Last Entry

Well we made it back home after a really long flight - actually we took four flights to get home. I liked flying on the jumbo jets because we get to watch movies and eat good meals. We all slept some on the way home because two of the flights were over night. Then we had to switch onto a new plane in Denver because the one we were on had a mechanical problem. I think it is really cold back home, but I am very happy to be here. I can't wait to get to school and see my classmates and teacher, and show them some of the things we brought back for them. Our bodies are having a hard time right now because the time in Australia is so different. We are tired during the day and awake at night - this is called jet-lag. Also we had two Sundays because we crossed the international date line. It is hard to explain, but we left New Zealand at 7:30pm Sunday night and got to Minneapolis at 8:30 Sunday night - but we were on three different planes for almost 18 hours during this time, so it doesn't quite add up. 

Anyway, I would say the best things about our trip were: swimming in the ocean; flying on the planes; playing pool with my mom's students in Sydney; going to the aquarium on Perth; and seeing dolphins in the wild. The worst things about the trip were: getting salt in my mouth/nose from the sea water and the heat and flies at Uluru. Overall, I would say the trip was really fun. 

New Zealand

On the way home we stopped in the country of New Zealand for one day. It is a small country which is mostly two big islands. We were in a city called Auckland and it was really nice. We went to a museum and got to see a lot of art and historical stuff from the Maori people, who are the indigenous people of New Zealand. The Maori are like the Aboriginal people in Australia because they were there a long time before people came from Europe. They are also very different than Aboriginals too. We got to see a cultural performance and it explained some of their history as a people. It was very interesting and cool. We then took some pictures with the men and women in the performance we saw. I am glad I got to see New Zealand. 

More wildlife park

There were other animals to see at the wildlife park too. We got to pet koalas and see them right up close. They are very soft and cute. They have very, very sharp claws and will strike out if they feel scared. The worker from the park told us a friend had 147 stitches in his arm after a koala took a swipe at him. 

My dad and I also 'talked' to some parrots. They would say "hello" and "want a cookie" and we would give them some leaves to eat. They were really cool how they used their feet and mouth to work with the leaves. They made us laugh a lot.  

Also I finally tried the famous Australian food spread called 'Vegemite'. It is what a lot of people put on their toast or sandwiches instead of peanut butter. To me, and all of us from Minnesota, it tasted totally gross. I can't really describe it, so maybe I should bring some home for people to try. 

The Wildlife Park

Thewildlife park is a place where they have animals, sort of like a zoo. It also has a pretty good souvenir shop, but we found better ones. Back to the park, they have a kangaroo place - most are gray, some are red - that anyone can go in. There is a wall on one side so they can't escape all the way out of the park. You can feed them by hand, and pet them too. Most of them were not hungry though. They liked to smell what we had and then would eat something from the ground. They have an entirely fenced place for kangaroos to go if they want to be away from humans for a while.  They are really cool animals, especially when they are hopping. They use their tail to push off with each hop and they are very powerful. The 'boss' of the 'mob' is a big male who is bigger than my dad. He was in a different area than humans because he is too aggressive. It was really fun to pet the kangaroos. It was also really cool to see the baby 'joeys' inside their mothers' pouches. 

Pictures

Here are a couple of wildlife pictures. Be sure to click on them and see them larger!

Wildlife at Uluru

I still haven't seen a kangaroo in the wild yet. They also said we might see a camel at Uluru but I didn't see any. Australia has one of the largest groups of wild camels in the world (around 500, 000). They do have wild dogs there at Uluru that are called dingos. I saw one near the resort and my parents saw a few one night after dark. It is really easy to understand why the animals in Australia would be nocturnal because it is so hot during the daytime. It was really, really hot. Even the water in the pools is hot. The cold water in the sink comes out very warm, too. 

There were also thousands of grasshoppers all around Uluru. Some were normal size and some were huge. They were all over the sidewalks, walls, windows and people. We also saw four different species of praying mantis as well. They were so cool. I did NOT like all the grasshoppers and flies though. We also saw some huge spiders. I did a dot-painting class with my mom and our teacher was an Anangu woman who had an interpreter. It was really cool. 

I will add some wildlife pictures on the next entry. 

Uluru Again

In the last post you saw a picture of me in front of some wall drawings that are thousands of years old. This wall was used like a chalkboard by the Aboriginal people to teach the boys how to recognize tracks and other important information. They used rocks for chairs. They would draw right over the last lesson and so there are many layers of pictures on the wall. The flies were so terrible at Uluru that it was really hard to concentrate on what the ranger was telling us. The ranger was not wearing a net, but he didn't seem that bothered by the flies. Everyone else was. 

From the resort, if you stand on a sand dune, you can see Uluru on one side about 15 km away and Ktata Jtuta on the other side about 25 km away. They are really beautiful and amazing to see. Up close they have really interesting rock formations and there are Aboriginal stories that go with everything. Here are a few more pictures of Uluru and Ktata Jtuta.