Femke's Adventures

Big Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 22:32:00 +0000

A few days into staff training, we decided to go on an overnight. We usually do at least one overnight when the campers arrive, so I guess a good start would be for us to take one ourselves first! It took us a while to pack everything we needed into dry bags (food, clothes, supplies, tents, matresses etc) and get them into our kayaks and canoes. It was a good hour paddle to get to our destination called Big Rock. Most of us sung disney songs the whole way there and when we got there we were surprised that we knew an hours worth of disney songs! When we got there some of us spotted a bald eagle sitting up in the trees, which is apparently a rare find.

Me and Fairey

It was really awesome setting up our tents, chilling by the fire and cooking our quessidillas which watching the sunset. Some people even decided to sleep outside because it was hot in the tents. We bonded, ate food, hung out and shared stories and memories while the sun set down, then climbed into our tents to go to sleep. Just before we went to sleep a barge came through the lake (there is a barge channel through the lake), so Fairey and I stayed up to watch it pass.

The sunset over Big Rock

In the morning we cooked breakfast, (bagels and omelets) over the fire and then packed up to head back to camp. We did a bit of singing on the way back, but not too much as we got a little bit seperated! Overall the overnight went well, and I wore my sailing gloves to prevent me from getting blisters from my paddle. It was awesome getting to watch the sunset go down over the pretty bay.

I'm still having a lot of fun, and I know the my uploading at the moment is horribly slow! I will try to improve its just really hard to find the time to upload. Everyone at camp is really great and i'm having a blast!

Byeees
Fem (Bambi)
xx

Staff Training

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 18:58:00 +0000

Me and Shoony

Staff Training started on Tuesday at 2pm. Its's been pretty great so far. All the counsellors are now here, and in total there are 21 of us. Over the past few days we have been going over policies and procedures, health information and trying out some of the activities. Yesterday we went sailing in the aqua fins which was really fun! Fern and I rigged one up and took it out on the water. After we finish sailing we have to tie the boats to little moorings and swim back to shore. Its not to far though, and the water is really nice! I keep forgetting that we are in a fresh water lake, I am so used to be in the ocean back home where everything gets salty and sticky.

Today I tried windsurfing for the first time. It's a lot harder than it looks! We each got a little try and hopefully by the end of camp I'll be a bit better at it. Last night we all brought our sleeping gear up to the lodge and watched 'How to eat fried worms', however most of us fell asleep in the first 10 minutes as we were so tired! This morning we had to get up at 6 instead of 7 for a suprise. Turns out we went for a sunrise sail in the scot boats which hold 6-8 people. The wind here is no where near as strong as windy wellington, but hopefully it will pick up a bit more later so that we can get some good sailing in.

For lunch today we had 'shipwrecked lunch' which means all the cutlery and furniture are scattered everywhere. Eg. at my table the table was on its side, Skippy had to eat her food with a ladle, and some of us had knives, and bowls for cutlery. We had hot dogs which was really good! The other day I tried a corn dog which wasn't really my thing.

Tonight we are having a cook out where we cook our food outside over the fire. Should be lots of fun!

Anyway have to go now. Break is over.

Byee!
Fem
xx

Welcome to Bear Creek Aquatic Camp

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 03:33:00 +0000

I finally made it to Nashville! I had to wait 20 hours for the next flight, so instead of sitting in a terminal, I went to a hotel. It wasn't great, but at least I had two double beds so I could really spread out! I got to the hotel at around 1am and went straight to sleep. I then got up at 9, had breakfast and a shower, and went back to sleep! I caught the shuttle back to the airport at 12.30 to catch my 2.50 flight, however my flight didnt leave until 3.30pm. We had to board it from the ground, which is quite different cause usually you board them through those tunnels. It was a cruisy flight to Nashville, I lost track of time and all of a sudden we were there. I just have to say that it reminded me of Miley Cyrus! (her home town).

Boarding from NY to Nashville

Skippy picked me up, and had a cute little sign to welcome me. We then drove 2 hours back to camp, but stopped of at McDonalds for some dinner. I then met some of the other counsellors at Belews Dairy Bar, which sells shakes, ice cream, sundaes, cheap hamburgers etc... It was really nice. The next day was a day of helping clean up some stuff on camp as there was a bit of flooding a few weeks ago. Shoony, Kaya, Dory, Clover, Skippy and I went and cleaned out the boat barns (paddle beach and big boating), then we went and set up the campers beds at a unit called lions den. Later on some of the counsellors from Pennyroyal (our sister camp) showed up and there was another girl from New Zealand! Her camp name was Haka, and she was from Ohope. After they got a tour around camp we all went back to Belews for some dinner.

Camp

At the moment we get to stay in the lodge, which has air conditioning and hot water in the showers. Once training starts we have to move into the units outside which have no air conditioning, but hey its all part of the experience right! The next day we did pretty much the same things (washed the sailing boats), except we took a trip to Walmart! There was a subway in walmart, that had foot long subs for $6! We ate some subway, then I went and bought sandals, a phone, a watch and sunglasses. They were all so cheap! My sunglasses were $5 and the watch was only $7. I definately wish that New Zealand had a Walmart. It's quite hot here, about 30 degrees at least, and a bit humid. They have intense lighting and thunder here which I find amazing; the whole sky lights up and flashes. The camp is really beautiful, set just next to Kentucky lake, and has beautiful fauna (except for poison ivy!). And I know some of you (aka mum and brittany) will be please to hear that Kaya set up a worm farm so we can compost our food scraps!

Turtle I saw

Tonight we went to a restaurant called Patties which was really delicious! I had a big chicken breast with a salad and these chips called steak fries which looked more like giant wedges to me. We got up and sang a camp song for the waitress, and then another group eating wanted us to perform to them to! (I've started to catch onto the camp songs). Some of the camp songs have a real southern american accent to them, and when I try the americans just crack up laughing.

Anyway sorry for my bad grammar, its late and i'm really tired! Tomorrow camp training starts, and we have to start getting up at 7am and training ends at 10pm. Should be fun!

Until next time!

Fem

xxx

Stuck in New York

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Thu, 27 May 2010 23:45:00 +0000

Just a quick post. Currently stranded in NY. Missed my flight to Nashville. It was the airlines fault. NY is such a busy airport that after we landed, we had to wait a good 30mins until we could actually get off the plane. Then my luggage was last to come out (another good 30-45mins), then I had no idea where to go, and realised I had to catch some kind of monorail, and then by the time I got to check in, my flight had already started boarding and the lady wouldn't let me through.

Don't panic! Currently, in touch with mum and dad back at home trying to find new flights asap. Next one is in 24 hours though, trying to find an earlier one. I will let you all know when I have finally arrived at my destination! Until then, who knows how long I have to wait here...

Love you all
Fem
xxx

Bon Voyage

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:43:00 +0000

The last 6 months have been a whirlwind of excitement, nerves, plans, Australia, work, friends and family. I still remember sitting at my interview in Starbucks in October, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach. I’ve wanted to do Camp America since I was 14. Who wouldn’t? I love travel, and the sound of making life long friends, having an amazing experience and travelling all at the same time sounded awesome to me. After seeing Ross off to Missouri on Friday last week, i’ve had a few days to prepare myself for my adventure.

I had a leaving barbecue on Saturday, which was a great success (thank you too all who came!). I cooked a bit too much food, but compliments were that the food was delicious. On Sunday my family and I and Kristen went up to Otaki to visit the outlet shops and buy some nice icebreakers and other camping needs. Monday was a day of gathering things I wanted to pack, and moving them upstairs so I could spread it out and look over everything I wanted to take with me, as well as dinner at the Stewarts. Yesterday I went to Victoria University, to what was suppose to be my first management lecture with Brittany, however public transport was hopeless, and I turned up late, meaning Brittany was late, and then 10 minutes into our lecture the fire alarm went off. So really, it was a sneak peak. Then I went to Steve and Suzanne's (Ross's parents) house for dinner. I hung out with my friends in the library where they decorated a scrap book to give me for my travels (thanks girls =] ).

