"Camping"?

Last week we stayed in a motel room in a camp ground in Doubtless bay. Because Mum and Dad were worried about getting rained out.

On Tuesday we slept in till 12, had pancakes for breakfast and made plans to go for a walk.

We went to Matai Bay, the beach was very long. We walked all the way to the end were there were lots of pebbles and stinky seaweed.

Then we came across a creek, luckily it was very shallow. There were also some large rocks we could use to cross without soaking through our shoes and socks.

From there, we walked along a track up a hill. The journey up the hill was long and tiring. In some places the path was very narrow and there were tree roots and tree trunks to trip you. There was also lots of nasty gorse and cutty grass everywhere.

The path got steeper after a while and it became very dry and it was challenging to find footholds. At this point you are practically climbing up the hill although the view at that part is amazing. What we saw from the top was even more breathtaking - you could see the sea, the beach and even distant islands.

By the time we got to the carpark we were exhausted as we had walked almost 6km.

By Emma

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Whatuwhiwhi, Northland, New Zealand

Waiheke trip

A couple of weeks ago we went to Waiheke to visit Graham, a friend of Mum and Dad's. They met him at university and lives in California but was staying in Waiheke at the time.

He drove us to where his mum was staying. At about 9:00 we got our stuff and went down to a beach. We went for a swim and then got ice creams but it was so hot that I went back in the water. The water was refreshing and Zak tried to dunk Mum in but Mum managed to stop him.

We then had lunch at the house. We had bread, ham, tomato, lettuce, honey, iced fruitcake and scones for lunch. The view from up there was beautiful, you could see the boats in the water and the people on the beach.

Shortly after lunch we went to another beach which was near the east end of the island and quite windy. We passed a soccer ball between us for a while then we went swimming again. Zak and I attempted to body surf. I was the last one in the water and when I eventually got out I was freezing cold. We then went for hot chocolates at a cafe near by. We really enjoyed Waiheke Island.

By Emma

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Waiheke Island, New Zealand

Two days of sailing...

The weather can change quite a lot between Friday night and Sunday morning. It makes a big difference to the experience of sailing.

Zak and Emma are both sailing, Friday night coaching sessions and Zak is racing on Sundays.

On Friday we had blue skies and 5 to 10 knots of breeze from the south (which means calm water where we sail).

Emma is sailing an Optimist. They are sailed all over the world by kids as young as 8, up to 15. It is about as small as you can get. Zak sailed this boat for the last couple of years.

Zak cruised by Emma's group in his new boat, a Starling. These are a New Zealand design, not sailed much anywhere else. It's a bit longer, has more sail area and goes much quicker!

The Starling is big enough for me to sail... I've only had one go so far and didn't tip out. (I did sail the Optimist a few times too but people laughed at me because my legs stuck out one side of the boat and my head out the other :-) ).


and then... Sunday.

Zak has been doing Sunday races for a while now but until recently they were in the Optimist. Today, under a more threatening grey sky, racing started with 10 - 15 knots from the north west.

Zak made a really good start at the head of the Open class. (Click on the image for a larger version - number 2168, you can make out the red 'Angry Birds' hat he sails in). But... it didn't take long for the bigger Laser Radial boats to catch him up. This was expected. The actual problem was the wind increasing to 15 - 20 knots and gusts up to 25. The water got bumpy too (not like the ocean or even a big harbour but enough that it knocks the boats around some).

On his first gybe he and the other Starling in the fleet capsized and got there masts stuck in the mud. :-(.

In the Opti, he's sailed many races where the wind came up this high but things happen quicker in the Starling and he is only just at the minimum weight so today was... a challenge... Over the next couple of hours he lost count of the number of times he tipped out, somewhere around 7 but was still in good spirits (and good company) after racing was abandoned because there were a couple of breakages and way more sailers in the water than rescue boats available!

Melbourne Australia Day 6

Today we went to The Melbourne Scienceworks Museum. There was some displays based on fairy tales and some displays based on science fiction or the future. They also had lots of displays about your fitness and what sports you would be good at. One of the fairy tale displays I liked was the three little pigs. It had a video explaining why each material the pig used would be good to build a house. The display also had little house models with furniture and a pig in each of them. One of the other displays I liked was the touch screen that allowed you to build a car. My favourite part of this was the futuristic add-ons, you could choose from a force field, wings and 3 others. 

