Central Coast

Hey people

Well we went on a whale watching cruise today and it was incredible. We went right out of the coast and saw millions of humpback whales. We got picked up from palm beach at 8:30am and we were sooo excited!!! We went out for around 30mins and that was when we saw our first whale!! It was so gorgeous and he was really big, we then realised there was around 5 more with them and they were all breaching. Breaching is when a whale does pretty much flips and acrobatics out of the water, they are very talented. then we were allowed to go in the net of the side of the boat!! The water was pretty warm and the wales were only about 30m away from us. Humpback whales are meant to be very friendly and they sure showed that. Oh, they also know how to show off!!! We then kept going and we saw some more whales and we also saw some dolphins. We had a nice lunch and the cruise people provided it for us. The boat cruise went for around 4hrs and we enjoyed every moment of it!! We got back onto palm beach at around 12:30pm. We walked along the beach for a while and had a quick swim. We then went through the town and had an ice-cream. We then lunged around on the beach for the rest of the arvo and then watched the sun set on the Long Jetty. We then came back to the hotel and packed to go home tomorrow :(. We had a great holiday and we really look forward to seeing Chandler, Joey, Rach and Ross and we want our coffee!!!

Cya later,

Mon xo

Murray Darling River!!!

hey people

Well we are in Australia again and we went for a boat ride today down the Murray Darling River. It was incredible and really ruff in some bits but still really fun!! We went passed loads of massive fish and it is a really popular fishing spot. We went on the boat for around 2hrs enjoying the scenery and animals the whole way. The man taking us down the river was called Jack and he gave us some awesome facts about the river such as; 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. Then there is a plentiful supply of fish. There is a plant along the banks of the river known as the Willow which helps the banks and stops erosion. But the downside of the willow is it chokes the growth of other plants, Phoebe called it a murderer! The River hasn't been changed for over millions of years!!! Once we had been going for the 2hrs we stopped on a bank and explored while eating lunch. jack showed us the Willow and the roots were entangled in everything, like the bank, plants and pretty much everything. We also saw parrots all through the trees and they were beautiful! We then hopped back in the boat and headed back along the river. On the way back this time we saw some kangaroos on the bank that were huge!!! One had a joey and we got a photo of it, sooo cute!!! And we also saw some black swans that were so graceful, they looked like they had silk feathers! We then got back to the wharf where we caught the boat from and headed back to the hotel. It was around 4pm when we got back and we went out and did some shopping, had dinner and went back to the hotel to pack our stuff for heading to the Central Coast tomorrow. Cya then,

Mon xo

New Zealand

Hey people,

Well we went to Mount Cook today and it is the highest Mountain in New Zealand. The mountain reaches 3,754m high!!!We were very scared about how high it was because we weren't the best climbers in the world!!! The tour guide told us not to worry though. We hiked for around 40mins and even by then we were tired. We had climbed over rocks and round curves, getting higher by the minute but never looking like nearing the top too soon. We decided to sit and have lunch at around 12pm and in that we got a partial bit of energy back. We climbed for around another 30 mins and the views were amazing by then. We could see nearly all over the side of the New Zealand we were on and we were happy to sit there and gaze for a while. We started to move down and we saw a lot more birds on the way down than we did going up. We had to curve all the way down and Phoebe nearly slipped and fell down the mountain at one stage!!! When we were safely on the ground again we had to walk all the way around the bottom of the mountain to get back to our car which took nearly an hour!!! We found out that we only climbed around 350m so not near the top at all, but hay, for non-climbers we did well!!!It was around 3pm when we neared the cars and then we were back at the hotel in no time. We sat down and discussed our day for a while and came to a conclusion that climbing was definately not our thing but it was worth it for the views!!! We have to go to dinner now so I will see you all tomorrow back in Australia because we are going to the Murray darling river on a boat ride, fun!!! Oh we took some pictures from far away from Mount Cook because The tour guide said not to take them up incase we dropped them.

