To The Zoooooooo!!!!!!!

A friend of Cathy and Alex's is an architect working at the zoo and she was kind enough to offer us tickets so off we went on New Years Day. The zoo is opposite the opera house and has stunning views of the bay.

Nelson, Renee, Cathy and I.

I was trying out the audio tour but I think it only works well if you are alone. Great concept though.

Visiting the relatives.

Ahhhhh....shade.

We watched an interesting demonstration on how they train seals. I always have mixed feelings about zoos and animal training. 

Cathy and I being meerkats.

These scales were placed all over the park....no idea why.

 The elephants are Thai.....nice little connection.

Camping Near the Collo River

Yeh....we're going camping!!!!!!!! The car is packed and we are ready for our first camping trip 1 hour away from Sydney. We will be 16 in total. 

It's amazing how a field and three trees can feel like home once tents/tarps are up. 

This ended up being our common area.

The trail down to the shallow, winding river.

The beautiful, sandy, warm Collo River. On our second day some of us floated down with the kids caught a ride back with Alex.

The water-fight that ensued was as much fun and the floatilla.

Relaxing at the beach. Actually, it was more like "the sand is so hot my feet are burning so I need to get under a tree"

The breakfast cooks.

Delicious, heart-stopping breakfast.

This guy paid us a visit as soon as the food came out. Fortunately, he didn't stick around too long. He was 1 metre head to tail....and ugly.

I think Cathy gave him the evil eye.

Cockatoos in the trees. They are pretty but they are loud like crows in the morning.

The very cool VW Combi Tent!!!

....and the real one we saw later in the day. 

Christmas

We had a little visitor Christmas morning....a novelty for Vince and I but a common occurance 

The "bush" opposite Alex and Cathy's which is amazing for walking/running. 

Luke has trained Lego to do some funny things and I wanted to try the piggy-back. He forgot to tell be that lego weighed 80 kg which shocked me when I tried to stand up. 

Renee and Nelson

You know these two.

Luke......somehow missed a picture of Madelene.

Photographer extraordinaire.

Spit Bridge to Manly Walk and Sydney to Hobart Race

We spent 2 weeks over Christmas with Alex and Cathy in Sydney which was so much fun that it is really difficult to go back to work. 

Sydney has so many coastal walks that it is hard to choose which one to do. They all have beautiful views are are 6-7 km with lots to see (lizards) in between.

Some shots from Spit Bridge to Manly Beach

Alex and Cathy

Bridget and Vince. Cathy and i do not have the same shirt on but they look like it here.

Old friends being foolish

Manly Beach.

We were lucky enough to be around for the start of the Sydney to Hobart Race start. Picnicking is one of my favourite things to do and we had some amazing ones on our day trips. We met up with one of Alex and Cathy's friends for a terrific view of the boats taking off from Sydney. The number of boats and the sheer speed gave me goosebumps. This was a highlight of the trip.

Perpetual was warming up for quite a while so we got a good view of her size compared with other boats. She came second.

Spectators gather in their boats. We cannot quite see the start line but we had a great view as they went by and headed for the open sea.

Picnic.

We took a short cut via the Toronga Zoo on the way home...and made plans to return to the zoo on New Years's Day.

Stunning view.

Heading for the open sea.

Pangnam Trip

Each year the Middle School takes three days to go on a trip to "Explore the Kingdom" and this year the grade 7s went to a lodge in Taplan National Park, three hours North of Bangkok. It was so nice to be in the mountains after the flatness of Bangkok.

 No camp is complete without water and this one had a man made large pond with an obstacle course appropriately named "Water Challenge".

Zip line.

View from the lodge.

 This is what it looks like when 100 people have taken their shoes off before going up to the dining hall.

The lodges.

The back side of the lodges….we all had balconies with beautiful vistas.

The organic farm run by the lodge. they grow mostly lettuce and everything is done by hand.

The organic farm.