim in the river with Poppy the dog, we headed as far south as we could go. We spent the whole day driving, and ended up in Wollongong at about 7.30. We sneaked into a caravan park because the office was closed and we had run out of options. The cool thing about driving to Wollongong was stopping at a look out over the ocean and watching the hang gliders jump off the cliff. I would rather sky dive than hang glide I think. The fact that they just run and jump off a cliff to me is terrifying. We also went along a bridge than hugged the cliff edge to the sea. In Wollongong we went to see a historic blowhole. It was a bunch of rocks where the waves would roll underneath (kind of into a cave), and there was a hole at the top where the water would be pushed out like a whales blowhole. People have been killed in there, because you get thrashed and pushed around a cave that is filled with water. I don’t see why you would go in there to be honest, you gotta be stupid. They had a pool that was built into the rock pools. The pool was salt water, and Esmee being as keen as a bean jumped in for a swim.



Esmee and I

After Wollongong we headed straight for Canberra. On our way to Canberra we stopped at yet another waterfall! I didn’t know that Canberra was actually in its own small state called Australian Capital Territory. Kind of bizarre really. On our way to Canberra we passed a lake that had completely dried up. Once we arrived in Canberra we set up camp in a caravan park and Esmee, Camiel and I had a dip in the pool. It was hot and the pool was cold which was nice and refreshing. Afterwards we headed up to see the Government Grounds. Everything in Canberra looks very new. The mall, the government house was new and modern, the museums, the hotels, everything looked like it was built just yesterday. The government house was nice - form the outside. We then drove down to the International Flag display and spotted New Zealand. Then we hunted round for ages looking for a pizza place - we simply could not find one! We drove through the whole city and saw nothing. Eventually we asked some locals who directed us and we finally found a pizza hut!



Government House


International Flag Display

The next day we went to the National Science Museum. It was a hands on museum where you could play and interact with the displays. It was fun. They had an earthquake house, a roller coaster stimulator, and even a small free fall. We spent a few hours there and I learned a lot. We then went to a park and had lunch in the shade out of the heat. The art gallery had an exhibition on that included some of Van Goughs art work from Paris. Mum wanted to see it, but it was expensive so we flagged it and jumped in the car to go south.


At the National Science Museum

There are two main ways to get to Melbourne. You can either go around the coastline, or through the middle winding through the national parks. We took the inland way and headed for Kusciouszko National Park.

Home in a week!
Fem
xox

Blue Mountains

Blue Mountains

We hopped in the car and drove for two hours to the Blue Mountains. I don’t know much about the Blue Mountains, but what I do know is that it is a big vast canyon that gets it name from the blueish haze in the mornings. After being to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, I didn’t think much of the size of the Blue Mountains, but it was still pretty. They have a formation of rocks that are called the ‘Three Sisters’. It is three tall rocks next to each other in a row. You can walk to them, there’s a little bridge. They are somehow special and spiritual to the Aborigines, I can’t remember how.


The Three Sisters



Camiel at Blue Mountains

It was stinking hot, again. Apparently there’s a heat wave coming! We drove to a parking and looked out some look outs and did a short walk to a look out over a beautiful waterfall. There were heaps of people down at the waterfall swimming, but they had a long way to walk back up again! At the mountains you could look forever endlessly, and there would be no end. The canyon stretched right out into the horizon, and you could see walking tracks in the distance. We went to another look out which looked out to the ‘Three Sisters’. It was a little disappointing how they had put a bridge to it because now in all the photos there will be a man made structure next to a natural creation. They weren’t that big either.



That’ pretty much all we did, although it took the whole day because we had to drive around and navigate. We got back to Wilhelmina and Johns at about 7.30 for some home made burgers which we super yummy, then headed off to bed.

Goodbye,
Fem
xox

P.Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney

Sydney!

I was very excited when I woke up this morning. Sydney! I’d never been, but heard lots about it and obviously seen lots of it. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are in movies, postcards, posters, TV shows. Nearly everything in media. To actually be there and see it with your own eyes, and take it all in would be breathtaking. Mum and dad had both been to Sydney before but none of us kids had. We decided to take the train because the traffic would be horrendous in town, and you have to pay to use the freeways and the parking is something like $10AU an hour which is like $13NZ. So all in all it would cost us like $50 in parking, and more for the toll roads. The train was about an hour and a half, and was kind of fun. They have double decker trains here, so we sat at the top. When we got on we were the only people on the top carriage, but by the time we got to Sydney it was jam packed. We passed a town called Blacktown, which mum believes to be sister cities with Porirua. I read the newspaper on the train, and it had some stuff about NZ in it, and a two page article about some sportsman from Porirua, and had photos in the new rec centre that is behind the Aquatic Centre. That brought a bit home back. Was really weird to be reading the Sydney paper, and have two pages about a guy from Porirua!