Cya tomorrow, Mon xo

Sarengeti

hey people

we ware not at New Zealand today that is tomorrow, me and my mistakes!!! Anyway we are in Serengeti now and that is also in Kenya. It is a grassland and they say the lowest degrees it has been in the recent couple of months had been around 53 degrees!!! oh man. We woke up late this morning so we had no time for breaky and had to run straight out to the car that was taking us top Serengeti. It was 55 degrees today and the amount of animals we saw was incredible!!! We saw giraffes with zebras and the zebras were absolutely incredible. We saw Hyenas, birds, snakes and also 2 baby cheetah cubs and their mother which were so cute. We also saw a female elephant that was pregnant and the tour guide told us that elephants are usually pregnant for around 2 years!!! Pheob's and I couldn't get over how dry it was here and how incredible it was that the animals could survive in such hazardous conditions, it only rained about 4 inches every month!!! The tour lasted around 4hrs but we headed home then because we needed to pack and board the plane for heading to New Zealand to do some mountain hiking!!! Will talk to you all tomorrow, cya then,

Mon xo

Kenya

Hey

We caught our plane at 5am!!! We arrived in Kenya at around 6:30am and relaxed for most of the day until 1pm when we caught our plane to the savanna. We got off our plane at around 2pm and it was boiling!!! It was just over 45 degrees. The guy driving the plane bought ice-creams so we had one but it melted like straight away. We had a safari ride at 3pm so we were very happy to get in the bus when it came!!! We drove for around 20-30mins before we saw a male leopard, it was hunting some wildebeest and then caught a calf. It was horrible to watch and we were happy when we moved on. A few minutes later we saw some Giraffes, they were massive!!! They could run really fast when they wanted top and they were interesting to watch. A while later we saw some rhino's and also a baby with it, it was gorgeous. The tour guide said it was really rare to see rhinos around at this time and so were very lucky to see them. We started to head home and when we were just coming to the end of the Savanna we saw a massive lion lying under a tree, he was sooooo big!!! Phoebe was mean and said he was nearly as big as me!!! I said It as nearly as big as her head and then she got annoyed at me!!! We got home after around 6pm and we were really tired. We really enjoyed the safari ride and the interesting facts that w the tour guide told us about. Guess what, there are over 40 tribes in the Savanna and they all have their individual languages and cultures. One tenth of the land has been dedicated to national parks and specifically for Safari's. The main animals of the savanna are known as the big 5, they include, elephants, leopards, lions, buffalo's and rhinos. There are 17 species of different mammals alone. Anyway I guess we will go to bed now. We are so sad to be leaving tomorrow so we will talk to you in New Zealand!!

Cya later, Mon xo

OOPS!!!

Sorry people but I got confused, there is no emus in the Sahara Desert there are Ostriches, sorry!!!
Mon xo

Oopsy

Sahara Desert

Hey,

Well we woke up at around 9am this morning and had to quikly have breakfast because we were going on the tour at 10am!!! We packed a little backpack with sunscreen, hat etc. Then we ran outside just as the tour bus pulled up at the hotel. We jumped inside and we had a 2hr drive to the Sahara Desert.

We talked and introduced ourselves the whole way and the scenery was lovely to watch too.We arrived at the Sahara Outscirts at around 12:30pm and had a quick lunch break. The we were on the move again by 12:45pm.

We kept driving through the desert for around an hr with the man driving was telling us about what we would be doing today and the things we could look forward too seeing. He said we would run into some animals like jackals, goats, maybe hyenas and maybe emus. He said that there is not many animals in the Sahara due to the harsh heats and usually a lot of the animals live under ground and some don't even come out of the ground! At about 2pm we got out and had a look around. Phoebe and I took our shoes of and played in the sand but not for long because as he said the heat was awful!!! Then the man taking us on the tour pointed over to a pack of Jackals walking along slowy. There was about 10 of them all in a big huddle looking very tired and sorry for themselves. There were two bigger ones that were a lot more muscular and fed than the others and then some were smaller and skinnier. Then there was one at the back that was very small but it looked old instead of like a baby, it was a grey colour and had brown and black on it's legs. It was pretty skinny and was stragling along behind the rest of the pack. We took a photo of herwhen she had stopped at one point and then got one of the pack but I don't know if it worked because of the sun, so I will put it on the next post if it worked.

The Jackals were soon out of site and so we went back to what we were doing before. Then Phoebe and I spotted an Emu not to far away actually and just stood and stared for ages. Then we told the man and he pointed ot out to everyone else. But with all the yelling it got scared and ran away, boy could it run fast!!! Luckily I got a photo of it while it was just me and Phoebe so I will show you that one too.Then the leader of the tour told us to gather close so he could tell us about the Sahara he said:-

• The Sahara Desert is the largest desert in the world covering atleast 3000 miles from east to west.


