Roadtrip to Melbourne

Me and mum hit the road after our housesitting gig finished. First stop was Jindabyne in the Snowy Mountains, except it is now summer. This is me being silly in front of our motel which fronted onto the lake, which is really a dam.

Old Jindabyne town is at the bottom of the lake. They had to rebuild the town once the lake was flooded!

We drove through the Snowy Mountains and actually saw some patches of snow which hadn't melted. We made our way to Victoria and to the town of Glenrowan, made famous by the bushranger and highwayman, Ned Kelly.

Ned Kelly and his gang had a shootout with the police in the town over 200 years ago. Me and mum had a pretend shootout after dinner at the inn, as it was like a ghost town in the evening. The main street was empty and quiet.

I bought a very useful and tasteful Ned Kelly mask as a souvenir.

Melbourne New Year's Eve is very different to the Sydney one. I went to see it at a park where lots of families were having picnics and Guy Sebastian was performing. The fireworks (not as good as Sydney) went off in the middle of one of his songs and over the skyline.

The next day we went for a bike ride along the Yarra River for about 3 hours. When we returned the bikes, we went along the Southbank for a walk.

On the way, we discover the Eureka Tower, the tallest building in Australia. It is taller than Sydney Tower and theQ! building on the Gold Coast.

It was also the tallest place in Australia to send a letter Here is me sending postcards from the highest postbox in Australia!

This is a taste of what it is like to be so high up, with nothing separating you from the ground except some chain mesh.

From the tower, we were looking at St Kilda, where we were planning to go the next day. I couldn't see the cake shops on Acland St using the binoculars.

When we finally got there, we strolled along the beachfront and watched the many kiteboarders on the water, and then stumbled into Melbourne's own Luna Park for some serious tummy shocks.



Here I am on the rollercoaster with my uncle Cam:

We spent a day in the Melbourne Docklands where they had glow-in-the-dark mini golf!

They also had a fun park with theme park rides. I've been getting more and more brave with the rides I go on. Mum's too scared to go on most of them with me.

They also had an Olympic size icerink at the Docklands for Australia's winter sports athletes to train in. One of the rinks was named after Stephen Bradbury, who won a gold medal in the speed skating when all the other skaters in his race fell over.

We had lunch on the Colonial Dining Tram, which is an old-fashioned restaurant tram that takes you around the city while you have lunch. It was very posh.


I went to a museum with my cousin Jasmine, who lives in Melbourne. We hung out, went to the movies, and wandered around the old cobbled lanes in the city.


Here is me lazing by the Yarra River on a hot summer's day wearing my "I love Melbourne" t-shirt.

We left Melbourne and headed to Phillip Island as part of our return trip to Sydney. A lot of Melbourne people go down there for their holidays. We went to a koala conservation centre, where we laughed at the way koalas sleep in the trees. And yes, I photographed their poo!



The island is famous for motorcycle grand prix racing. We didn't get to go on the track, but I got to do the next best thing, play on the longest slot car race track in Australia!

Oh, and I nearly forgot about the penguins which Phillip Island is also really famous for. But we went to see the Penguin Parade on a wet night. It should actually be called the Penguins in the Pouring Rain Parade. We got wetter than the penguins trying to watch them waddle their way out of the sea.


We saved some of the best things till last. We went on a helicopter ride over the island. Here is a picture and video to prove it!


Then we went to the island's chocolate factory, which was better than Willy Wonka's. It had model villages made out of chocolate, a one tonne block of chocolate, and a chocolate waterfall!



Next stop was Thredbo, where we took the Kosciusko Express up the highest mountain in Australia. It was my very first time on a chairlift!



The last part of our adventure was caravanning on the Shoalhaven River, where I did some tubing and boogieboarding.

Catsitting

We have been looking after a friend's place while they have been away. They have 2 cats called David and Chester who need looking after. You can see that I really spoilt them and let them sleep in the bed!

ABBA World

Me and my dad went to the Powerhouse Museum to see some special exhibitions. One was about spies, and the other was about ABBA. Here is me disguised as Benny in ABBA.

The ABBA exhibition was cool because you could audition to join the band.

You could also appear on their album covers.

A musical Christmas party

Instead of singing carols, we play them at my music school's Christmas party.

School concert

Jump!

Ghost tour

A couple of weeks ago, I went on a tour of the old Manly quarantine station. This was used in the days of the first fleet when ships would come into Sydney Harbour. Everyone on the ships had to be checked for diseases and those who were sick had to be separated from those who were healthy. Some people died from their illnesses while in quarantine and they reckon that is why the station is haunted.

This was the gravedigger's cottage. The graves were dug on a hill. And the sandstone bedrock meant they weren't very deep, so often graves would be dug up by dogs - yuk!
The views are so lovely from the quarantine station, no wonder the ghosts don't want to leave!

Tennis Champions Down Under Tour

Mum took me to see some veteran tennis players out at Sydney Olympic Park. They were playing at the Ken Rosewall Arena, the same court that I have played on!

This is Pat Cash, an Australian who won Wimbledon. He does awesome volleys! He was playing against Wayne Ferreira.

We also saw John McEnroe, who has an awesome bad temper. He was totally losing it with the linespeople. It was funny to watch. He ended up winning against Mats Wilander, who mum was going for. Not bad for a 51 year-old. But then the next day had to play Pat Rafter, an Australian who has won the US Open and 15 years younger than him and got smashed.

Annual Cockatoo Island Campout

My mothers' group went to Cockatoo Island again this year. We had a bit of rain but that didn't stop us from having a good time. Cockatoo Island was once used for naval shipbuilding and repair, that's why we are sitting on cannon on the island!

We also had our usual treasure hunt and Kris Kringle activities.

The Australian Tennis Centre

Me and some boys I play tennis with were invited to have a lesson at the Australian Tennis Centre at Sydney Olympic Park. These are the courts where the players warmed up for the Olympic Games in 2000 and the international tournament that is played here each year.



When we were leaving, we noticed that the centre court stadium was open but noone was in there. We climbed over the front row barrier and started playing. I felt like I was famous!

Spring school holidays on the south coast

To get to the south coast, we went via Goulbourn, a big country town which has the Big Merino. A merino is a boy sheep, as you can see from its backside! The inside of the sheep is a museum about the wool industry.

We stayed at a holiday park right on this beach. As you can see, the beach wasn't at all crowded even though there were lots of kids and families about.

This is Barlings Beach at sunset with the mountains in the background. We saw a puffer fish and lots of bluebottles washed ashore.

Then we went to another holiday park in Narooma, where my friend Lachie joined us. We built a bathtub in the sand.

There was plenty of sand to build stuff with, as there was hardly anyone on the beach here too! Mum rode her mountain up and down the beach on the hard sand.

Narooma has an island of the coast (which you can see in the background) which has the last manned lighthouse on the east coast of Australia.

The lighthouse was needed because there were lots of shipwrecks along the coast. The cemetery at Mystery Bay has graves of sailors and pirates who died in the shipwrecks.

I also got to go go-karting, but I was an inch too short to drive the go-kart myself! Mum had to drive it with me as passenger.

We went to Pebbly Beach and South Durras, which is famous for the kangaroos that live in the bush near the beach. There was only one kangaroo when we got down there, but the ground was covered in roo poo. Watch the video to see what happens next...