Trying on Icebreakers at the store in Otaki

It’s the night before I leave. Today has pretty much been a day of packing and getting last minute things sorted. Mum and I sat down upstairs and squashed everything into my two bags. I was nervous about the weight, but they were both under 15kg which was good! I’m just a little nervous as I am only allowed to bring a total of 20kgs from London to Dublin. Therefore I’m gonna have to chuck a lot of stuff out, but I can imagine things like my shoes will be really worn out by the end of camp anyway. Mum and I went out to Porirua this morning and bought a new phone as the phone I currently have will not work in the states. I will get an American Sim card when I get there, so If you would like to know my number so you can send me a txt (which I think I will have to pay the bill for), let me know and I will email it to you as soon as I have.

The scrapbook my friends made for me

So many little things I have had to think about, such as batteries that need to be charged before I leave, iPod charged, do I have enough US cash in my wallet for McDonalds at LA (tradition!), and things that I have had to pack which I never really thought about packing. Everyday things that you use for granted such as tissues and hair ties. I’m excited for my flights, I love flying and can’t wait to see what movies they have on the plane - I need something to look forward to! My stop overs are really short. I have 2 1/2 hours in LA, and 2 hours in New York, and land in Nashville Tennessee at 10pm on Friday (10pm Nashville time, not NZ). I’m a bit nervous about the camp I am going to, as there is no electricity in my tent and apparently the raccoons and mice sneak around at night! I also have a long drop, unless I want to walk for 15 minutes to the main hall for a proper toilet, however walking for 15 minutes in the dark where wild grizzly bears walk around does not sound nice to me!

Thank you to everybody who has offered me their support in the past 6 months, and wished me bon voyage. I will update my blog as often as I can while at camp, although there will be limited internet access. I am back to NZ on the 12th of January 2011 so see you all then!

I look forward to your comments, emails and phone calls over the next 8 months.

Fem

Mount Kuzko!

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Spider we saw! ARGH!

After Canberra we headed to Mount Kusciouszko National Park. On the way to the park we were suppose to be crossing a big lake. We kept looking at the map and then looking out the window, trying to spot this vast fresh water lake. We then realised that we were already passing the lake, it was just all dried up. It was sad to see that all the water and wild life that had lived in the water had all vanished due to the intense heat.

Esmee started feeling sick on this drive...

We drove into a small town outside the park called Jyndabine, and stocked up on some groceries because of course there is no supermarket in the bush. Mount Kusciouszko is the highest mountain in Australia, therefore the national park is one of the only places in the whole country where you can ski in the winter. We had to pay an entry fee when we entered, and spotted a baby deer in the bushes. We kept driving up hill into the mountains, which to me just looked like hills. We kept driving and passed heaps of ski fields and a couple of ski villages until we reached a short walk to a look out of Mount Kusciouszko. It was an easy short board walk up a few stairs to the look out. It was hard to spot the mountain as there was a lot of haze. Along the walk they had gum trees that were hundreds of years old. It was getting cold, and I had to start wearing a jumper.

Lookout

We drove back and camped at a campground in the park. Out of all of the campgrounds we had been at, this was the first campground that had a proper stove and oven! Amazing for a campground in the bush where there isn’t much supplies. Dad and I cooked dinner while Camiel and Esmee played cards and waited for the pool table to become free. Mum set up camp, and then joined us for dinner. As the sky turned dark, Camiel, Esmee, Dad and I played a game of pool in teams. Camiel and I won - just. Mum soon came running in and said ‘Oh my gosh you won’t believe this!’ and showed us some photos she had just taken on her camera. She was sitting in one of our cheap Bunnings camp chairs in the pitch dark when she felt something at her feet. She shined the torch to find a possum greeting her. The possum then jumped into the boot of the car and started rummaging through all of our stuff!

An abandoned house

Later on when Esmee and I went to the toilet, we came across another friendly possum, who tried to nibble our fingers. It was a cold night as we were high up in the mountains, but we managed. Mum warned us about the 6 hour walk she wanted to do the next day. Noooo......

Haha
Fem
xox

Canberra - The Nations Capital

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:12:00 +0000

After we said goodbye to everyone and Esmee had a swim in the river with Poppy the dog, we headed as far south as we could go. We spent the whole day driving, and ended up in Wollongong at about 7.30. We sneaked into a caravan park because the office was closed and we had run out of options. The cool thing about driving to Wollongong was stopping at a look out over the ocean and watching the hang gliders jump off the cliff. I would rather sky dive than hang glide I think. The fact that they just run and jump off a cliff to me is terrifying. We also went along a bridge than hugged the cliff edge to the sea. In Wollongong we went to see a historic blowhole. It was a bunch of rocks where the waves would roll underneath (kind of into a cave), and there was a hole at the top where the water would be pushed out like a whales blowhole. People have been killed in there, because you get thrashed and pushed around a cave that is filled with water. I don’t see why you would go in there to be honest, you gotta be stupid. They had a pool that was built into the rock pools. The pool was salt water, and Esmee being as keen as a bean jumped in for a swim.

Esmee and I

After Wollongong we headed straight for Canberra. On our way to Canberra we stopped at yet another waterfall! I didn’t know that Canberra was actually in its own small state called Australian Capital Territory. Kind of bizarre really. On our way to Canberra we passed a lake that had completely dried up. Once we arrived in Canberra we set up camp in a caravan park and Esmee, Camiel and I had a dip in the pool. It was hot and the pool was cold which was nice and refreshing. Afterwards we headed up to see the Government Grounds. Everything in Canberra looks very new. The mall, the government house was new and modern, the museums, the hotels, everything looked like it was built just yesterday. The government house was nice - form the outside. We then drove down to the International Flag display and spotted New Zealand. Then we hunted round for ages looking for a pizza place - we simply could not find one! We drove through the whole city and saw nothing. Eventually we asked some locals who directed us and we finally found a pizza hut!

Government House

International Flag Display

The next day we went to the National Science Museum. It was a hands on museum where you could play and interact with the displays. It was fun. They had an earthquake house, a roller coaster stimulator, and even a small free fall. We spent a few hours there and I learned a lot. We then went to a park and had lunch in the shade out of the heat. The art gallery had an exhibition on that included some of Van Goughs art work from Paris. Mum wanted to see it, but it was expensive so we flagged it and jumped in the car to go south.

At the National Science Museum

There are two main ways to get to Melbourne. You can either go around the coastline, or through the middle winding through the national parks. We took the inland way and headed for Kusciouszko National Park.

Home in a week!
Fem
xox

Blue Mountains

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:57:00 +0000

Blue Mountains

We hopped in the car and drove for two hours to the Blue Mountains. I don’t know much about the Blue Mountains, but what I do know is that it is a big vast canyon that gets it name from the blueish haze in the mornings. After being to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, I didn’t think much of the size of the Blue Mountains, but it was still pretty. They have a formation of rocks that are called the ‘Three Sisters’. It is three tall rocks next to each other in a row. You can walk to them, there’s a little bridge. They are somehow special and spiritual to the Aborigines, I can’t remember how.

The Three Sisters

Camiel at Blue Mountains

It was stinking hot, again. Apparently there’s a heat wave coming! We drove to a parking and looked out some look outs and did a short walk to a look out over a beautiful waterfall. There were heaps of people down at the waterfall swimming, but they had a long way to walk back up again! At the mountains you could look forever endlessly, and there would be no end. The canyon stretched right out into the horizon, and you could see walking tracks in the distance. We went to another look out which looked out to the ‘Three Sisters’. It was a little disappointing how they had put a bridge to it because now in all the photos there will be a man made structure next to a natural creation. They weren’t that big either.

