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.

The Big Rock That Is Called Uluru

I think that staying at Uluru - Ktata Jtuta National Park was great. We didn't exactly stay at the rock. We stayed in a resort near the rock in the middle of nowhere. The closet town is almost 500 km away, and the closet city is almost 1500 km away. This is almost the middle of Australia. On the other hand, the flies and heat were unbearable. They sell special nets at the resort to go over your heads, but we had already bought some in Perth. We wanted to nets because of the flies that fly all over our eyelashes and faces to get salt and moisture. They even get inside your net when you reach inside to itch a spot or lick a sucker and sometimes they even get in your eyes. They do not bite though. The heat was intense, 123 degrees fahrenheit (about 49 celsius). 

Scientists think that Uluru is part of a much larger rock underground. They think the whole thing was underground at one time and the ground around it got eroded away by rain and wind. Now, the part that we see sticks out of the ground. Uluru is very large and Ktata Tjuta (which means "many heads" in the Anangu language - the native people of the area. 

There is a lot more to tell, so I will do another entry. 

Aquarium of Western Australia (AQWA)

Today we went to the Aquarium of Western Australia. We saw three kinds of jellyfish. They are very cool how they move in the water. They have no brain or heart. We saw three kinds of sharks that swam in a huge tank. We actually walked through a long, round tunnel and the sharks, giant rays, fish, and eels swam right over us. It was kind of freaky but cool. 

We also saw an octopus up close. It looked right at us as it moved around in it's tank. We got to touch a lot of sea creatures, like starfish, rays, and sea cucumbers. There was one really funny fish that would come out of the water and spit a stream of water right at us. It was so funny and he would do it again and again. 

There was also a large pond outside with many big stingrays in it. They are so cool to watch as they move in the water. These ones sometimes tried to come out of the water but they weren't scary. They seemed friendly. Tomorrow we are going on a boat to see dolphins in the wild. I can't wait!

Rottnest 2

While we were on Rottnest Island we saw animals called quokas. This is a type of marsupial animal (like koala and kangaroos) but when Europeans arrived they thought these animals looked like big rats so they named the island "rat's nest" which then became "Rottnest" later. These are not rats but they are about as big as a racoon and they are very calm. My little brother thought they were very cute .  

The Aboriginal name for the island is Wadjemup. This is a word of the language of the Noonygar people. There are hundreds of Aboriginal languages in Australia. We went swimming and we saw a lot of fish in between the reefs. It was very cool to see the fish swimming, and little scary at first when we went under the water, because I thought they were like eels jumping out. 

I also got a mood ring on Rottnest. It tells your mood by the pressure in your blood. You can tell by different colors it changes to and it comes with a little guide sheet that says what moods the colors mean. Mine was dark blue which meant 'relaxed'.

Rottnest Island

We took a ferry to Rottnest Island today. The ferry is a big boat to take people places across the water. It took almost an hour to get to the island I think. When we arrived there, I was the first one to spot a picnic area where we could eat. It was burning hot that day, 114 degrees! This island was the prison for Aboriginal peoples for a long time. The island was a sacred place for Aboriginals for at least 7,000 years before it became a prison for them. Many Aboriginals dies while in prison on the island and there are skeletons all over the island. Now Rottnest is considered a vacation place for Australians, and many of the vacation buildings and hotels are built right over the Aboriginal graves. There is nothing written about this in our guidebook. 

Sean tries new food

Trying different foods

You might ask this question: What is Sean eating? Why is he eating like that? The answer is octopus, squid, and scallops. People in Australia eat a lot of seafood because they are surrounded by the sea (the Indian Ocean here) and most people live very close to the sea. Most of these foods just taste like crusts and spices to me, but they were ok.

Attack of the Jellyfish

I exaggerated a little with the title. When we were in Fremantle, a town a few miles away from Perth, we were swimming and I only got stung two or three times by the stinging scent left behind by jellyfish tentacles. It stung pretty much, but not a lot, and it went away pretty quickly. The beach was awesome though - except for the jellyfish! I will add pictures later!

Pictures from the beach

Here are some pictures of the beaches in Sydney. Tomorrow we are going to an island full of beaches that is sacred to the Aboriginal peoples. 

Fun at Bronte Beach

The day we went to Bronte Beach was Sunday. They mark the area to swim on the beach between two flags. First I was swimming in a different area, then my dad said we should go swim between the flags. I had lots of fun in the waves, but one time I got knocked down and got water up my nose and down my mouth, and then out my nose again. I got out after that and drank some water to wash it out because the ocean water is so salty. 

We also swam in a pool made out of ocean water that is right by the ocean. There is a wall separating the ocean from the pool. They had a big brown wooden wall going across the pool that had white posts you could jump off of. One time I did a flip in and my mom tried to take a picture of me but it only showed my feet sticking out of the water. The water was freezing cold in the pool, a lot colder than the surf which is the wavy, swimming part of the ocean. 

We also played in "bogey holes" which are rocks with sea urchins and crabs and these weird soft, tubelike animals that were red on the inside. They close up on your finger when you touch them, and it was fun to play with them. These close up when they are out of water, but when they are under water, they open up their mouth and just wait for their food to wash in. 

We even saw people surfing on the waves. I saw a lot of people fall over. We walked over to Bondi Beach which is the really big and famous beach. I only got to swim for about five minutes because it was getting late and we needed to go back to the hostel. The lifeguards told me to come out of the area I was swimming in because they saw someone get pulled out into the ocean in that area. This is called a rip current when the water rushes out to sea really fast in a straight line. You really can't get out if it gets you. I wish I could have stayed more at Bondi but my mom and dad say there will be a lot more beaches in Perth. Even still, I got sunburned on my face and arms, even though we put on tons of sunscreen. The sun is really hot here. 

