Scuba for the planet

While Littletree has been having an awesome time snorkelling on the reef almost every day, the kids have also been drawn to go scuba diving. At first, I thought Littletree was too… well… little. But it turns out the PADI dive centre offers “fun dive” courses for children starting at ten years old, so I said she could do the training session in the pool, and see how she goes.

Several of the kids here for the home school adventure did the course together

Watched the training video and listened to all the instructions from the dive master

Got kitted up with wetsuits and masks – they even had a small sized tank and scuba equipment to fit Littletree

Then they went through the training, learning how to use the apparatus, respirators, equalise ear pressure, underwater sign language, and so on.

And finally, practiced diving!

By the end, Littletree was quite proficient, and given the go-ahead from the dive master to join the group out on the reef… but finally, she decided instead to go to a lecture about the delicate ecology of the reef. She then joined in with a clean-up effort organised by the dive school to collect rubbish from the beach and reef, and protect the dune areas where turtles are laying their eggs.

Littletree came home very excited, happy to have done her bit for the day as a “wildlife warrior”.

Currumbin Virtual Photowalk

Continuing on from our Authentic Aussie Experience with Tif and Andy, we all met up with Michael who was hosting a Google+ Virtual Photowalk™.

The Virtual Photowalk is actually a very cool concept. Essentially, some people on Google+ decided to help show the world to people who can’t see it, by bringing them virtually, in Hangouts (HERE is a neat little CBS news clip about it).

Michael’s setup is pretty darn cool – he has a big, fancy video camera, with a smartphone mounted in, and mobile internet connection, so the feed from the video was streaming in the Hangout, where several people from around the world could watch, and the whole thing was recorded so it can be watched later. Check it out HERE

Being a photowalk, we did, of course, take a lot of photos (You can see the full album of our adventures (HERE)

As did Littletree

(and yes, this is a photo of me taking a photo of her taking a photo of me…)

We arrived in time for the morning feeding of the Rainbow Lorikeets

And then it was right off to the Koalas,

Because both Littletree and Tif were super excited to cuddle koalas – this is Abby

We tried to feed Tif and Littletree to a croc

But failing that, we fed kangaroos

We saw cassowaries (because Angry Birds in Australia are really angry – do not mess with Aussies)

 

We saw the cutest little ginger tree kangaroos

We rode the train

And did I mention we took lots of photos…

We spent a lot of time on our phones checking out Google+,

posting, sharing, chatting, and in general engaging with thousands of people, and joining in the hangouts, so it felt like we had the whole world of all our friends with us

So much awesome!

Especially the awesome friends right here

And we took lots of photos.

Then, all tuckered out from walking around… and taking so many pictures, we retired to the beach for an awesome brunch

Fun times! And of course, entirely educational, especially the part where Littletree challenged Tif to a Big Bang Theory quote-off.

Koala is not a Bear

We drive past signs like these often

But you never actually see any Koalas… but coming back from the beach yesterday, right exactly next to this sign, we saw a koala crossing the road! (Actually, if you look very, very closely at this photo, the koala is visible in the tree behind the sign)

Quickly pulled over off the road and grabbed the camera, Littletree was ecstatic!

Glad to see it safely cross the road, it then scampered into some bushes and then we watched as it climbed up a gum tree.

Lucky it wasn’t a drop bear! And so exciting to see Koalas – the last place we lived there were lots of them around the house making a racket at night, but here they aren’t nearby.

Here’s a short video:

Short Koala clip

Pelicans Can

Littletree has been learning about Pelicans – we went for an excursion with home school group to an estuary where pelicans flock in abundance and we could observe them eating.

Littletree was fascinated, and the birds are relatively comfortable around humans

It was incredible to be able to get so close to a wild flock, and I gave Littletree the camera and left her to observe them and take notes.

She took a whole bunch of amazing photos (dozens, in fact).

And the thing she found most amazing was watching that the pelicans actually turn their bill “inside out”.

