Sports days

It has been a busy last few weeks with sports days at school.  The kids' school host sports days for all the kids each year.  They do them in the Spring because it is too hot to do them at the end of the year like in the US.  Charlotte's sports day was at school on the field.  It was for all the Year 1 and Year 2 students.  All the kids in the school are assigned to an element, either Wind, Water, Earth, or Fire.  All the children in a family are in the same element (Tommy and Charlotte are both in Earth).  They earn points for their element throughout the day and they announce a winner at the end.

Charlotte's sports day consisted of her doing relay race type events such as three-legged race, throwing hoops around cones, throwing balls, climbing under and over things, and bouncing on a big ball.  She was extra excited because Oma was in town and came to watch.  It was especially nice for me because I was helping with the event and Oma was able to take pictures for me.

Three-legged race

Trying not to spill the water and fill up her team's jug

Throwing a bean bag through the hoop

Charlotte had a great time.  They finished the day with a race and a tug-of-war.  Then, the parents got to stay at eat lunch with the kids.  It was a fun day!

That weekend Tommy had a race at Chinese International School.  Each school could bring 5 boys and 5 girls from each year group.  They had a tryout at school, Tommy was excited to make the team.  At his level they ran 900 m.  They started out in a long line and had to funnel pretty quickly to a narrow path.  I think there was only one race where no one fell.  In Tommy's race, a kid in front of him fell and he tripped over him.  Therefore, he started the race in the very back.  He did a great job running and was able to move up and finish in the middle of the pack.  At the end of all the races, they had a fun run open to anyone.  Our whole family decided to do it.  Neither Tom nor I were wearing our running shoes and we were both in jeans, but we decided it would be a good way to warm up after standing in the cold for several hours.  The fun run was about a kilometer and included going out on the sidewalk outside the school.  Both Tommy and Charlotte took off in a sprint when the gun went off.  Tommy was running with a friend, and I wasn't surprised at all he ran so quickly.  Tom and I were happy jogging at a casual pace.  I kept looking for Charlotte, slightly concerned about how she was doing and sure we were going to catch up to her walking any minute.  We finished the whole race and found her sitting near the finish line resting.  She apparently had finished quite a bit ahead of us.  Tom and I were glad we did the fun run, but slightly embarrassed we can't keep up with our 5 year old.  Soon we will be going to races for both of the kids!

Start

Running hard

The following Tuesday, Tommy had his sports day event for school.  The event for Year 3-6 is basically a track meet held at the local Sports center which has a real track.  Tommy signed up for the 100 m and 400 m races.  He ran his first heat of the 100 m and did well.  He got a close second behind one of his classmates.  He finished 5th in the 400m, which was great.  Seeing him start a little too quickly and slow down considerably in the last half of the race reminded me of my days running that race in high school.  I was proud of him for having a strong finish at the end.  At the end of the day, they had the finals for the sprint events.  Tommy ended up just edging out a different classmate to win the 100 m final.  I was really proud of him and he was pretty excited.  He always tells me how he is the fastest kid in his class.  I guess now I should believe him.  Earth didn't win the team event, but they did win the Spirit award for cheering the loudest throughout the day.  Overall, it was a great day.

1st place!

Fast running

Goodbye Australia

We had one final day in Cairns where I hadn't planned anything.  We decided to spend the day relaxing and doing things close to our hotel.  The following day, we had a 5:30 AM flight so we wanted to have a low-key day and make sure we got to bed on time.  Luckily, Cairns is a very family friendly city and our hotel was within walking distance to several fun (and free) activities.  The ocean near Cairns is not good for swimming because there are so many jellyfish.  Therefore, they have built a city lagoon that is really nice.  Some of the areas have sand with a zero-depth entry for the little ones, some alcoves have a shade to help with the sun, other areas are deeper for those who actually want to swim.  The kids had a great time playing there.

swimming lagoon

relaxing in the shaded water

View of the hotel pool from our balcony.  The kids wanted to take a quick dip

In the afternoon, we went to a nearby playground, called Muddy's Playground.  The kids had played there the first night we arrived and loved it.  It was huge.  It has around 6 different play areas, as well as a water splash ground.  One of their favorite attractions was a seated zip line.  They loved having Tom push them.  (He pushed them so hard they would reach the end of the line and bounce all the way back still at full speed).  We ate dinner at a really good burger place we had discovered and headed home for a good night's sleep.

