Dear all,
The flight is tracking well and expected to land a fraction early.
We are still expecting their return to St Leonards’ at around 11.30 am this morning.
We will keep you updated throughout the morning via this blog!
It has been a privilege and a pleasure to travel with the Fireflies over these past 18 days. We took away a group of school children and are bringing back a fine group of young adults. They have risen to every challenge with maturity and a readiness to help others. A highlight for us was the way they worked together on the house build in the Mekong – we were incredibly proud of the initiative and kindness they showed towards each other and the Vietnamese villagers. These efforts were magnified due to the oppressive heat experienced during the day and overnight. You should feel very proud of your sons and daughters, and they will have many stories to tell once they’ve caught up on their sleep!
Thank you.
Robyn Marshall, Chris Raudys and Bel Southey
See you soon from Shanghai!
For our last and only day in Shanghai we started by visiting the Oriental Pearl Tower. The 360 degree view of Shanghai was truly breathtaking. From the tower we were able to see both new and old parts of the city of Shanghai, separated by the Huang Pu river. We were able to got a bird’s-eye view of many of the modern skyscrapers, including the Shanghai World Trade Centre and the still under construction Shanghai Tower. Within the Pearl Tower there was a museum that told of the story of how Shanghai had developed from a small fishing village to a huge city of over 27 million people in a very short period of time.
Our next destination was the Bund. This is the old colonial part of Shanghai, with many European style buildings that are over 100 years old, and was also the place where couples would go to meet for dates before the invention discos, karaoke and clubs. The weather while we were in Shanghai wasn’t quite as good as we were hoping, with scattered rain meaning that our outside events had to be made shorter. However, we still got to see a fantastic view of the Shanghai skyline from the edge of the Huang Pu river.
Our last and most awaited destination in Shanghai was the A.P. Shopping Mall, which sells lots of cheap copy items. We had all been waiting for the chance to have a bit of a haggle and find a bargain. The shopping mall had a wide variety of shops most of which were selling what appeared to be many of the same things that we get back home, just at different prices. For one and a half hours we had had fun making the most of our last opportunity to spend some money before leaving to come back to Australia.
Looking back on this wonderful trip to China, we have been able to visit many major tourist attractions, see many different cities and do many wonderful things, visiting amazing places which before this most of us only have seen in photos. It had been breathtaking to see and do these things for ourselves. We are very grateful for the opportunity to come to China and hope others who come to China in year 9 in the future will enjoy it as much as we have.
By Sasha Weichmann and Nicholas Carus.
Dear all
We are expecting then to arrive just before midday
Dear all,
They are on the bus and on their way home!
They should be here just after 11.30.
Dear all
They are on the bus and on their way home.
They should be here just after 11.30.
