Surfing in Australia

By Eric

Today we were body boarding at Byron Bay. It's one of the top surfing places in the world. It had a strong current and humungous waves because there was recently a cyclone in the ocean. The powerful current pushed us so far sideways that we needed to get out and walk back along the beach!! It was awesome.

Rain Rain Go Away

By Hannah

We've been in Australia for almost three weeks and we've had a lot of rainy days. All of this rain has been collecting in rivers and creating deadly flash floods. People are collecting sand bags to protect their houses from water creeping in and many towns have been evacuated. Sadly for many houses there has not been time, leaving houses flooded and some have lost their lives.

Our travel plans have changed. The flooding has left the ocean waters too murky for snorkelling and in several places highways have closed and we have taken long detour routes. We went up to the mountains and there was a huge storm which we could see rolling in (see photo). At times we couldn't even see the road. Hail came and many cars had to pull over and wait under trees for huge, hard balls of ice to die down into rain drops again. As we came a waterfall that we had passed on the way up the mountain, no cars wanted to go by it. It has grown three times its original size and the colour changed from snow white to brown. Here is a photo of the car in front of us. You can see the water splashing down over the road. It was scary but we went through it.

I hope the flooding stops and everything can return to normal for Australians.

Koalas and Kookaburras

By Hannah

We may have only been in Australia for a week, but we have already seen many animals in the wild.

We stopped to see a cute Koala Bear climbing a tree in the mountains and we spotted a Carpet Python snuggled up sleeping while on a bush walk (see photo). Colourful Parakeets are nesting in the back yard and last night about 50 giant fruit bats swooped over us. There were peacocks in a backyard and lizards are absolutely everywhere. There have also been a few cockroaches stepped on! Yesterday we were planning on a treetop walk in the rainforest but we had to cancel it because of the leeches. Back home the leeches swim in water searching for prey, but in Australia they live in forests and fall out of the trees and into your clothes to suck your blood! We also learned that leeches sometimes drop into cars. We learned this yesterday when it happened to us. (There was a lot of screaming!)

Sounds here are much different too. Every morning we wake up to the strangest bird call ever. It sounds like an exotic instrument being played by someone who's never played it before. And once you hear the kookaburra (photo of birds) laugh you begin to laugh too.

There are so many strange and wonderful animals here and now we are just hoping to see a kangaroo!

Earthquakes Galore

By Eric

I've learned that here in Christchurch there were 18 earthquakes on December 26. We were driving through the city just after one and we heard sirens and alarms everywhere! We didn't feel it because we were in the car.

In New Zealand there are about 14,000 earthquakes a year!!! Earthquakes are caused by plates in the earth that shift. New Zealand is on the crack of 2 plates and this is called the Ring of Fire. In September there was a BIG one (7.1 on the Richter Scale) and there are still roads blocked off, broken glass on buildings, and big holes in houses!!! No one died because the houses are strong, but in Haiti lots of people died because their houses aren't strong enough. That is sad.

If there is an earthquake we will hide under the kitchen table or a door frame.

I'm glad there are no big earthquakes in Canada.

Swimming with Dolphins

By Mary

We went swimming with DOLPHINS- not just any dolphins but the rarest, smallest and friendliest dolphins in the world. Hector's Dolphins are black and grey, have a rounded dorsal fin and can grow to 1 metre long. The Hector's dolphin is only found in New Zealand.
We dressed in long wetsuits and special waterproof shoes to keep us warm in the ocean. The boat took us around the island to look for dolphins. On the way there we saw some wild little Blue Penguins, an Albatross (like a giant seagull) and lots of red krill. Luckily we spotted some dolphins and we all slid into the water. Our guide told us not to jump or splash because it will scare away the dolphins. It was cold at first but it got warmer once we were in. We could not touch the bottom.
We attracted the dolphins to us by singing to them in our snorkel, clacking stones under water, and other crazy actions (It's a good thing we'll never see the other people again). Of course our singing sounded bad, but the dolphins seemed to like it. They started to swim near us! A tour boat came by and the dolphins were jumping wildly in front of it. We started singing louder and the dolphins swam over to play, jump and swim with us. We climbed back into the boat to find another spot. We spotted a mommy and baby dolphin swimming side by side. We hopped into the ocean and the two came very close to me. Three more dolphins joined us (the ones in the video). We weren't allowed to touch the dolphins because their skin is like the thin skin under your eye and it hurts the dolphin. We climbed back into the boat and enjoyed some cookies and hot chocolate before heading back to shore.

Realistic Sculptures

By Hannah

In Christchurch we visited an art gallery displaying work by a sculptor named Ron Mueck. Ron worked on the Muppets and Fraggle Rock. He also worked in London making models for film, television, and advertising. Later he made a sculpture he called Dead Dad. It is one metre tall and was a big hit. We saw this sculpture with many others such as Mask ,which is a giant sleeping head of himself, a 2.5 metre naked pregnant woman, a wild 3 metre tall hairy man, two old ladies, a woman in bed (see photo) and much others. My favourite is the newborn baby girl because it is very realistic. The skin, hair, posture and colour is very realistic in all of his sculptures. There are no life size sculptures because Ron Mueck feels they are quite boring because every day you see regular sized people. He wanted to make something different. Ron's sculptors are made from polyester resin, fiberglass, silicone, aluminium, and synthetic hair.

