School Days

Today is a very special day. Our baby angel Naomi, at the age of 5 years and 8 months old, is now finally and officially a big school girl! We were humming and haa-ing about whether to send her straight away or to wait until we had decided where we are going to live first, as in New Zealand you don't legally have to be enrolled in school until you are six years old, but last week, she was sad and miserable without Benny and completely bored in our company, so we decided to bite the bullet, we borrowed a uniform, and enrolled her into the education system!

On Saturday we had an exciting day, buying new shoes, new lunchboxes, new school bags and even special new socks, for the big day.













She was so excited last night as we got everything ready (I even found a coordinating red flower hairclip, did you notice? I was very proud of that little touch;) and could not wait to get dressed this morning. How adorable does she look?

If she takes after her brother the jumper will be left at school and the rest of the uniform will be trampled in a heap on the bedroom floor tonight, but hey, at least the first day was nice and organised.

She did know one little girl in the class (I am sure she will get to know the other six (!) members of the class during the course of the day) and was very confident and happy this morning, so I left after half an hour, to rush off and do....errrr.......all those very important things that a stay at home mum of two children who are no longer at home, does. Actually, I do have eight back issues of NZ House & Garden magazines to read, so that's an idea for a start;)

Oh well, I am sure I will keep myself busy with blogging and cleaning and cooking hearty meals for the family (ok, maybe not so much of that last bit). Oh, and I have to find somewhere for us all to live now too. That should keep me busy for a while....

Well done Naomi, my little strong beautiful and brave five year old. You are a wonderful angel and we are so very proud of you.

Love
Est xxx

Kuranda

Sorry I have been offline for a few days. We arrived back in NZ on Monday and since then we have been very busy, going into our storage facility to pick up school uniforms for Benny and suits for Alex, starting Benny back at school, collecting our cars, and our mail (!), and catching up with everyone in Christchurch.




Naomi found her all important hair bands, necklaces and bracelets in storage, and as you can see, decided it was imperative to wear them all at once.




But more holiday stuff first. Our next day out was in Kuranda in the Atherton Tablelands (yes, I thought that was a funny name for a place too;). You sail up the Skyrail cable car over the rainforest to get to Kuranda, stopping for a couple little bush walks on the way. Naomi and Benny loved it.












Over the Barron Falls.




We wandered around the quaint forest village of Kuranda, and enjoyed the shopping, but life is not all about shopping Esther, so we took in the Kuranda Butterfy Sanctuary too.

Look at this little guy, he thought he had found his mum!




This lady was lucky enough to have the Ulysses Butterfly, also known as the Blue Mountain Butterfly, land on her and stay there for about ten minutes whilst she walked around the sanctuary, her boobs were photographed by everybody (at least I have protected her identity by editing her head off)!




They like white, so I got one on me too!








Almost a 'hatrick' for Naomi!












Then you take the scenic railway back again. The railway was completed in 1891, by thousands of workers risking their lives, some losing theirs, building tunnels by hand and making level platforms on 45 degree hills, for 85c a day.




When Stoney Creek bridge was opened in 1890, there was a ceremony on the bridge, which was attended by the Governor of Queensland. A full banquet was held on top of the bridge with tables, food and wine dizzily suspended metres over the gorge. History tells that there were no speeches that day as the roar from the waterfalls was too loud for anyone to hear - oh dear, nice idea though!












Love
Est xxx

Freebie Frenzy

We have found the Australian people to be a very generous lot indeed. Here is a list of things we have managed to accumulate on our Aussie tour, and we did not have to pay a cent for any of them!

Boogie boards from Britz (now passed on to other happy holidaymakers).




And the Britz lizards of course.




Kangaroo key rings/bottle openers from Lake Durass campsite, notice that the Australian map is on the inside too, very cool.




A free cricket bat from Bunnings Warehouse in Sydney, signed by cricket legend Glenn McGraigh (don't worry, we hadn't heard of him either)!




A picturesque Rotary calendar from the lovely ladies at the National Park in my favourite place, Maleny.




Naomi and Benny (set amongst a soft mountain of koalas) with a rubber band ball, made by a very hard working staff member in the Blue Mountains - he probably had to hide the evidence from his boss that that was what he had been doing the whole morning!




A clog! Yes, just the one. We went to watch a clog making demonstration in Coffs Harbour and the man always gives the clog to the people who have travelled the furthest (felt a bit bad really, as there was only one other lady there)!