• The desert is the second largest in the world, Antarctica is in front.


• The desert was thought to have had a quite a lot of water because crocodile fossils have been found.


• Dinosaurs fossils have also been found meaning there must have been quite a lot of water for them to live there
• Most of the people living the Sahara are known as Nomads(People who move one place to another) There are around 2.5million people in the Sahara Desert so there is around 1 person per square mile!!!
• There used to be millions more people populating the Sahara because the heat wasn't as harsh as it is now.

We started to head back home at around 3pm and we were all very hot and tired. We got back to the hotel at around 5:30pm. We headed inside with our belongings and then went up to our room. We had a shower and decided to have dnner in the resturant in the hotel. The food was lovely, Pheobe and I both had fish and chips. After dinner we went upstairs to pack to pack for going to Kenya tomorrow. It should be really nice up there.

Anyway I am really tired now so I think I will go to bed.

Cya tomorrow

Mon xo

P.S. Pictures on the next post!

Sahara Desert

Sahara Desert

Hey Mon here,
Well once again we were up bright and early 7:30am. Because we were leaving today Jake made us pancakes for breakfast, they were so nice and Phoebe and I thanked him profusely. We sat and talked about everything for about 1hr!!! Then we quickly gathered our stuff and headed to the airport once again. It was 8:30am by the time we left and the flight left at 3:30 so we arrived there at around 1:30 and for once had a while to go shopping. We said our goodbyes to Jake because he said he is not the best fan of shopping so decided to leave. We went to heaps of different shops and I brought a toy Jaguar and Phoebe brought a squirrel monkey toy. We then looked at clothes and I brought some swimmers and Phoebe brought another hat!!! Then we sat down for a coffee and had a quick lunch at around 2:30 then headed through customs.
The plane flight was again fine (mostly because we slept most of the time!!!) and the movies were OK too.
We were in North Africa at around 6:30pm and weren't very tired so decided to dump our stuff at the hotel and head out for dinner. We had Italian(even though it is Africa!!!). Then it was around 8pm so we went to the hotel and talked and watched TV for ages. Then it was around 10pm so we are just about to go to bed.
Cya tomorrow we have organised a tour in the Sahara desert, can't wait!!!
Mon xo

Pics of the amazon

Hi,
Well we woke up this morning at around 7am!!! Thanks to Jake cluttering around in the kitchen with breakfast. So hesitantly got out of bed and headed for the family room. Breakfast was on the table when we arrived and we had bacon and eggs, it was really nice and woke Phoebe and I up perfectly. While eating breaky Jake announced what we were doing for the day. Phoebe and I choked as he said 15km walk!!!! Yes we choked on our food and dropped the cutlery as he spoke. He said we should both be fine because it was MOSTLY flat and he also said we would she a load of animals. That cheered us up a little. So once we had finished we went into our bedroom and got ready for the day. Phoebe and I carried a tiny backpack to help the walk a little and to our surprise Jake carried an absolutely massive bag, full of food, water, cameras, first aid gear and probably the kitchen sink judging by the size of it!!! Anyway, he said he would be fine because he is used to it, but Phoeb's and I doubted that we would even be able to handle our bags for 15kms let alone that so called bag!
We headed out at around 9:30am and we walked through different varieties of trees, bushes vines and loads more and we saw a lot of a lot of birds of different shapes, sizes and colours. We walked for around 2hrs before we caught site of a monkey. According to Jake it was a squirrel monkey and they were also called Saimiri sciureus (Don't worry I can't pronounce it either!!!) They were so cute and only grow to about 10-14 inches long, how adorable?! We took some great photos and then we had to move on. We had walked about 4km now and so we still had 11km left, bit with the beautiful scenery around us we didn't notice the distance.
We kept walking and suddenly Jake told us to stay completely still and look straight in front. We were a bot shocked at the alertness in his voice but did as we told. We looked in front and saw a big, lanky Black Jaguar and boy was he beautiful!!! He was black and silky and looked as if his fur was velvet. His walk was graceful, sneaky and luckily didn't notice us. We got a photo of him because Jake didn't want to scare him with the flash. He said they are usually called Panthers.
We decided to take a long path around him because Jake said he would probably be hunting, so we went with that!
We kept walking for around and 1hr and a half and then we decided to have lunch. We sat on the ground under a tree and Jake pulled out some sandwiches he made this morning, probably at like 5am!!! Then he got some fruit and biscuits. We all started eating and then he told us some facts 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.
• 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!!! Just in 1 square meter of leaf liter there was 50 different types of ants found!!!

