Posted by Hello world and all who inhabit it! This is Abbie, and I still can’t believe that out of thousands of entries for the Hands-On Explorer Challenge, mine was one of the lucky few picked!!
I had the most surreal experience in Australia and I’m still soaking it in. I wanted to talk about my favorite experience in the land of Oz.
The Great Barrier Reef: Low Isles are a small group of islands in the Great Barrier Reef that we’re all happy the ocean created. They may be the closest thing to paradise only accessible in your wildest fantasies. We not only got to go on the island, but we got to snorkel the reef! It had rained earlier so the water was a little murky, but the experience was still magical. To top it all off, I even ran into a group of three green sea turtles!!! They are beautiful and majestic, but they can be a little daunting…mostly due to their HUMONGO sizes! One sneaked up on me and almost gave me a heart attack! HAHA!
We even got to try octopus! Okay so that doesn’t sound so weird, but the catch is that the octopus still looked like an octopus! That’s right, tiny little purple octopi, dead of course, but possibly one of the most interesting meals ever!
Enough talk of life on Earth, let’s talk of the life we had in the sky. I had about 60 hours flying time in total from the whole trip! Luckily we had flight attendants that fed us and supplied us with the essentials for life in the air. We even had personal TV screens on the back of the seat in front of us! Of course we had our new friends for company as well! Going to Australia took 13 hours and 13 minutes, but it was exciting so that made it go by faster. If we slept that took a few more hours away.
Going back home wasn’t as exciting. 
We knew it was the end of the journey, and that we wouldn’t wake up to five-star meals and the bright shining faces of our friends. I didn’t shed a tear until I got home, because I knew that for spring break, all 15 of us and our parents would be meeting up with our Nat Geo friends for a reunion.
Here are some pictures from the trip that either my mom or I took!
A Tasmanian devil at the Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Centre
A kangaroo at the Bonorong Wildlife Conservation Centre
Abbie and friends at the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park
Australian saltwater crocodile at Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures
Abbie and Mom with a koala at Kurana Koala Gardens
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