My car

Then we went to Direct Factory Outlets (which Mum went to the other day) to buy me some new converse. I spent a long time trying on shoes but had trouble deciding between a light blue and a purple pair. In the end I choose the blue pair. While Mum tried some shoes on I looked at the array of flat laces. The different colours were multicoloured, fluro pink, fluro green, fluro yellow, black, white and lots more. Then we stopped off at the supermarket to stock up on icecream and other essentials.

When we got home Dad and I went to check out the pool which is next to the gymnasium at the ground floor in our apartment block. It is about 15 metres by 5 metres, the pool water looks a deep blue because along the sides of the pool there are bright blue lights. Dad and I swam around for a while and then went back to our apartment for dinner.

Melbourne Gaol

Today I went to the old Melbourne Gaol with Dad while Mum and Emma went shopping. It was very cool and old and I had lots of fun. First we watched a reenactment of the criminal Ned Kelly's trial and Dad was one of the volunteer actors. Next we got went on a tour of the temporary holding cells and then finally explored the main prison. I got to wear a replica of Ned Kelly's armour and take some mug shots.

From Zak

Melbourne Australia Day 4

Today we went shopping at the Chadstone mall. We went to quite a few shops and I tried a lot of clothes on. In the end I only brought two tops and some hair clips. 

We went to Gazi for dinner. Gazi is one of George Calombaris's resturuants. Dad and I had tuna, Zak had steak and Mum had pork belly. We also had chips, a lettuce salad and some dips with bread. Overall we quite liked our dinner except we thought that the pork belly was very fatty. 

The desserts were even better though. Zak had chocolate icecream in a waffle cone with chocolate popping candy on top. Dad had strawberry mouse with strawberry gel. Mum and I shared the nights special which was a red coloured white chocolate medium sized Easter egg with passion fruit ganache inside it. It came with strawberry gel (which tasted like strawberry jam), chocolate spaghetti (chocolate flakes), marshmallows and a chocolate and coffee flavoured crumble.

Zak's dessert

Dad's dessert

Me and mum's dessert

Melbourne Australia Day 5

Today Dad, Zak and I went to the Sealife Aquarium while Mum went shopping. We saw lots of fish, sea horses, crabs, sharks, stingrays, a saltwater crocodile, jelly fish, a manta shrimp and a lot more.

The scariest by far had to be the saltwater crocodile because it was massive and it stayed so still, without even blinking until it had to come up for air (which was every 20 minutes or so). Some people even commented and said that it was fake. The saltwater crocodile was Zak's favourite thing at the aquarium.

My favourite thing at the aquarium was the stingrays because some of them were huge and some of them had cool patterns on the top. Some stingrays were triangular on the sides and flapped when they moved, others were more circular and there bodies moved in ripples. One of the other things I liked in the aquarium was how many blue dorys there were.

Dad's favourite thing was one of the humungous crabs which had a pincer more than twice the size of a human hand. Unfortunately we do not remember what type of crab this was.

After we had looked at everything in the aquarium we checked out the gift shop. Then in a sheltered area near the exit/entrance of the aquarium we waited for Mum. When she got there we ate our packed lunch together. Then Zak and Dad went to visit the Melbourne gaol while Mum and I went shopping. While looking for the shops we found quite a few cafes and chocolate shops. We went into one of the chocolate shops and bought a milk chocolate caramel bar and a milk chocolate peppermint bar which Mum and I shared. There was one place we passed through which had a tearoom with people queuing out the door. There was a big display of all the cakes and slices they sold in the window. When we finally got to the shops I tried on quite a few things but in the end only brought one top.

Photo of tearoom display

Melbourne Australia Day 3

Today was Easter Sunday so Zak and I got Easter eggs. We had 14 minis and one large egg each, I was doing very well finding them. The plan for today was to go see Australian Centre For The Moving Image (ACMI) and maybe go and check out Queen Victoria market. After breakfast we headed down to the ground floor and began to walk to ACMI. 

On the way we spotted a bridge with locks hanging off it. As we got closer we could see that people had written and engraved their names and messages on them. One lock even had two faces drawn on it. Some of the locks had bows and ribbons tied to them. 