That’ pretty much all we did, although it took the whole day because we had to drive around and navigate. We got back to Wilhelmina and Johns at about 7.30 for some home made burgers which we super yummy, then headed off to bed.

Goodbye,
Fem
xox

P.Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:49:00 +0000

Sydney!

I was very excited when I woke up this morning. Sydney! I’d never been, but heard lots about it and obviously seen lots of it. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House are in movies, postcards, posters, TV shows. Nearly everything in media. To actually be there and see it with your own eyes, and take it all in would be breathtaking. Mum and dad had both been to Sydney before but none of us kids had. We decided to take the train because the traffic would be horrendous in town, and you have to pay to use the freeways and the parking is something like $10AU an hour which is like $13NZ. So all in all it would cost us like $50 in parking, and more for the toll roads. The train was about an hour and a half, and was kind of fun. They have double decker trains here, so we sat at the top. When we got on we were the only people on the top carriage, but by the time we got to Sydney it was jam packed. We passed a town called Blacktown, which mum believes to be sister cities with Porirua. I read the newspaper on the train, and it had some stuff about NZ in it, and a two page article about some sportsman from Porirua, and had photos in the new rec centre that is behind the Aquatic Centre. That brought a bit home back. Was really weird to be reading the Sydney paper, and have two pages about a guy from Porirua!

The ferry to the Opera House

We got to Sydney, and had no idea where to go. We wanted to go to the Sydney Aquarium which was in Darling Harbour. We had a map, but we couldn’t find any street names. After asking a bus driver where to go, and walking for a good ten minutes, we arrived in Darling Harbour. It was amazing and hot. They had a huge IMAX theatre, the biggest screen in the world (which was displaying Avatar 3D - I really wanted to go see it again!). There were heaps of cafes, and a big mall called Harbour Side along the other side. There were fountains, water displays, McD, and in the distance the Sydney Aquarium. We hadn’t had breakfast, so we went to McD and got a McMuffin each to munch on.

Darling Harbour

Then we headed to the Aquarium. It was really cool. They had millions of fish, and even a crocodile. They had two oceanariums, one which had two dugongs. They also had the worlds deadliest octopus, which stings you and can paralyze your organs, specifically your lungs which then leads to you suffocating and drowning. They also had the deadly fish such as the stonefish, and sharks and poisonous stingray. I was amazed at how big the stingray were. I thought that they were only a square metre kind of thing, but these stingrays were bigger than I was. Absolutely huge. Prior to the death of Steve Irwin, the last reported death by a stingray happened in 1938 and 1945. It really was a freak accident. I enjoyed the Aquarium. They had moon jellyfish which were beautiful harmless creatures that were pink, purple and blue. They just drifted and floated around in their UV tank so peacefully. We asked one of the girls that worked there if Wallaby Way from Finding Nemo actually existed here in Sydney. She said she'd lived here all her life and didn't know, but laughed with us. :)

Aquarium

Dorrie!

We then caught the ferry over to the Opera House and went under the Harbour Bridge. The Opera House was huge and looked amazing from far away, but as you got closer and could see the fine detail of the tile patterns, it didn’t look quite as spectacular. Dad said that the bridge was built in the 30’s, and the Opera House in the 50’s. I couldn’t believe how old these magnificent structures were. The 30’s! It’s a huge bridge, I find it hard to believe they had the technology to make it back then. We went up and touched the Opera House and took some photos, before heading out to get some McD for lunch. Hey it was cheap! The most strangest thing happened while I was munching away at my Big Mac burger. I had a got size of it left, about 3 bites, and before I knew it a seagull flew right up to me, bit my fingers and stole the rest of my burger and gobbled it up in front of me. It literally took it right out of my hands! I couldn’t believe it. I was guttered, because the last bit of your burger is always the best. We then caught the ferry back to Darling Harbour and caught the train back to Windsor.

Cam and I - Opera House

On the ferry

When mum and dad stayed here, they stayed with dads cousin and her husband and kids. We had organised to have a BBQ there, so arrived at about 7.30. Wilhelmina and John were one of the nicest people I had met. The welcomed us with open arms, and were so nice. We had a nice BBQ, and then offered for us to stay with them for the next couple of nights. Hmm, the thought of warm, big comfy double beds waiting downstairs, and a proper bathroom sounded good to me! So we stayed there for the next two nights. We had dutch pancakes and poffertjes in the morning which were super yummy! The destination for today was the Blue Mountains :)

Esmee enjoyed the Opera House!

Ps. Its 39 degrees. AH!
Fem
xox

The summer of 1989

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:37:00 +0000

Chilling out

Back in the day, actually to be more precise, back in 1989, when my parents were considered ‘cool’ and ‘hip’, they went on a big world trip. One of their destinations was 6 months in Australia. For the first three months they stayed with relatives in Lower Portland and did orange picking over the road to get some cash. Lower Portland is an hour outside Sydney and is full of orchards and farms. So dad and mum decided to pop into the old place they used to stay and see if our relatives were home. What a surprise they would get, turning up at their doorstep 21 years later unannounced! So we drove up to the house, but nobody was home. Instead mum and dad decided to visit the people who they use to work for doing the orange picking which was just over the river (they would catch the ferry every day, twice).

Teeth brushing!

So we drove down the drive way to find a big orchard with a barn on one side and an unfinished house on the other. Dad had explained to us how he had helped lay down a concrete slab because the guy wanted to build a barn that they would live in until they built a house. The people recognised mum and dad, and after some chatting offered for us to pitch up our tents on the other side of the house. We great fully said yes and while we pitched them up Esmee played with Poppy the dog. They had a beautiful section, with a wetland down the bottom. Esmee, Camiel and I decided to play spotlight in the orchard. It was fun (if you ignored the fact that there could be the chance of red bellied venomous snakes lurking in the orchard). So we got out or torches, and ran and hid around the huge orchard while the tagger looked and searched for you. It was tiring! We think that we saw a kangaroo hoping through the orchard at one point which was cool.

Peace and Rock & Roll

In the morning it was scorching hot in the tent, so we all got out and got ready for our day in Sydney :)

Byyeee
Fem
xox

Snnnaaakkeee!

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:26:00 +0000

We got up and headed for the beach to check it out. There wasn’t very many people, but the further south we go the more colder it gets. Although I wouldn’t say that its cold compared to New Zealand, but the temperature is definitely dropping to under 25 degrees. Esmee had a play in the sand and we all sat on a log to enjoy the view. After 15 minutes or so it was back in the car and into the bush.

We drove for most of the day, passing Coffs Harbour, and ended up at a council campground called Platypus Flat, which runs along a river. We had to drive along a 15km dirt track to get there and came across cattle grazing along the road side. There was a few babies on the road that ran to mum before moving completely off the road. Platypus are most likely seen at dawn or dusk but most Australians themselves have never actually seen one in the wild. We arrived there just before dark so dad and I quickly made chicken burgers for dinner while Camiel and Esmee started setting up a campfire for marshmallows later on. Once it was dark we lit up the fire and had marshmallows, burning most of them by accident! We heard all sorts of wildlife. Once the sun disappears its like another world comes out. The wildlife here are much louder in the dark than during the day. We could hear ducks, cicadas, frogs and even paddies (small wallabies) jumping through the night. The sky was clear because there was no surrounding city light, and we saw heaps of bright and clear stars. Mum and I heard something rumble through the bush behind us. We shined the torch upon a bandicoot. We followed it as it started to run back into the bush, but lost it shortly afterwards. We waited for the fire to die out which took a good hour and then went to bed because it was pitch black. It was a freezing cold night - coldest yet! I even slept with my jumper on.  

