December 2008 Archives

Hi everyone! For this blog we start out in Mt. Lamington National Park at O'Reilly's Rainforest resort. At O'Reilly's we stayed in a cottage that stuck out of the side of a mountain and in the mornings, we could see and hear all types of colorful birds. When we were out exploring, at we came across wild birds feeding, so soon we had trays of bird seed in our hands and were being swarmed by big colorful birds called Crimson Rosellas that would perch on our shoulders and land on our heads. We also did a lot of hiking while we were there and on one of the treks we saw a memorial for a Stinsen plane crash that happened in Lamington State Park in the 1930s. One of the original founders of the resort, Mr. Bernard O'Reilly, went out to search for the missing plane and discovered it with two survivors, after over a week, so he was a big local hero.

Hello people on the computer. I'm writing from Australia and after going to the Great Barrier Reef, we spent three days at O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat in the Green Mountains. There were lots of cool and amazing birds and animals found there. The first day we went on a tree-top walk on a bridge that took us around the top of the trees in the rainforest. It also had a ladder that climbed to the very top.

Hi everybody! Right now we are in Australia and we've been doing some really cool things since we got here.

First we flew into Brisbane and were met by our friends Dick and Liz. After spending the night with them, we went back to the airport early the next morning to take a plane to Hamilton Island. Once we got to Hamilton Island we headed to our resort to settle in.

The next day for breakfast we went to a place called the Koala Gallery where you can eat breakfast with koalas. It was really cool to be able to go get cereal or something to eat and pass koalas on your way. Later that day we went on a catamaran ride called "Adrenaline Sailing," where we got to literally hang out on wires over the water at really fast speeds. We also got to go and sit on a net in the front of the boat and we got totally splashed by the water and ended up soaking wet.  

G'Day Mates! I'm in Australia, land of the Aussies.

When we arrived in Australia, we were picked up at the airport by our friend Mr. Green. When we got to his house, we were excited to find out that they have a dog named Sebastian. Tyler and I can't wait to get a dog when we get home.

The next day we left Mr. & Mrs. Green's house to go to Hamilton Island. Hamilton Island is near the Great Barrier Reef. Half of the island is stores and restaurants and the other half has hotels, pools and a beach. The first thing we did was go to the pool because it's really hot here in Australia because it is their summer, even though it is December.

In the morning we went to a breakfast and ate with koalas. Koalas aren't really bears, they're just koalas. They're really cute but they're usually not doing much ... they sleep for 20 hours a day!

Another thing we did this day was a catamaran ride around the island. On the catamaran we got to ride on "the trapeze," which meant we were hanging off the side of the boat by a wire. It's really hard to explain, so look at this picture...

Hi everybody! For our last week in New Zealand, we lived in a house called Maggie's Cottage, which was on a farm. I was very excited to have a house because we haven't had one in five months. This means that we didn't have to eat at restaurants all the time, which was great.

And speaking about eating, there was a pig at the farm where we stayed that ate all of our food scraps. There were also goats on the farm that really liked our leftover toast. During our stay, they were shearing the sheep, which means they were shaving them so they could sell the wool.


The sheep are much cuter when they are all fuzzy, but it was still fun to watch them get sheared. This farm also had chickens, llamas, horses, and a couple of cute dogs that we played with.

Our cottage was in a town called Nelson and we had lots to do there. One day, we went four-wheeling on ATVs, which is short for all-terrain vehicles. I was sitting on the back of my Dad's four-wheeler. One of the first things we did was ride through a stream.

Hello again! During our last week in New Zealand, we stayed in Nelson on a farm called Harris Hill. We stayed in a house called Maggie's Cottage that had a beautiful view of the Tasman Bay.

At the farm we got to make our own meals instead of always eating out at restaurants. But it wasn't eating the food that was so much fun, it was getting rid of our leftovers that was cool. At the farm they had a pig that ate scraps. When we started feeding him, a goat would arrive and a battle would begin over the food scraps. They all got some scraps, so everyone won.

Hi everybody! In this blog, I am going to tell you about our last week in the camper van. In case you didn't know yet, we named the camper van "Tourtelvis" because it has been taking us on "tour" of New Zealand and it has a bed that sits over the main cab that looks like a big pompadour (a hairstyle where the hair is combed back to form a mound above the forehead, kind of like Elvis Presley's hair).

Anyway, one of the places we visited this week was Queenstown. They have tons of adventurous activities there. We went on a thing called a luge. A luge is a cart/sled that you sit on with a bicycle handle in the front that you steer with. We got to ride on a track that went down a big hill. We steered our way down, going through tunnels and big slopes.  It was so much fun! Stefan and I could have done it all day.

We just finished our last week in the camper van (Tourtelvis) and I'm going to fill you in on what we did. We went on a jet boat ride on the Dart River.  We were going so fast, it felt like we were going over 100 miles per hour with super sharp turns and even full 360 degree spins in the water. It was so much fun, I loved it.

Hi everybody! In this blog, I am going to tell you about our last week in the camper van. In case you didn't know yet, we named the camper van "Tourtelvis" because it has been taking us on "tour" of New Zealand and it has a bed that sits over the main cab that looks like a big pompadour (a hairstyle where the hair is combed back to form a mound above the forehead, kind of like Elvis Presley's hair).
 
Anyway, one of the places we visited this week was Queenstown. They have tons of adventurous activities there. We went on a thing called a luge. A luge is a cart/sled that you sit on with a bicycle handle in the front that you steer with. We got to ride on a track that went down a big hill. We steered our way down, going through tunnels and big slopes.  It was so much fun! Stefan and I could have done it all day.
 
The other really cool thing we did in Queenstown was go to the Kiwi Conservation Center. We got to see the rare kiwi bird, which is one of the many flightless birds that live in New Zealand. The reason they're flightless is because New Zealand didn't have any mammals on it before settlers brought them over, so the birds didn't have any need for wings. Over time, the kiwi lost its wings and now all they have are tiny little things that are buried under their hair-like feathers. The kiwi is also famous for its long beak, which they use for getting things, like worms, under the soil. Unlike most birds, kiwis have nostrils on the tip of their beak instead of at the top by the head. Its eggs are also really huge, almost one-third the size of its body!