Palace in the Trees

These are pictures of when we visited the world’s largest virtual solar system. It starts at the sun represented by Australia’s largest observatory: Siding Springs. http://solarsystemdrive.com/ The coolest thing about it is that the distances between the planets are to scale in real life. If you’re near the observatory you should definitely go out and see the planets. It is a nice drive and you might see kangaroos, emus, and an echidna like we did. It took us a few months to see everything because they are far apart from each other.

Solar System Begins

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Lets start the journey at the Sun. This is in order.

Today we went to the Hobbiton and saw the set of the Hobbit and Lord Of The Rings which was REALLY COOL! We saw the Bag End, the Shire, and got to go inside a hobbit house. The tour guide said that the hobbits were just getting up and changed so don’t go in their houses. He showed us Sam’s house, Bilbo Baggin’s house, and where different scenes were shot. The tour guide was in the movie or just the stage crew. I can’t remember. In the end, we went to the Hobbit pub called the Green Dragon Inn where I had the world’s largest scone and some ginger beer.

Interesting Fact: In The Lord Of The Rings Legolas has different colour eyes than in The Hobbit. In one he has green eyes and in the other, he has brown eyes.

See the pictures in the last post.

We went to New Zealand and landed in Aukland and stayed there for a few days. There was some pretty cool thing there like the museum and the zoo.

At the museum, there was a World War 1 and 2 exhibit, a Maori exhibit, an exhibit about the European settlers, and a volcano simulator. In the WW1 and 2 exhibit, there were some high school kids who were teamed up with the Aukland museum and used Minecraft to rebuild Gallipoli! I thought that was pretty cool because I got to go on the world and they had their own resource pack!

At the Aukland Zoo, we saw seals and otters which I thought was pretty cool. There were also giraffes, zebras, ostriches, kiwis, hippos, rhinos, and lemurs. Then when we were finished at the zoo we drove to Paihia to stay with some other exchangees and went deep-sea fishing and caught tons of red snapper but couldn’t keep them because they weren’t 30cm from nose to where the tail goes into a v. We only kept 3 fish and we almost caught a stingray. No joke. We also saw fluffy’s 3rd removed uncle on his mother’s father’s side swimming beside our boat (there really was a little blue penguin). When we got back to the hotel my dad cooked the fish and we all ate the fish.

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We went to a town that had a maze place. It was like a big maze area where there were places you could sit down and eat. It was really cool because there was a bunch of artwork on the walls and every section would be different. They used paint, tiles, mirrors, chains, fabric, and cement. My favourite part was the rock section. There were a bunch of pillars that were grey and I tried to hide in them.
When we got to the Hot Water Beach place we went to our deluxe family villa number 2. We were surprised about how thick the bamboo forest was near the villa and the sound of the bamboo creaking sounded like metal creaking. There is an upstairs and downstairs and I have the upstairs. There is a big staircase that leads up to it. Upstairs there are two beds. Downstairs there is one bed that mom and dad sleep in and there is a TV, a kitchen with supplies, and a toilet. (Everybody in Australia and New Zealand calls washrooms “Toilets” and they have different rooms for bathing and washing hands. It feels weird saying “toilet” because it is referring to the actual thing itself rather than the whole room.)
There is a path leading to the hot water beach that is really rocky. At 2:30 when the tide is out you can go and dig a hole in the beach and get hot water that can burn you. You don’t want to get hot water that can burn you but you can get water that is hot from an underground spring heated by volcanoes. On the sign, it says the water gets to 65 degrees celsius.

A long time ago we went to Canberra and it was a new state to us. We saw so many cool things like the parliament, the national museum and a science center called Questacon.

At the national museum, there were HUGE QR codes on one of the walls. Inside every single wall had brail that translates to mate. There was a security guard who was telling us a bunch of information about the area we were in. For lunch, we went to the museum café and I had a hamburger that was REALLY fancy. After that, we went to a section about the future where they give you a computer and you have 1 minute to create a house or ship. Then they make a tour of all of them. I made a greenhouse with my face on it.

At Questacon, there was an earthquake simulator room that simulated what the news and bookshelves and stuff would be like. There was also an antigravity swing that simulates what it would be like to be on the moon, a contained lightning strike, a gravity drop where you hold on to a bar and then drop onto a slide. There is a robot that acts out scenes from movies like star wars and the sound of music. We went to a parasite talk where they showed us how big ringworms can grow and what is the most dangerous parasite.

We went to Oberon and had a great time. We stayed in Bathurst and drove out to the mountains to have a hike. We were with a bunch of people that are also on exchange and we hiked all day but the best part was hanging off the mountains cliff! We also saw a little tiny lizard on a rock and a praying mantis.

After we left the mountains we went to the Jenolan caves and there were some REALLY neat things in there like natural crystal curtains. The tour guide was telling about the adventurers who discovered the cave. It made me think about how rough it would have been for them. On the way out of the cave, we saw a wallaby!

The next day we went for another hike up a mountain called Evans crown but this time there was not much of a track and was more in the bush. We got all kinds of scrapes and bruises but we are all fine. It was cool how there were so many crevasses to explore. We had a great time.

I’m really excited for this next picture. It is by an Australian photographer named Grant Dixon. He gave me permission to use his picture of the cliffs. It shows how big they are! You should go look at his other pictures. They are from all over the world!

On March 16^th there was a festival in Coonabarabran called the Coona show. It is where lots of people come to watch animal races, go on rides and enter contests. There are so many rides that are very different like the Airmaxx 360 that spins you around and around and up and down and rotates. It was my favourite ride because my friend and I went on it twice and watched the fireworks from it. I also went on the Midnight Madness which doesn’t go upside down but does swing back and forth. I had loads of fun and excitement and wish you all back home could’ve been there.

I put in a boot I decorated with my friend into the show and got a ribbon. I saw a fake bull riding thing like in the cartoons. I saw my friends and classmates there and thought that was kind of cool. But overall I enjoyed myself and hope that you enjoyed reading my blog post!

This weekend we were driving out to Sydney for a teacher exchange meeting and all the “tag alongs” went on a walk but on the way to Sydney we saw a wombat eating on the side of the road! On the walk, we went to a library that had a glass floor and underneath the glass was a miniature model of Sydney, and went to the opera house, and to a food court for lunch and I had a sandwich.

Later before supper, we went a pub that the kids were allowed on the top floor only. Then for supper, we went to a restaurant called Philip’s Foote where you grill the meat yourself to your own liking but for some reason, you still have to leave a tip :P.

The next day we went on a cruise at 9:00 and cruised around the entire Sydney Harbour and stopped for lunch at the other side of the harbor for sandwiches and salad. When we got back on the boat my mom saw a penguin and there was a netted-off area for swimmers to keep the sharks away.

They announced who had won the prizes for a quiz about the harbor for the kids and I got an Australia rubber wrist band.

When we got off the boat my parents and I went over to the art museum and there was a Yoko Ono exhibit. We got picked up and went to Bondi Beach and had a ton of fun.

On the way back from Sydney we saw a koala up close in the wild. It was within touching distance then it climbed down the tree and tan to the other side of the road and climbed up a different tree! We also saw some wallaroos and kangaroos on the way back to Coona. Hope you had a fantastic Valentine’s day! <3