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Martha and Greta at Sydney Wildlife World

Hi Greta here!

Today we went to Sydney Wildlife World.  We saw lots of animals.  There were kangaroos, wallabies, koalas, lizards, snakes, huge stick insects, butterflies, spiders and bull ants.  There was also a Hairy Nosed Wombat. My favorite animal there was the spotted tailed quoll. The quoll is a nocturnal marsupial. We also liked the short beaked echidna. He waddles like a penguin. I can safely say that the quoll and the echidna are my two of my favorite Aussie animals we saw today. The park has a special enclosure where you can get up CLOSE with the koalas. But to go in and get your picture taken with one costs $19.95! We got to the park by monorail. We also rode it back, after we had lunch at the cafeteria. We had a lot of fun at Wildlife World today!

Resting wallabies

Curious Koala

Hi Greta here,

Today we took a ferry to the Botanical Gardens. They are very near the Opera House. There are a lot of cool trees and ponds. We went to a cafe and the Ibis’ just walked in liked nobody cared. We saw fruit bats (also called Flying Foxes) in the trees as we ate our lunch. After the Botanical Gardens we went to Balmoral Beach for Mia’s birthday. We ate chocolate cake and cup cakes. They were good!

Jonas, Daniel, Lena, Greta and Issy on the Sydney Harbor Ferry

Flying Fox in the Botanical Gardens

Hi Jonas here,

Today I’m going to tell you about our Aussie friends.

So far we have stayed or played with Joseph, Sofia, Christopher, Elliott, Mia, Aaron, Daniel, Issy, Alice, Camilla, Zoe, Cara and Jessica. Here are some pictures of them.

Joseph and Sofia in school uniforms

Back: Elliott, Jonas, Greta, Alice, Zoe, Camilla. Middle: Lena, Cara, Aaron. Front (sitting): Mia, Jessica

Sofia, Christopher and Joseph with their Mom and Dad

Tomorrow, we are staying with Martha and Toby. I’ll post some more pics later.

Hi Jonas here,

Yesterday we went to Sydney FCs game at Aussie Stadium.  Sydney FC was facing Perth Glory.  Perth is a city on the west side of Australia.  Sydney FC is a soccer club.  In the first half a lot of exciting things happened.  There was a professional foul and the captain – Mark Rudan – got sent off – he got a red card!  That meant Sydney only had ten men.  They took the free kick right outside of the penalty box.  It was almost a goal but the Sydney keeper saved it.  Perth must have gotten really angry because they fouled a Sydney guy and got a yellow card which means a warning.

In the second half, Perth was getting tired so Sydney broke free to Perth’s side of the field and they shot a lot but the keeper always blocked the goals.  Ten minutes from the end Steve Corica crossed it to Alex Brosque and he headed it in for a goal.  The crowd was screaming!

I thought the game was pretty good but a lot of players got injured and they had a lot of stoppage time.

[Dadministrator here: We are going to be away from a computer for the next few days so we'll post again and add pictures on Monday 18th.]

Hi Greta here,

Yesterday we went to the Taronga Zoo with Elliott, Cara, Jessica, Mia and Aaron (Elliott’s little brother).  We saw a lot of cool animals including an echidna.  An echidna is a little animal with spines and a long beak that waddles like a penguin!  We also saw a platypus and wallabies.  You can walk inside the wallaby enclosure.  Inside were wallabies and one emu.  When we were walking out, an emu tried to eat Aaron by pecking at his hat!

We also saw two shows – the first one was a seal show and the second one was an Australian bird show.  They were both really interesting.  When we were walking to the seal show it started to get really hot.

Greta here, we’re going to speak some Australian:

G’day, how youse goin’?

We’re havin’ a bonza time here in Sydney.  We went down the beach yesterday and the water had a net to keep out the Noahs Arks.  Our spunky host Tone wore his sluggos and thongs.  We had a squiz at the tubes but fair dinkum, it was pretty flat.  There were heaps of ankle biters on the beach and all of them had slipped, slopped and slapped and wore rashees.  Tony built a sandcastle with the ankle biters while my Pommy Dad bludged on the stairs.   We all scoffed a bacon sanger with sweet tomato sauce.  Luckily there were no blowies.

Translation:

Hi, how are you?

We’re having a great time here in Sydney.  We went to the beach yesterday and the water had a net to keep out the sharks.  Our handsome host Tony wore his Speedo swimming trunks and flip flops.  We checked out the waves but to be honest, there was no surf action.  There were lots of kids on the beach, all covered in sun screen and wearing rash vests.  Tony built a sandcastle with the kids while my British Dad lazed on the stairs.  We all ate a bacon sandwich with sweet pickle.  Fortunately, there were no blowflies.

Sofia, Christopher, Tony, Greta, Joseph, Jonas & Lena at the beach

Hi Jonas here,

Today  we played Australian Football.  It’s like American Football but it’s not as complicated.  You try to kick the ball through these tall polls and if you get it through it’s six points.  If you hit the post then it’s one point.  There are two other goals and if you get it through those then it’s one point.

Also we went to a park and we saw a jumping castle and there was a market.  We bought egg and bacon rolls with sweet chili sauce (yum!).

We went to Elliott’s house and we swam in a pool and watched a movie.  We also had chocolate fondue and we dipped strawberries and bananas in it!

Elliott & Greta

 Jonas