Ron Mueck's sculptures were amazing and truly one of a kind.

The Hardest Pancakes

By Hannah

Normally it takes just minutes to make a batch of pancakes, but in Paparoa National Park, it takes millions of years. These pancakes aren't just any pancakes, they are "rock hard" pancakes because they are made of rock.
Over the years erosion, rainwater and seawater have formed the limestone into layered rocks resembling a giant stack of pancakes. The force of water has also created blowholes in some of these rocks.
Being at the rocks was amazing. Giant waves would crash up against them making roaring sounds and sometimes leaving us wet from their spray. Occasionally the waves would build up and then boom out of a blowhole.

Punakaiki Rocks was a great day, but Mary and Eric were a bit disappointed because my dad said they could eat as many pancakes as they could get.
What an amazing adventure!

One Winter Day

By Mary

We had our winter yesterday at the International Antarctic Centre that demonstrates Antarctica. One room was a SNOW STORM room and we even had to
wear a coat and rubber shoes to keep us from freezing. Inside the room there was real snow and ice! There was also a real Igloo and ice slide. All of a sudden a strong and very cold wind blew and it was freezing! We watched the thermometer's temperature drop to -8 Celsius. It lasted 10 minutes and we shivered. I was glad when it was over.

There was a room full of Blue Penguins with three viewing areas that you could see penguins. One was under water and the other two were at the sides. All of the penguins were rescued and many were blind or injured. The penguin with pink booties (in the picture) has infected feet. Tags around their wings shows which penguin is which. They had names like Elvis, Bagpipes, and Pengu, We watched them getting fed from under water. It was amazing because the penguins would come swooping down for the fish.
Next we rode in an antarctic vehicle called a Hagglund. We sat in the front and the driver went super fast up and down steep hills. One hill ended up in a gigantic one meter deep puddle. The driver told us we that the Hagglund would float but it started to leak. After a moment he quickly drove right out. He said that when he gets bored, he goes much faster. (I think he was bored). My mom was screaming the whole ride.

It's a good thing that winter is over and now I can jump in the pool again.

Gold, Gold, Gold!

By Eric

A few days ago we went panning for gold in a river. We had to scoop up dirt in the river that comes from the mountains.

First we swished it around the pan and picked the stones out. Then we looked for shiny gold. Easy as that! But we only found about 30 little pieces. A few days later in a museum I found out that 1 ounce of pure gold (the size of a ring) can be stretched out with a hammer to cover ten acres! That's a lot! I wonder how it could do that?

A Walk on a Glacier

By Mary

Today we climbed a GLACIER! We hiked a long way over a mountain to reach the Fox Glacier. We stopped to rest at a stream of icy cold water. We scooped the delicious water with our hands. It was good but very cold. On the glacier you could still wear a t-shirt and shorts. We wore special shoes with crampons. They had weird pointy, sharp metal spikes to grab onto the ice so we wouldn't slip and fall. We also had poles.
Our guide had a pick axe to chop the ice to make it easier to walk on. The glacier was moving along each day because snow falls at the top and melts at the bottom which makes the delicious water.

Sometimes I felt very nervous that I would fall down a never- ending crack, which were all over the glacier!

Our Week on the South Island

By Hannah

We are now on the South Island of New Zealand. We arrived by ferry to Picton and travelled eventually to Nelson. There we stayed in a cute little hotel and went for a swim down at the ocean. The tide was out but on the beach there was a big old saltwater pool. At first I didn't want to go in it, but eventually I did and it was nice. That night we went to the Santa Claus parade. It was weird because there was no snow and there were mermaids on many of the floats.
The next morning we hiked into Abel Tasman National Park, named after a Dutch explorer who discovered New Zealand in 1642. The hikes at the park were amazing! They would lead to beautiful beaches where the sand was so white and the water was so blue. At times it almost looked fake.
After a night staying in an old coal miner's cottage (bach) we arrived at Farewell Spit, the most northern land of the North Island. We hiked to the beach where the sand was blowing so hard it stung our faces and legs. At the beach we saw four or five seals. The first one was very fat and sleeping in a cave on the beach. Here are two photos of the same place from different views in Abel Tasman National Park.

Travel by Train

By Eric

We took a train across the North Island for the whole day! (12 hours). There was a place on the train where you could go outside and an observatory at the back. When I was outside I felt like a hobo.

We stopped at National Park for a lunch break and the engine was switched from deisel to electric because the electric engine is more powerful. All of a sudden the engineer asked me if I wanted to go in the engine. There was no steering wheel, just some levers. If the driver takes his hands off the lever for 50 seconds a light will shine in his face (in case he is asleep.) If he doesn't put his hands on the lever in 50 seconds, an alarm will blast. If he still doesn't put his hands on the controls, the train will stop.

I wonder how the driver goes to the washroom?