The ACMI is a museum of Australian television shows, movies and video games and how they were made. There was a lot of screens showing scenes from various movies, short films and TV series. Most of the video game displays were interactive. There were some screens showing animated films and some screens showing how lighting or sound makes the film better. There were also some computer screens where you could play different games. Dad's favourite part was the shadow screen which showed you your shadow and added things like teeth, eyes and assorted shapes to make your shadows look like creatures. Mum's favourite part was the camera that took photos of you and could be printed as a flip book. My favourite part was the zoetrope with the mouse that jumped into a puddle, the bird that waved, the crab which moved sideways and some other characters which had a moving sequence.

After we had finished looking at the displays in the ACMI we had lunch in the park outside. Mum had packed us rolls and cookies. There were screens in the park showing short animated films for free which we watched while eating. The films were quite funny and we would of liked to stay to watch for longer.

On the way to Queen Victoria market we found GAZI one of George Calombaris's restuarants which we are planning to eat at. When we walked around the corner we found Georges other resturuant The Press Club (we had considered eating there but after looking at the menu we decided it was too fancy for us). The Press Club had very fancy light shades and leather booths. Further along there was a sign talking about experimental evenings. George and his head chef would make something up and serve it to those attending the night and make a decision about wether or not it would go on The Press Club menu.

Next we went on two different trams to get to Queen Victoria market. There were lots of people selling fresh fruit and vegetables, clothing and various trinkets. There were also stalls selling jewellery, souvenirs and lots and lots of t-shirts with Australia on them. Mum brought a new pair of beige slippers. Zak brought a 3d laser etched crystal dragon and a model pirate ship. We also brought a twirled deep-fried potato on a stick, it tasted a lot like fries. Dad and I also had waffle cones with milk chocolate, marshmallows and strawberries. There was a colourful sign that said Melbourne in capital letters. At first I thought it was a sculpture, but when I looked closer, I realised that they were bag tags, which people had written their names on, hanging off the wire to form the letters.

On the way home we spotted a street show going on. It was near the end of the show but the man was about to perform several stunts so that was okay. He juggled two knifes and a torch on fire on a roller-bowler.

Before we went home we stopped at the community centre because we can see it from our apartment balcony and I saw some pretty cool pictures drawn on the concrete. When I looked closer I could see that they were painted on the ground. My favourite paintings were the ying yang flower, the peacock and the extremely detailed mandala after taking a few photos we went home to our apartment.

Melbourne, Australia Day 2

On Saturday we went to Healsville Sanctuary and met Freya, Aunty Rebecca and Uncle Rob at the entrance. After we brought tickets we went in and saw a zookeeper with a snake wrapped around her arm. We were allowed to touch it, the snake felt smooth and soft. The snake slithered up dad's arm. 

We saw some rather sleepy koalas and some cuddly looking wombats.

 

We also saw Pygmy possums, bilbys and other cute rodent- like animals.

We went to the bird show which was very cool. They showed lots of birds of prey including my favourite bird of prey the wedged eagle called Jess. I also like the colourful parrot. Freya's favourite bird was Kevin the talking parrot. Mum's favourite bird was Rusty the Australian kestrel. Dad's favourite was the same one as Mum. 

After the birdshow we went to an aviary where there was a treehouse type platform were you could see the birds from above. My favourite bird there was the lyre bird. Then we went to check out the gift shop and went home.

Melbourne, Australia Day 1

Melbourne, Australia day 1

When we got to Melbourne it was late and we got lost trying to find our accommodation. It was an apartment. It had two double bed rooms, one bedroom with two single beds, a bathroom and an ensuite, a living room, a kitchen and a balcony. We were completely exhausted and went to bed straight away.

The next day Mum and Zak went down to reception to check we had the correct room which we didn't. We got up and dressed, Mum made us hot chocolates then we packed our bags and took them down to reception (the staff would move them to our new room for us). Next we drove to Uncle Rob and Aunty Rebecca's house (because the apartment had no food in its kitchen and all the shops were closed due to good Friday). My cousin's name is Freya. We said hello then Zak and I followed Freya to the backyard where we bounced on the trampoline and had sword fights with her foam swords. For brunch we had: breadsticks, salami, a few different types of sausage, several different types of cheese, octopus and tarts with tomato and basil. Octopus is chewy in texture and it tastes seafoody. 