The ferry to the Opera House

We got to Sydney, and had no idea where to go. We wanted to go to the Sydney Aquarium which was in Darling Harbour. We had a map, but we couldn’t find any street names. After asking a bus driver where to go, and walking for a good ten minutes, we arrived in Darling Harbour. It was amazing and hot. They had a huge IMAX theatre, the biggest screen in the world (which was displaying Avatar 3D - I really wanted to go see it again!). There were heaps of cafes, and a big mall called Harbour Side along the other side. There were fountains, water displays, McD, and in the distance the Sydney Aquarium. We hadn’t had breakfast, so we went to McD and got a McMuffin each to munch on.



Darling Harbour

Then we headed to the Aquarium. It was really cool. They had millions of fish, and even a crocodile. They had two oceanariums, one which had two dugongs. They also had the worlds deadliest octopus, which stings you and can paralyze your organs, specifically your lungs which then leads to you suffocating and drowning. They also had the deadly fish such as the stonefish, and sharks and poisonous stingray. I was amazed at how big the stingray were. I thought that they were only a square metre kind of thing, but these stingrays were bigger than I was. Absolutely huge. Prior to the death of Steve Irwin, the last reported death by a stingray happened in 1938 and 1945. It really was a freak accident. I enjoyed the Aquarium. They had moon jellyfish which were beautiful harmless creatures that were pink, purple and blue. They just drifted and floated around in their UV tank so peacefully. We asked one of the girls that worked there if Wallaby Way from Finding Nemo actually existed here in Sydney. She said she'd lived here all her life and didn't know, but laughed with us. :)



Aquarium




Dorrie!

We then caught the ferry over to the Opera House and went under the Harbour Bridge. The Opera House was huge and looked amazing from far away, but as you got closer and could see the fine detail of the tile patterns, it didn’t look quite as spectacular. Dad said that the bridge was built in the 30’s, and the Opera House in the 50’s. I couldn’t believe how old these magnificent structures were. The 30’s! It’s a huge bridge, I find it hard to believe they had the technology to make it back then. We went up and touched the Opera House and took some photos, before heading out to get some McD for lunch. Hey it was cheap! The most strangest thing happened while I was munching away at my Big Mac burger. I had a got size of it left, about 3 bites, and before I knew it a seagull flew right up to me, bit my fingers and stole the rest of my burger and gobbled it up in front of me. It literally took it right out of my hands! I couldn’t believe it. I was guttered, because the last bit of your burger is always the best. We then caught the ferry back to Darling Harbour and caught the train back to Windsor.


Cam and I - Opera House



On the ferry

When mum and dad stayed here, they stayed with dads cousin and her husband and kids. We had organised to have a BBQ there, so arrived at about 7.30. Wilhelmina and John were one of the nicest people I had met. The welcomed us with open arms, and were so nice. We had a nice BBQ, and then offered for us to stay with them for the next couple of nights. Hmm, the thought of warm, big comfy double beds waiting downstairs, and a proper bathroom sounded good to me! So we stayed there for the next two nights. We had dutch pancakes and poffertjes in the morning which were super yummy! The destination for today was the Blue Mountains :)


Esmee enjoyed the Opera House!

Ps. Its 39 degrees. AH!
Fem
xox

The summer of 1989

Chilling out

Back in the day, actually to be more precise, back in 1989, when my parents were considered ‘cool’ and ‘hip’, they went on a big world trip. One of their destinations was 6 months in Australia. For the first three months they stayed with relatives in Lower Portland and did orange picking over the road to get some cash. Lower Portland is an hour outside Sydney and is full of orchards and farms. So dad and mum decided to pop into the old place they used to stay and see if our relatives were home. What a surprise they would get, turning up at their doorstep 21 years later unannounced! So we drove up to the house, but nobody was home. Instead mum and dad decided to visit the people who they use to work for doing the orange picking which was just over the river (they would catch the ferry every day, twice).


Teeth brushing!

