Christmas Day

On christmas day mum and dad got me a nintendo DS. I was so excited, you can play dogs with it and I have got a labrador cross retriever type of dog. She is so cute , I put red bows in her hair and her name is Daisy. I've trained her to sit and sometimes she is a bit naughty and doesnt listen.

I also got a Hannah Montana autograph book and concert pass. I got some new bathers and they are very very very nice and a fun fairy annual book with lots of stuff to do in it.

We are in Apollo bay and we've seen a real wild platypus! Hope you all had a good christmas.

By Grace

Christmas Dinner

My nintendo DS

My Xmas Surfing Lesson

On Christmas we woke up early to find a christmas bag full of presents from Santa. Santa got us lots of interesting presents and mum and dad got us our dream present which is a Nintendo DS.

Our Nintendo is really fun, we have our own puppies. Late in the afternoon we went to the beach and brang Dads surf board and I was able to stand up and not fall off 2 times all the way to shore. It was my first time and I did really well.

We had a great sunny day NO RAIN. Dad went flying and we had lots of fun playing with our new toys.

By Emily

Christmas nibbles

Emilys first surfing lesson Apollo Bay.

Quick recap

Since the girls last posted we have been to the Blue lakes of Mt Gambier, old volcanoes! They have been mountain bike riding in Portland whilst waiting for the rainy weather to go away. Then we started our journey down the Great ocean road seeing some amazing coastline and the 12 Apostles. We have been staying in a place called Apollo Bay for a week and leave tomorrow. There are lots of things to see around here. The largest eucalypts mountain Ash, rainforest, fairies in the tree ferns, beaches, huge sting rays, lots of Koalas. The girls are going to tell you about their christmas.

Deb (Emily and Graces mum)

Grace at the Mt Gambier Blu Lake.


Emily Grace and Lucy @ Triplet Falls Otway National Park

Apollo Bay

The Girls at Joanna Beach Otway National Park

Kangaroo Island

On kangaroo island i went to the koala walk. I spotted 2 koalas it was fun. On the next day I went to seal bay and saw some Australian Sealions. Two males were fighting over a female and she went in the water and the males chased after her. It was funny. You were allowed to touch a penguin but it was stuffed. When we went on the boardwalk there was a big whale skeleton. My favourite part of the island was a beach that was like a clear swimming pool called Stokes bay and you had to walk through a cave to get to it. We had a sea snail race and saw some big and little fish. When we went fishing a dolphin went right under the jetty but we didnt get a photo. When we got back from Kangaroo island we saw some dolphins surfing the waves at Tunkanilla.

By Grace

Gold Mine

Earlier in November we went to Bendigo. There was a gold mine called Deborah gold mine and we went on a tour. We went underground and had to put on a hard hat and special light. After the tour we went gold panning. I found a little piece of gold and it was fun.

We went to a chinese museum and saw a really long dragon. The longest dragon in the world. There was a night dragon too that they put out at night.

Then we went to the Grampions and did lots of bush walking. We climbed up the Pinnacle and mum got us a certificate. It said there might be an ice cream shop at the top but when we got down the bottom we got an icecream. I was designing my room on the way down.

Then we went to Naracoorte and saw some fossils in some caves. There was a skeleton of a giant kangaroo, biggest leaf eating kangaroo and its name was Stanley. It lived a long long time ago. We even got to go in the cave where it used to stay. There was another big elephant type of thing with no trunk and it was very big. When we got to another room, there was a little tunnel you could crawl through to get to the other side. I bumped my head, there were some little mice that were toys and they scuttered around in the cave that I crawled through. It was fun.

By Grace

Kangaroo Island

On the 28th of November at noon we went on a ferry to Kangaroo Island. I have been having a lot of fun, we have also only been here for 2 days , yesterday we went to a koala sanctuary and today we went to a wildlife park and we saw lots of seals at seal bay!! at the wildlife park we saw these animals, a small fresh water croc, a buffalo, echidna, emus, Stanley the biting and talking cockatoo, and lots of eagles, and I especially loved touching the koalas and feeding the kangaroos by hand. Mainly all of the eagles were brought in injured.

by Emily

The Murry River Echuca

On the 11th of November we arrived at a campsite right beside the Murry River. over the past couple of days we have been swimming in the Murray river. it has been soooooooooooooo Funnnnnnnnnn swimming in the
Murray river. it has also been very cold but out side of the river it has been stinking hot ! We have seen paddlers, skiers and paddle steamers going up and down the river. We went on a paddle steamer but it did not come as far as some of the others so we didn't get to see our campsite.