The next thing that happened was mum shaking my tent waking me up at 6.15am and whispering ‘Do you want to see a snake?!’. I stumbled out of the tent and into the bright early morning sun light. The grass was wet, so I put on my shoes and followed mum to where Camiel was standing, 20 metres away from our camp site. There was a big huge snake curled up just by the waters edge. Mum explained to me how she nearly stood on it and got the biggest fright of her life - fair enough. We decided it was a python, and after asking mum and Camiel if they spotted any platypus’s and them responding with ‘no but we saw turtles’, I headed back to my tent and went back to sleep for another two hours. I grabbed Camiel’s blanket as well as mine because I was freezing cold.

Carpet Python!

After breakfast we headed for some more waterfalls (one being the second tallest in NSW), and some look outs. When we left the campground we spotted a dingo walking along the road! We then arrived at a walk in Cathedral Rock National Park. It was a 2 and a half hour walk, which at first we (being the kids) thought it was going to be long and boring and hard. But it was one of the most fun walks I’ve actually been on! After 2.5km of walking through the bush, there was a 400m side track to a lookout. The description read that you have to ‘scramble‘ your way to the top of Cathedral Rock. The walk consisted of huge boulders piled on top of each other making magnificent structures. We set off on the 400m side track, not realising what we were getting ourselves into. The word ‘scramble‘ was far from what we had to do. We had to jump, leap, climb up vertical rocks, and even use chains to get up to the top. It was a long way up, and we even had to go under some huge boulders which freaks me out because I would not want to be squashed under one of those things. Boulder’s weigh twice as much as water, and water alone is rather heavy. Once we got the top the view was beautiful. You could see far and wide in all directions, and spot more huge boulders. There was a thunderstorm in the distance that we could see and hear, so we decided we better get moving before it caught up on us. It began spitting on our way back, which would later turn into rain. Esmee was scared of the thunder, but we kept pacing on because we didn’t want to be in there when it started pelting down. All the animals began to disappear. Animals have the most amazing natural instincts! The climb up to the rocks was a once in a lifetime kind of walk, one that we have never done.

Climbing up

The top of Cathedral Rock

Waterfall

Ant hill!

We drove for another 250km to a town called Gloucester but started getting an empty tank of petrol some part of the way through. We stopped at McD for some dinner which we had been greatly craving since our walk, and settled into a motel because we didn’t want to set up camp in the rain. Sydney tomorrow?

I hope people are still reading this?!
Fem
xox

King Kong Territory

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 11:14:00 +0000

So, after completing all the typical tourist attractions nearing Brisbane (Australian Zoo, Dreamworld, Gold Coast, Surfers Paradise, Pacific Fair Mall), we began heading south back into the bush! But before we did this, we enjoyed a nice morning at Pacific Fair, which was a big mall in Surfers Paradise. It had loads of store, and too my surprise I only bought one $5 top from Cotton On Body. I like to say I’m a bargain hunter, but I know people who would argue otherwise! We then headed to Broadbeach which was pretty busy! The cloud was blocking the sun so it actually started to get a little cold, but Camiel and I still had heaps of fun burrying Esmee alive in the sand. We stayed at a campground for two nights and they had this huge giant air thing that was called a jumping pillow. I’d never seen or heard of one before. It was pretty much the equivalent of a trampoline, but ten times the size. We also found a huge spider in the power box! We all got such a fright!

Esmee in the sand

The spider!

So we kicked of south into the bush (our favourite place!) and did some short walks to some remarkable sights. We drove for a few hours then walked to a waterfall, and then another waterfall. I can’t remember the names, but each one is so unique and different from the last. After our waterfalls, we walked a 45min return walk to a ‘natural bridge’. This was a huge rock that looked like a bridge, which has a hole in the middle where a waterfall plundered down into a pool of water beneath. It had a small cave which you could walk into, but only up to a certain point otherwise you would disturb the glow worms and bats. Eugh. Bats. We stopped to have some lunch, and Camiel and dad started cracking jokes that we were in King Kong Territory. Typical boys. After this we drove onto the border of New South Wales and Queensland. We had to stop the car and Camiel and I just had to jump back and forth from one border to the other. New South Wales is one hour ahead of Queensland, so it was like we were jumping back and forth in time. We took some photos and jumped back in the car because we still had a bit of driving to do.

On a waterfall walk

Crossing the border

We drove through a tourist place called Byron Bay and thought about staying there but it was really busy. Kind of like Tauranga in the summer. It was nice, but the streets were a stand still. We drove up to the lighthouse which was a nice attraction. Byron Bay is the most eastern point of Australia, so it was cool to stand on the beach and look out into the pacific ocean and know that there was nothing there for miles and miles and that you were right on the edge! We spent a night nearby in Lismore, and drove the rest of the next day down to Ballina. We stayed in a resort which had mini golf and a water park. We got there at about 4.30, so Esmee dived into the pool and played in the water park. We then did some mini golf and jumped on the jumping pillow where I happened to bump into a Whitby friend! Completely coincidental and random!

Jumping pillow

Dad cooked some pasta and chicken while I went on the internet and caught up with Ross and my emails. The cicadas here can be incredibly loud. They were even so loud at one point we couldn’t hear each other and had to cover our ears. All part of the experience I guess!

Happy Birthday Monique :)
Fem
xox

Crossing into New South Wales

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 09:46:00 +0000

Today it is my turn to write a guest post for Fem's blog. We are sitting here at a campground in Ballina, about 100 km south of the Queensland border. We have traveled about 3000 km sofar. The kids are doing well without their gadgets, having to cope with limited comfort, kind of boot camp at times. The mattresses are thin, the food is basic, tents are small (and hot), and the days are long and hot. We wake up at about 5 am, usually woken by cockatoos or kookaburras, bats, frogs or whatever wildlife is around that day. And if it isn't the wildlife, it is the sun which soon turns our tent into a sauna. But the country side is amazing, the fauna unbelievable and the weather is okay. We do have a bit of rain, but the good part is that the temperatures are bearable. Up north, when we visited the tropical rainforests, the temperature was above 30 something and the humidity high. Now the temperatures are still in their high twenties, but much more bearable.

We traveled south from the gold coast, through subtropical rainforest and beautiful scenery, with several waterfalls along the way. We hiked some of the tracks to viewpoints and waterfalls. The Natural Bridge was very impressive.

Soon after that we crossed the border with NSW, which was marked with security cameras. The clock now has to go an hour ahead, which will give us more daylight at the end of the day. This will come handy as we are traveling low key and only have a tiny torch. The kids are relieved to have an extra hour in the morning as the sun rises an hour later, meaning the birds keep quiet for another hour! Up in the Daintree is would be dark at 7 pm, light at 5 am. Down here, in north NSW, it is dark at about 8 pm.

Camiel reckoned the hinterland is Jackson's KingKong country. He kept looking for that gorilla to jump out of the bush. Back on the coast, the beaches along this part of the coast are postcard pictures. Turquoise coloured water, blue skies and golden sand. There are surfers everywhere. It is also a lot busier, this is the holiday playground for Sydney and Brisbane.

Some of the wildlife we have seen

The scenery and wildlife is absolutely amazing. I can't get over the amount of animals we see every day. On our random bush walks we see wallabies or koalas, goannas or lizards, all kind of birds and parrots and even owls, and the number of flying foxes (bats) goes into the thousands. Frogs and turtles are everywhere and we have even seen snakes. The noise in the bush is sometimes deafening, there must be thousands of cicadas up in the trees. The best animal spotter is Esmee, she spots the tiniest creature or the most camouflaged animal. We are still on the lookout for the extremely hard to spot platypus. We will keep you updated.