So we drove down the drive way to find a big orchard with a barn on one side and an unfinished house on the other. Dad had explained to us how he had helped lay down a concrete slab because the guy wanted to build a barn that they would live in until they built a house. The people recognised mum and dad, and after some chatting offered for us to pitch up our tents on the other side of the house. We great fully said yes and while we pitched them up Esmee played with Poppy the dog. They had a beautiful section, with a wetland down the bottom. Esmee, Camiel and I decided to play spotlight in the orchard. It was fun (if you ignored the fact that there could be the chance of red bellied venomous snakes lurking in the orchard). So we got out or torches, and ran and hid around the huge orchard while the tagger looked and searched for you. It was tiring! We think that we saw a kangaroo hoping through the orchard at one point which was cool.


Peace and Rock & Roll

In the morning it was scorching hot in the tent, so we all got out and got ready for our day in Sydney :)

Byyeee
Fem
xox

Snnnaaakkeee!

We got up and headed for the beach to check it out. There wasn’t very many people, but the further south we go the more colder it gets. Although I wouldn’t say that its cold compared to New Zealand, but the temperature is definitely dropping to under 25 degrees. Esmee had a play in the sand and we all sat on a log to enjoy the view. After 15 minutes or so it was back in the car and into the bush.

We drove for most of the day, passing Coffs Harbour, and ended up at a council campground called Platypus Flat, which runs along a river. We had to drive along a 15km dirt track to get there and came across cattle grazing along the road side. There was a few babies on the road that ran to mum before moving completely off the road. Platypus are most likely seen at dawn or dusk but most Australians themselves have never actually seen one in the wild. We arrived there just before dark so dad and I quickly made chicken burgers for dinner while Camiel and Esmee started setting up a campfire for marshmallows later on. Once it was dark we lit up the fire and had marshmallows, burning most of them by accident! We heard all sorts of wildlife. Once the sun disappears its like another world comes out. The wildlife here are much louder in the dark than during the day. We could hear ducks, cicadas, frogs and even paddies (small wallabies) jumping through the night. The sky was clear because there was no surrounding city light, and we saw heaps of bright and clear stars. Mum and I heard something rumble through the bush behind us. We shined the torch upon a bandicoot. We followed it as it started to run back into the bush, but lost it shortly afterwards. We waited for the fire to die out which took a good hour and then went to bed because it was pitch black. It was a freezing cold night - coldest yet! I even slept with my jumper on. 


The next thing that happened was mum shaking my tent waking me up at 6.15am and whispering ‘Do you want to see a snake?!’. I stumbled out of the tent and into the bright early morning sun light. The grass was wet, so I put on my shoes and followed mum to where Camiel was standing, 20 metres away from our camp site. There was a big huge snake curled up just by the waters edge. Mum explained to me how she nearly stood on it and got the biggest fright of her life - fair enough. We decided it was a python, and after asking mum and Camiel if they spotted any platypus’s and them responding with ‘no but we saw turtles’, I headed back to my tent and went back to sleep for another two hours. I grabbed Camiel’s blanket as well as mine because I was freezing cold.


Carpet Python!

After breakfast we headed for some more waterfalls (one being the second tallest in NSW), and some look outs. When we left the campground we spotted a dingo walking along the road! We then arrived at a walk in Cathedral Rock National Park. It was a 2 and a half hour walk, which at first we (being the kids) thought it was going to be long and boring and hard. But it was one of the most fun walks I’ve actually been on! After 2.5km of walking through the bush, there was a 400m side track to a lookout. The description read that you have to ‘scramble‘ your way to the top of Cathedral Rock. The walk consisted of huge boulders piled on top of each other making magnificent structures. We set off on the 400m side track, not realising what we were getting ourselves into. The word ‘scramble‘ was far from what we had to do. We had to jump, leap, climb up vertical rocks, and even use chains to get up to the top. It was a long way up, and we even had to go under some huge boulders which freaks me out because I would not want to be squashed under one of those things. Boulder’s weigh twice as much as water, and water alone is rather heavy. Once we got the top the view was beautiful. You could see far and wide in all directions, and spot more huge boulders. There was a thunderstorm in the distance that we could see and hear, so we decided we better get moving before it caught up on us. It began spitting on our way back, which would later turn into rain. Esmee was scared of the thunder, but we kept pacing on because we didn’t want to be in there when it started pelting down. All the animals began to disappear. Animals have the most amazing natural instincts! The climb up to the rocks was a once in a lifetime kind of walk, one that we have never done.




Climbing up


The top of Cathedral Rock



Waterfall


Ant hill!

We drove for another 250km to a town called Gloucester but started getting an empty tank of petrol some part of the way through. We stopped at McD for some dinner which we had been greatly craving since our walk, and settled into a motel because we didn’t want to set up camp in the rain. Sydney tomorrow?