By Emily

my birthdau

Birthday Brekkie

My birthday is tomorrow and I am going liloing.

it will be fun.I wanted my birthday at movie world . But thats in queensland and we are in Victoria.

We went to Dubbo zoo, it was fun riding our bikes and looking at the animals. My favourite was the gibbon because they are from Madagascar and they sing move it move it.

We saw nanna and grandad Bill in Orange. Watched the never ending story. Climbed Mt Canobalis. We saw an Echidna and it tried to bury itself. Went to a park with 20 ducklings and two male ones were fighting.

Now we are in the mountains in Bright. I have learnt to skim rocks in the river my best one was 4 times.

By Grace on 4th November

Our Camper Trailer.

When we got our camper trailer Dad lost his wallet with $1450.00 in it and broke his tomtom. He was very grumpy.

We went to Umina Beach Caravan Park to stay there for 2 days. We played on these cool trampoline pillows, got really wet and sandy in the creek. Emily went in the drumming for the talent show and it was really loud.

Now we are in Rainbow Beach Caravan Park , I know why they call it Rainbow Beach. Because there is lots of coloured stones on the beach. We saw our first wild Koala here and theres another jumping pillow here too.

Next week we are going to go to Tamworth, Manilla and then Dubbo to see the Western Plains Zoo where it looks like your actually with them but I don't know how so I will tell you next week.

We saw dad paragliding at a big hill called North Brother.
by Grace.

At our second campsite (Rainbow Beach Holiday Park) I spotted a Koala and when we got to do the tour around the Koala Hospital we realised that we were actually very lucky to see a Koala out in the wild. At the hospital we got to see koalas having their leaves changed and the leaves being washed and the koalas having their medication. We also saw a female koala named Bonny Fire and her baby Bonny Ash.

The first part of the name is where it was rescued from. Bonny Fire was rescued from a fire in Bonny Hills (near our campsite).

And she was very badly burned, they also suffer from Wet Bottom which is caused by a leaking urinary tract infection caused by chlamydia.

Chlamydia also causes cataracts and liver dysfunction.

When dad went flying today he crashed into the bushes and got chased by a herd of cows!!!

By Emily

My sister Lucy

My sister Lucy is only 3 years old and she does some very cute things. Lucy's birthday is on the 14th off September and this year witch is 2008 Lucy's 4th birthday. Next year Lucy will be in kindy garten.


By Emily

My Feelings

I have good and bad, happy and sad feelings about going around Australia. My good feelings are that I am lucky being able to go around Australia. My bad feelings are that I have to leave all of my family and friends behind. I am happy because I have never traveled for a year before. I am sad because I have no idea what is going on!!!!!!


By Emily

About Me / Leaving School

My name is Emily and I am 8 years old. I was born on the 11'th off May in 2000. At school I find art and music interesting as we play instroments, write music and then play it in a group or turn dots into musical notes. At art we have th most fun getting messy and cleaning up the mess after our selves.

It is going to be very hard to leave behind my best friends at school. Some off my best friends and my teachers say that I can not go if I do I have to come back to the same school. My best friends at Baldivis Primary School are Meg and Jasmine Williams, Jessica Crook, Brooke Davey, Morgan and Claire Payne and Shania Geisman. Some of Megs thoughts might help me along the way after all Meg went around Australia in 2006. It will be fun!!!!!!!!

By Emily

About me.

My name is Grace and I am 6 years old. These are my friends Sara Abbot, Sarah Carter, Erin Deane, Monique Bouillon, Alice Walton, Jasmine Willem's, Emily Blasch and Emma and Emma Hyde. I will miss them lots when I go on my trip and I hope they read this blog and see what I do on my trip. It will be very fun and I will tell them all about it when I get back.
By Grace

Before The Flight

Before Dad flys to Queensland to pick up the new car and Mum, Grace, Lucy and Me fly to Sydney it is going to be very exciting because we have never been on such a long driving trip before our giant trip around Australia.
I am sure it will be great, if I get board I can blame dad for it. Maybe I can entertain myself by climbing a tree if there is one I can climb.

I think it will be very, very boring on the plane. I will be on a four hour flight starting at 1:30pm. It will probably be a little fun if we get a booklet to colour in.

I will be cross if I get food I do not like at all.

Dad is going to pick us up from the airport in Sydney after he has dropped of our brand new 4wd camper trailer at a campsite to sleep at for the night.

It might be a bit spooky sleeping in our new camper trailer for the first time in my life. Grace thinks that it might be a bit spooky because we have never slept in it before. Surely a good night sleep will help us get use to it more and make us feel comfortable.
By Emily