Melbourne

On November 16th we flew from Brisbane to Melbourne for my moms birthday. It was a 3 hour plane ride to the Melbourne airport, and a couple minutes in a taxi from there to the hotel. Our room was nice and comfortable with two bedrooms, one and a half bathrooms, a sitting room and even a kitchen. We unpacked our stuff and relaxed before exploring the neighborhood. My mom had picked a place in Chinatown because we were big fans of Asian food and the other interesting parts of the city were within walking distance. 

Melbourne was awesome! We took a walking tour one morning and my sisters and I spent a fun day with a friend when mom and dad were busy. We discovered hidden alley ways brimming with tasty surprises and neat little squares hidden behind towering monuments. We went to the zoo and saw platypuses and kangaroos and koalas where I was used to seeing snakes and tigers and bears. We quickly outfitted in hats and socks so we wouldn't completely freeze in the ice skating rink (it can be cold in Melbourne) and saw the whole city from above when we took a trip to the Melbourne Star, a giant ferris wheel like the London Eye. At the Imigration Museum we did a treasure hunt while learning about how Australia got such a diverse population and every night we eat noodle soups and dumpling from the many Asian restaurants in the neighborhood. 

I really want to go back. 

Working

My dad rented an office in Brisbane so he could work, but he decided to take us with him so we could also do our work there. The first day we packed up all our stuff and walked across the bridge to were our office is. The office is made up of little rooms with desks and chairs its pretty big it even has a kitchen were you can get really cold water or really hot water instintaniasly if you want.

 Our little room was at the back of the office. It had four desks and four chairs, but these weren't just any chairs these were WEELY chairs that we could push ourselves around in. but there were lots of other people in the office so we couldn't make a lot of noise and we had to focus on our school. 

The second day we went to the office I was the only kid to go. We ate lunch out and had Fo it was really good. the internet is really good at the office the only bad part is that we have to walk a long way to get from our boat to the office  but otherwiseit was perfect.

A New City

On our first day at the dock we decided to go to the mall and see what Brisbane was like. It wasn’t a very big mall just a little clothes store, grocery market, and toiletries store.

we walked around there for but didn’t buy anything. Then we walked over the big lake and on a bridge and saw a parade marching threw this part of town. We wanted to join but it was getting to late so we settle for ice cream and home.

The next day my dad and Jade went to the office to work and my mom and Stella went shopping  I stayed home. It was kind of boring just staying at home with no sisters to play with, but on the other hand there was no mom to push you to do school I had a relaxing day of school and play. But when my family got home there was lots of noise and everyone telling me that i should’v done the dishes when they were gone (exept I was educating myself instead.) But finally everyone settles down to read or sleep.

On thursday I met up with my friend Remi after school we decided we would go to the factory outlets which are a series of big shops that sell regular everyday things.

Remi and her mom took us in there car it was a fifteen minute drive. By the time we got there I was so hot and sweaty that it was a real shock to go into a building with AC. First we went to the food court to get some lunch.

 My sister bought a leather jacket  and some jeans in a store were i bought a sweat shirt and Remi bought jeans also. 

We didn’t find any shoes that were good for walking. mostly we just looked at all the expensive things that we couldn’t get. My mom gave me 200 dollars to spend on clothes. so far I  have 193 dollars left to spend, I’m doing pretty good. I really wanted to buy everything in site but i managed to control myself and only get the essentials. Australia is really expensive but i think we’ll manage.

Australia

It took almost 11 days to sail from Fiji to Brisbane. At first we had lots of wind and waves which battered us and made us feel seasick but then it settled down and the wind died away until we were left drifting in a millpond. We checked the weather forecast and found that there were major winds heading our way, we turned on our engines and rushed to safety into the river that winds it's way through Brisbane. Unfortunately we arrived after sunset and were unable to disembark and stretch our legs after 11 days of immobility.    

The next day we were welcomed to the marina by a family who lived on another boat there in the marina, they had been in the same marina and lived on the same boat for 4 years and had grow used to living in Brisbane city. They showed us around and we picked up some bread from the guy who lived on the house boat at the end dock. He owned 9 guinea pigs and he washed and exercised them everyday on the lawn in front of the docks. After we had explored our new environment (the marina), we got on the ferry and went to downtown Brisbane. 

The ferries were small and red and went up and down the river like a water bus for free. There was a dock at the marina and every half hour a ferry would show up there. It took us maybe 15 minutes to go from the marina to the center of the city on the ferry. The city looked like any other but it was surprisingly cleaner than most cities, there was not much litter on the sidewalks and every building gleamed in the sunlight. There were restaurants and shops everywhere and skyscrapers made from windows and office buildings with thousands of cubicles. We walked across the big bridge with lights running down the sides and stepped into awesome gardens with paths throughout the flower beds and fountains in the middle of pruned hedges and a public pool that looked like a natural pond and stretched the length of the park. Everywhere we looked we saw picnic tables on the lawns and children waiting in front of ice cream shops with their hair still wet from the pool. We walked under the enormous trellis with vines and flowers growing over it, we found a wooden boardwalk winding through a tiny forest and we saw birds floating on the stream that chuckled along next to us. 

I love Brisbane.

Reaching Australia

We only had to sail for 11 days but it seemed like forever. When we set off for Australia we were going to go to Sydney spend two weeks there before going to Melbourne It was only going to take a week to get there, but half way threw we decided to go to Brisbon instead. At first I thought this was going to be a shorter ride, we got stuck in a current moving the opposite direction. For 5 days we went really slow. It was the slowest sailing trip ever.

Finally we sighted land on the eleventh day but it took 5 hours still to get to the mouth of the river that we would sail up. Every twenty seconds you would see an airplane zoom by. Inside the lake was a tall bridge. We went very close to the bridge but not over it we tied up to the fuel dock to spend the night. The next morning we checked into Australia, then we started motoring again.

We were going to a different dock were a little town was that we could spend  a month waiting to go to Melbourne. The city looks really tidy and clean its kind of weird seeing a big city again after so long with just little towns and villages. I can’t wait to go and visit the parks and walk around. Theres a river right threw the center of the city so we can sail our little boats around. Australia is really great so far.