Adventures and Sleep Deprivation

Hi Everyone,

How are you? Preparing to go back to school?

I got home at 2:30 this morning. No, no, I was not out partying wildly! I was in Cairns last week, which is in Far North Queensland. Getting home was an event. First the transfer we booked just didn't show up, so after half an hour we had to call a cab, then it was a rush to checked in on time, queue jumping is NOT cool people, especially if someone is going to a miss a flight and you're not. Flying was fine, but then we had to sit on the tarmac in Sydney for an hour and a half because Virgin's computer system went down. They had to cancel 12 flights to get people waiting to get off to planes into terminals. Then we drove home from Sydney. That was long, I did some sleeping in that last part of the journey.

But aside from yesterday's afternoon debarkle, I had a fabulous time. We flew into Cairns on Sunday afternoon, it was nice being able to wear shorts. My brother and I hit the pool almost immediately and then I literally hit the pool, successfully removing the skin from my finger tips and parts of my finger nails and my nail polish! Yay for blood and pain! That was the end of swimming for that day. We walked along the water's edge and saw a fire show! So many ideas for the story with Hazel.

On Monday, we did some more swimming, my hand was feeling better, we wandered around town, I have new board shorts. Mum and I went and got our nails done. The damage done to my hand was fixed, I had fluro yellow nails, but acetone is painful to get in cuts and scrapes, I do not recommend  it. We went to the Night Markets because I was really excited about going. Mum and I  were really looking forward to finding a store where you get to choose which oyster you want opened and then you get to keep the pearl, we'd read about it online. Alas, we did not find it! However, we got my cousin a funky little solar power car for his birthday.

Tuesday saw me journeying to the Great Barrier Reef. The boot ride out was my least favourite part of the day, the first half was spent feeling sick, the second half was spent being sick, that was so much fun... Anyway, once we got to Moore's Reef, which is on of over 2000 reefs that make up the GBR, I was fine. Mum and I were snorkelling partners. Oh my gosh,the reef is BEAUTIFUL! I have never seen anything like it, there were so many different fish and corals. The colours are amazing, we saw a Rainbow Fish, TWO sea turtles, some Dorys, lots of silver dollars, the coral had so many different colours, we saw sea slugs, ENORMOUS FISH the length of my calves, I saw two of them having a fight. It was unreal seeing this whole other world.We spent an hour in the water, but it flew past. I didn't go back in, I was too cold and the sea was quite rough but I hang out in the underwater viewing part, watching the underwater world go by. The boat ride back to Cairns was a lot better for me, found my sea legs. At one point the boat stopped and the crew were really excited, there was a pod of whales near us! My brother, a few other passengers, some crew and I headed to the top deck, which had been roped off. It was awesome watching the whales. Lots of massive splashes and we saw one come out of the water and flip its tail as it went back under. Then the water got so rough the boat was practically diagonal and we had to go right then. I didn't so much walk across the deck to the stairs, as crawl because it was safer, my death grip was very useful on the ride.

On Wednesday, we got picked up from our hotel at 7:20, we were off to Kuranda! After a bus ride to Fresh Water Station, we hang out and looked at the tiny museum, there was an old red phone booth there, I had my photo taken in it. We got on the historic train for our journey to Kuranda. They asked us to change carriages so while the train was moving we got to walk between the carriages, DAY MADE! The scenery was beautiful all the way up the mountain, I took heaps of photos, and we learned all about making the line, we stopped at a waterfall. In Kuranda, we went to the Butterfly House, which I am fairly certain is my family's favourite place in the whole world. We all have a thing for butterflies. We saw so many beautiful butterflies, Cairns Butterflies are gorgeous. After that we took the sky rail down the hills, getting off at the stops to look at the rain forests. Going over the top over the Daintree was incredible. After the skyrail, we headed to Hartley's, which is a crocodile park. We went on a swamp cruise, watched some crocs swim and snack. Then we saw the croc show, lots of jaw slaps,which make cool sounds, Hagrid, the crocodile decided to chase the keepers for a while, that was entertaining. I talked to some Padymelons, 'roos and wallabies, looked at the quoll, feed the Cassowary and learned about Koalas. Busy day!

On Thursday we went swimming in the Esplanade Lagoon for several hours, then I had a shower and then my brother decided we should go swimming again, so we did. We walked towards the cargo port, watched an enormous ship being loaded with pallets of concrete and did some more wandering. We had Filopino food for dinner, it was amazing! You should defiantly try it.

Yesterday, being Friday, we went to the top floor of the Casino, where there is a wildlife park of sorts. There's a high ropes course through it so my brother and I did that. That was so much fun, there were birds on the obstacles and you could see the wildlife from different angles. There was even a zipline over a 4 metre croc, that was a little scary. The scary bit was stepping off the platform, but after that, smiles all around! I also did a power jump, which is jumping off a platform 13 metres of the ground. I did that twice, Yes, I'm not exactly normal.  After lunch we headed back and you know how that goes.

Today, I passed my driving test! That's right, after getting home at half past two in the morning, I passed my driving test at 11 this morning. I'm putting that in my list of achievements under : Can drive safely while sleep deprived. :P

Okey dokey, that's all for now folks. Hope your holidays are good and that Rose is having fun on her month away.

See you during the week girls!

Love Zara

WOO! Holidays!!

Hi Everyone!

How is everyone? Enjoying you're all enjoying your holidays? It's nice when all of us are on holidays. Except that Nira is out of the country and Rose is visiting another state Up There, so it's kinda hard to talk to each other. But I'm sure they're having a good time!

So today has been really good for me. I had my hair cut, meaning I can see! Also, the bottom of my hair was cut too, that was the amusing part. I had to stand up so they could check it was straight at the bottom. I've painted my toenails bright orange. And, the best bit, WE GOT A CAR!! That's right, there's a car I can drive. It's a little silver Astra and we're calling it Astrid!! We're picking her up tomorrow!

And on Saturday, I have my very last driving lesson so that I can get my Ps on my birthday.

Anyway, short post to keep you up to date. More soon.

Love Zara

P.S  Sheldon and the Hellhound, or, How I Lost My Hotdogs  (I was watching Big Bang Theory)