zipline

We woke up at 3 AM (1 AM Hong Kong time) for our flight.  We had a stop in Brisbane before our 9 hour flight home.  The kids did great on the planes (you have to love in flight entertainment systems).  We are proud of our international travelers.  We got back to our house around 7 PM.  We had told them in the taxi on the way home we would eat quickly, shower, and then go to bed.  About 5 minutes after we got home, I was trying to find Charlotte.  She had decided she was too tired and had put herself to bed.  She is a smart girl.  Luckily, we all got to bed early that night, got a good night's sleep and were fairly refreshed the next day.

ready for an early morning flight

Overall, we had a wonderful time in Australia.  The people were very friendly.  We loved all the outdoor activities and the clean air.  We had just had several weeks of very cold weather in Hong Kong, so traveling to Australia during their summer was especially refreshing.  We ate breakfast in our room every morning so I would go to the grocery store in every city to buy cereal, yogurt, milk, and fruit as well as a few snacks while we were out.  The huge grocery stores full of fresh fruits and vegetables, reasonably priced dairy products, and overall familiar looking foods reminded us of home.  (Except Vegemite.  Tom and I both tried that and thought it was disgusting.  Slimy peanut butter made out of vegetables.  I don't recommend it.)  Woolworths, one of Australia's main grocery chain, had a basket of fruit by the entrance.  Children under 12 could have a free piece to enjoy while their parents shopped.  That is way better (for parents) than the free cookie our grocery store back home gives out.     We were glad to experience so many different parts of Australia.  Hopefully, it is a vacation we will all remember for a long time.

Kuranda Rainforest

The other thing I really wanted to do in Cairns is see the rainforest.  Their city's motto is "where the reef meets the rainforest", so I wanted to make sure we paid a visit to each one.  There is a trip you can do from Cairns to the village of Kuranda traveling through the rainforest.  There are 2 ways to get there, either by cable cars or a historic train.  (You can also drive on the roads, but that didn't sound as much fun as the other 2 ways.)  We decided to do one each way.  I also opted to add a visit to the Tjupukai Aboriginal Cultural Park so we could learn more about the people who used to live in Australia.  We started at the cultural park.  I was a little nervous about the experience.  A shuttle bus picked us up at our hotel to take us to the station to start our journey.  There were at least 30 other people on the bus (all Chinese) and no one else had booked the cultural park.  When we went in to pick up our tickets for the day, the worker looked at the kids and asked if I wanted to change anything about our itinerary.  However, we ended up really enjoying the cultural park.  Our biggest regret was we didn't have more time there.

We started our trip to cultural park by watching a performance explaining the history and beliefs of the Tjupukai people.  After the performance, the performers explained that this was the story of their tribe, each tribe in Australia would have its own back story and set of beliefs.  Then we went outside where some workers were burying packets of meat and vegetables in hot coals.  They explained this act is something that would have been done for special occasions, similar to roasting a pig in the ground in Hawaii.  They serve the meat as part of the daily lunch buffet.  We were disappointed we had to leave before that and didn't get to sample any.  Then we watched an interactive music and dance performance.  Finally, we finished the experience with demonstrations of how to play a didgeridoo, examples of their weapons, natural medicines, and how to throw a boomerang.    

Tjupukai Aboriginals acting out their history

Burying meat and vegetables (now they use foil, traditionally they would have used banana leaves)

Charlotte and Tommy with 2 of the performers

Playing a didgeridoo

After we left the cultural park, we got on the cable car.  It gave us a good aerial view of the rainforest.  There were 2 stops to see parts of the rainforest up close.  The first stop told us more about some of the features, plants and animals of the rainforest, the second stop was to see the Barron Falls, a nearby waterfall.

On the cable car

Finally, we reached the village of Kuranda.  I don't know if there were other, more rural, parts of the village we didn't see, but it seemed like the village's main purpose was for tourists.  They had many shops and restaurants for visitors.  We found a restaurant for lunch.  I had an emu burger and Tom had a crocodile burger.  We thought both were okay, very similar to ground turkey or chicken.  They didn't have a whole lot of flavor.  We did a little shopping and headed to the train station to take the train back.

Emu burger

The Kuranda railway was an old fashioned train that took us through the rainforest on our way back to Cairns.  The route was very scenic, it stopped briefly for a good view of the Barron Falls (much better view than from the cable car).  We went through 15 tunnels.  There were pictures on the inside of the train chronicling the construction of the railway.  It was an amazing engineering feat, the entire line was built with hand tools from 1886 to 1891.  Some of the tunnels were quite long.  I can't even imagine digging them out by hand.  Overall, it was a relaxing way to get home after a long day. 

Ready to board the Kuranda Scenic Railway

Barron Falls