Once we were totally in awe over the facts we kept eating and that was when I realised that the tree we were under was incredibly tall!! I asked Jake how tall it was and he said it was only around 90m but they can grow to around 130m tall and some can be around 200ft!!! I kept looking at the trees and then I realised that I was struggling to see because of the trees covering pretty much all of the light coming from the sun!!!

Jake said we had walked as far as we could go if we wanted to get home before dark and he said it would be safer if we did, so we packed up and started to head back.

We had walked around 2km from the tree when i saw a beautiful bird. It had an orange, green, yellow, red and black bill that was absolutely massive!!!! It had a black body with yellow down its chest and green around its eyes. I showed Jake and he said it was a 'Keel-Billed Toucan'. I took a million photos, but I will only put a few on my next post. Oh I will also put a map of the wetlands and Antarctica on there because i forgot to put them on my last picture post.

We kept walking and it took us around 2hrs to get back to camp. That was with a few stops because Jake showed us some different ant and other insect species.

Once we were inside and relaxed it was around 5pm so it wasn't too late but we were pretty tired because of all the walking. We sat and talked for a while and then had dinner, cheese on toast (we weren't very hungry!!!) Then we all had showers and Phoebe and I packed to go back tomorrow. We are off to the Sahara Desert next and are really looking forward to it, thought it is a little different from the amazon!!!! We will actually be able to see the sun!!

Anyway cya tomorrow,

I will put the pics on another post along with the maps!!!

Cya Mon xo

Change of plans!!!

Hello,
Well last night we had a very drastic change of plans!!! We heard that the Amazon Rainforest is full of life right now and Pheobe is dying to see some monkeys so here we are now in the Amazon rainforest in a tent, with a small fire outside and it is 10pm at night. Yes I did say it we ARE in a tent, well a massive tent at that!!! It has 3 rooms, 1 is Pheobe's and mine, another is our tour guides', Jake. The last room is the biggest of the so called 'family room' even though none of us are realated, but Jake is really hot!!! Don't worry though Chandler I wouldn't do that but Pheobe would, sorry Mike! Nah, I will keep her in line, don't worry!!! She just read that bit and said she wouldn't dream of it. Anyway, we had a good flight, overall and it took us around 5hrs to get where we are now and we have been here for around an hr and a half. We had dinner which was baked beans on toast!!! It was ok! Then we got settled down and I am falling asleep while I am writing this so I will talk to you about what we do tommorow, I think we are going a walk but hopefully not too far!!
Cya Mon xo

Pics of antarctica

Antarctica!!!!