Then we went to Mornington Peninsula, it was freezing cold and Zak, Mum and I were all wearing shorts. We walked along a board walk to Cape Shanck. It was a sort of rocky beach and I took lots of photos. We also enjoyed climbing the rocks and exploring rock pools. After a while we started our long journey back to the car park. Before we got back in the car we brought ice blocks. I had a raspberry pineapple calippo. Then we drove to Dromana beach. The water was crystal clear and along the beach there where lots of colourful boat houses. We played on the sand for a bit then we drove back to Aunty Rebecca and Uncle Rob's house.

When we got to their house we had more sword fights, played on the trampoline again and met their cats. Their cats were called Frieda and Cake, Cake was very shy. I took photos of them with my iPad but it was dark in the room they where in so they weren't very good. We had pizza and bacon tart for dinner then we went home to our apartment. Our actual apartment had one double bed room, one bedroom with two single beds, a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom and a balcony. It was quite like the first apartment except the view from the first apartment showed the main part of Melbourne. Because of the mix up Mum got given free wine and she was told we also have free parking and free wifi as well!

Sailing - Club Champs

Zak entered into the sailing club championships last weekend.

They had a short racing clinic in the morning and then were back on to the water for 6 races in the afternoon. The weather was beautiful, with a consistent breeze of around 10 knots.

Zak is second from the front with 4099 on his sail.

He got 5 second places and 1 third. (His arch nemesis, in front in the picture, getting 5 firsts and one 5th...).

On Sunday the effects of the approaching cyclone Pam were beginning to be felt so racing was restricted to 3 races in the morning.
We got to see the bottom of a few of the boats today, including Zak's! He had a wee mishap before the start of one of the races and was frantically bailing when the race started. Despite being 7th over the line he managed to catch up and finished second!
The conditions for the final race of the day were challenging everyone in the fleet but Zak did a great job and was one the only sailors to complete the course without some kind of incident, finishing first by a good margin.

His final placing was second.

Pt Chevalier Yacht Club Optimist Sailors (and coach).

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Sailing

One of the many things that we should have blogged about is has been going sailing.

Zak has been sailing for a couple of summers now and Emma launched into it as summer arrived in 2014.

Recently Zak's Friday night group escaped from their usual spot in the harbour near Pt Chevalier and did a trip from Westhaven Marina, under the Harbour Bridge and out to Pt Chev. Being Friday night, there were a lot of big boats in the harbour for the regular Friday night races...

On the same evening, Emma, in a club boat, had sailed from the boat ramp to the beach where her class went for a bit of a swim. Then, because it was so good to be in the water that night, they had capsizing practice, over and over. Arriving back at the ramp very soggy and very happy.

Hot Water Beach

On Saturday the 19th of April We drove to Hot water Beach. We put our bags down and found a free space at the front of the crowded area to dig ourselves a small pool. We worked hard to build the front wall and side walls and to make the pool deeper. The deeper we dug the warmer the water got. All of a sudden a larger wave came up the beach and washed our front and left side wall away. Our efforts were wasted! We were determined to fight back so we dug and dug and dug. We obviously weren't pushing ourselves hard enough, as another big wave swamped our walls. This occurred a third time but finally the problem was resolved as a family left their pool so we stole it. Finally we could stop digging and relax in the water drowning out all the noise from around us.



Here is a photo of Zak and I at Hot Water Beach.

By Emma

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Kayaking

21st April

Today we walked down to Hahei Beach to do some kayaking. Zak and I paddled out first. I found it extremely hard to get in the kayak while it was in the water. After a lot of struggling, I managed to get in, with Dads help. Zak and I paddled a long way out from the beach. It was hard to balance my weight in the kayak and I was aware of it rocking back and forth a lot. I got pretty near falling out a few times. Zak and I drifted and paddled around. We bumped into each other a few times. Then Zak paddled back to the shore to swap for Dad (we only had two kayaks).
Dad and I headed for an island out from Hahei. Occasionally we were pushed about by the wake of passing boats. We were going okay but it was just too hard as the wind kept pushing us out to sea. Instead we went back down the beach. When we got nearer the shore we had to paddle as fast as we could before the next big wave came. But Dad didn't give me enough warning and as I was frantically paddling towards shore I was tipped out of my kayak by the wave and was aware of it hitting me on the head.




My sand man.




Zak's caterpillar
By Emma
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Eagle watching

On the way to Whistler we went to Sunwolf Eagle watching. It was really cold and it was a lot warmer inside the lounge/reception. We were given a brief explanation of the procedure, while we ate tasty muffins supplied by Sunwolf. Then we swapped our hiking boots for gumboots. Next we went for a short drive in a van, where we unloaded the raft and pulled it into the river. Then we put lifejackets on and watched a safety demonstrastion. It was cool to see so many eagles, there was over 100 and lots of juveniles!




