A Fun Day in Australia!!!!!

This is a guest blog by Mira C. Mason.

We went to a wildlife park today. It was so cool. I was amazed at all the different animals & birds of all colours. We saw a cassowary.

It's a big endangered bird. I thought as soon as I saw it that it was stuffed but I was wrong. It was ALIVE!!!! With its colours red, blue and turquoise it was amazing. It had a crown like thing on the top of its head that's brown. Sooo cool!

Then we walked to a wooden walkway on posts. We saw black & yellow birds, red & purple birds and green birds. There were so many birds it looked like a rainbow after that we walked to a spot half way there. We saw a wallaby. It was a red legged wallaby. It was doing yoga, it had its tail tucked under itself so that it looked like it had a tail from its nose then suddenly I saw another. It hopped really high. Then we walked on.

I saw a really cool bird.... it was a parrot, a red and black one and beside it there was a yellow & black parrot. They were yelling at each other in a squawking sort of noise. Then I saw another parrot. It was black & yellow like the other one but it was on a cage. I didn't know what the cage was for but I knew that it was not for the parrot. Then I looked harder... & harder... & harder then I saw it. It was for a koala.

I knew that because there was a koala munching on eucalyptus. It looked so soft and cuddly. I wanted to grab him but I didn't. I just yelled, " Mom... Kate.. Papa!!!" It was so exciting. I was jumping up and down. After a few minutes, they came. I showed them and they too got excited. We looked at him for a while then carried on looking at birds. After a little bit of walking, we found a cockatoo. It was white with a little yellow feather on the top of his head. Mommy, Kate and I said hello to him and he said hello. I was so surprised then me and Kate said hello again and he said it too then we tried again a third time but he didn't say hello then we left.

Kookaburra

Down the trail a little bit but we realized that the koala show was about to start. We walked back on to the koala station. On the back we saw 2 kookaburras on a log. They were black, brown and yellow. We tried to make them sing for us but they didn't.

Owl friend.

Then we saw an owl - he looked at us and looked bored. Then finally we made it back to the koala station. The lady talked about how Koalas eat, live, sleep and mark their territory. It was neat. After that, we went to a counter and got a ticket to hold a koala. It was a once in a life time experience. His name was Grizzly. He was very soft but at the same time kind of rough. He had sharp claws. Kate was too small to hold him so I held him. There was a man that took our photo and Papa took one too.

Mira, Grizzly and Kate

Then we walked to the grasslands. Mommy got some food to feed the kangaroos and wallabies. We went in the enclosure. As soon as we went in the path forked left and there were some wallabies. So we went left first. We took some feed out of the brown paper bag and bent down to try and feed them At first I was nervous but after a while I found it was fun. They are very soft. I know this because they let me pet them. They licked it out of our hands. Some of them were fat from people feeding them. After that we decided to go right instead so we walked back a couple of meters and went right. There were lots of birds trying to get some feed. We gave them some but not much because the kangaroos were coming up next. Then all of a sudden hopping around were kangaroos, 10-15 of them. One of them beside the path was really big. We thought a Big Red maybe? He stared to come closer and closer and then he came and fed out of our hands. He was so cool. He licked all the food out of our hands then waited for more. Next we went to the free kangaroos. They are kind of very odd looking kind of like a koala and kangaroo cross.

Mira and Big Red?

Kate feeding a kangaroo

Tree Kangaroo

After that we went to the crocs. We were almost on the bridge when we saw an emu. Mom wanted to try to feed it and it pecked the food out of her hand almost biting it. Papa, Kate & I were all on the bridge but the emu wouldn't let mom on. After a minute of trying to get by the emu finally gave in and Mommy ran for it.

Mom feeing a Emu

The bridge was very windy. It took a while for us to see the crocs because they are so good at camouflage but we saw them. They are 1 meter to 1.5 meters long.

Fresh Water Croc

We went around another bend and we found the salt water crocs. He was 3 m. long maybe even bigger after that we got off the bridge. Wow!!!

Salt Water Croc

Cheers mates, Mira C. Mason

See ya mates, bye bye New Zealand and off to Sydney!

Hi all,

It has been a while but it has been crazy for us for the last wee bit. I will attempt to bring you up to date on our travels and remember all the stuff we had seen and done... wish me luck.