Hey from down below!!!
Well we are in Antarctica now and in our base camp. It is pretty warm in here though the outside air is soooo cold!!! It is about -27 outside and everything is obviously ice. We arrived here about 10am this morning and it was at the hottest point of the day -20! Yeh so hot! We have a very cosy camp and we have 3 tour guides with us. Their names are Rob, Jenny and James. They are all very nice and before took us around Antarctica on a sled led by huskies, I will tell you about that next. Phoeb's and I have to share a bunk in a separate part of the camp to the others because of the lack of space. The bunks are very comfortable though.
Anyway onto the trek. We headed out at around 11:30 and Phoebe and I were kind of worried we would fall down a cravasses or something but Jenny told us not to worry. After about 30mins we saw some emperor penguins!!! They were beautiful. They were yellow, orange, white, black and had a bit of red. They also had some cute, fluffy babies!!! Jenny went closer for us and got some pictures. Then she got some of the landscape, cliff edges, and icebergs. We then moved over to one of the cliff edges and had a brilliant look at some whales and there babies, which are known as calfs. The were so graceful. We also got some brill photos of them too. We then went on and Jenny taught us how to tell the huskies what to do. 'Mush' means go, and you just really have to say'wohhh' to stop them. That was all we learnt though.
She then taught us a bit about antarctica. 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.
Well after our lesson on Antarctica we then headed on to find....yes, seals!!! Jenny said Antarctica has 6 species of seals including fur seals, crabeater seals, elephant seals, leopard seals, Ross seals and Weddel seals. My favourite is the fur seals and to our surprise that is the breed we had just encotoured. There was also elephant seals not far from them. The fur seals were incredible and extremely cute! Phoebe and I were jumping up and down at the spot whenever we caught a glance of the babies. They did actually have a lot of fur and were rather petite. We got some incredidble photos of them and one inperticular photo of a baby holding it's nose that was soooo cute!!! We then moved onto the elephant seals, now they were a different story. They were absoloutly massive especially the males!! And they weren't exactly what you call cute but if you looked close enough they were in their own way!!
Jenny then said it was time to hed home, else the dark would kick in and it would be unbarably cold.
It took us around 1hr-1 and a 1/2 hrs. And when we were back at the camp we told Rob and James all about our trek and what we had learned. They were rather impressed that we took all of it in! We the had dinner of pasta with a tomato sauce. We talked for a while and then me and Pheobe decided to pack for tommorow seen as though we were leaving at 10am!!!
We are heading to New Zealand tommorow so that should also be as fun as everywhere else has been! I will put the photos of here on another post to save space hope you like them.
Cya tommorow,
Monica xo

last day at the wetlands!!! :(

hello people,
Well as usual we woke up this morning and started to pack to leave. It was kind of sad though because we really didn't want to leave this place so soon. We decided to make the most of it and packed as fast as we could so we could get out the door! We were out the hotel at around 8:30am !!!! early huh!? Anyway we practically ran down to the wetlands and to our surprise the people that ran the place remembered us from yesterday!!!
We went inside as fast as we could and being smart came to a conclusion that we should have breakfast so that we could stay out in the wilderness for longer!!! We scoffed sown our breakfast and we were outside in a flash!
It was a relief to finally breath the fresh air and peace in that I think we just stood there for about 10mins gathering it up!!! Then we away and walking. We thought it would be smart to miss the fishing to day and went straight to looking for our favourite animals in this beautiful place. I was the first to spot mine, well one of mine, which was the honeyeater. And I sat there and watched this pretty bird do it's stuff!!! Pheobe was pushy so we didn't stay as long as I would have wanted but we were soon walking again and Pheobe gazed in the pond/lake for I don't know how long, gazing at the fish swim by. At times she would jump up and point out a fish that she recalled to be massive, they were usually only about 10-15cm long so obvioulsy she had never cooked fish!!!
We walked around admiring for ages and when Pheobe finally looked at the time, it was 12pm. We had to catch the plane by 2:30 so we were running back to the hotel before you could think any wiser! We suprisingly reached the hotel at a record of only 15mins, we could run when we wanted.(Joey look out I will smash you in the next race of ours!) We grabbed our stuff and caught a cab to the Sydney airport, arriving there at around 2pm, once again we were late. We grabbed a coffee and some lunch and ran through customs.
We were on the plane just in time. We had seated ourselves and about 5mins after we were on the move heading to King George island where we would then go to Antarctica!
So I will talk to you soon but the air hostess said to turn off my laptop, so cya at Antarctica!!!
Mon xo

The Hunter Wetlands(really this time!!!)

Hey people,

Well we woke up at 8am this morning so the early night did the trick. We took about 30 mins top pack up our stuff because we didn't have much to pack away because we didn't stay long. You never guess what happened though, while we were packing Phoebe brought up the topic of Bob. Do you remember, the rat? Anyway, I just ummed and ahhh when needed and then thought it was time to tell the truth. I told her everything and she wasn't very happy but said he should come back!

We called the cab once we had, again, found reception and then we were away from the lodge and heading to the Hunter Wetlands by 9am.We arrived at the hotel we were in at about 10am and we were walking distance from the wetlands. We decided to go out and have some breakfast because we hadn't had any yet.Once we had had breaky we headed to the Wetlands and it was about 11am by then.

The Wetland scenery was incredible. It was so peaceful and we were very, very relaxed. We decided to go fishing first and we caught lots of tiny fish that were very colourful. We tried terribly hard not to kill them but I accidently slipped on the wood and stepped on one. Phoebe thought I was scared and did it on purpose, as if!!! I swear I didn't!!!

