Author: lsu

Edit: As this is the last official blog for the Australia trip, the students have requested that emojis are included within the blog.

Hello family and friends,

Woohoo! Almost home! 🏠

Today is officially the last day of the trip! ❤️

We started off the day with a late 8:30AM start, but some of us began the day with a swim at an early 7:30AM start. We ate a delicious buffet inside the amazing Adina Waterfront Hotel and got ready for an action filled day. 🍽

Everyone got ready to depart the hotel at 9:30 and divided our group into two groups. One taking a double decked tour vehicle to MAGNT (Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory) and the other taking a wonderful scenic bike ride. 🚌🕤🚲

The group that caught the bus got some great informative information about the history of the city and some picturesque places throughout Darwin. 🏙💡

The group was dropped off right in front of MAGNT and started going around the museum while we waited for the group riding through the city. The scenic ride took us through paths along the beaches of Darwin and up some hills. The museum was had fabulous exhibitions such as the history of Cyclone Tracey, the formation of the planet earth, the migration exhibition and Indigenous art. It was a truly life changing experience!

We then ventured off to Parliament House where we learnt the difference in how a Territory’s government is run compared to State’s government. We sat in the Chamber, the only house in the Territory’s Government, as opposed to the other States of Australia, which have 2. Our guide Kassandra, explained how the Northern Territory is Governed and the differences between the Northern Territory’s Government, Victoria’s Government and the Federal Government. We then left the House to have some fun with the inflatable water park in the middle of the Bay.

To finally end this whole Big Experience, we enjoyed pizzas at the lovely ‘Il Lido’. All in all, this experience has been so eye opening for every single one of us. With all of our memes, dances, friendships formed and lifelong memories made. This trip couldn’t have been any better and it couldn’t have happened without ‘Mumsie’ (Ms Su), ‘Rookie’ (Ms Plymin) and last but not least, the ‘Chief’ (Mark).

We cannot wait to see you all tomorrow but we know that for us and many others it is going to be quite emotional leaving this place. 😸❤️

Love,

Abbey and Oscar

Awards thar were given to students:

Olina – best water polo player

Victoria – best dancer

Neal – approaching all tasks with love and care, basketball guru

Oscar – enthusiasm and deep appreciation for Ryan’s knowledge of Outback Australia

Sam – being polite

Elise – leadership qualities

Mushtaba – always smiling

Benny – culinary adventures

Sunny – excellent basket weaving

Cam – best spear thrower

Sarah – best story teller

Ben – being the most cheery and talkative student on the bus

Eloise – best knowledge and handling of bikes

Tony – best attempts with trying all activities

Amira – best interviewer

Nathan – best dressed

Wendy – best drawer

Gaut – best singer

Max – best at making jokes

Tommy – positive approach and flexibility in all activities

Stella – best choice in music

Abbey – best photographyskills

Day 13: Katherine

Today we needed to leave Kakadu and head to one of our final destinations before Darwin and the back home. We were heading to Katherine!

The group travelling with Mark arrived at Katherine a little earlier and went to see a beautiful waterfall. It was beautiful as the water was very clean, we could even see fish under the water. We also learned that there were many animals in the water and freshwater crocodiles were one of them. We then arrived in the town centre and went into the Australian Red Cross shop.

Finally, Ryan’s bus made into town so we decided to go the ‘Katherine’s School Of The Air’ which had the biggest classrooms in the world. The School In The Air has the biggest classrooms in the world because they teach remotely located students via the internet. They use technology such as cameras and computers to teach students and the students have classes on their computers. There were many teachers working in front of the computers when we got there. Some of them were communicating to their students – it was so cool to see! We learned about the long history of the school, for example, the school was set up in 1966 and they used to use videos to teach students. The teacher also showed us about their video rooms and the green screens of the video rooms. After that we visited the library and had a lunch in the playground.

