Monday 22 December 2014

Perth




Isn't this a beautiful crab!!


This is Trigg beach from the rock jetty the children love so much



My favourite place - the ocean!

We are now all settled in to Perth Bible College where we'll be for 6 weeks!  It feels so different from being on the road.  Part of me is still itching to be nomadic but I have to say clean clothes, beds that don't need unrolling and de-sanding every night, a fridge that just stays plugged into electricity all the time without anyone needing to angst about it ..... these are a few of the many luxuries of staying put for a while.  We will do some camping up and down the coast to find various wonderful relatives who don't live in Perth but for the next few weeks we'll just be here.  We've had some lovely reunions with family we've not seen in over a decade which is so special ... and there are many more of those occasions to come.  The children are amazed to discover so many more children cousins they didn't know they had.  

Giles and I are trying to start a regular routine of running to the beach in the mornings before the sun gets too hot which happens at 7.30am followed by homeschooling.  My Dad, Juliet, Venetia and John have the little bungalow next to ours so we have lots of visitors.  Tonight we're hoping to go to the cathedral for a carol concert (probably one of those ones you're not supposed to take children to, but I think we will).  Only having a week to prepare for Christmas feels very different and so does the celebrating.  We're having a big family party in a park, with everyone bringing meat for the barbie and a salad, sounds good and relaxed!  Happy Christmas!

Kid cave explorers!!! by Joseph

On Trigg beach we found a jetty of rocks stretching into the sea; in these rocks we found lots of tunnels of caves and explored them.  Here are some of the photos I took of inside and the entrance to the caves.


This is the deep entrance hole to the tunnels


I took this photo through a hole in the wall of rock we have to climb under


A hollow bit in the ceiling covered in moss because of a channel that sometimes drips water into the cave.  You can put your hand through the ceiling into the channel.



Ethan in a large crack in the ceiling.

The first exit.

Trigg beach is one of my favourite beaches so far.  The caves are only just big enough for us so a lot of people won't be able to fit.  The rocks are very spiky and unforgiving as they're made of sandstone mixed with coral. Arches, caves and craters are amongst some of the small, cool natural things we've found.  Trigg beach is full of rocky outcrops and we're hoping to explore a bigger one soon.


Airplane day by Ethan

AIRPLANE DAY

Today,we had brekky, did homeschooling (as you can see), packed up,and drove to the airport.At the airport,we weighed all of our bags and went through all the security and all of the boring stuff until we got to our gate .Then we bought sweets and waited at our gate until the plane came. When it arrived we boarded and instantly Joseph and I started playing our games on the inflight entertainment screens. When the plane took off we had sucky sweets and watched movies! We watched Rio 2, ice age 4, Harry Potter and the sorcerers stone and number 4 was the iron giant! It took us 6 hours 45 minutes to get to Perth from Auckland. We had lunch and afternoon tea on the flight! It was really hot when we got to Perth it smelt really eucalyptussy. I thought it would feel really city-like but actually it feels like a village. I feel really excited about being here for Christmas. It's really nice meeting aunty patsy and uncle bob for the first time and trish and her family - it's odd, I've got a cousin who's the same age as me - Jackson, it's so good.

Happy Christmas from Ethan