Plane/Alice Springs/Cairns

Our plane was delayed leaving the airport. This airplane trip was different than others. Instead of walking through the jet way to the plane, we walked down onto the tarmac to a bus, which drove us to our plane. Then we got off the bus, and walked up the stairs onto the airplane from the tarmac.

The plane flight was short then we landed in Alice Springs, Alice Springs had a tiny airport, there were only two planes. The one we landed in, and the one we were transferring to. We got off the plane walked around, and got onto the other plane. All the planes we got on and off we used the little stairs that lead to the tarmac, because we too tiny planes that couldn’t connect to the jet way.

When we landed in Cairns it was dark, but it was also hot and humid.  We got settled into our hotel, than we walked down onto the beach. There was a sign that said there might be crocodiles, and jellyfish in the water.

We walked along the beach and back.

Perth

Today we piled in the car and drove out to the beach. We walked around the beach and took pictures.

 

Then we got into the car again, to drive elsewhere, and it started raining. The rain didn’t end our little drive. We drove to another beach walked around and took photos. Sadly my iPod died so I didn’t capture any photos of this beach. We had lunch, and ice cream, and then we drove home.

Around 5:00 all the cousins (Carl, Jordan, Alicia, Bella, Maddie, Charlotte, and their parents) came over for dinner. We went and said good bye to our other great aunt and uncle, Hanadi, and Khalil. Then we came back and hung out with the cousins some more.

It was a nice and calm day for our last day in Perth.           

Perth

Today we woke up really early, so we could catch a ferry to Rottnest Island. On our way we stopped at Belmont so I could get a purse. It was very cold, and I wanted hot chocolate. On the ferry, I played on my iPod, sort of slept, and looked out the window. Mom showed us a picture of a quokka in the brochure. A quokka is like a tiny kangaroo, and only lives on Rottnest Island.

When we reached the island, it had kind of warmed up. We walked to a Dome (coffee shop) and had our hot chocolate. When we left the coffee shop, we saw our first quokka sitting right outside the door.

When then got bikes, and biked around. We stopped at a beach, and took some photos.

Then we rode some more. We came to another stop, at a pretty beach, with cool rocks. Jasmin and I walked in the water, it was very warm. Lukas and Ben climbed around on rocks, and slid down a sandy hill. We rode for a little more, it got hotter.

We rode up a big hill, to a lighthouse, just to ride back down again, because we had to pay $20.00 just to go in the light house. By then it was lunch time so we had to ride back. On the ride back, we rode past some saltwater lakes that came up right to the rode, so you had to be careful not to fall in.     

 

By the time we got back to where we started we had lunch because it was around 2:00. After lunch we returned the bikes, and Lukas, Ben, and I Played on a rope structure and counted quokkas.

After we left Rottnest island, we had spotted 35-40 quokkas. It was a fun day.  

Perth

This morning both of our second cousins living in Perth, came over for breakfast. We had a huge, yummy breakfast.

For lunch, we went over to our other great aunt and uncle’s and we had a huge, yummy lunch. Then we went for a walk, with Hanadi and Khalil. After the walk, we played at the park. Then we went home and relaxed.

About an hour of relaxing we went to Maddie, Bella, and Charlotte’s except Charlotte wasn’t there for most of the time. We watched The Sandlot and The Sandlot 2. We were going to watch The Sandlot 3, but we ran out of time.

After dinner Mom and Dad went out to go find Wi-Fi with Jordan, Carl, and Alicia’s dad. So Jordan, Alicia, and Carl, came over to where we were staying. Jasmin and I entertained Jordan. While the boys, and the others did whatever.

Then Carl, Alicia, and Jordan left, then we went to bed, then that ended the day.        

Perth

Today we went to Jordan, Carl, and Alicia’s house. I held one of their guinea pigs, and it bit me! Then we went out for lunch, we met Maddie, Bella, and Charlotte there. The place where we went out for lunch was really cool, because it was supposed to be like a secret garden. We ate outside, with intertwined branches over our heads. There weren’t any crazy animals, just a few yellow birds in a cage. There was also a bird that talked that was of the same species as one of the birds we saw at the sanctuary. We tried to teach him how to say ‘hello’ but he wasn’t good at speaking, as the other ones.

After lunch, we drove to Swan Valley. There were a lot of wineries there, which was wear all the grownups were headed.