After visiting the school, we went to buy some clothes for the dress up ‘fashion show’ and then we went to the place that we would stay at for two days. It was in the nature and we lived in some big tents. The place was very beautiful, there were many trees around out tents and there was a big swimming pool in front of our tents. What’s more, there were many animals around us such as wallabies and birds. We put down our bags and jumped into the pool very quickly. We played a football game in the pool, it was such a good game that everyone joined it and all of us were very happy.

We had a delicious dinner after swimming and then we started our fashion show. Most of us dressed up and enjoyed the party. We walked down the ‘catwalk’, showed off our costumes and told our stories about the costumes. In the end, the teachers also showed us their costumes. At last, Nathan was the winner because his performance was the best and everyone liked it.

At the end of today, we went to bed early today and relaxed ourselves. Today was such a good day!

Love,

Tommy and Elise

Day 14: Katherine Gorge & hot springs

G’day g’day,

Today we hit Katherine Gorge after a buffet breakfast of pancakes and eggs. It was very delicious! Around 8AM, we started our brief hike to a rock pool which sat under a dazzling waterfall. The pool was as picturesque as it gets. The aquamarine crystal pool was a very refreshing surprise on a 37.5 degree day. We engaged in some quality water aerobics led by our very own Ms.P! We also enjoyed the sun as we perched ourselves on some very sturdy rock ledges. We experienced a once in a life time opportunity of sitting under the serene waterfall and receiving a ‘massage’ only Mother Nature can truly offer. We then set on a 150m walk to the boat which was waiting for us to take us on our journey through Katherine (Nitmiluk) Gorge. Here we took off on a journey through the cliff faces of two gorges. There we found an unexpected waterfall which we had the honour to name (Ohta Asney Fall). We cruised down the gorge and were immersed in the natural beauty that enveloped us. Here we heard the dreamtime story of the Rainbow Serpent and hovered above the spot were he is thought to reside in.

After touring the gorges of Nitmiluk, we headed back to the campsite for some lunch. We then headed to the natural Katherine Hot Springs and were joined by many tourists around the area. We explored the path of the current and saw many small waterfalls as we climbed over them and followed on to see many flora and fauna in our paths. To our surprise the springs were not actually hot, in fact they were rather cold. After a few hours of frolicking in the springs, we decided to make our way back to the campsite for an early dinner. After a relaxing day, we headed up to a look out spot to watch the sunset over the gorge. We finished off the amazing day with a hilarious trivia scripted by Miss.P.

Love,

Stella and Gaut

Day 15: Litchfield & Darwin

Hi everyone!

Today was our final day in Kathrine. We started off the day at 7:00AM to have breakfast. After that we left Katherine at 8:00 and drove for 3 hours off to Litchfield National Park and had lunch. After lunch, we drove to a waterfall in the park called ‘Florence Falls’. We spent about 30 minutes there. We then went to a rock pool located in the park called ‘Buely’. Both the waterfalls were stunning and had crystal clear water. While we were leaving Litchfield to go to Darwin, we made a quick stop at the massive termite mounds. We saw two types of mounds, ‘cathedral’ mounds and ‘magnetic’ mounds. All the magnetic mounds faced in the same direction as the termites build their mounds to face the sun in order to warm themselves in the dry season.

After that, we made our way to Darwin which was an hour away from where were. We were singing our favourite songs on the way to Darwin because today was our last day on the bus with tour guide Ryan. We got to the hotel in Darwin at 5:50PM, we settled in our rooms and at 6:10 we got ready to go to an outdoor cinema which was only 10 minutes away from the hotel. We had dinner there before we watched the movie and we had some popcorn, and ice cream as well. At 7:30 the movie started, the movie was called “Mountain” which talks about the adventure in climbing mountains. We really enjoyed the movie and enjoyed every moment of this great day.

Love,

Amira and Victoria

Today was a special day for the Big Experience.

It was our rest day for the group in the whole trip. The day started at 9AM with Mark and Ms P making the pancakes, bacon and eggs for the whole group for breakfast. Everyone gathered around outside to eat and chat with one another. After the special breakfast, everyone went back to their own cabins to pack up, finish the Journey Docs and get ready for the morning. We also packed a little as we are all heading off to Katherine early tomorrow morning.

