Phillip island

I woke up at 8:30 in the morning. I took a shower and brushed. Then I did my blog and found out that we were going to Phillip Island to see Blue Feathered Penguins when they come to nest. You can only see them at some places in both Australia and New Zealand. They are not found in America.  We drove for about one and ½ hours. We reached the penguin parade. We looked and looked but could not see them. Finally we saw some a raft (a group of penguins in the water) they walked up in between the stands full of people. After more penguins we got up and walked around and looked for penguins. One was enjoying the company of his human friends. After we saw a lot of cute penguins we left and we had to check that now penguins were under our rental car. I fell asleep but we stopped for dinner McDonalds and I got a whistle pop. I didn’t have it on our way to the hotel. When I got in I fell instantly asleep on the bed.

Melbourne

Today we woke up packed and checked out. We went to a bakery called “The Bakery” for breakfast. The bread was good. We went up the gondola and went to the paragliding tent. But it was too cloudy. We waited but of course it was still too cloudy so we left. Right after we left it cleared out we got lunch from the same bakery. We left and picked up one of dad ACR friends from the neighboring hotel. We left and went to the airport. We went to check in but they overbooked so we were on the waiting list. But we got onboard. The trip from Queenstown, NZ to Melbourne, AU. We arrived and came to the hotel. We got some Indian food for dinner. It was spectacular. We came back and stopped at a market and got lift (sparkling lemonade). We came back and we are planning what we are doing tomorrow. Good night.

the ledge

Today we went to the Skyline gondola and ledge. It had a luge [go-karting], bungee jumping, paragliding, and the “World’s Best Restaurant with a cool View”. We took the only way up, going up the gondola. We went and bought 5 luge tickets. I went 2 times on the beginner tracks. Sheila did 1 time on the beginner track and once on the advanced track. Dad went once on the beginner track. Then we went to the restaurant to eat lunch with dad’s ACR friends and colleagues. The one who organized it all gave us each 2 additional luge tickets. We ate at the buffet and had whatever we wanted. Then we did 1 luge ride all on the advanced track. We all thought it was fun. Uh-oh it was time for Sheila and dad to do their bungee jumping. Watching them was fun. Here’s a couple pictures.

Then we went to the luge and did our last ride on the advanced track. Then we went up to the parasailing tent and signed up all of us for paragliding which we will do tomorrow morning.

Snowboarding

The two Fergburgers

Me being awesome by snowboarding

Yesterday Sheila and I went to the Remarkables. It is a mountain you can ski + snowboard on. I think it was worth the 500 NZ (400 US) bucks dad paid for our enjoyment. We had 5 people to start with. I learned how to stop, turn, go of course, and load and unload the conveyor belt (magic carpet). At 12:30 we went in and had lunch. It was mac and cheese (baked), apple and blackcurrant juice, and an apricot and orange bar. We then got 2 more half day snowboarders. ½ an hour until the lesson ended we had a 10 minute break for hot chocolate. It was excellent. We then went to "The Best Burger Place in the World" Fergburger. The burgers were HUGE. We got 2 one was Bombay Chicken the other was the Original Fergburger with Swiss cheese. They were amazing. We then went to sleep.

This is a picture of my group (left to right: Jack, Jamie, Sarah, Emmaline, Doug, Eva, and me)

Queenstown 2

The day started with dad waking me up. Then we got ready and changed. Dad needed to leave for his conference.  He left and we stayed in the room and Skyped Neil and then later mom. We ate lunch. We then went to a “Lord of the Rings” tour. The tour was where you went to the places where the movie was filmed. The tour guide showed us where plenty of “Lord of the Rings” places were. And where a little part of X-Men Wolverine and The Hobbit was also filmed we got some pictures like so:

We at the end got to play with sharp swords nobody died though. The tour was a lot of fun when we got back we saw dad sitting on a bench. We went to him and he told us that we were skiing the next day. I asked is it possible for me to go snowboarding instead. He said he will try. But we had to leave to get our passes and equipment.we went and got our equipment and passes. i hoped it would be fun. press here to get more info on this trip.

Queenstown

We checked out of the "Godley" hotel and went and got some spectacular pictures. Then we went to an "Good Shepard's Church". Then we went to a skating and tubing resort for the tubing. we went for 1 hour. then went on our driving trip. at one point there were two mountains on either side of us and right ahead there was a cloud. we had to go through the cloud. we went through and when we turned one corner all of the trees turned white with frost. we took a lot pictures of awesome scenes.

 we stopped to get some energy. i got some hot chocolate so did sheila. dad got coffee. we then left for Queenstown. it was only about 1/2 an hour until we reached the millennium hotel. we passed a lot of vineyards on our way. we checked in and changed into our clothes for the reception. i lost a tooth tooth! for dinner we had snacky food. we went to sleep. we woke up and called mom. then we skyped Neil. we hope mom will skype us back soon.

day #3

We left the motel because the clothes were in the dryer for 1 hour. Then we went to a shoping mall. We got awesome bread that gives the extra bread at the end of the day to charity. They make fresh bread every day. We came back to get the clothes. We then went downtown and went to a shopping mall. We got 3 cds and a rugby ball. Then we went to the car and left for lake tekapo. We saw some really spectacular views. At one point we saw the top of the mountains and we were so high that we were above some clouds. We came to the hotel and we got our room keys. We then went to the spa (hot tub). Then we went and ate chinese food for dinner. We are now going to sleep.