Once we had done enough fishing we went for an hours walk around the park. It was stunning and we couldn't believe all the different species of birds there. The wetland has over 213 bird species living there. There is 72 typical wetland birds some such as geese, ducks etc. Them there are 67 water birds and 9 migratory species. Some of my personal favourites were the honeyeaters and cuckoos. There were so interesting to watch. The mammals were also very cute, including foxes, different rabbits and also mice, rats and bats. (the bats we didn't see though because they are nocternal) My favourite was the banidicoot. They were so cute!!! They were little brown mice like things, with long tails and brown fur. They were about 3 times the size of a mouse really but their features were alot the same. They also have massive ears!!! There was also different species of frogs, reptiles and plants. Oh we also saw a really big snake and it scared the heck out of Phoebes and I!!!

After the walk we were rather warm so decided to go canooing. Neither Phoebe or myself had been cannooing in our lives and we were kind of nervous, but once we were out there we soon picked up the hang of it and had so much fun. We nearly capsized at one point!Once we were off the water we were very hungry and decided to get luch at the cafe Nourish which was surrounded by bush and the birds kept flying by so gracefully. We could have stayed there forever. Lunch was very nice but extremely expensive!!! It cost more than our stay at our hotel for one night!!!

Once we had had our luch it was about 5pm so we decided to head home, well to the hotel!!!We were really tired and fell to sleep without dinner at about 7pm.

I think we are going to go for another walk at the wetlands tommorow before we head to Antarctica!!!!

Oh my gosh I can't wait to go see the seals in antartica, they are my favourite!!!

Bye for now

mon xo

P.S. here are some pics of the wetlands!

NSW!!!

Hey people!!!,

Sorry about the title of our last post, I got confused!!!!

Anyway Pheob's and I had packed last night so we were ready to leave in the morning. We had to check out at 10 am so it wasn't so bad. We slept in until 9am and then got up to check that we hadn't forgot to pack anything the previous night. (which we should have checked twice but I will tell you about that later!!!) Anyway once Pheobe was sure (not!!!) that she had collected everything we were out the door and into town for 1 more breaky in Townsville.

We arrived back at the hotel to collect our belongings at about 9:55!!! We were running a bit late. Anyway we collected our things and headed in a cab to the Townsville airport. Our flight was leaving at 12pm we ariived at the airport at about 11am. So we didn't have time to look around but of course we picked up one more coffee and headed through customs.

The flight was peaceful and I slept most of the way only to be woken by Pheobe yelling at me about some strange thing. I calmly told her to settle down and tell me what happened. She said she had left the fluffy toy Nemo she got from the boat warf in Townsville, at the hotel along with her new hat from a very expensive shop in there too!!! I was trying to be very sympathetic but it was pretty funny because everyone was staring at her, so I struggled not to laugh but she realised I was and she got pretty angry with me!!!

Anyway once we departed the flight we were at the Sydney airport. It was very big and crowded so once we had our luggage we were soon outside and into a cab heading to Watagon Lodge where we were staying for the 4 days we had in NSW. Pheobe said that the lodge was a 5 star hotel and it was very exciting. I started to get very excited as we drove through the city, but we never ended up stopping in the city and we headed into the bush!!! That was when Pheobe was excited and I was starting to dred this trip after all!!!Pheobe started to jump up and down in the seat. Then we arrived at the lodge. I thought I was going to faint! It was a run down place that was made out of rotten wood and looked kind of scary. We got our luggage out of the cab and headed over to the lodge. Pheobe was extatic yet I was, well quite the opposite. So, we went inside and put our bags down and suprisingly it was kind of cute and cosy. There was a little fire in the corner and it looked like it would certainately keep us warm!!! The floor and walls were made from wood and smelt really great!! Then the beds were probably the downside being bunkbeds with a leather matress but we would only be spending 1 night in it and then we would be heading down to the Hunter Wetlands. Over all it was definately not a 5 star hotel(pheobe got that mixed up with 5 kms in the bush!!)but it was cute and Pheobe was happy so I'm sure I will survive!