At 10:15AM, we all met up in front of Mark’s cabin and were to begin the Great Race. We were in our cabin groups and all had to work together so we could go around Jabiru and win first place! Everyone got their first piece of paper with questions for the Great Race. We were asked to answer the questions about the places we had visited. After getting all the questions right, we got another piece of paper with a map of the town of Jabiru and we needed to walk around the town to get information, and answer those questions… Game on!

….The first group to arrive at the Bowali Visitor Centre was Oscar’s group. The group consisted of Oscar, Mushtaba, Cameron and Nathan. The winners were awarded with a smoothie or milkshake.  However, luck was not on everyone’s side. Only three groups arrived in time and only two of the groups made it to the centre without the help of the teachers.

After, we went for a swim at the Olympic swimming pool to cool down and had our sandwiches for lunch there.but we got unlucky again. We then returned back to the resort and were allowed some free time. A group of us even got the chance to go to the local supermarket and buy some supplies for the coming days. After shopping, we are all resting and will have Thai food for dinner around 6PM at the Border Store.

Today has been a great and relaxing day!

Love,

Tony and Sunny on behalf of the Australia group 🇦🇺‍♂️

Please note: We will be unlikely to have internet connectivity for the next two days while we are in Katherine. I expect that this will return to normal once we return to Darwin on Sunday 19/11/17, so the blogging will resume then.

Regards, Linda

G’day to all our friends and family!

Victoria’s experience of weaving:

We started our day at 8AM and went back to the Njanjma Rangers headquarters in Gumbalanya. We split into two groups, one group went on a hike to “the cave” while the other group stayed at the headquarters and learnt how to weave the pandanas leaves that we harvested and dyed yesterday. A traditional custodian of the land named Anita and the other Njanjma rangers Ursila, Kelly and Rafaella taught us how to harvest, dye and weave many different items. We weaved baskets, place mats, little bowls, earrings and bracelets. We weaved the dried pandanas leaves together using a needle. We looped green, brown, yellow and orange colours together to make the items. Anita told us that a larger basket can take weeks to make! I made a little bowl and Olina made some earrings. Anita learnt how to weave from her mother, and her mother was taught by her mother. This tradition is passed through the women of the families for many, many years.

After weaving, we made our way to the Injalak Arts Centre and screen printed the t-shirts we made in Warruwi. We printed the Injalak Arts Centre logo onto the back of the shirts using a carousel machine. An art director at the centre helped us to print. While we printed, he taught us how the designs are transferred onto the silk screen and how the carousel is made. We then walked back to the headquarters and finished our weaving. After that, we watched a documentary made by Anita’s father. The documentary was made in order to be used in the schools to teach young children the importance of protecting the land. It also taught us the importance of preserving the culture and traditions for future generations. It featured many traditional owners and custodians of the Gumbalanya and West Arnhem land.

Olina’s experience of the hike:

It took us about forty minutes to drive to the location and then we started hiking.There was no track and only a few people have been there except the rangers. We crossed some little creeks and climbed two rock hills. It was really hot like an oven but once we made it into the cave, it was cool and comfortable. The main opening of the cave was about ten metres wide. In the cave, the ground was covered by dark grey sand, some big rocks stood there, a few dead weaving leaves were left there. It seemed that someone had weaved in there before. There were also many little caves for us to find. We saw the rock paintings that covered the rock wall. After we finished our day with the Njanjma rangers, we said our goodbyes and said thank you to them for providing us with the wonderful experience.

After leaving the headquarters, we drove to West Arnhem College, a school in Jabiru. The teacher and children showed us around. It was a boarding school which managed by the Indigenous Australians. The students were from different areas near Jabiru. We had a thirty-people basketball match with the kids for about one hour. It was really fun! We had dinner with them and shared the stories. The fruits were so good, especially the pineapple. It rained heavily at dinner so the playground was flooded. Many of the students just laid in the water puddle for fun.

We all had a great day! See you very soon.

Love,

Victoria and Olina on behalf of the Australia group 🇦🇺⛰