Sisterly Love

Sunny vs. Snowing

WE ALL LOVE BIRDS!!!

Lotte's Bday

Today we celebrated Lotte's birthday with time at the beach in Byron's bay. We did a lot of body surfing, Kat did boogie boarding, and Brent finally got his chance to surf. It was great followed by a cake/muffin and singing at supper.

Kangaroooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Watch out for Lotte with a whip....Brenna and Sarah too. We had a BBQ lunch and they taught us how to crack a whip, throw a boomerang, and use a bull roar (Aboriginal telephone) as part of our all day Surfers Paradise optional along with a koala sitting and walks in the rainforest, hike to a waterfall, and a canopy walk.



We love kangaroo's. We were lucky to come across this "mob" of roo's.

Frasier Island

Surfers Paradise beach.... It was cold and beautiful but did not stop people from jumping in.
Frasier Island Rainforest Walk
Morning hike at Frasier Island with our ferry in the background. Below: Drinking from a creek off the ocean....it was orange but according to our guide it was fresh water...at least no one got sick that drank from it!

Sorry we would love to post more videos but it seems to take an extremely long time for them to upload and internet is slow and expensive here. We will try to upload more later and some photos now.

Our hotel in Twin Waters, Australia also the home to our first kangaroo siting from our own balcony.....it was pretty exciting!!

5:30 a.m. walk to the beach on Sunday morning and since it was cloudy and we couldn't see the sunrise I guess the next best thing was to get in with all of their clothes on!
Apparently when these are in the bushes in front of your hotel you are not supposed to try and catch them Lotte, Mr. Ellis, and Alicia...
Lotte loves her fruit....record to date I believe is 16 kiwi in one setting (in NZ home of the Kiwi people).

Thermal Village

This was at the thermal village in Rotorua, NZ that 25 Maori families live in. They have a lot of these pools throughout the city. This is a village where the earths crust is the thinnest.
In the middle you may see a yellowish bag in the pool. They were cooking corn for a meal. All of the food for our evening banquet was prepared in a thermal oven. In the hottest pool the water was actually bubbling the said you could cook a chicken in 3-5 minutes.....Lucy, Calie, and Brenna enjoyed standing by and getting a stem facial (especially Lucy as she was really plugged up :)).

More of the duck tour

Duck Tour

For those of you that don't know what a Duck Tour is (no we did not go watch ducks as many of us thought....), it is a vehicle from WWII that can drive on land as well as in the water used to transport supplies out to the ships. It was pretty cool as we drove around town but also around in 2 lakes as well and we got to be obnoxious with duck quacks.

1ST Morning Tea

Morning Tea is very important here in NZ and several in our group have also decided it would be a great addition to the school day as well.

Greetings from Fraser Island!

Goodday!

Well, we have arrived at Fraser Island, AU.  We are discovering many things.  Among them:  kangaroos (we have seen many of them), the fact that Brenna gets motion sick, resorts are amazing, Australians simplify words by adding a "y" after the first syllable (for example:  "brekky" = breakfast), and the east coast of Australia is quite lush!

We are currently at the Kingfisher Bay Resort.  We arrived earlier today by ferry.  Due to weather and timing, we haven't been able to explore much, but we are hoping to venture out more tomorrow.  Several of the kids are taking a 4 wheel drive tour of the island tomorrow and the rest of us plan to get some hiking in.  The resort is lush--very ecofriendly and amazlingly beautiful.  The vegetation is very rainforesty and there are numerous signs posted throughout warning people to stay away from the dingoes--don't try to pet them or feed them!  We're told that neither kangaroos or koalas live on the island, much to our disappointment.  However, there are MANY birds...Mr. Ellis is in heaven!

I hope to update more later.  We've been disappointed at the lack of affordable Internet options :(  The kids are doing great and I am really grateful to have this experience with them.

NZ airport

Long flight but excited to be in NZ.

Brenna sick on plane to NZ

NZ Arrival

Girls Maori dance

Friday (Here) March 25th

We are on our way back to Auckland. We are in Bombay, NZ using McDonalds free WiFi...who knew we would need to come here in NZ for internet as it is not free anywhere else!! Just have to say to you parents that your kids are awesome and it is SO FUN to be on a trip with them. Thank you for giving us the blessing of this time with them. We will work on getting some videos loaded so that you can see some of the fun we have been having!
Mrs. Ellis

And we're off! Almost!

It's Sunday, March 20th, and I'm certain that I am not alone in feeling anxious, excited, and a bit exhausted as I prepare to leave tomorrow.  This blog is meant to be a means of communication for parents and students as we explore.  Enjoy!