NiaQ

Nelson is about an hour away from the top of the south island of New Zealand. It is on the coast and there is a a big shipping port there. It is a beautiful place with lots of clear crystal rivers running through it and lots of green parks. Just north of Nelson is a little place called Happy Valley where you can go and do more adventurous things. Happy Valley also has the biggest flying fox in the world that goes for 3 kilometers above a great big valley. As it was my cousins birthday we decided to go and try this. To get to the flying fox that is at the very top of the mountain we had to ride big quad bikes up the mountain. Before we got on them they made us ... read more

I was really excited when mum told me that we were going to try and swim with the dolphins. The Bay of islands is in the very north of the North Island in NewZealand and is famous for the dolphins that live there. There are over 400 named dolphins that live just in the bays off Paihai and Russell. We were going to go and try and swim with them and then take a speed boat out to a place called the hole in the wall. There are lots of rules about how and when you can swim with the dolphins. For example it is illegal to swim with dolphins if there are baby dolphins or Juvenile dolphins in the pod. Also we can only swim with them if it looks like they want to play ... read more

In Darling harbour is the famous National Maritime Museum. As we had passed this many times we decided to go and visit. We were able to get onto a submarine and a destroyer ship and look around. The submarine was called HMAS Onslow. It is an Oberon class submarine made in 1968. To get into the submarine you had to be very bendy and go through lots of hatches and holes that kept it watertight when it was underwater. It was a long way down the ladder and the size of the beds that they men had to sleep on reminded me of a play house they looked so small. The man told us that the men could be under the sea for weeks without coming up for air and that there would be 3 men ... read more

While we were in Sydney it was Australia day. Australians celebrate this a bit like we do for Burns day. It is a national holiday and everybody has BBQs and celebrates what it means to be Australian. Me and mum went to Darling Harbour for the day. All round the harbour there were lots of stalls selling Australian flags and tattoos and all sorts of stuff Australian. We got a flag and I got a tattoo on my cheek. There was also a big floating stage in the middle of the harbour and there were live bands playing music. Just before it got dark there were all sorts of important people on the stage, including the premier of New South Wales. They had an awards ceremony for people who had been brave or enterprising. The Premier ... read more

After leaving Cairns we took a flight to Brisbane which was about 2 hours. It was really funny beacause there was a time difference of an hour between there and Cairns. Brisbane is also in Queensland but much more southern than Cairns. On the first day we went to Australia Zoo which is the home of Steve Irwin. He is the dad of Bindi who is on television. Steve died when a stingray stung him a few years ago. He was really famous for his crocodile hunting, mad personality and conservation. Australia Zoo is about an hours train ride away from Brisbane. Then a bus picks you up for a short ride to the Zoo. The Zoo is really big with lots of animals big and small. The most famous animals in the Zoo are Crocodiles. ... read more