Retro Camper

In Kurunda Rainforest Accomodation Park

Loving it

Here are some photos of us in Australia. We are having a great time and have been visiting some of the places we went to ten years ago. Here is one of Ethan with a 

Rainbow Lorikeet on his head. Reminds me of our old budgie.

Here is Joseph at Wrights Lookout near Barron Falls

This is the SkyRail cable car that runs from near Cairns to Kurunda

4 mile beach, Port Douglas

We are here at Port Douglas and about half an hour ago we got back from 4 mile beach just across the road from us!  It has coconut palm trees on the beach and I swam in the warm sea and went in the waves, my goggles kept falling off because of the huge waves which was quite annoying!  

The campervan is very nice and Australia is really great a bit warm but not too warm about 28 degrees.  When we drive the pots and pans are very clangy!  

From Ethan

Ps it looks like Sophie has a new toy surf board

25/8/14

Today was the first day in Australia for us,so it was very exciting. We woke at ten as we were very jet lagged (by the way ten for Australia is one for England ). We had a breakfast of coco chex and then set off for the lagoon.The walk to the lagoon is only about half an hour but is made much longer by all the wonderful birds you see. The birds are loads of lorikeets, a large group of pelicans, one with its beak open, a budgie, white herons, brown herons, ibis and curloos.

Lizard Camper by Sophie

Eating in our campervan!

I sleep up in the top of the campervan.  Joseph and Ethan sleep there too.

We swam at Trinity Beach. The Coral Sea was warm

I think Australia is good and I think watermelon is delicious (I'm eating it right now and I'm gonna have another piece.

Some Photos from Hong Kong

We've had such a great time in Hong Kong!!  Here are a few photos of our time now we're here in Australia!  We met up with our friend Patrick at a vegan restaurant (not many of them in Hong Kong) at the top of the mid-level escalators on Hong Kong Island.

We journeyed on the Star Ferry every day over to Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon side where we were staying.  This is the view on the journey back to our windowless flat!

We used every mode of transport possible,  the buses were so air conditioned you almost forgot how incredibly hot it was outside.  We went to Aberdeen (below) to see some of the beautiful sampans, junks and jumbos on the way to Stanley Market which wasn't quite as crazy as I remembered it being but the children loved it!

Is this a lotus flower?  We went to the outskirts of Kowloon and went to Lai Chee Kok Park (below) which reminded us of the Olympic Park in Stratford .  It seemed brand new and must make such a difference to the people that live in the surrounding blocks of flats.  We were surprised that so far outside the main bustling city streets people still live in the same small flats.  We were trying to find the Sung Dynasty village (a reconstruction of an old chinese village) that Emelye had been to as a child but we think it had been demolished to make way for the park!

We went into the New Territories and went to a walled village where everyone's surname is still Tang after about 500 years of living there!!  We met these lovely ladies (below)!  Above is the little temple within the walls.  Here people seemed to live a little differently,  there was much more space and far fewer people around.



This was our last meal in Hong Kong in a restaurant we'd stumbled upon on our very first night.  The satayish noodles were just so tasty, grated water chestnut, black bean bean curd and seafood, sweet and sour..... yum!  Back to our own cooking now!!!  Bring on the stubbies and barbies!!!

We went to Lantau Island on our last day to see the monastery at Lo Pin where the Big Buddha sits on top of the mountain.  Sophie was quite taken with the Buddha.

We loved the roof on the temple with the dragon gutters, and it had a vegan cafe - we were all happy!!

We walked all the way up to the top in amongst the clouds, it was so beautiful!!  We really enjoyed the Buddhist temple, seeing so many worshippers with their incense was a real eye opener and everyone was so friendly to us and welcoming.

Afternoon Tea at the Goldfish Market

We also visited the flower market and bird market!

We hired a car

We've Arrived in Hong Kong!

I love Hong Kong, even though it's boiling hot! It's really fun, we had loads of yummy food for dinner. Ethan.

On our plane we had dinner and breakfast (according to the time zone breakfast was at lunch time ).It was an amazing flight and had awesome movies .it was the longest flight I have ever been on!Joseph.

We are having a very nice time. We are in Hong Kong. We goes in a ferry and we seed lots do monkeys in the zoo. The tram up the mountain was very quick. We live up lots of steps but there aren't real windows, it's very quiet but noisy on the street. Love Sophie

The last time I was here in Hong Kong was when I was 11 years old; needless to say we have both changed a lot! It was comforting this morning to walk down Salisbury Road past the space museum and the art gallery looking the same as I remember and running to catch the same Star Ferry!  Crossing the water to Hong Kong Island was just as magical, the minutes of still before the busyness starts again.  The number of skyscrapers is phenomenal and walking on high level walkways to avoid the roads feels lovely and safe as a family.  There was a terrific downpour when we were at the top of The Peak so we ran under a pagoda to shelter.

Emelye

Cantonese!

Here are some phrases we've learnt for Hong Kong:

Hello: nay hoh

How are you: nay hoh mah

I: ngoh

I'm very good: ngoh ho ho

Thank you: doh- tzay

What about/how about: ne

What about you:nay ne

Bye: bie bie

Ethan

4 days 2 go

We are going to hong kong in 4 days ,it will be awesome!!! We're going to have so much fun!  

I'm most looking forwads to the hot rain in Hong Kong and the kangaroos in Australia.

Ethan

For six of our flights we are flying on an airline called Cathay Pacific. We have got economy seats ( the usual seats) these seats have a rack for hand luggage, a little table and this really cool TV with 100 movies, 350 TV programes, over 70 albums with 25 genres and about 100 interactive games! I CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

JOSEPH

Sophie

Asdfhertooityhgetpkhfdsazxdfghj

I am excited about going on a really big adventure!  Seeing the animals, about exploring in the forest, about having our campervan.

Countdown

A week to go! We've left our home in Bristol after an awesome goodbye party, thank you everyone who attended.

We've been touring the country saying goodbye to friends and family and are now in London - The Countdown has begun: 7 days until we leave these shores.

We need to work out how to pack all our stuff into a smallish number of bags that we might have a chance of carrying. We also need to remember our passports, just little things like that.

First, we are off to Hong Kong. I don't know if you've seen the weather forecast but it's looking Typhoonish. Fortunately the weather in London has been trying its best to prepare us (Ickenham was flooded about a week ago...)

Any last minute advice before we go? Drop us a line so we know these words aren't disappearing into the void.

Lots of people have asked us why we are going. I guess it's something we've had in mind for a long, long time. Emelye's mum was a world traveller before she had kids, and filled her children with stories of her amazing adventures. Emelye always thought it would be fun to be a part of those adventures. So why not do it with 3 children!? Emelye's mum came from Australia so we'll be popping in on a million rellies as we travel around that vast continent.

We know God has blessed us with a family, we love being family together and want to see how far we can take it. We know we will have ups and downs but whatever it is, we trust that God will be amazing us with who He is and how high we can fly when we are with him.