First, we stopped at a chocolate factory. You could take a little spoonful of white, dark, and milk chocolate to try. All the kids got ice cream, and watched a guy make chocolate. Then we played soccer/football outside with a random ball we found.

Next, we went to a winery; we played hide and seek tag, because we weren’t allowed wine.

Then, they went to brewery. There were a lot of trees there. So we went around trying to climb trees. We got in trouble for climbing the trees, so we played chasies, or orb tag. Chasies, or orb tag is when you get tagged, or you tag some they/you become it, with the person who tagged them.       

Finally, we went to one last winery, and played normal tag for about 20 minutes.

After the trip in swan valley, we all went to Jordan, Alicia, and Carl’s house. Bella, Jordan, and I played on Jordan’s computer. Mostly everyone else was downstairs watching transformers. We had Chinese food for dinner, and then we watched transformers ‘till we had to go.  

Perth

Today, we went and walked to our other great aunt and great uncle’s house. We also met Hanadi, and Khalil. We had tea cake at their house. Then we drove to a Westfield with Hanadi, Khalil, and their mom (one of our great aunts). I got jeans, and a pretty T-shirt. We also had lunch, at the food court.

Later, Bella, Maddie, and Charlotte came over, and we went to a pizza place, and met Jordan, Carl, and Alicia there.

After pizza, we went to a cinema and saw Ice Age 4, Continental Drift, it was really funny.

Perth

We went to Belmont, a shopping center, and looked around.

Then we drove down to the beach again. We had a little picnic. The water was very clear and beautiful.

Then we walked across a bridge. On the other side of the bridge there were a lot of stores, and restaurants. On the other side of the stores and restaurants, there was a walkway, which led to AQWA an aquarium. 

In AQWA, there were tons of moon jellies. There were poisonous sea jellies as well. They had clownfish, and whatever fish Dory is. There were also great nurse sharks, huge stingrays, and green sea turtles like Crush.

Later that evening, Jasmin, our great aunt, and I went back to Belmont to look around. We picked out a few stores we would like to come back to, but didn’t get anything.   

Perth

Today we went to the koala sanctuary. I was over excited. When we pulled up at the koala sanctuary there were a lot of peafowl walking around. It wasn’t just a koala sanctuary, but an exotic Australian animal sanctuary. There were peafowl, talking cockatoos, echidnas, bob-tailed lizards, emus, kookaburras, owls, dingoes, kangaroos, wallabies, deer, ostriches, pelicans, swans, and koalas!!!!!

The best part of going to the koala sanctuary was that we got to hold koalas. They were much heavier than I expected.

Plane/Sydney/Perth

I had woken up from an about 4 hour sleep. I was still tired. It was still dark outside; I had no idea, what time it was where the plane was. It was around 6:00 am in LA, and around 11:00 pm in Sydney. I played Bejewelled deluxe 2 for about half an hour, and then I fell back asleep on Jasmin for about 2 hours. When I woke up, it was still dark outside. We were about ¾ of the way there. I played a few games, after I got tired of staring at the TV screen for awhile I leaned back, and glanced out the window. I saw the first glimpse of dawn, a little pink on the horizon.

My dad (who was sitting in the window seat) took my iPod, and took a few pictures (including the one above). I played Tetris for some time, tried to see if the boys wanted to play against me, because you could connect to other peoples TV’s and play games against them. They didn’t want to play though. For breakfast I had scrambled eggs, tea, orange juice, fruit, and yogurt. Then I played Bejewelled deluxe 2 again. I did the puzzle mode, used a lot of hints, and finished it completely just an hour before we landed in Sydney.

When we were landing, I put the Skycam on, and I continuously said “We’re losing altitude!” To Jasmin, she got really bugged by that. When we landed, we had made an accomplishment; we had finally made it to The Land Down Under!

Because our flight was delayed, we missed our transfer flight to Perth, and everybody else missed their transfer flights to wherever. A Passenger Announcement told everybody, which flight they were switched to, except we were told which flight we were switched to.

When we got off the plane, we asked around to find out which flight we were put on, it also seems like we weren’t the only people who had missed the flight to Perth. After getting the information about our flight, we went through customs, snooped around a store, and went through security. On the other side of security, there was a bus stop. We had to take a bus to the domestic airport; we were still in the international airport. The bus drove on the tarmac to the domestic airport, there were some luggage on the round, where they had fallen off the luggage car, and it was good thing that it wasn’t ours.

