The Beach

This will be my last post about the Australia trip. Our journey ended at the beach, where we spent 5 days relaxing together, playing games, and going for walks and adventures. This is a secret beach about 7 hours drive south of Sydney, on the far south coast of New South Wales.

Here's a short slideshow of the general scene:




Walking on the beach with my Mum.

Anne, Lola and Uncle John.

On the beach with my Dad, Grandparents and Uncle Tony.

With Grannie and Grandpa.

The beach crew.

Uncle John's Farm

We went to visit my Uncle John's farm out in the country, half way between Sydney and Melbourne . He and Anne have an amazing farm with lots of animals - 45 sheep, 4 horses, a dog, 2 cats, some hens, and a rooster, just to name a few. I loved talking to the friendly horses and cats.

The driveway:

The river by the house:

Here's Snippet (front) and Dusty (rear). Dusty is very cute!

Uncle John helped me get down off Snipet. I was the first person to ride her! Anne is a great horse trainer.

Hanging out with Uncle John.

This sheep just had a lamb a few hours earlier. The newborn lamb is in the grass next to the sheep:

Fire's gone, time to relax again!

I got to meet my Uncle John and Aunt Barbara


I discovered the chicken coop


And I inspected the potato crop

Fire! Fire!

Well, as per those previous photos, we were having a great time relaxing with the family. My grandparents live on a beautiful mountain property surrounded by National Park in the Blue Mountains near Sydney. Then suddenly at one o'clock in the morning the phone rang and we were alerted that some nearby wild bushfires had broken their containment lines and were headed directly toward us.

It was high drama in the middle of the night. Some of us (not me!) went up to the top of the hill in the middle of the night and found that the fire was indeed getting much closer. The photos in this slideshow were taken from that same hilltop over the next few days. It was also the main observation point that was being used by fire crews and the media, as well as a helicopter landing point. It was all very exciting for me, not that I ever got to see much. Some of us even had to evacuate for a couple of days as a precaution.

Fortunately no people were hurt and no property was harmed in this fire, however large sections of the national park were burned. I was sad to learn that many animals lost their homes or were killed.

Hanging out with the family

Playing with Uncle Geoff

Reading with Uncle Tony

Eating lunch with my Grandpa

Back from Australia

Hi friends,

I'm back from Australia! We had a fantastic trip. We were mostly in remote locations, so I had very little internet access :( But now that I am home, for the remainder of this week I hope to post a few photos and news from my first ever trip to Australia.

If you didn't already know it, I am a newly fledged Australian citizen, so it was very exciting for me to go there to learn what being an Aussie is all about and meet some more of my wonderful Australian family.

I spent a lot of time in my car seat - during the 14 hour flight to get to Sydney, and also while driving around in Australia. Yep, I got to know my car seat really well. Stay tuned for more about my trip - all Australia, all this week!