We had a wet time in Queenstown. The town was still in the midst of flood warnings and it was still buried under sandbags. Ironically, it poured the whole time we were there....

Looks like snow but they are sandbags.

Queenstown in the fog and rain.

Danger flooding.

Outside of Queenstown are the most beautiful mountains. The riding was tough and really steep - just ask Paul.

Arrowtown was a highlight for us. A perfectly preserved town just outside Queenstown. Don't you just love the family photo? Mom? What mom?

Fall colours in Arrowtown.

A really huge Tuatara in Invercargill.

The trip down to Invercargill was windy and hilly and the town? well, it is the gateway to the Catlins, an absolutely breathtaking road that leads from beach to deserted beach along the coast ending up at Dunedin. We did leave Mira's sandals on one of those beaches and NO we did not drive back to get them. That road is beautiful once but not to be done twice!

Along this coast we did get to visit the seal colonies. Cool!

Say Good'day!

More seals.

Looking for a way to stay out of the car Paul?

In Dunedin, we did the Cadbury chocolate tour. Way yummy and educational too. We got to wear these groovy hats and eat lots of chocolate.

Right this way....

Riding in the Cadbury trucks.

In Dunedin there is also the steepest residential street in the world with an incline of 19%! There is the gutbuster race that is held here where folks run up and then down. We just walked. In July, they have a charity event when they roll Jaffas (chocolate balls) down the hill. Whoohoo!

Paul on Baldwin Street.

Sign post on Baldwin Street - steepest street in the world.

Wanna race down?

In Oamaru, we checked out the penguins. We got to see the rare Yellow-eyed Penguins come in on the beach at dusk. This town is also famous for its bike building history. The penny farthing was made here in NZ.

Kate on a Penny Farthing bike.

Paul in front of a bike shop.

Watch out for penguins.

We all enjoyed Christchurch. The girls and I climbed the bell town in the town square and got a great view of the town.

Art in Christchurch.

Enjoying the leaves.

We changed our plans quickly at the last minute... one minute we were planning on going out to sea in Kaioura then ... given the rain and cold... we decided to made a quick trip to catch the ferry for the North Island. We were bound and bent to get one more ray of sunshine before we returned to Canada. Just when we decided to go to Australia for 10 days because we couldn't get tickets to Toronto, Cathay Pacific put us on the wait list for mid june, so now we suddenly had 3 weeks to play in Australia. We joined our friends Krista and Ray in Cambridge for some fun and a lot of packing and then we caught an early flight to Sydney... the adventure continues.

Kate doing a Kapa Haka - saying goodbye to New Zealand.

Mira and Kate get to say goodbye to their friends in Leamington.

Luggage... we got lots. Off to Sydney at 4 am.

Are we there yet?

If I had a $1.00 for every time Kate asked us, "Are we there yet?" during this extended trip - ON, South East Asia, and NZ - I would be a really rich woman... the time has come for THAT blog.. what goes on during the hours and hours we have spent in the car.. the LC, Loser Cruiser.

On a travel day, which is typically every other day and more recently, every day, we travel 4-6 hours in the car. Kate climbs in the back and announces... 'good night!' It is true, she spends most of the time sleeping - to avoid being car sick, to deal with the boredom, because she is warm... who knows. She sleeps! Which of course means when we arrive at our destination of choice, she is awake - very awake - often until midnight awake! Mira passes the time talking, daydreaming or counting bridges. I bet you didn't know that between Franz Josef and Queenstown, there are 97 bridges. I estimated 93, Paul 100 and Mira estimated 80, Kate guessed 150.. I was so close, the last bridge being just before our campground. I suggested we walk the last bit to avoid the bridge but I was vetoed. So Paul won... I was not pleased. No I am not competitive.

Paul as driver.

Mira being silly.

Catch a picture of someone that passes us...

or our names written on the window...

Kate doing what Kate does best.

Are we there yet?

Sometimes... the best thing comes along. This Flying Fox in Gore, just happened to be by the highway and so we just had to stop. Look how awake Kate is now.

Mira is up for the challenge.

Take a photo of fruit?

Or mom's toes?

Paul relaxing with a nice glass of vino after a long drive with his family... anyone around? hope not!

The road trip continues. Cheers mates. sharon