The day quikly passed into night and got darker sooner because we were under all the trees. We had been for a walk recently, it wasn't masive but very peaceful. We found a river on the walk and we put our feat in but the water was freezing so we decided not to go in. The walk lasted about an hour and a half and we had collected some extra wood for the fire on the way back.

Once we were back in the lodge we started the fire and that was when we realised that we had no food!!! Pheobe and I went into a rush of panic and decided to order pizza. One problem with that though was we struggled to get reception so had to move around all over the site to eventually find some.

The pizzas arrived at around 7:30pm so not to late and Pheobe and I had time to settle down and use the coffee, tea, hot chocolate and biscuits that were here. So we weren't near to starving as Pheobe stated we would! The pizzas were nice and warm when they arrived and we ate them with no hesitation.

Then we decided and early night would do us good and so we are going to bed in about half an hour which will be helpful so we can head down to the wetlands early tommorow.

So I guess I will see you tommorow with the news of the wetlands. Here is a picture of our lodge so see what I mean by cute and very cosy.

Cya tommorow

Mon xo

The Hunter Wetlands

Hey it's Monica here,

Well Pheobe and I enjoyed our last day at Townsville. We had had so much fun shopping together and also enjoying all the different foods and experiences. And don't worry Chandler, Rach , Joey and Ross we did get some souviners from here!!! The beach was also incredible but the waves were incredibly big which made Pheobe and I hesitate at first site but soon collected our barings and dived in. While we had our swim we also sited dolphins and some penguins which the lifeguards said were 'fairy penguins'. ( Pheobe and I freaked when we saw the fins of the dolphins because we thought they were sharks fins. Without taking a second glance, which she probably should have!!!, Pheobe was out of the water in a flash and reported to the lifeguard that she had seen a shark. Imbarresingly, she was corrected that they were dolphins and she was back in the water in a flash!!!)

Anyway we had a brill time on Townsville and the coffees we had (a lot!!!) were brill. (Don't worry Gunther they are not as good as yours!!!)

Can't wait to go down to NSW tomorrow!!! According to Pheob's we are going to a place called the Hunter Wetland area. Hoping Pheobe hasn't got the map wrong because this was the one she insisted she do!!! So I am a tad concered about that but her enthusiasm is pleasing atleast!

Anyway I will talk to you when we are in NSW!! Here are some more pictures of Townsville to show you. Sorry we are in none of them but how burnt we had become over the last few days was embarrassing!

Bye for now,

Monica xo

Pictures and maps of Great Barrier Reef

Hey,
Well we woke up at 9am this morning and it is about 30 degrees already! We had our showers, got dressed and headed out onto the streets of Townsville for Breakfast. We both had the 'big breaky' it was amazing! So different to American Hot Breakfasts. Chandler, Rach, Joey and Ross you are missing out on so much!Anyway, once we had had breaky we went back to the hotel and got prepared to go to the Great Barrier Reef!

We left for the bus to the Boat Ramp at about 10:30am and we arrived there at around 11:30am. We then caught a sailing boat across to the Reef and were immediately stunned by the dense loads of coral, fish and different colours we saw below and around us and the boat. Pheobe forced me into booking a snorkeling class that morning so we got changed in to our swimmers and were taken into the water. Suprisingly the water was so warm and clear. We swam in the reef for about 2hrs!!! It was amazing. In the water in was so calm and relaxing, I swear I nearly fell asleep! In was also very quiet vthe only thing I could really here was Pheobe going crazy over things she had seen!!! I think my favourite fish was the Clown Fish. What an awesome name, huh? Anyway, it was orange and black and it loved the sea Annenomeas. Man, that was hard to spell!! And tehy were quite small and the tour guide said they had made a cartoon movie call 'Finding Nemo'. Which has Clown Fish in it. I so want to see it!!! The tour guide started to tell us about how some humans keep poluting the reef and are slowy destroying it!!! I was appauled and Pheobe started crying! But then they told us about an organisation that helps it so we were happy then!
In the rush to get in the water Pheobe forgot to put on sunscreen and is now very burnt and I am a little bit but definately not as much as Pheobe!
Once we were out and dressed we then caught the boat back to the boat ramp and then we caught the bus back to our hotel. We had a brilliant day and experience at the Great Barrier Reef.When we got back to Townsville we went shopping and had dinner out at a fancy resturant! YAY!!!
Anyway cya tomorrowMonica