Dear Friends,
I’m here in Townsville and the weather isn’t that wonderful for water sports and Great Barrier Reef exploring so I’ve decided to fill you in with a bit about myself and my journey so far. I’ve also got some wonderings that you might be able to answer for me.
I stated off in Cambridge with my friend Louise from Cambridge East School. My name is Wendy and I am a flat friend of Flat Stanley. You would have all heard about him. I was sent to the McLeod Family who live on a farm in the New Zealand country side, for the beginning of my journey. Pauline introduced me to her grandchildren. (Casey, Amy, Lucy and Sofia live in NZ. Fin, Jess and Jamie live in Melbourne.) They have taken me places and shared their games with me. We have had some fun time together.
One day Fin, Jess and Jamie took me on an imaginary rabbit hunt. We pretended their Mum needed a rabbit for a rabbit stew. We saw where rabbits had been but never found a rabbit. We did find a wasp nest hidden away in an old log.
The children made up a story about the rabbit hunt which we may be able to let you see.
One day we went out to Athenree (near Waihi Beach) and stayed for the weekend. We swam and played in the sea.
Uncle Bob has a Kiwi fruit orchard which we visited. The fruit were huge and about to be picked. I wanted to eat one right away but they were still very hard. There were millions of fruit on the vines. Do you know where they would all go to?
Amy had a birthday party and we played Easter games and ate a lot of chocolate eggs.
Another day we visited Aunty Mandi and had a ride on a horse. I held on tight to Casey as I was a bit scared of falling off. The horse was so big. We all helped give it a wash. At the end of the day Casey did fall off by sliding off its rear end. Fin fell on top of her and she now has a yellow cast on her broken arm. I’m glad I sat that one out.
Pauline got me a passport and took me to Melbourne with Fin and Jess. They had to go back to school. We had to get up at 4 am to catch the plane. I flew in an aeroplane (much better than being squashed in an envelope) and got to watch the movie “Incredible Mr Fox”.
In Melbourne we went to Albert Park and made a story about all the “things” Fin and Jess saw.
It is to help them with their reading when they go back to school. We also went out to a lot of restaurants with Glen and his wife Steff who own a restaurant with a new courtyard. A possum had come over night and eaten his new lemon tree and some small herb bushes. How do you think he could stop this happening again?Bill joined us for a few days and then it was time to say good bye to the kids and fly to Queensland. We have been travelling round here visiting people who grow sugar cane. Do you know how sugar is produced?
The harvest season begins in June. At one cane farm the lady had to remove a green tree frog from the chair before someone sat on it. I’m glad it wasn’t a cane toad. Do you know why?
As we grove from Cairns to Townsville we had to watch for Cassowary birds and Kangaroos crossing the road. I have seen some beautiful parrots. Can you find out for me how many different types live up here? They are soo noisy. I heard kookaburras singing in the trees late one evening. So far I haven’t seen any snakes.
One day we passed through Tully which is supposed to be the biggest banana growing region in Australia. Some of the banana plantations have different coloured bags covering bunches of bananas. Do you know why?
Many houses are square shape and built up on sticks. People give me all sorts of reasons for this. I’m wondering if you know?
I meet a man whose family have a special licence to keep a reptile. They have had a crocodile for 42 years in a big pen. It is fed on fish, lays eggs every year and is 3 metres long. It would be up to 6 metres if it was in the wild. I wonder how long they live for and what they will do with it?
At the moment we are staying in Townsville which is the biggest city in Nth Queensland. For the ANZAC day parade over 5,000 people took part. People marched proudly to place a wreath on the memorial and soldiers and families wore war medals to remember their service by.
Pauline and I want to go snorkelling out on the Great Barrier Reef but the sea is rough and visibility is too poor to see the beautiful fish. It is unsafe to go swimming off the beach as there are poisonous box jelly fish which can sting you in the sea. You have to swim where there is a net keeping them out. All along the beach there are emergency medical stations where you can find a bottle of vinegar. Do you know why vinegar is used to treat their stings?
Talk to you again soon
Cheers Pauline and Wendy.
