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

Snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef

Sunday was Tom's birthday (and Valentine's Day).  We were also going to go snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef, something we were all looking forward to.  We started the day with breakfast in bed for Tom (a family tradition).  Then we were off to board our boat for snorkeling.  The boat was much bigger than I expected.  It held several hundred people.  We had originally planned on going to Australia over Christmas, but Tom had to work.  I thought Chinese New Year would be better because Christmas, being in the middle of its summer, is a huge travel time for Australians.  I hadn't thought about the fact that over CNY, Australia would be full of Chinese tourists.  Our boat had 3 levels, with the top deck having by far the least inside seating.  About an hour into our trip, they made an announcement they were going to do demonstrations on how to use the snorkeling equipment, with Chinese explanations on the first 2 decks and English on the top deck.  A few people came up to the top deck, there were only about 30 non-Chinese customers total.  It took us about 2.5 hours to get out to the area of the Moore Reef where we were snorkeling.  The kids were very excited to get started.  Charlotte was nervous about using her snorkeling gear, but they both figured out how to breathe quickly.  

The morning boat leaving the snorkeling site

All ready to go

Tom and Charlotte head off

Break for lunch

We had a great time!  The fish and coral were amazing.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to get good pictures of what we saw, but it was beautiful.  We saw many different kinds of fish, including clown fish, black and white striped fish, and huge green and purple fish.  It was also amazing how at the edge of the reef the coral would just drop off 50 feet straight down in the ocean like a cliff.  We took a break for lunch, then took a ride in a glass bottomed boat, and took one more turn snorkeling.  We had 5 hours at the reef, but it went quickly.  We had a wonderful time!

Otway Treetop Walk and Triplet Falls

We spent the next day driving back to Melbourne.  Instead of driving back along the Great Ocean Road and seeing the same things again, we took an inland route that is faster and straighter.  We made a detour in the morning to visit Otway Treetop Adventure Park.  It is located in the rainforests of Otway National Park.  There is a path that winds through the rainforest floor and then there is a treetop walk where you walk on an elevated walkway through the forest.  They have a tower you can climb to get to the top of the canopy.  It was a lot of stairs, and a long way down.  The kids thought it was great fun, but my heart was definitely beating a little faster at the top.  They also had a cantilever walkway, which means it is only anchored at one end.  It moved a little too much for my liking and was a little unsettling knowing there was nothing supporting it from underneath.

Huge trees!

Tower to the canopy

Cantilever-no support on the end

After we left Otway, we drove to the nearby Triplet Falls.  Tom had noticed a sign when we arrived and wanted to check it out.  There was a short hike to several different lookout spots to see the falls.  The area was experiencing a drought.  We actually saw many areas on the Great Ocean Road that had fallen victim to forest fire.  I had read that the fires had closed parts of the road over the Christmas holidays.  I imagine the waterfall is normally more plentiful, but it was still pretty and very calming listening to the rushing water.

This tree is probably about 300 years old

Checking to see if the Berenstain Bears are inside

In front of Triplet Falls. 

Then we headed back to Melbourne to spend the night.

Great Ocean Road

I wanted to spend at least a day or two driving the Great Ocean Road.  Tom volunteered to drive it (instead of going on a tour bus) so we could go at our own pace and do the things that were most interesting to our family.

We started our day at Bells Beach in Torquay.  Bells Beach is a well known surfers beach and hosts the Rip Curl surfing competition each year.  We quickly saw why the beach was popular with surfers.  It had very strong waves and a strong undercurrent.  The kids took turns getting drenched by the waves while Tom held onto them very tightly.  They also had fun playing in the sand.

Bells Beach

Tom and Charlotte splash in the waves while Tommy plays in the sand.  

Then we drove to the town of Anglesea where we stopped for lunch and went to the golf course.  The golf course is famous because there are several mobs of kangaroos that have made their home there.  At any time, there are around 350 kangaroos living on the golf course.  They spend most of their day lounging around under the trees.  The kangaroos are free to come and go as they like, but probably because of the safety of the course (there are a few busy roads nearby) they choose to live there.  Several of the kangaroos had tags on their ears.  The local university has been studying the kangaroos there for years trying to learn more about their habits.  Each mob has 1 dominant male kangaroo, the lifespan of the males is shorter than the females, mainly because of fighting for that top ranking.  We saw a couple joeys, but none that were still little enough to be in their momma's pouch. Overall, they were pretty cute and it was neat to occasionally see one of them hopping away.

lunch

checking out the kangaroos

 

After Anglesea, it was a long drive to our final destination, Port Campbell.  The Great Ocean Road is beautiful, but it sure is curvy.  We would see multiple road signs that would have a picture of a curvy road and say next 38 km or next 25 km.  We also saw signs constantly that reminded you that in Australia they drive on the left.  We didn't see these very often on other roads in Australia.  Also, the Great Ocean Road is primarily two lanes.  Every once in a while there would be passing areas, where the slower driver was to pull over to the left and let faster cars behind them pass.  Before the passing lane, there would be multiple signs saying "Be considerate of other drivers".  I thought it was interesting the system was set up for the slower driver to be the one to concede instead of in the US where a passing lane would be set up for the passing driver to make their move.  Overall, we found the people in Australia very polite.

Sign reminding you to drive on the left

 The road had many lookout areas to pull over and admire the view.  We took advantage of these to get a good look as well as to give Tom a break from the stress of driving on the opposite side of a curvy road.  One place we stopped had hundreds and hundreds of rock piles.  I have no idea how the tradition started, but it was kind of fun thing to stop and see and, of course, we had to add one of our own.

Beautiful views

Hundreds of rock piles along the beach

Tom had to add one of his own

Tommy and Charlotte added their own finishing touches

Finally we reached Port Campbell, our final destination (The GOR continues all the way to Adelaide, but we didn't have time (or the desire) to go that far.  In Port Campbell, we stopped to see the 12 Apostles.  The 12 Apostles are huge limestone rocks that protrude out of the ocean.  They have been formed by erosion over time.  There are actually only 8 of them, the 9th collapsed in 2005.  There were only ever 9, but were named the 12 Apostles for touristy reasons anyway.  They were beautiful to see, especially in the late afternoon sun.

Tommy and Charlotte in front of some of the 12 Apostles

Finally, we checked into our hotel and went into town to get some dinner.  Tom decided he was going to order kangaroo steak to honor our visit to the golf course earlier.  The kangaroo was a little chewy, very similar to a low quality beef steak.  Overall it was a great day.