I hope people are still reading this?!
Fem
xox

King Kong Territory

So, after completing all the typical tourist attractions nearing Brisbane (Australian Zoo, Dreamworld, Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Pacific Fair Mall), we began heading south back into the bush! But before we did this, we enjoyed a nice morning at Pacific Fair, which was a big mall in Surfers Paradise. It had loads of store, and too my surprise I only bought one $5 top from Cotton On Body. I like to say I’m a bargain hunter, but I know people who would argue otherwise! We then headed to Broadbeach which was pretty busy! The cloud was blocking the sun so it actually started to get a little cold, but Camiel and I still had heaps of fun burrying Esmee alive in the sand. We stayed at a campground for two nights and they had this huge giant air thing that was called a jumping pillow. I’d never seen or heard of one before. It was pretty much the equivalent of a trampoline, but ten times the size. We also found a huge spider in the power box! We all got such a fright!


Esmee in the sand


The spider!

So we kicked of south into the bush (our favourite place!) and did some short walks to some remarkable sights. We drove for a few hours then walked to a waterfall, and then another waterfall. I can’t remember the names, but each one is so unique and different from the last. After our waterfalls, we walked a 45min return walk to a ‘natural bridge’. This was a huge rock that looked like a bridge, which has a hole in the middle where a waterfall plundered down into a pool of water beneath. It had a small cave which you could walk into, but only up to a certain point otherwise you would disturb the glow worms and bats. Eugh. Bats. We stopped to have some lunch, and Camiel and dad started cracking jokes that we were in King Kong Territory. Typical boys. After this we drove onto the border of New South Wales and Queensland. We had to stop the car and Camiel and I just had to jump back and forth from one border to the other. New South Wales is one hour ahead of Queensland, so it was like we were jumping back and forth in time. We took some photos and jumped back in the car because we still had a bit of driving to do.


On a waterfall walk


Crossing the border

We drove through a tourist place called Byron Bay and thought about staying there but it was really busy. Kind of like Tauranga in the summer. It was nice, but the streets were a stand still. We drove up to the lighthouse which was a nice attraction. Byron Bay is the most eastern point of Australia, so it was cool to stand on the beach and look out into the pacific ocean and know that there was nothing there for miles and miles and that you were right on the edge! We spent a night nearby in Lismore, and drove the rest of the next day down to Ballina. We stayed in a resort which had mini golf and a water park. We got there at about 4.30, so Esmee dived into the pool and played in the water park. We then did some mini golf and jumped on the jumping pillow where I happened to bump into a Whitby friend! Completely coincidental and random!




Jumping pillow

Dad cooked some pasta and chicken while I went on the internet and caught up with Ross and my emails. The cicadas here can be incredibly loud. They were even so loud at one point we couldn’t hear each other and had to cover our ears. All part of the experience I guess!

Happy Birthday Monique :)
Fem
xox

Crossing into New South Wales

Today it is my turn to write a guest post for Fem's blog. We are sitting here at a campground in Ballina, about 100 km south of the Queensland border. We have traveled about 3000 km sofar. The kids are doing well without their gadgets, having to cope with limited comfort, kind of boot camp at times. The mattresses are thin, the food is basic, tents are small (and hot), and the days are long and hot. We wake up at about 5 am, usually woken by cockatoos or kookaburras, bats, frogs or whatever wildlife is around that day. And if it isn't the wildlife, it is the sun which soon turns our tent into a sauna. But the country side is amazing, the fauna unbelievable and the weather is okay. We do have a bit of rain, but the good part is that the temperatures are bearable. Up north, when we visited the tropical rainforests, the temperature was above 30 something and the humidity high. Now the temperatures are still in their high twenties, but much more bearable.

We traveled south from the gold coast, through subtropical rainforest and beautiful scenery, with several waterfalls along the way. We hiked some of the tracks to viewpoints and waterfalls. The Natural Bridge was very impressive.

Soon after that we crossed the border with NSW, which was marked with security cameras. The clock now has to go an hour ahead, which will give us more daylight at the end of the day. This will come handy as we are traveling low key and only have a tiny torch. The kids are relieved to have an extra hour in the morning as the sun rises an hour later, meaning the birds keep quiet for another hour! Up in the Daintree is would be dark at 7 pm, light at 5 am. Down here, in north NSW, it is dark at about 8 pm.

Camiel reckoned the hinterland is Jackson's KingKong country. He kept looking for that gorilla to jump out of the bush. Back on the coast, the beaches along this part of the coast are postcard pictures. Turquoise coloured water, blue skies and golden sand. There are surfers everywhere. It is also a lot busier, this is the holiday playground for Sydney and Brisbane.


