This will be my last post about my Australia visit, and undoubtedly my favourite. Sorenne, Amy, Doug and I had lots of fun together, and the best part of the trip was just spending time with them. I used to be lucky enough to do that every day, and now I have to content myself with Skype for the most part, which is amazing but not the same as really being together.
For example, it would be very hard to build a Tuatara (native NZ reptile that is basically a dinosaur) together over Skype. I found this construction kit in Wellington, and thought it would be fun to do together, which it was.
It's a simple concept of layering many shapes on top of each other, but it was quite entertaining to add them one by one and watch the cute little guy take shape. (Fortunately, Sorenne was better at reading the instructions than I was, or the poor Tuatara would have ended up with no eyes).
We were quite proud of him in the end, and thought he looked rather wonderful with the flowers outside our cottage.
I mentioned before that we went on a rather long walk in search of the missing horses. Well, we didn't find the horses that day, but the walk was a grand success. We forded multiple streams, sometimes by balancing on rocks, and sometimes (after giving up on keeping our shoes clean or even dry), by simply walking across. It was a bit rainy, but nice and warm, and the water felt great on our feet.
I know I put this picture in my "Beautiful Place" post, but I just think it's stunning, and this is where we were hiking, so I thought I'd share it again. It was glorious just being out in nature, chatting as we walked along.
We went to Sunshine Beach, near Noosa, on a beautiful afternoon. As I mentioned in my last post, the prolific blue bottle jellyfish prohibited swimming, but that was fine, as we decided to build a sand castle instead. Sorenne and Amy had been teaching me to play Minecraft, and so we decided to take inspiration from that (and also keep our sculpting expectations low) and make a Minecraft cube for our sandcastle.
The sand was beautifully fine and felt amazing, and we had a nice time making our cube and moat, which turned out pretty well, I think, with the added touch of a footprint in each corner.
This somehow got left out of my "Beautiful Place" post, and I couldn't resist adding it in here. It is the lookout where we saw the Koala and Kookaburra, and it was just so gorgeous!
At this same lookout, there was a big open space (the purpose of which is unclear), and Sorenne saw it as the perfect place to try using the panorama setting on my phone to see if we could get three of her into one picture. After several failed attempts, we ended up with this, which is pretty awesome, except for the amputation the middle Sorenne suffered. Sorry, Sorenne!
We tried again, and were quite successful, although the middle Sorenne might still be a bit unhappy about the previous amputation incident, because she looks a tad strange. But still, a success.
On Easter Morning, we had hot cross buns, which until I moved to NZ, I had thought were imaginary things in nursery rhymes. Apparently, they exist in Australia, too. They are an Easter tradition in both countries, but this was the first time I'd eaten them on Easter day, so that was special.
Amy had some lovely Easter treats for Sorenne and I, which brought back so many fond Easter memories from my childhood. Not having children of my own, and being so far away from family, I'd really forgotten about the celebratory aspects of Easter, and it was wonderful to remember them. Sorenne and I proved our architectural prowess by building a house for her little baby bird out of pencils with fancy erasers and a tissue. I was quite impressed with us.
I also taught Sorenne to play SlapJack, at which she quickly became a formidable opponent. Amy joined in sometimes as well, and we all had fun and no one broke a finger, so I think it was a success.
On my last night there, Sorenne suggested we do some origami, which is something I use to enjoy, but haven't done in years. With the aide of YouTube, we could do anything!
We made some very respectable swans, and then made an excellent start on some butterflies. Amy joined us, and the tree of us did quite well until the YouTube lady did something completely incomprehensible that none of us could follow, resulting in her butterfly looking astoundingly realistic, while ours persisted in resembling crab rangoon. Oh well. It was fun anyway!
Thanks to Sorenne, Amy, and Doug for a fantastic visit, and I can't wait for the next time we can get together, whether it's in NZ or Australia.
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