Central Coast!!!

Hey guys!

We were picked up at palms beach today at 8:30, it wasn't long before we saw them, thousands of whales, some even with calves they were soooo cute! The guide said they were humpbacks. He also said that they are meant to be very friendly, and we also found out that they love to show off!!! It was an amazing experience being out their today, the trip took about 4 hours and Monica and I enjoyed every second of it, a couple of times the whales breached only 30m away from us, I loved it we got back at around 12:30. So we had plenty of time for a walk and a swim in the water. THen we had to pack our bags and head off home. Can't wait to see all of my friends (Mike, Racheal, Chandler and Ross) it won't be long till I see you guys! I had lots of fun on my trip and learnt heaps of things. Anyway, I have to catch a plane. C you!!!

Murray Darling

Today we decided the best way to get a feel of the river was to go on a boat ride. So we went on cruise for a couple of hours. It was realy nice and peaceful. It was realy sad to find out that the Murray was drying up, the tour guide Jack gave us some other awesome facts maainly about the animals in the area, he said the river is the 16th longest river in the world and runs for 2 310 miles and then leads into the ocean. Many animals are found in and around the river such as koalas, Western Grey Kangaroos, emus, Lizards (bearded Dragons), parrots, swans, pelicans and even dolphins but they are closer to the ocean. The area we were cruising was also a very popular fishing spot, it wasn't hard to believe that part we had already seen big fish jumping out of the water. There was also a plant called the willow, it murders all the other plants around it. I was amazing to see so many parrots in the trees. I realy liked it there. We were talking to Jack for most of the trip so we we've been standing for half the day. Or plans for tomorow is going to the central coast and going on another boat cruise except this time we are gonna be searching for whales! Here are some pics of the Murray:

New Zealand:

Im feeling pretty jetlagged, but i cant sleep, i had a big hike waiting for me. Monica and i were about to climb a mount cook the mountain reaches 3,754m high!!! We met up with our leader when we landed at the airport, his name was Rory. He was talking to us about the area, he told us not to worry about the climb. Monica and i were still stressed out but. When we were 30 mins in the walk the view was already amazing, after a hours of walking had a break we weren't planning on going much further because the mountain was already becoming dangerously steep. When we reached the top we could see so much of New Zealand, all the mountains, lakes and trees, it was realy pretty. It didn't take us as long to come back down the mountain, I actualy enjoyed today, tomorow we are heading back to Australia we only have two places to go to before our trip is over... tomorow is the Murray Darling.

Sarengeti

Hey guys!

Today we woke up really late so me and Monica didn't have time for brekfast, we were out the door sprinting for the car, we were heading out for a safari deep in kenya today, we were off to the grasslands, they say that the lowest its got in the past couple of months was 53 degrees, i dont find that hard to believe. It was 55 degrees today and all the animals were out! We saw an elephant that was pregnant, the man driving told us that an elephant doesn't give birth for around 2 years! Later on we saw giraffes amongst a pack of zebras, it's amazing how the animals can survive in such dry conditions because it only rains about 4 inches every month!!! Every thing around us was full of life, birds in trees, hyenas walking about and snakes slithering around, while the tall giraffe spectates. I loved today more than yesterday by far because right before we decided to turn around we saw 2 baby cheetahs and mummy, it was adorable!!! Unfortunately that ws the lathing we got to do today because we were heading off into new zealand tonight and going hiking tomorow. Got to catch a plane, i'll write more tomorow

Bye!!!

Kenya

This morning i was so excited because we were haeding off towards kenya! Home to many lions, leopards, elephants hippos buffalos, birds and so much more! I couldn't wait to get there, yet i didn't want to leave the desert, it was so peaceful there. Monica and i quickly had our brekky and drove to the airport on time. We arrived at 1:30, one of the hottest parts of the day. We got off our airconditioned plane and as soon as you stepped out it was as if you were walking in the hottest sauna ever! We raced to get an icecream, it was 46 degrees! i was sweating all over, but we couldnt hang around for to long because we had a safari booked for 3:00. We were going in a 4-wheel drive. We had been driving for about 2o mins when we saw a male leopard hunting on some wildebeest. He caught a young calf, it was really grusome to see...