-Anja

Dreamworld

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:06:00 +0000

Mum, Camiel, Esmee and I went to dreamworld on new years day. We expected it to be really busy, but it was extremely quiet! I guess it was because everyone was hung over in bed! It was nice and sunny, and we had a great day. Here are some photos of the day as there is too much to write!

Hope you had a good night :)
Fem
xox

Australian Zoo!

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 10:24:00 +0000

It was a little bit over cast, but we still took the risk and went to the Australian Zoo. It was a great day! We saw the Irwin family, and watched croc feeding. We grabbed some burgers at the food court for lunch and saw all of the animals! Here are some photos of our great day!

Happy New Year everyone!
Fem
xox

Rainbow Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:10:00 +0000

Its sunny today! We drove down to Tin Can Bay to see the dolphins that come to the bay every morning for breakfast. The dolphins live there in the little peninsula so the locals see them almost every day. There wasn’t much to see though. You had to line up in a long line and pay to get a fish and then you stand in the water, the dolphin takes the fish and then swims away. You aren’t even allowed to touch it. So we left and headed for Rainbow Beach.

Rainbow beach is famous for its colourful sand dunes. You can only drive it with a 4wd, so we walked along the beach. It was beautiful to see, the sand was mixed with white, grey and different shades of orange and red. We found lots of jelly fish that had washed up on to the beach, and walked barefooted along the soft sand. It was hot. We walked for at least an hour then stopped to have a swim. The water was 26 degrees so it was really nice to swim in, a bit wavey though. Esmee and I only had a quick dip to cool off before the walk back again. They even had speed signs along the beach for the cars, and a police car hiding behind the rocks pulling people over that were going to fast. Once we got back Esmee and I had a swim where there life guards were. It was very busy because it was the first sunny day in about a week so everyone was making the most of it. After a couple hours on the beach we headed south to a town called Gympie which was a bit of a disaster. The CBD of the town was in land, but there were no signs anywhere directing us how to get there, so we drove around in circles trying to find it because we needed some lunch. We finally found a Coles, and did some serious grocery shopping because we were low! We grabbed a whole chicken for lunch and sat at the park to eat. It was good! And unlike New Zealand, we didn’t have any sea gulls attacking our food, instead we had mosquitoes and flies.

The highway on the beach

At Rainbow Beach

We needed to find a place to stay for the night, so mum directed us to a national park in the tiniest town called Kenilworth. It was just one little street! We cracked some jokes about it saying that if they had a christmas parade it would only last 20 seconds because that’s how short the street is! Anyway, we drove down a gravel road for 4 kilometers or so until we reached the campground. There was a big message board and it said that you needed some kind of permit to stay and that the ranger would come around and check that everybody had paid etc. Well, we didn’t have a permit. We set up camp anyway, while dad drove back to the nearest phone booth to call and get a permit. He arrived back half an hour later with the permit. We could stay! We heard heaps of kookaburras in the trees, and it really does sound like they are laughing. Mum and dad warned us that they were probably going to wake us up in the morning. Esmee found a tiny frog in the soil, as well as some lethal ants. They had HUGE ants here in the forest, and apparently they are the ones to look out for because they sting big time. A guy called all the kids around to a tree once it was dark and shined his torch to a koala sitting peacefully in the top of the tree.

Tent site

Mum and I went for a walk in the dark out of the campground. While mum went in the bush for a bit of exploring, a 4wd full of 20 year old guys came around the corner and stopped next to me. It must of looked ridiculous to them. Spotting a 17 year old teenage girl in her pajamas on the side of the road just standing there! How embarrassing. I really couldn’t understand what they said at first because of their accent, but then I clicked. ‘Hey have you seen a ranga? Like a ginga red haired dude running around?’ I was so confused and said no but told them there was a campground just over the bridge. They drove off, and I felt so stupid! Later when mum and I came back to the campground they drove past us again and yelled out to me ‘Call us if you find the ranga!’. They must have been having me on. In the morning we spotted some wallabies, and the guys in the tent next to us said that there were kangaroos jumping around the campground all night!

I miss you all!
Fem
xox

Naturally Brewed Mate!

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:54:00 +0000

Mum has a guide book that has heaps of information specifically on the East Coast of Australia, so while in Rockhampton she read up about a small council zoo and botanical gardens so we checked it out. I wasn’t feeling well at all because I had been having bad sleeps because we had thin mattresses and the Aussie soil wasn’t very soft. I haven’t had one sleep here where I have slept through the whole night without waking up at least twice. Before we got to Rockhampton thought, I went for a walk on the beach with mum and Esmee. It won’t stop raining! It sucks for us because we came for the sun, but its good for the Aussies because they are in a severe drought so they are loving the rain at the moment. On my way doing the dishes I felt something on my toe. It was an electric ant! It wasn’t quick enough to bite me though. I flicked it off immediately.

The Rockhampton zoo wasn’t too bad for a council research centre. We saw our first koalas! They were very sleepy. We were the only ones there and one of the rangers was walking a dingo through the park. They has wombats and heaps of different types of birds of all colours. We could hear the chimps from the other end of the zoo (though it wasn’t very big), so went over to check them out. We also saw some wallabies, kanga’s and a python. Even though they are non venomous they are still pretty scary and can kill you if they really want to! After a short walk through the botanical gardens, we left and saw that we had 600km to go until Brisbane. We have been thinking about taking a tour to Fraser Island, but have decided not too because its too expensive. Fraser Island is a beautiful Island just north of Brisbane. It is an island of complete sand and you can only go there with a 4wd. They have beautiful fresh water lakes in the middle which are surrounded by forests. There is no soil, its pretty much sand! Its a beautiful place, mum and dad went there 20 years ago. I would have loved to do it, but most of the 4wd were sold out anyway so the lady at the information shop suggested sky diving to me as an alternative. Uh.. maybe later!

Wallabys

So we hit the road again and ended up in Bundaberg! Yes this is the home town of the famous Bundaberg ginger beer and lemon lime and bitters. I thought of Kieran, Ross’s little brother - I know he likes his ginger beer! Camiel was keen as to visit ‘The Barrel’, where you could do a small tour on the Bundaberg drinks. The tour wasn’t bad. They had a 3d movie and interesting facts about the Bundaberg and how it is naturally brewed and everything. They even had free tasting! I walked out with a ten pack of lemon lime and bitters because it was cheap (Only $10!).

Bunndaaberrrggg!!!

Then we drove down to a beach called Mon Repos Beach, which is famous for sea turtle laying and hatching. You have to book tours to see the sea turtles, but it was booked out until the 1st of January, and we were going to be 300km south by the time January came around... We checked out the beach anyway to see if we could see any sea turtles. They sea turtles come from about November to January to lay their eggs at night. The eggs take about eight weeks to hatch, so from February to May you can watch them hatch. The turtles dig their eggs into the ground, so when they hatch the turtles have to make their way to the surface and then to the sea. Its quite amazing to see, as the turtles are endangered.

We found a turtle!

On our way back from Mon Repos we saw kangaroos in the wild! We also saw (and heard!) many kookaburras! We had dinner at McD, before driving to Maryborough to set up camp in the dark. We were pro campers by now, so the darkness wasn’t a problem!

Hope you are all well!
Fem
xox

Are we There Yet?

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:50:00 +0000

We left Bowen and drove along the coast line at 8am. It was already 32 degrees outside and people were already at the beach swimming. We still haven’t gotten the chance to go in the sea water yet, but the more south we go the less stingers around, so we’ll have to wait until Brisbane or something close to that. The reception at the campground closed just after we got there last night, and was still closed this morning so we just left. We weren’t gonna wait around until it opened because we had to start clearing some serious distance, out first week was gone. So we got a free night at the campground. Sweet!