Our plane was scheduled to leave at 10:10 AM, which was the same time that the A380 was supposed to leave, but at night. This plane was an A330, and it was only a 5 hour flight. The TV’s were much smaller. On the plane I finished watching We Bought a Zoo, and I watched The Hunger Games. For lunch I had Beef, polenta, juice, water, and a chocolate. I played Tetris, and a whole bunch of other games, for about an hour before the plane landed.         

Then FINALLY, the plane landed! We had finally made it to our final destination.

(We are the blue dot)

I was glad that I didn’t have to sit on anymore airplanes! We were greeted by our great aunt and great uncle. While Dad, Ben, and our great uncle claimed out baggage we Jasmin, Mom, Lukas, our great aunt, and I were on way to our great aunt, and great uncle’s house. As we pulled into the driveway, Lukas and I spotted the park across the street. We couldn’t wait to go and run around there.

We hopped out of the car, dropped our bags off at the house, and ran to the park. The park turned out to be a bike park. Lukas and I ran around on the structures. There were tons of trees to climb. There was a play structure in the way back, Lukas and I pretended we were monkeys and we climbed all over it. When the rental car with Ben, Dad, and our great uncle pulled into the driveway, I hoisted Lukas into a tree, and climbed in after him. Ben ran over to the park, he asked how we got up into the tree, we said we climbed.

After a while we got bored, so we went back to the house. We played around in the backyard. There was a Caster Board, which is two boards with a handle in the middle on wheels, and you had to move and balance on it. Then I took a bike to the bike park, and rode around on the obstacles. After biking, I learned how to play backgammon.

Our second cousins came, Maddie, Bella, Jordan, Carl, Charlotte, and Alicia. We played on our iPods, and had dinner. After dinner, because it was Carl’s birthday we had some cake for dessert. It was cheesecake, with Jell-o on top. Then I played on my iPod and tried to refrain from falling asleep. At 8:00 I couldn’t help it anymore, and I went to bed.    

La/Plane

Today; the day we embark on our journey to The Land Down Under. This day seemed to take forever, ever since the day I woke-up and played Hockey, until we finally got on the plane. Ben and I even tried time warping, so we could embark on the journey already. That didn’t go so well, so Lukas and I ended up in a pretend bar fight. For dinner we went to a nice Indian restaurant called Karma.

After dinner, we started on the long drive to the airport, which didn’t seem to take that long. The moment I stepped out of the rental car, and out onto the sidewalk that was in front of the airport, I knew that I was on my way. After checking our baggage, we explored the Duty Free Store. We didn’t get anything in the Duty Free Store, so we continued onto security, and hunting down our gate.

When we arrived at our gate, our plane was sitting just outside the window. It was huge! It had full two stories, like a flying house! It was a Qantas A380! We got to sit in economy, which was on the bottom level, and was pretty far back, but it was still very cool. As we started boarding, I could feel the excitement bubbling inside of me. I ran excitedly down the jet way and onto the plane.

As I sat in the aisle seat, I was also trying to look out the window, and trying to see what I could do with the little TV screens on the back off the chairs in front of us, all at the same time. I was ready to go to Australia. As I poked around on the TV screen, I found out that it had, a Skycam, a camera on the tail, the flight path, entertainment (which consists of movies, games, TV, the radio, and music), and lots more.

I started watching We Bought a Zoo, but was interrupted by the announcement that said that they were closing the doors, and we would soon take-off. It was cut off again, for them to announce that the handle had come of the door had come off into the guys hand!! They tried to put it back on, and I took two and a half hours! Then we had to be cleared to land by Sydney, which took a little while. Then because we were on such a big plane, we had to use a special part of the runway, and for some reason, we were stopped for 5-10 minutes.

 During the take off, I had set my TV to the Skycam. It was very interesting to watch us take off from the tails point of view. By the time we finally got into the air, I was ready to fall asleep, but when I found a comfortable spot to rest my head on the armrest, Jasmin kept trying to push me off her “arm space.”

*Note: We didn’t really have a July 1^st. It was only a few hours; we took off at about 12:30 am, which was half an hour into July 1^st, so happy Canada Day! Ten I fell asleep, and by the time we woke up, we were, or had crossed the International Date Line. This changed July 1st into July 2nd. I am not going to Blog for July 1^st, because I was sleeping for most of it.