A Bald Eagle
We got some pretty good photos (Aunty Leanne in particular). We had a lot of fun spotting, counting and attempting to take photos of eagles. The view of the mountains was also noted. We also had complimentary hot chocolates. After departing the raft we did a little bush walk before we went back to the lounge/reception to eat complimentary chilli for lunch, which was very yummy!




Me drinking hot chocolate
By Emma
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Whistler - aww, pretty!

I know we've completely skipped over most of San Francisco and all of Vancouver but this one is too pretty to leave for later.

(The picture now links to a much bigger version when you click on it).

This is from the top of the highest lift on Blackcomb looking back at Whistler mountain.


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Snow!

Both the kids have snow in their faces yet Auntie Leanne looks totally innocent. Do not be fooled!




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Vancouver. 7 degrees C

(Or 44.6 degrees F).

Obviously I've skipped some things. I just thought the temperature change was note worthy...


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Biking in San Francisco

We got to Blazing Saddles (the bike rental we were using) at 10:30ish. It took a while to get everything sorted, getting bikes (ours were tandems), helmets and a map with routes and places to avoid marked.




Tandems on the beach

Dad was on the front seat of our tandem and Mum was on the front seat of the other tandem with Zak on the back. We have ridden tandems a couple of times before: Over the Golden Gate Bridge and at Stanley park. Mum and Dad have also ridden tandems lots of other times.

We were trying to get to the Yoda statue near Lucasfilm studios and got a bit lost. After consulting the map we figured out how to get there. Inside the reception area there were books, trophies and little models of scenes and characters. We spent about 15 minutes looking at stuff and took some photos of us with Yoda.




Yoda statue

Then we biked up a steep hill, but walked most of it, it lead us to Golden Gate park. When we were biking through Golden Gate park we saw lots of trees, some small fields and some bison. It took a long time to cycle through the park, when we came out the other side it was very sunny. We stopped for lunch by the beach which we really needed because we were starving. It felt good to take a walk because our arms and legs were sore, although we had stopped on the way a few times to take our jumpers on or off.
Me and Zak walked around in the sand for a bit and attempted making sand castles from the sand, which didn't hold shape very well.




Me jumping in sand

After that we rode back through the park, the bike path went through some of the same parts as before. Then we cycled through the the wiggle (thats how the blazing saddles assistant referred to it). Next we rode through the centre of town then to blazing saddles. By that time we had all had enough, our limbs were sore and we were exhausted.

By Emma

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Computer History Museum

I was wearing a T-shirt that said 01000100 01000001 01000100. They had one for sale which said 01000011 01001000 01001101... How geeky is that!?! *

Our first stop was a demo of a 'Difference Engine'. This is a mechanical device, designed 150 years ago by Charles Babbage. The guy giving the demo was suitably old himself and gave a great explanation of how it worked and what the results were. Due to learning a method for working out the polynomial for a sequence of numbers as part of Zak's math homework during the year, it made a lot more sense to me than it ever did before...

This difference engine is on loan from a guy from Microsoft. The British museum hit him up for a donation to complete one they had built and he gave them money conditional on them building him one too. He wanted it for his lounge but it has been in the Computer History Museum since it arrived in the US.

We took a guided tour - the guide took us to the ENIAC display, on to its commercial derivative (UNIVAC) then on to some other of the more important machines in computing history (IBM 360, DEC PDP-8) and on to the super computers - IBM Stretch and CRAY-1 with a Connection Machine just across from them. (It was a bit like reliving 07.440 with Prof Bob about 20 years ago :-) ). The tour was pretty long and the kids, especially Emma, didn't stick with it for the entire time. We did another lap through after the tour and the kids found the games section and I found the personal computers. They had an example of everything I had ever seen prior to about 1982 including my first machine which was right beside their Apple 1.

I got only a quick look at their IBM 1401 and DEC PDP-1 displays before we ran to the car park to complete our trip to San Francisco to return the rental car by the target time of 5PM (which turned out to be more like 5:45).

(Unfortunately, no one other than me took any pictures and I don't have a way of getting it from my camera to the iPad...).

BB

* Mine says DAD, theirs said CHM (Computer History Museum).


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