I was woken up this morning by the lorikeets squealing at each other. There were heaps in the trees above our tents. I had a shower and my hair dried so fast! It usually takes hours to dry back at home, but here it dried in about 15 minutes. We drove back through Bowen and discovered that it is the ‘fruit town’ of Australia, particularly for Mangos. We spotted a big mango statue as we drove through the town. We drove for hours until we got to McKay - which was awfully quiet for a big town. We needed to do some shopping so we headed to the mall, only to find it absolutely deserted. There was nobody around and the whole mall was shut at 10am on a Monday morning. We found out that its a public holiday here in Australia, because boxing day was on a Saturday. We had nothing for dinner so McDonalds was looking hopeful! But then our dreams of McDonalds got shattered as we found a small grocery shop called ‘Spar’ open. Dad bought some food for dinner and we set off again south.

The country side?

On our way to Rockhampton were some cool signs that the city council had put up. When we left McKay it had signs saying ‘How far to go mum?’ ‘How far to go dad?’ ‘Still 3 hours to Rocky kids!’ and as we got closer there were signs saying ‘2 hours to go kids!’. It was funny, someone in the city council obviously had a sense of humor! We stopped in the tiniest town called Clearview for lunch. It was just one street that had a few houses on the beach front. We pulled up into a patch of dirt and trees and ate there. There were heaps of ants and spiders on the soil, and we found a big ant hill.

The ant hill

We turned off just before Rockhampton to stay in a place called Yapoon. We didn’t like the campground there, but it was nice and cool. I think Yapoon is where everyone goes to escape the heat. We drove for another half hour south to an even small town called Emu Park. We stayed at a city council campground, which was full of toads - they were so loud! As it got dark, bats flocked the entire sky. I hate bats, I think they are disgusting creatures! Camiel and I watched them as they would come close to an object and then quickly turn away as they used sound to direct them. I saw my first wild snake! Dad spotted a small black snake slithering through the grass next to the kitchen. Even though it was small, it could still be lethal but It soon quickly slithered away into the forest.

I’m tired now!
Fem
xox

Bowenwood?

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:45:00 +0000

This morning we left early again. So early that we didn’t even have breakfast, we all just jumped in the car. We stopped after about an hour of driving at a deserted town (all the small towns here are so deserted - no body is around!) and had our breakfast. Next to us was two trees which were full of birds and nests. Literally hundreds of nests were scattered throughout the two trees. Most of the birds were black birds, but Esmee spotted a beautiful yellow one. There was a horse behind us in a paddock, so Esmee and I went to say hello and fed it the remains of our carrots. We gave it the name Brownie. Poor horse, having to stand in the heat all day.

The horse we saw

The drive was getting less scenic. Today all we saw was sugar cane farms, banana farms and dry land with a few cows on it. We stopped at a big city called Townsville which had a big aquarium which I wanted to do. It was a replica of the Barrier Reef, and seeing as we had just done it, we decided to wait until the aquarium in Sydney, which is apparently really really cool. We drove down a street called ‘The Strand’ which was along the waterfront until we reached two water/swimming parks. One was a kids one and the other was a big salt walter out door pool, which was nice seeing as you couldn’t actually swim in the ocean because of the stingers. Esmee decided to go to the kids one, so we lay on the grass and watched her for a bit until she got bored and wanted to go to the other one. After the salt water pool, Camiel and I decided it was time for McDonalds. Finally! We drove to McD and got some cheeseburgers, and took the advantage that Australia has 719 McDonalds that have access to free wireless. I plugged in my laptop as It was dead, and went online to post my blog, check my emails and talk to Ross and Shannon for a bit. After fourty five minutes, it was definitely time to leave as dad was getting impatient.

Camiel found his sister school!

It’s a shame that the first kangaroo I saw while in Australia since the last was a dead one. We were driving and came across a dead one on the road. There are dead kangaroos on the road all over Australia, as people accidently drive into them at night. It must be a pretty big bump, because they are reasonably sized animals. We also noticed a big smoke cloud up ahead, which turned out to be a bush fire right next to the road. It’s a shame, the problem of bush fires that they have here in Aus. Families got wiped out during the Melbourne bush fires early this year.

We drove over a bridge that was suppose to have a river flowing underneath it. There was no water. It was just a dry patch of land underneath the bridge. So dry you could walk across the whole thing. Not a single drop of water was beneath the bridge. I found this pretty insane, that the climate could get so hot here that a whole river would dry up during the summer months. I have seen some water signs asking to try and preserve the water as Australia is experiencing a major drought. You could say that alright! We came up to a place called Bowen, which has had an increase of 25000 tourists since the making of the film ‘Australia’. Why? Because Bowen is the place where the cast and crew stayed while filming. Some of the movie is filmed here in Bowen, and casts would travel a few hours in land to shoot the more desert scenes. The even have a ‘Bowenwood’ sign up on the hills, replicating ‘Hollywood’. Its a small town though, nothing interesting. No shopping mall. Only a Subway and Eagle Boys. There isn’t much to do here. It was coming close to 5.30, so we had to set up camp. We found a camp ground that accepted tenting (most here don’t) which is called Horseshoe Bay Resort. It was dry - thankfully, so we had no problem setting up our tents.

Esmee on the beach

I took Esmee to the pool (she can never get enough of the water!), and we spotted some colourful lorikeets in the trees. You know the ones you can buy at the pet shop which are rainbow coloured? We had 2 minute noodles for dinner as there wasn’t really a kitchen, and then climbed into our tents. Its 550 km to Rockhampton, which is our next big destination. We’ll see how far we get tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Brittany!!!! :)
Fem
xox

Waterfalls

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 11:40:00 +0000

When we woke up it was still raining. We quickly packed up and left Cape Tribulation at about 8am after seeing some more lizards and turkeys. We drove back through the rainforest and caught the ferry back over the Daintree river before stopping at a look out over the ocean. We grabbed some snacks from the back of the car, then carried on towards civilisation! We stopped at a small town in the middle of the forest called Mossman, and checked out the crocodile tours. The town was deserted and the tours weren’t that appealing so we kept driving. We next stopped at a mall closer to Cairns and stocked up on groceries. We also went to KMart to buy pots and pans for our cooking as we realised that not all places supplied these. Bunnings was across the road, but teased us by pretending to go to McDonalds - still haven’t been yet, I’m craving a cheeseburger! Dad went into Bunnings to buy a chair, while Camiel and I went to the sausage sizzle to get some lunch. We had a good chat to the Aussie blokes at the sausage sizzle, and paid $2 for a sausage! Expensive!

Bunnings! (for Ross)

The weather was sunny in Cairns, and as we were driving through the city some idiot ran a red light and dad had to slam on the breaks as he zoomed right infront of us, inches away. It was so freaky. People were slamming on their breaks and tooting their horns and the idiot just zoomed right through the red light at at least 80 km/ph. After this, we drove south of Cairns and took a detour route to see some waterfalls. The rain decided to come back, so what was supposed to be a nice scenic drive turned into a foggy wet drive.

Nevertheless, our crazy family still decided to go and visit the waterfalls. We parked up at the parking lots, I put on my bikini and saved my dry clothes for when I came back, put my camera in a plastic bag, and we all counted down from three and opened the doors, shut them, and ran down the bush track to the waterfalls. The tracks would only be two minute walks, but we still ran for our life because it was now only 20 degrees and we were getting soaked. Once at the waterfall mum and I would pull out our cameras and try to protect them from the rain and snap our photos. The falls were huge long skinny ones which would pelt down into a swimming hole. There was even one crazy family who decided to go and have a swim in the swimming hole. They were only in there for about 30 seconds until they realised they were crazy to do this in the cold and the rain haha.