We saw 4 giraffes a couple of minutes later, they were so tall! After another half hour we saw rhinos and a baby one too, we stayed there for a while because the tour guide was trelling us how uncommon it is for the hippos to be in the area that we were in. We evntually left them alone and headed home, we were almost at the end of the trip when we saw a lion lazing about underneath a tree. It was huge, about the same size as Monica (sorry mon). He was so sleepy, it didn't even look at us as we passed by. It is sooo sad that we are heading of tomorow morning, it is so sad. Todays safari was amazing, not just the animals but the things that the tour guide was saying:

People that live there live up in the mountains, there are around 40 tribes in kenya all wit their own language and culture. Also one tenth of the land has been dedicated to national parks specifically for safaris. I didn't remember everything he said because I was to busy looking for more animals. Oh well gotta go to bed now

C ya!!!!

Sahara dessert

Hello,

We had to get up reeeally earlythis morning-5:30! We had to get to the plane by 6:30 and we're always late to things so we decided to get up extra early this morning and it worked! We got to our mini aeroplane and took off! It was really nice because we got see the sunrise across a big dry land, it was really pretty. We saw lots of camels. It was amazing to see how big the sahara actually is and how tall the sand dunes can get we were only up in the air for 3 hours, another lady there on the plane with us (on holidays) told us a bit about what she had learned there:

The total domain of the Sahara Desert is more than 3,500,000 square miles! The sahara dessert is also the second largest dessert in the world! Some of the sand dunes we saw were 120 metres high! There have been many fossils found there such as dinosaurs and crocodiles, this suggests that was lots of water before.

We didn't have much time left when we got off the plane, we were about to go on a tour on a bus. We think that we'll see more animamls to! Me and Mon where playing in the sand and having fun when the tour guide yelled to come back in, apparently there were about 10 jackals walking right behind us! So we had to get up and walk onto the bus very very cautiously we got heaps of pics of them to. We satarted to head back to camp at 3:00. We got back had our dinner and by then all we wanted to do was sleep. here are pics of the jakal and sand dunes:

Dessert:

Early morning again this morning, we woke at 7:30 so we still had time to talk, eat and shop before leaving Jake and saying our goodbyes. Monica bought herself a toy jaguar but i bought a monkey squirell! It is really cute we didn't have much time there so we only ended up buying a hat for me and swimmers for Mon, then we had to rush off to the airport. We landed just outside the sahara dessert at 6:00, I was still wideawke but so we decided to out for dinner and have italian in Africa! Then we stayed up just talking for a while, tommorow we are going to be flying over the dessert in a mini aeroplane! Big day tommorow.

Amazon!!!

We woke up at 7:00 this morning!!! But Jake-one of our tour guides had cooked a delicious breakfast which put me into a good mood. While we were eating he started to tell us the plans for today. I choked when he said that we were going on a 15km walk! But I didn't mind too much when he said that we would be seeing lots of animals. We left camp at about 9:30, we saw birds more than anything but we saw some amazing animals there!!! We saw minature monkeys the name was complicated so ive forgotten it now. The scariest and most exciting thing that happened today was when we saw a huge black panther, it was amazing!!! Its fur coat was so sleak, we managed to get a few pics too! We kept walking for about an hour or so until we stopped to have some lunch under a 90m high tree, then Jake told us a bit about the amazon:

Amazingly it covers up to 40% of South America!!!
It is the biggest rainforest in the world
It is the only large rainforest that is densely covered with plants and animals
Out of 5.5million square kms in 2.7 acres of that there is 700 different species of trees and double that in plants.
Just in 1 square meter of leaf liter there was 50 different types of ants found!!!

In just 4 square miles of the Amazon there was found 125 mammal species, 400 species of birds, 100 different reptiles, 60 different amphibians and 150 species of butterflies!!!

After lunch it was time to turn around so we got to base camp at 5:00, then packed our bags. Tomorow we are off to the Sahara dessert in Africa!

ANTARTICA!!!