Some of the wildlife we have seen

The scenery and wildlife is absolutely amazing. I can't get over the amount of animals we see every day. On our random bush walks we see wallabies or koalas, goannas or lizards, all kind of birds and parrots and even owls, and the number of flying foxes (bats) goes into the thousands. Frogs and turtles are everywhere and we have even seen snakes. The noise in the bush is sometimes deafening, there must be thousands of cicadas up in the trees. The best animal spotter is Esmee, she spots the tiniest creature or the most camouflaged animal. We are still on the lookout for the extremely hard to spot platypus. We will keep you updated.

-Anja

Dreamworld

Mum, Camiel, Esmee and I went to dreamworld on new years day. We expected it to be really busy, but it was extremely quiet! I guess it was because everyone was hung over in bed! It was nice and sunny, and we had a great day. Here are some photos of the day as there is too much to write!







Hope you had a good night :)
Fem
xox

Australian Zoo!

It was a little bit over cast, but we still took the risk and went to the Australian Zoo. It was a great day! We saw the Irwin family, and watched croc feeding. We grabbed some burgers at the food court for lunch and saw all of the animals! Here are some photos of our great day!










Happy New Year everyone!
Fem
xox

Rainbow Beach

Its sunny today! We drove down to Tin Can Bay to see the dolphins that come to the bay every morning for breakfast. The dolphins live there in the little peninsula so the locals see them almost every day. There wasn’t much to see though. You had to line up in a long line and pay to get a fish and then you stand in the water, the dolphin takes the fish and then swims away. You aren’t even allowed to touch it. So we left and headed for Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow beach is famous for its colourful sand dunes. You can only drive it with a 4wd, so we walked along the beach. It was beautiful to see, the sand was mixed with white, grey and different shades of orange and red. We found lots of jelly fish that had washed up on to the beach, and walked barefooted along the soft sand. It was hot. We walked for at least an hour then stopped to have a swim. The water was 26 degrees so it was really nice to swim in, a bit wavey though. Esmee and I only had a quick dip to cool off before the walk back again. They even had speed signs along the beach for the cars, and a police car hiding behind the rocks pulling people over that were going to fast. Once we got back Esmee and I had a swim where there life guards were. It was very busy because it was the first sunny day in about a week so everyone was making the most of it. After a couple hours on the beach we headed south to a town called Gympie which was a bit of a disaster. The CBD of the town was in land, but there were no signs anywhere directing us how to get there, so we drove around in circles trying to find it because we needed some lunch. We finally found a Coles, and did some serious grocery shopping because we were low! We grabbed a whole chicken for lunch and sat at the park to eat. It was good! And unlike New Zealand, we didn’t have any sea gulls attacking our food, instead we had mosquitoes and flies.


The highway on the beach


At Rainbow Beach

We needed to find a place to stay for the night, so mum directed us to a national park in the tiniest town called Kenilworth. It was just one little street! We cracked some jokes about it saying that if they had a christmas parade it would only last 20 seconds because that’s how short the street is! Anyway, we drove down a gravel road for 4 kilometers or so until we reached the campground. There was a big message board and it said that you needed some kind of permit to stay and that the ranger would come around and check that everybody had paid etc. Well, we didn’t have a permit. We set up camp anyway, while dad drove back to the nearest phone booth to call and get a permit. He arrived back half an hour later with the permit. We could stay! We heard heaps of kookaburras in the trees, and it really does sound like they are laughing. Mum and dad warned us that they were probably going to wake us up in the morning. Esmee found a tiny frog in the soil, as well as some lethal ants. They had HUGE ants here in the forest, and apparently they are the ones to look out for because they sting big time. A guy called all the kids around to a tree once it was dark and shined his torch to a koala sitting peacefully in the top of the tree.


Tent site

Mum and I went for a walk in the dark out of the campground. While mum went in the bush for a bit of exploring, a 4wd full of 20 year old guys came around the corner and stopped next to me. It must of looked ridiculous to them. Spotting a 17 year old teenage girl in her pajamas on the side of the road just standing there! How embarrassing. I really couldn’t understand what they said at first because of their accent, but then I clicked. ‘Hey have you seen a ranga? Like a ginga red haired dude running around?’ I was so confused and said no but told them there was a campground just over the bridge. They drove off, and I felt so stupid! Later when mum and I came back to the campground they drove past us again and yelled out to me ‘Call us if you find the ranga!’. They must have been having me on. In the morning we spotted some wallabies, and the guys in the tent next to us said that there were kangaroos jumping around the campground all night!

I miss you all!
Fem
xox