Waterfalls

After the waterfalls we headed down to Innisfail to a public campground in Etty Bay. There were heaps of tea farms on the drive south. Etty bay is the only place known where the Cassowary’s come so close to the humans. We spotted a Cassowary and stopped to take photos as we thought this was a once in a lifetime thing to actually see one. We continued on to the campground only to be greeted by 4 Cassowary’s roaming around the campground coming right up close to you. There were adults and babies, and Esmee decided to pretend that she was a baby Cassowary and tried to make friends with them. There was no kitchen at the campground, so we had ‘lunch’ for dinner. This means we had bread rolls with cheese and lettuce. They had a stinger safe area on the beach which had a net around one section of the beach which was safe for swimming in, but it was dark by now. Esmee and I thought we saw a kookaburra on top of a power line, but it was too small to be one. Walking through the campground, Esmee and I spotted 7 frogs that jumped around the grass. They can jump pretty fast! Time to rest up for another day of driving tomorrow.

Cassowary!
 
Peace
Fem
xox

The Wet Tropics

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 04:05:00 +0000

I am writing this in the world’s oldest rainforest. Three million years older than the Amazon. However here is where the rainforest meets the reef. Two minutes away is the golden beach, however you can’t swim in it for two good reasons. Crocodiles and box jellyfish. It’s a shame really, because its 35 degrees outside and the water looks so inviting. Crystal clear and warm. There are no crocodiles in the bay where we are tenting, which is called Cape Tribulation, but in the bay next to us is apparently a 3 metre crocodile. Waiting. Cape Tribulation is the place where James Cook came on land in Australia for the first time. You have to catch a 2 minute ferry across the Daintree river to our camp ground because of the crocodiles. There are warning signs everywhere along the beaches and bottles of vinegar just in case you get stung. The box jellyfish are deadly, and their tentacles are invisible in the water, so it’s best to keep out! Esmee and I dipped our feet in the water though. You can see the swampy mangroves off to the left and right of the bays, which is where the crocodiles like to live. Mum and I were brave enough to check them out and snap a few photos. Didn’t see any crocodiles though!

Us at the beach!

We took some short walks through the rainforest to see the wildlife. Its so tropical and exotic in the forest. There are thin tall trees with fan shaped fern leaves, and spaghetti vines twirling themselves around them. We saw some turkey’s, which we wanted to catch for Christmas lunch (just kidding!), and also we think it was a small boar pig type thing. Heaps of lizards. We’ve seen small skink like ones, and I even spotted a huge yellow spotted 1.5 metre lizard crawling through the edge of the forest in the campground. The butterflies here are beautiful. Bright orange and blue, reflecting in the sun light. The cicadas are very very noisy! It’s amazing because they all suddenly stop at the same time, and start again at 6am. Its like your morning alarm; that’s how loud it is!

Our tents

There is no air conditioning or power at the camp ground, except for a fridge; so its very hot here in the shade and out of the shade. In the shade is 28 degrees, so imagine how hot it is in the sun. We pitched up our two tents without the outer cover on it because its too hot. You can see right into our tents, and when you lie down, its like you are sleeping outside. Looking up you can’t see the sky because all of the trees are in the way, but you can see the leaves on the trees, and hear small animals lurking through the forest 2 metres away. Mum read that there are python snakes here; but I haven’t seen any snakes, yet. Last night when Esmee and I were going to brush our teeth, we saw a giant frog sitting next to the fence. It didn’t move as we came closer, but eventually jumped away. I have never seen such a huge frog! It was bigger than my fist.

Christmas morning Sunrise

Esmee, Camiel and I were so hot, so we asked mum and dad to drive us down to the swimming hole (which had no crocs in it). The swimming hole was a big pool of fresh water in the rain forest. There was a swing, and most of it was covered by the canopy, so it was really refreshing. We saw heaps of fish in there, some of them huge! You can do sea kayaking here, but I wouldn’t even dare too, just incase of a croc jumping at you! The mosquitoes here drive us nuts. There are hundreds, and even with insect repellent, they still decide to come and attack you.

The swimming hole

We drove up to a look out which looked over the sea. There were two small islands close to shore. This bay was where Steve Irwin got stung by a sting ray and unfortunately died. He was taken to one of the small islands, but they could not save him. It makes me wonder why he didn’t wear a stinger suit. You can hire stinger suits for $10 a day which protect you from the jellyfish and stingrays. It was kinda freaky and surreal that I was looking out into the exact water where Steve Irwin died. Definitely not a good place to swim.

Here we are also just north of the Tropic of Capricorn. I had to get dad to explain to me what this actually is. Basically, at 12pm the sun will be directly over head of you, minimising the shadows, and making it extremely hot. If I look up to the sky, the sun is directly on top of me, rather than in Wellington where It will be off to the side a bit. If we drove north for a few hours, we would reach the tip of Australia, where we would then be able to see Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, which would be even hotter than it is here because they are closer to the equator.

This morning we went and watched the sunrise on the beach. It was a really nice start to Christmas morning as there was the bright colour of orange reflecting through the forest. This rainforest is home to the native Cassowary bird. They are big birds the size of emus and are endangered as there is only 1500 left. There are warning signs about how to act if you come across one, as they are very defensive birds and will run after you and attack you by jumping up and using its long legs and claws to attack. We didn’t see one. Towards the evening the clouds started to look a bit dodgy, and seeing as we didn’t have the tops of the tents on, we would get soaked if it rained because here in the rainforest when it rains, it rains cats and dogs. To be on the safe side we put the tops of the tents on and half an hour later it started hosing down! We were just in time!

Camiel and I set up my laptop in the tent and started watching James Bond, but fell asleep after half an hour. It was too hot to watch and we were tired from all of the days walks. Tomorrow we will start heading south - don’t know where to yet!

Merry Christmas!
Fem
xox

A whole new world

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:37:00 +0000

If you aren’t one of those people that have a life time goal of visiting all of the 7 natural wonders of the world, I suggest you become one. In my short life I have already been to two of them; The Grand Canyon, and now the Great Barrier Reef. Both were spectacular.

We booked our Reef trip with ‘Sunlover Cruises’, and were one of the first out of 200 people to arrive. I wore my new board shorts that I bought from Myer last night, with a bikini top. Dad wore long board shorts instead of speedos, thankfully! We put on our caps, sunnies and loaded up with sunblock before boarding the boat. We made our way to the top level where it was nice and cool inside. In Wellington you would go inside to feel the warmth, here you go outside! Its much colder inside here than it is outside. The weather was looking good, and the crew said it was a really good day for the Reef. The boat ride was an hour and a half out to the reef which was 40km from shore. Esmee was pretty tired already so she nodded off to sleep and stoked up on energy for the rest of the day.

Camiel and I on the boat

They had a pantoon out in the water, which was like a big docking station that had tables, chairs and all of the equipment needed. We instantly got ready to snorkle and jumped in the water. Once under, its a whole new world. We swam out and saw so many species of fish and coral. It was beautiful. There were hundreds of colours and the fish would swim so close to you! We couldn’t touch the coral, but seeing it was enough. There were thousands of fish at the edge of the reefs, which would get to depths of about 20 metres. Esmee real enjoyed it until she started getting salt in her eyes. There were little tiny jellyfish that would sting, but they were only small stings, like little pricks which were a little irritating for a while. We kicked around and spotted fish like Nemo, Dorie and stripy black and white ones. Mum and I really wanted to see a sea turtle, but couldn’t find one. It was truely amazing. After an hour we kicked back to the boat and had a buffet style lunch which had heaps of fruit! I ate lots of rock-melon, and thought of Ross and all of the fruit he needs to be eating now he’s on a high fiber diet. Eh Ross?

Geared up and ready to go!

