First Day of School Grade Six ! ! ! - January 24

Today is the first day of school !!! I am really

excited. It has been a long break and I am glad to be able to see all my friends.

This year I am in a grade 6/7 class. There are about 30 students in total 11 in grade seven and 19 in grade six. This year the school purchased 50 new iMacs and 10 new iPad II's.

SEA WORLD and WET 'N WILD - January 22

Today we are going to Sea World  and Wet 'n Wild!!!

Sea World was really cool because you can take 

a helicopter ride and a ferry around the island.

A dolphin in the middle of the park.

Me in the front of the roller coaster 

(see next picture)

A Polar bear swimming in the water over and over 

doing the same thing.

A ray which you could pet and it felt like slippery rubber.

Wet and Wild was really fun even though I only got to

go on 2 rides.

Australia Zoo - January 21

Today I went to the Australia Zoo home of Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter. Steve passed away in an accident while he was snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef. Hit in the chest by a stingray's barb, he died on the 4th of September 2006, but while he was alive he committed his life to educating the public about wildlife and conserving it.

Steve Irwin tribute at the beginning of the zoo.

Me with a Tasmanian Devil

the Crocodile show in the Crocoseum

A cassowary which grows from 1.5-2 metres tall   

and has a long bone sticking out of it's head.

Me petting a kangaroo.

Me petting a wombat which had a soft coat of fur.

A tiger.

A couple of Rhinos at the new Africa exhibit.

Me in Steve's real truck

Zookeeper for a Day - Lone Pine - January 17

I had the opportunity to sign up to be a Zookeeper for a day at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I got to do many of the daily tasks which the zookeeper perform. Some of the things I got to do include... 

• Walk a dingo
• Clean a Tasmanian Devil enclosure
• Prepared food for the wild Lorikeets
• hid meat throughout the dingo enclosure for them to find
• sorted the platypus food

Me holding a Barking Owl, it makes a loud screeching noise.

A picture of a kangaroo walking by me.

Feeding the wild Lorikeets

I got to hold a Koala ! ! !

The dingo's, I had the opportunity to walk and hide food for. A great pose perched up against his cage.

The platypus.He was so fast it was hard to get a good picture.

Me and an Eagle.

A snake plugged in a hole.

A koala hanging out upside down. Fact: Koalas are very active animals when they are awake.

Here I am holding a Shingleback lizard. This lizard's tail looked just like its head. His scales looked and felt like the bark of a tree.

A koala family photo.

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - January 7

Close to our house is the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We decided to visit it for a few hours today. The lone Pine Koala Sanctuary was established in 1927 with just 2 koalas and is now home to over 130 ! ! !

Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary is the first and largest koala sanctuary in the world. They also have Kangaroos, Dingoes, Wombats, fresh water crocodiles, monitors, snakes, as well as many other Australian animals.

A koala  ! !

At the park you can purchase bags of food. This is a picture of me feeding a kangaroo.

Frasier Island December 26-30

On Boxing day we took off, for an adventure, to Fraser Island.

Fraser Island is the largest sand Island in the world.

We stayed at the Kingfisher Bay Resort. It was very nice, and kinda felt like being in a treehouse. We had to take a ferry to the island, and during the trip we saw Dolphins playing in the ocean.

While we were here we went on a couple of hikes where we saw many beautiful sights. We walked along the beach and through the rainforest. 

a tractor....

Path through beautiful trees....

We also went on a 4X4 tour around the island. We were on a big 4X4 bus.

The tour bus on the beach which also was the road...

Lake McKenzie which was absolutely sensational. The water was crystal clear, 

and surrounded by white sandy shores. A couple of guys there, saw fresh water turtles but I did not.

We walked through the rainforest at Central Station

The Maheno Shipwreck

On June 25, 1935 this ship was being towed from Melbourne to Japan for scrap metal when it was caught in a strong cyclone. The tour guide told us that the brass propellers had been taken off and sold to help fund the journey. A few days later on July 9 1935 she drifted ashore and was beached on the Eastern shores of Fraser Island. During the second world war the Maheno was used as target bombing practice for the R.A.A.F. (Royal Australian Air Force). Since this time much of the ship has either been destroyed or disintegrated, and the remainder has become severely rusted.

Thousands of Soldier crabs which we saw on one of our beach walks.

Coloured Sands

Our tour guide told us there were 72 different colours of sand here, but I could only see white, yellow, and orange.

This plane offers tours of Fraser Island. It takes off and lands right on the beach. I wanted to go on this tour, but my parents wouldn't allow me to go. A week after we left the island this plane crashed during take off.

While we were on the island I signed up to be an Eco Ranger and went on an evening guided hike.  On this hike I saw 2 sea turtles, and a brown snake. Before we went out they showed us a bunch of different snakes in jars. 

As we were on the pier looking at the sea turtles we saw massive storm cloud rolling in, so we headed back to the resort. We got there just in time, because the skies opened up and began raining. It rained so hard that the whole resort lost power.

Christmas ! ! ! December 25

FA LA LA LA LA LA...LA LA LA LAAAAAA

Christmas in Australia is so different than it is in Canada. There is no snow and it is hard to get in the Christmas Spirit. I found the malls don't decorate to the same extent as they do in Calgary.

One of the advantages was the warm weather which allowed me to go for a swim.

Christmas dinner was different here too. Instead of turkey with stuffing we had seafood (which seemed to be a traditional Christmas dinner in Australia) and Pumpkin Soup. It was too warm to cook a turkey in the house.

Last Day of School - We get Company December 4-20

The last day of school was exiting! At the end of the day 

they rang the old school bell and me and one of my friends 

sang schools out and ran out and went home!!!!

The next week we had guests. this included Nick (who is a friend of my brother Darcy), his Grandma, and 6 of his friends.

Nick was on a cycling trip from Melbourne to Cairns to raise awareness for Prostate Cancer.

my friend Nick [one of our guests] throwing me into the pool

every one minus my dad on the day they left 

every one at the table

Nick and I talking

Chess Tourney - October

Today is my chess tourney! I had been practicing at school for weeks and was very exited !

The chess was very fun and I even made a new friend ! All in all I scored 4 [4 wins

3 loses] had a good time and got away from school.

Track Meet - October 6

Today is the big day! What today is about is that a few

of the track and field people were not there and I got to 

fill in without any information! They basically asked if I 

could run and I got in! I was really nervous at first 

but as we got started at the end of the first lap I was

in second ! Then I started to fall behind and I got tripped!

I ended up in third to last but had a good time. I did a couple 

more events but I didn't do so good. The 200 metre got cancelled because of rain 

but the100 100 4by4 relay and 800 metre were still raced.

First Day of School - October 3, 2011

Today is my first day of school! I am really nervous but once I got to school I was

welcomed by many friends and got a nice welcoming applause. After that I felt 

very welcome and thought things were going to work out.

Time to start seeing the sights.

It is October 1st and we are now in the new house and I have found a school close by, but they are on term break Until October 3rd so I still have a few days off. Time to start exploring the surroundings. Today we at a beach in Coolum. 
It is absolute paradise.

The water felt great it was so refreshing. It was a little cold at first but you got used to it. I can't wait to come back.