So now we’ve been to the library and all over the internet reading about pelicans and learning about them – Littletree was even so taken with it that she got out her “Listening to Nature” notebook and wrote a report on Pelicans.

Life learning in action!

New Neighbours

Littletree and I were going out for a night-time walk to look at the full moon the other night when we heard a rustling in the bushes… a quick flash of the torchlight revealed…

An Echidna! How exciting! It was burrowing into the undergrowth right next to our driveway. Oddly enough, every time it dug a bit, the other side of the bushes rustled simultaneously. I assumed the echidna must be pushing on a vine or root that was pulling on the bush… but when we shone the light over on the other side, there was a second echidna. Somehow, they were burrowing, and pausing in perfect synchronisation with each other.

It was very cool! And naturally led to Littletree asking about nocturnal animals, and a whole discussion on monotremes.

After watching for a while, we left them in peace, and came back in the morning to see quite an extensive burrow going on. So happy to have some nice new neighbours :-)

Monkeying Around

The gang went out on a boat trip on Bali to see dolphins this week – well, I didn’t go as it would have meant getting two boats to fit us all in, and at this end of the trip the budget is starting to wear a little thin ;)

Littletree had an awesome time, they saw five or six pods of dolphins, right up close to the boats. At this point, I’m not sure if it was wise or foolish, but Littletree didn’t take a camera out with her (yeah, when a small boat, small hands, and gravity are combining on the ocean, I’m not sure I want my camera involved!) so no pictures…

But on the way back from the dolphin beach, we saw… MONKEYS!!!

The kids were enthralled, so we pulled over for a closer look.

So cute! This grandpa one was awesome

The kids, of course, couldn’t help throwing them some bananas

And naturally, the monkeys their very own pet dog.

See; educational!

Epic Sandcastles

What can one do when one is living beachside on a small tropical island? Swim, swim, swim and swim! Well, asides from the snorkelling; collecting and studying the amazing coral;

And marine life;

And aside from playing football on the beach; and learning about the life cycle of turtles; and running around with kids, and learning to speak Bahasa Indonesia; and getting our heads around exchange rates that are 1:9500… there’s always sandcastles EPIC SANDCASTLES!

The kids got hard to work constructing the most elaborate architecture

They devised ways of building bridges, and using driftwood and coral to reinforce construction

Moats, tunnels, waterways, drainage systems… And the inevitable race against the tide

(yeah, some of the “big kids” got in on the fun from time to time ;) )

I’m just continually impressed by the ingenuity of kids working in groups – it’s incredible to see how they solve problems and learn together.

Gili Meno

For the second part of our epic snorkelling trip, we went for a quick stop on Gili Trawangan and then to Gili Meno island for lunch and a visit to the baby turtle hatchery. Littletree was fascinated with the baby turtles, and the project to protect them at the hatchery where the eggs are collected and the babies raised in safety before being released into the wild (I sense a new biology-related interest coming on).

The kids also went into the bird park on Gili Meno

Littletree was hugely excited to see a palm cockatoo (she has a favourite documentary about them)

And there was even a cheeky crocodile

And even I have to admit; this was most definitely educational :)

Snorkelling Trip

Bella organised a snorkelling trip for all the home schooling families – we got to go out in a glass-bottom boat!

We did delay the trip because a tropical storm moved in and the weather was rough for a few days, but the day we set out was so clear and calm, we even had a rare view of the usually cloud-shrouded volcano on Lombok

And then as we came around to the other side of our little island, Gili Air, we got a clear view all the way to to the volcano on Bali, far in the distance!

The glass-bottom boat was pretty cool – I didn’t manage to get good photos through it, but we were treated to a little window down into the underwater world, which was pretty special

The guide took us out to a place called The Coral Gardens, just off the north-west side of our island. Oh, it was AMAZING! I’ve never been snorkelling before, but even the others said this place was extra-special.

Such an incredible array of tropical fish, huge ones of all the colours of the rainbow, glowing neon amidst the beautiful coral and anemones. Wow!

I even saw a manta ray, and we got to see turtles! It was absolutely incredible!