They had small tours going every half hour or so so we jumped on some after lunch. The first one we went on was called the Bottom Glass Boat, which was a boat with glass at the bottom so you could see all of the coral. There are 400 different species of coral in the Barrier Reef, and 1500 different species of fish. The tour was about 15 minutes long, and it was really amazing to see the fish from birds eye view. After this we crammed onto the Submarine. It was a boat that had a bit under the water with windows all around it, so you could look out into the reef. In this we saw tiny jellyfish and big fish about half a metre long. There were rainbow coloured ones, bright blue ones, and even ones that looked like they were glowing. We then decided to get back in there and do some more snorkeling, but it wasn’t long until Esmee got attacked by stings so I took her back to shore to sit with dad. They also had a helicopter tour there, where you could see the Reef from the sky.

The Bottom Glass Boat

I’m lost for words on what to say about the Reef. I could try and write it down, but there’s no point; you have to experience it for yourself. It was amazing, and nothing compared to Rarotonga where I previously snorkled. The water here was so nice and warm, and crystal clear too.

The boat trip home was nice and cruisey and Esmee, Camiel and I sat outside majority of the time. We came home tired after a long day. The reef was so amazing - I wish I could go and do it again tomorrow!

Bye bye

Fem
xox

Shop till you drop!

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:06:00 +0000

I woke up early this morning in my bunk. Camiel shot-gunned the bottom bunk, so I was at the top. It was very hot up there, even with the air con and fan going. I slept with no blanket at all, and in shorts and singlet. Once everyone was up and had breakfast (free breakfast at the motel until 9am! Sweet!), we jumped in the car and headed off to the Cairns mall.

Us kids at the mall

The mall was big compared to the size of our malls, and was just opening when we arrived at 9am. Although there was only 2 floors, it was still big. The food court consisted of McDonalds and a lot of chinese. There were also lots of bakery’s inside and a juice bar called ‘Boost’ - which Camiel claims do the best slushies and smoothies. They had a lot of the same stores that we do; Cotton on, Diva, Equip, Supre, Yd... but a lot of new ones as well. We bought Esmee some pink flip flops and a skirt, and Camiel some singlets from Cotton On. The first thing I bought was sunnies :) . I needed them! It was so blinding outside, not to mention the colour of my legs... haha. We finally reached the shop that mum and I were so eager to see. Target. I heard that there is one coming in Porirua sort of besides Bunnings? Anyway, this was exciting! I love Target, so we had a look around for things like towels and water coolers, as we needed these if we were going to tent. We didn’t have much luck, but I enjoyed the short experience anyway.

Target!

After the mall we hit an outlet mall which was about 2 or 3 times the size of Dressmart in Tawa. We saw the HUGEST ants I have ever seen in my life on someones car. They were still there when we came back half an hour later. Smiggle was there, along with Jay Jay’s and Just Jeans. The prices of the clothes here are roughly the same, which sucks! I was hoping it would be a bit cheaper so that I have a good excuse to buy heaps of new clothes. So after a bit of clothe and cutlery shopping here and there, we decided to go and hunt for our essentials; a tent, sleeping bags etc. So we hit off to the camping stores. We kept going up and down from one store to the other, comparing prices and trying to find the cheapest and most affordable. A couple of hours later we had two identical tents, 4 mattresses and blankets and pillows for almost everybody.

The ants that we saw!

Lunch had passed by now, and we headed back to the motel as everybody was tired and grumpy from the up and down shopping. From the size of the shopping malls and outlets here, I could shop forever! So Esmee and I jumped in the pool when we got back to the motel to refresh ourselves, and our now chilling in our room while mum and dad are out doing the groceries. Tomorrow we are doing the Great Barrier Reef! I am so excited for it. We are taking a boat cruise out and then snorkeling. Still haven’t hit the beach yet, but that is definitely on my to-do list!

See ya later!
Fem
xox

The Longest day of the Year

noreply@blogger.com (Femke van Schoonhoven) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 08:46:00 +0000

I’m sitting outside in the cool summer air in Cairns, Queensland Australia. Its still stinking hot, but comforting. Its been a really long day...

We got up at 4.15am to leave the house at 4.45am. Of course, our family takes forever to leave the house so it wasn’t until 5 when we left. Esmee and I went straight inside the Wellington airport to beat the chilly wellington wind, only to be greeted by “BRISBANE.....DELAYED UNTIL 7.40AM” Great, now we had an extra half hour to kill. You gotta love waiting at the departure lounge, where all you can do is study everything about the stranger sitting opposite you. After eating a bread roll to cure my starvation being annoyed at the fact that my sister’s had cheese in it, we boarded.

Pacific Blue then decided to greet us with a ‘Due to the delay of this aircraft, there will be no catering on board.’ My stomach rumbled. We went and bought some water to keep us hydrated, but our hunger would have to wait for another 4 hours until we landed in Brisbane. We boarded the aircraft and squeezed our way to the back as our seats were in the last row. As I passed a crew member he said ‘Sorry, there’s a lady sitting back there who is not very well, we will move her soon.’ Great. A lady from Switzerland with minimal english sitting in my seat feeling queazy. Somehow, they got her back to her seat for take off, and I sat next to Esmee with Camiel at the window. No Ross. There was no cute guy :) . I read my last months edition of Cosmo, which entertained me for a good hour then just killed time by watching my siblings. They had The Simpsons playing though, which was good.

We landed in Brisbane and realised we had a short hour to catch our flight to Cairns thanks to the delay of our first flight. We collected our luggage, went through customs, then got lost. Then we went to the domestic transfers, where the kind Aussie lady informed us we had to catch a bus because we were at the international airport and needed to be at the domestic airpot. ‘The bus comes every 10 minutes.’

So we waited outside for 10 minutes. Then frantically jumped on the bus first as we realised we had about 15 minutes until our flight actually took off. We didn’t make it. We were trying to go through customs not realising that we had our cabin luggage. So we got caught up on all sorts of things. ‘M’am there are scissors, pocket knives... you cannot bring these with you on board.’ So we then rushed to check in to put our luggage on the plane. It was so embarrassing. Rushing around the airport. Literally running while carrying our huge bags as our flight took of in 3 minutes. So we got connected to the next flight, which left at a 11.30am. We had an hour and a half to wait, which I was quite greatful for as it meant I could finally fill my stomach! I noticed an Eagle Boys in the food court, and also Red Rooster, which looked exactly like KFC. The prices are horrendous here thought. $8 for a cheeseburger, $10 for a combo.

Back to the departure lounge. Our flight was in about 20 minutes, but our plane hadn’t even arrived yet. Once it hit 11.30, we realised that there was no way we were going to be on time. We left at 12.30. An hour later. It’s so ironic that the 21st of December is the longest day of the year, and all the flights were late. Oh well, at least mum gets to celebrate her birthday for an extra 3 hours. Doesn’t make her any younger though!

I slept on some of the flight to Cairns. I was exhausted by this point from running around with luggage and waiting for late flights. It was the most...scenic flight I have been on. Looking down you see small tropical islands with golden sand and the sea was mixed with different shade of blue and green, creating a turquoise pacific look. The Great Barrier Reef certainly looks amazing from birds eye view. I can’t wait to actually swim in it!

The word ‘Beauty’ or ‘Beautiful’ is probably the most common word I have heard all day. Add an Aussie accent to it and thats pretty much their most commonly used word haha. I’m already picking up on the Aussie accent a little, which is bad. Sorry Ross. Well the car was a disaster. We had hired and organised this car which had beds and a fridge and everything in it for us! Until we realised we were short one seatbelt. 100 phone calls and 2 hours later, we had a car. Then we had to find a place to stay. Then we had to eat. Subway it was. By the time we actually got to our room, after all the travelling, it had been 14 hours since we left home.

All our luggage

It’s been a really long day, but lots of fun! Cairns is quiet and reminds me of Rotorua. Although I haven’t been shopping yet, that is still to come! Hmm, I see a Mac shop across the road. I just might have a look...

Until next time!

Fem
xox

ps. Happy Birthday Mum! :)