Woke early, it was really bright because of the reflection from the sun on the ice. One of our tour guides was telling us a bit about Antartica as we were on our first trek, she said that Antarctica was actually 98% ice and snow and 2% percent of rock. She then said it was supriseingly the driest contenant on earth and was sometimes known as a dessert! It is the 5th largest of the 7 contenants on earth and was found in 1820 by Captain John Davis. It has 90% of the worlds ice and holds between 60-70% of our fresh water! The animals on antarctica include wide varieties of fish, whales, seals, arctic terns sharks and penguins. I was getting colder and colder as we went on. After about 30 minutes of talking-we were lucky enough to see hundreds of Emperor Penguins!!! We were even luckier to see some of their babies! They were so small and fluffy. It was at about this point I thought that I had hyperthermia. I was shaking almost uncontrolably. I started to jog on the spot and that did the trick, I was warm in a couple of minutes. Jenny (our tour guide) Started telling us how to control the huskys, basically Mush is go and woah! is stop/slowdown. We later on saw whales and there calfs. They looked so relaxed and laid back. I was liking it here more and more. We then headed off in search for seals, Jenny said that their were 6 different kinds there. I don't have a favourite kind, they're all pretty cute I reckon. I was soooooo excited when I saw the baby elephant seals! they wee quite cute. Even though they were already getting really big like the rest of the lot. We then had to walk back which took us about an hour and a half, Rob and James were waiting for us back at the tent to hear what we'd learned ans seen. They were really surprised to hear how much we actually took in to what Jenny had been talking about. I decided to pack that seeing as we were leaving to go to the Amazon in Africa, I'm glad to leave this time, Im so cold-i feel like ive been shoved inside a freezer. But it will be sad having to leave our tour guides. Time for bed now, here are some more pics:

Last day @ wetlands

Mon and I went for one last walk in the wetlands, it was really sad. I loved it there but we didn't have much time. We had a plane to catch that was heading to Antartica, we are meant to be have 3 tour guides to pick us up when we get there, their names are Rob, Jenny and James. The plane trip went smooth, we were in a small red plane it was really cute. It took 9 hours to get their and by the time we got there it was almost dark. We unpacked our stuff and had a freezing cold night. The sun is ment to come up at 3:00 in the morning! Here are a few pics from our few moments here at Antartica.

Hunter Wetlands:

We got to the wetlands mid-morning, there are so many birds and mozzies! To start off we went fishing, we caught lots of mini fish and in the end we freed all of them except one, Monica killed one of them by 'accidentally' stepping on it when it got free of the net and landed on the deck. She is so cruel. We then went for a walk around and read some of the plaques, some of the most interesting said things such as:

-Over 150 native and exotic floral species have been recorded within the Hunter Wetlands Centre.

-213 bird species recorded at the wetlands

-They hold a very rare species called the Magpie Goose

We went canoeing aswell, I had never done it before then, it was lots of fun! There weren't many other people there aswell wich made it so relaxing when all you hear are the sound of bird calls, no cars and traffic. By the time we got back we were starving! We had our lunch at the cafe, it was really yummy!!! But also really expensive, it cost more then our motel room for the night! We got back at about 5:00, we were exhausted and fell asleep at about 7:00. We haven't decided what we're donig tommorow iether.

Bye!

Great Barrier Reef:

Today we left early morning again to go sailing on the reef, It was really nice! It was full of colour and there were so many fish, there was even a few sharks around-scary!!! Sadly we had to leave that afternoon to go to our new destination-NSW wetlands, we couldn't book a motel around there so we are staying at the Watagon Lodge which is about an hours drive away. I was sooo upset about leaving the Great Barrier Reef-the water is so nice there. But I think Mon and I can't afford to get burnt anymore than what we already are. When we were packing up in our motel, Monica went on a cleaning spree! She took forever... Grrr

Woke up really early, 4:30! Before we left, Monica went on cleaning frenzy before we left the apartment. We eventually left half an hour later and had 20 minutes to board the plane at the JFK airportat 6:3o. I was so excited about going to the Great Barrier Reef. We had a smooth trip all the way.
When we arrived we went to our motel and went snorkelling straight away, I'm allready reeeally burnt : ( The fish were so pretty, they were every colour of the rainbow! Wish Monica and I could stay longer than what we are.