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I didn’t know I would have so much fun but I did actually. I wouldn’t have thought that museums could be so interesting, but they were in Canberra. Canberra is the capital of Australia, where the government sits, but it should be called the museum capital as there are SO many museums here.
 

Canberra was perfect. It was a museum place with lots of museums and educational stuff.

My favourite place was not really a museum but a learning centre for kids, called Questacon. Questacon is a science place that you can play, watch and do on the first floor, and explore. There was a robot that you could direct to do exercises, make him speak lines from films, do sound affects and also answer questions. I had a go and thought he was awesome. In a room called EXCITE there was fun stuff like playing against a robot in air hockey (the robot nearly always won), you could play another table hockey with 4 people (shaped like a cross) with a spinning wheel thing in the middle which made the puck go randomly. I loved the room with all the logic and maths puzzles. We stayed there a long time, and I also loved the connect sand in that room. “Perception Deception” was the first room. One was four wires with spaces I between the wires, that if you close your hands around them and make circles with your joined hands over the wires, it felt like you were touching glass, although there was nothing I between your hands. That room showed me that my mind can do tricks, as sometimes your brain thinks it sees or feels something.

We also went to:

1. Australian War memorial, which was the first museum I visited on the first day. The first part is about ANZAC and there was WWII. It was cool to look at all the war stuff.
2. Australian Parliament (not a museum but where the politicians sit, like NZ’s Beehive in Wellington which I visited in June). It is where Tony Abott sits. Tony Abbott is the Prime Minister of Australia.
3. Royal Australian Mint which is a factory where they make Australian coins/money. I am curious to know where the NZ mint is. There was a computer game where you had to put the Old money over to pretend to buy things in the 1960s. They had pounds, shillings and pence then, not the Australian Dollar and Cents that they have now. The Australian two dollar coin is smaller than the one dollar coin.
4. National Museum of Australia which was great to look at all the aboriginal stuff and all the inventions. They gave me a booklet to find things in each room. The aboriginals do a dance to welcome visitors. The white people were allowed to just shoot the aboriginals, just go over and go bang. I don’t think that was fair.
They had a Wiggles exhibition as they came from Australia. They showed how the opera house was built in Sydney. There was a cool room called “K Space” where we made a robot on screen then my sister and I had to work together to try to move it. I was controlling the feet and right hand, Ilona was controlling the head and left arm. We had to work together.
There was a pig with one head and two bodies which had been born but they kept in a jar. They also had snakes preserved.
5. National Capital Exhibition, which is a museum showing how and why Canberra City was planned and built to be the capital. But I spent my time playing with the great supply of Lego they had there, to make a house, an all black flag, an aboriginal flag and a chess board.

I liked Questacon and KSpace the best and I would advise you to visit these if you come to Canberra.

When I went to Sydney I saw the actual opera house and the Sydney harbour bridge. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I really thought that I was seeing pictures of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Sydney Opera house. It was amazing to see them both. We didn’t just see the bridge and take pictures, we also walked across the whole bridge and drove on it and through the tunnel. We climbed up so many step, I counted them at the time, but forget the number now. It was so high up. There was a pathway with a fence around it, which was right beside all the cars, going over the bridge. Some people were jogging, walking their dogs, others taking pictures. We went to the Opera House too. We had a good view of the Opera House and the Harbour from up there.

In Sydney we stayed with our old neighbours, in a house on Peacock Street. They have returned to Australia, after spending a year in Remuera. It was warm enough to swim in their pool on the first day. We went to the city on a boat with them, to see the Sydney Opera House and Bridge. One night all the kids put on a show for the adults. We did some cool moves. I also learnt the song that Jack Hawkins told me about. My sister and I can do a lot of it. It starts with “Okay students, today we are going to do a pop quiz”.
The first few nights we stayed in Manly. Manly is a place that people from New south wales, Australian Capital Territory and Victoria might know about. We stayed near the beach and there was two playgrounds. I like the second one better than the first because the first one had only a sea saw swing and something that you swing yourself around on. People in Manly don’t mind about the weather they just worry about surfing the waves. We met my mom’s cousin. He lives inAustralia, but is originally from Ireland.

When we drove past Sydney Airport, our road went into a tunnel. Up above the tunnel, was the runway for the planes. So when the plane was landing and taxiing into the airport, it was just above our car. It was quite freaky seeing planes landing just above our car.

The night I watched spelling bee there was heaps of lighting and thunder. It was really heavy. In Manly we saw whales when we went on a 10km walk around North head point. There were a few boats whale watching. We saw artillery gun points and command posts up on top of the hill at North Head. We saw a billabong there too….well a billabong is usually in the desert, but this wasn’t the desert, but it was a little water hole up on top of north head.

Brisbane was great. We met our brother Riley who lives in Australia. He was the one who showed us around Brisbane, Surfer’s Paradise and Tamborine National Park.

We went to my brother’s mum’s house, but we didn’t sleep there. Her name is Mia, and she is a very generous person. She lets people stay at her house if they don’t have a house. Everyone there in the house supported the All Blacks when they played Australia (except for one girl who supported the Wallabies).  It was a thrilling match. The All Blacks won 41 to 13. We also went to a park, had a BBQ lunch there and went for a walk. Before we went for a walk, my sister and I played a game with sticks from the Bush. We pretended we had power in our sticks and I found a giant ‘F’ shaped stick, which I liked because F is for Findon. That evening we hung out at Mia’s house for a while, and I got to play some pool and basketball.

Churros

Churros are a Spanish treat that is nice with melted chocolate. There are heaps of churro places in Australia, especially Brisbane. They are like donuts but long sticks, not round with a hole.

From Tadhg

I got my photo taken with my bear Hugh and these Gummy Bear like sculptures outside the Cairns Art Gallery. It reminded me of the Gummy Bear song.

I later found out that the Yidindji Aboriginal people each have a guardian spirit that they symbolise in the same shape as a gummy bear.

Homeschooling is basically being taught at home. Although I don’t have a house at the moment while I am travelling, I am doing homeschooling. That is doing schoolwork with my mom and dad. My sister Ilona and I are being homeschooled because we are travelling and we are not in the one place to go to school.

It is very different to NZ school because homeschool does not have breaks (with lots of other kids to play with) and it doesn’t go for six hours. Plus school in RPS has a uniform, with mufti days, but homeschool is mufti every day. The good thing about school is sometimes you go on sleep overs or camp, and you do really fun stuff. I miss the friends staff and teachers at RPS.

My teachers are my mum and dad, and they will be while I am travelling. They are doing it to help me learn. I have been doing a lot of maths and social studies. I learned about communities and helping out in communities. Then I saw the Australian coastguard when we were on a boat on the river, and I had learned about what they do already.

It is different learning about a country when you are in the county itself, and you can do something traditional.

Writing this blog about homeschooling is part of my homeschooling. I had to find out more information on the internet. I found that in July 2011 there were 6,517 people homeschooled in New Zealand. If you are homeschooled, you still have to do exams when you are in High School. They have to attend an exam centre.

In Australia, some kids lived so far away from schools that they were homeschooled, but also used the radio to talk to their teachers and classmates! Now they can use the internet, like I am doing.

This is Tadhg Findon, aged eight and a half and about to go on a big travel expedition with my family.

I come from New Zealand, which is a beautiful country. Here is a photo I took of Mount Ruapehu, which is in the middle of the North Island.

I will miss all my friends and classmates, but I am happy that I will see other wonderful places and find out how New Zealand is a really lucky and wealthy country. I will also enjoy seeing my cousins from Ireland and my friends from Australia like my old neighbours and present neighbours.

Tadhg Findon