Now we are in Perth which is really far from Sydney. It is like going from Washington, DC all the way to San Diego - over 2000 miles. It is very hot, dry and sunny here. I got to see a museum exhibit about Aboriginal peoples with my mom today. It was really neat. 

More tomorrow with pictures of the beach!

The Taronga Zoo

Today we took a ferry across Sydney Harbor and then rode a cable car to the top a big hill, which is Sydney's zoo which is called the Taronga Zoo. At the zoo we saw koalas and we could go into their enclosure (like a cage) and get as close as we wanted to. We got our picture taken with them and there was a baby on her mother. I thought that seeing the koalas in real life was really fun and usually they sleep 20-22 hours a day, but they were wide awake for us and we even saw the baby jump to a different tree. All koalas eat is eucalyptus leaves, and the baby was munching one the size of my hand. 

We also saw some kangaroos. We could go into their habitat, but we were supposed to stay on the trail. We even saw some wallabies too. I was really disappointed because the kangaroos were not hopping or jumping, but then, right before we were leaving we saw one hop up the hill and we took a picture. We saw an emu, a very big bird like an ostrich, and it doesn't fly. It has a small head, big toes and long nails, and it's eyes are red. We also saw a big wombat and some dingos (Australian wild dogs). One thing we did we did not see is a platypus. They are very shy animals and hard to see. We saw a lot of tadpoles too - they were all different stages of becoming frogs. I was really surprised at the elephants, which are Asian elephants, and not that big at all. I mean they are big, but not as big as I expected.

The Blue Mountains

The Blue Mountains are just past the suburbs of Sydney. It takes about an hour to get there on the bus. On the way we stopped at Muru Mittigar, an Aboriginal Cultural Center. The mountains are not really blue; they are actually green as they are covered in eucalyptus trees. However, when this plant gives off chemicals or vapors from its leaves that go into the atmosphere and make the air look blue. In Australia these are called mountains, but they are really just huge hills made out sandstone that have been eroded over many years. These mountains are very important to the Aboriginal peoples of Australians. I learned that there are hundreds of different Aboriginal clans (or tribes) all over Australia, with different languages, music, and everything. I really enjoyed the day to the Blue Mountains.  

Comments

Sorry! I would love to see/read your comments, but my dad didn't have it set up correctly before. It should work now!

Quick Update

We went on a one hour bus ride, and on one of the stops we learned how to throw boomerangs from an aborignal guy. When he demonstrated how to throw it, he could catch it on his head. I think when I threw the boomerang it was fun because it started to come back around just like in the movies, except I didn't catch it. We ate kangaroo meat and emu sausage at the same aboriginal cultural center. The meat didn't taste perfect, but it wasn't too bad. Then we listened to our aboriginal guide play the didgeradoo, which is an instrument that sounds like throat singing. But, to play it, you have to breathe out through your mouth while vibrating your lips, and also breathe in at the same time. It is very hard to do.

I will add more pictures next time. Cheers mates!

The Arrival in Sydney

Sydney feels very different from Minnesota because it is very hot. We wear hats here to protect us from the sun which is much stronger here. Our hats have bill in front like a baseball cap, and long pieces in the back that protect our neck from the sun.

My little bother Kieran and I played in a big park called Hyde Park, while my mom and her students were taking a class at the Australian Museum. We tried to climb some huge trees, but everywhere we looked there were flies or spider webs with spiders in them. Also, my little brothher jumped into a big, shallow fountain, that was like a pool. Then I started to put my feet in, and then I started walking around in the fountain too. It felt refreshing to get in the water on this hot afternoon. Since the fountains sprayed out the side like a dome, I would to try to walk through them all the way to the other side without splashing any water on my shorts, before the fountains stopped spraying.

For dinner we went to a barbeque on Sydney Harbor. I had to order my own food and all the students ordered their food and then had to grill it themselves. Mine came to me already cooked. I wanted to fall asleep at the table because I was so tired from the flight. Instead, my Gran and I took a cab home and I fell asleep right away when we got to the hotel.

Our hotel is actually called a hostel and there are people staying here from all over the world, especially Europe and Asia. I haven't heard that many Australian accents yet, but I have heard people speaking many different languages. We haven't seen any signs or posters of the Wiggles yet. This picture is the famous Sydney Opera House - it looks like a giant.

The Flight

We had to go on four planes to get to Australia. Two of the planes were jumbo jets which are much bigger than usual planes. On three of the planes my ears started to hurt at the end of the flight. I tried to build a Bionicle named Toa Tahu on the plane, but I lost one piece.

We first stopped in Denver, Colorado. Next, we stopped in Los Angeles, California. Then, we stopped in Auckland, New Zealand. Finally we arrived in Sydney, Australia! On the planes, there were little movie screens on the back of each seat. We watched "City of Ember", played a game called "Asteroids" and could check the status of the flight. I slept for five hours on the flight from Los Angeles to Auckland, which took over 12 hours total.

I am excited to be here in Sydney!

Almost ready for our adventure!

We are leaving tomorrow for Australia. It is very, very far away. We will be on the plane for almost 24 hours. Sydney, the first city we visit is 17 hours ahead of us, so we leave Minneapolis on Monday afternoon, but we don't get to Sydney until Wednesday morning. It is like we lost Tuesday! I can't wait to surf the big waves on Bondi Beach!