And finally a loaf of yesterday's Bushman's white loaf, with two slices already removed, given to us by a kindly shopkeeper near MacKay.




What a score!

No wonder our bags are full with all that loot!

Love
Est xxx

You know you're in Australia when...

I woke up this morning and strangely I couldn't remember where I was for a moment, but then I looked around for the clues, and I soon worked it out...

1. You have been driving for two and a half weeks on the same road. And it's called the Bruce Highway.

2. You fill up with petrol at the local dairy.




3. You need measurements on the side of the road to know how much rain has fallen (I say, if you can't see the road, or the fields, or your car, best just stay in).




4. There is more wildlife in the wild than in the zoo. Yes, it's a moth, the Hercules Moth, from Northern Queensland, the largest in the world. Alex had finished his shower before he even noticed it!




5. The VW camper vans are everywhere!




6. There are kangaroo, koala and wombat signs on every highway, and even some for animals that you don't recognize or actually believe exist...
Apparently it's a Cassawary, still haven't seen it, so not convinced.




7. Picking up hitchhikers is all part of the experience.




8. It's so ridiculously hot that even your car needs shades.




9. The spiders are pretty ginormous, well this female Golden Orb spider is anyway. The male is the tiny little dot on the right, he is normal sized - she just gobbles him up when they have finished mating.





10. And of course, where else in the world would they celebrate the Silver Wedding Anniversary of these two teenage sweethearts? Where are they now I wonder?



Love
Est xxx

P.S. Wasn't she gorgeous? Well I thought so, when I was 12.

Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea

On our way to Cairns, for our Great Barrier Reef experience, we stopped for a short break at the historic Cardwell Post Office and Bush Telegraph Station. I thought it might be interesting for the children to learn about how people used to communicate before Skype and e-mail, Facebook and blogging (and I have kind of forgotten myself).

Whilst they were wondering around with Alex and reading about these strange highly improbable methods of getting your message across, I was outside on the deck, doing it the original and my personal favourite way, chatting to the volunteers. They told me about Cyclone Yasi and the devastation it caused to their small community early last year. Many people have had to move away as the prawn farms were damaged and closed and jobs were lost, and some people are only just moving back into their repaired homes now, after fourteen months. Sadly, it all sounded a bit familiar.




The people have not forgotten the cyclone which damaged not only homes, nerves and the economy, but also the native flora and fauna. Before the cyclone you could not see the sea from this stretch of road, but all the trees were ripped from their roots, parts of the road came up too.




There is even a cafe in Cardwell called Yasi Cafe - but I'm not sure I can imagine anyone opening a 'Bar 6.3' in the newly rebuilt Christchurch!

Naomi had a lovely time drawing her dream house in the sand...




...and Benny as usual, was up to his Man vs Wild survival antics.




Next, on to Tully, officially the wettest place in Australia. In 1950, Tully had a total of 7.9 meters of rain, and this claim to fame has been remembered and recorded in the form of a climb-able model Gumboot, complete with local green tree frog (frog is not to scale - I hope). We put $2 in the box as a donation to climb up. Benny said, 'I don't think that $2 was very good value for that view', so we climbed up again to get our money's worth.










Then finally to Cairns for our reef encounter. We joined an organized day tour which took us an hour and a half out to the Reef, onto a specially designed pontoon, where you could swim, snorkel, dive and even walk down with specially designed underwater helmets on!




More stinger suits, complete with hoods and mittens and flippers this time, Benny 'Frogman' Skinner was taking no chances!




We saw some amazing and beautifully coloured fish, swimming so close to us and around us, just going about their business, feeding on the coral, chatting, going shopping, eating each other etc, seeming completely unperturbed by the lycra clad invaders bobbing and flipping all around them. Naomi loved it, I can't believe that her first snorkelling experience was on the Great Barrier Reef. I must admit I was a little disappointed with the coral though, I think all the picture postcards have been digitally enhanced, or they were taken in 1978, before hundreds of people started accidentally standing on it every day.




It was pretty busy, the sea was alive with the sound of pink and green flippers.




We took a few photos with our cheapy Kodak underwater camera. We haven't had the film developed yet, so in the interests of convenience, I have found some lovely online images to show you and I am pretty confident this is what our photos will turn out like;)













And lastly, Naomi and I got up close with 'Wally', the local friendly 'Fishius Massivus' (okay, I can't remember his real name) who even poses for the camera!








Great Barrier Reef, tick! Amazing!

Love
Est xxx