Results tagged “Great Barrier Reef”

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!

Video courtesy of Tourism Australia

Hi, I'm Alex. Today the National Geographic Kids expedition team first visited a school in Cairns and the Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. We arrived at the Hambledon State School in Cairns this morning and saw children along the sidewalk eagerly awaiting our arrival. At first the children were a bit timid and shy, but after talking to them for a bit they opened up and were very talkative. They taught me all kinds of cool things I never knew. They showed me berries that you could pop on your fingers to appear as if you're bleeding...

Hi, I'm Benjamin. As soon as we all got up this morning, we boarded a bus to go to breakfast. We went to the Rainforest Habitat wildlife park, where we got to hold some pretty cool rain forest animals, like the carpet python, tree frog, parakeet, and crocodile. We learned a little bit about each of the animals too. For example we learned that the python could grow to be several feet long. The one I held was about four feet long.


Afterward we ate breakfast with the birds. The birds were flying around, swiping our food and drinking our juice, and sitting on our heads and shoulders. One even peed on my shoulder! It was all great--even the pee.

Welcome to the Hands-On Explorer Challenge trip blog! The departure date for the Kids Expedition team is around the corner, on July 16. That's when 15 kids and two teachers, all winners of the contest, fly to Australia. During their 13-day expedition to Queensland and Tasmania, they'll snorkel in the Great Barrier Reef, get up close and personal with koalas, learn about Aboriginal peoples and their culture, talk with Aussie cowboys, meet Tasmanian students and plant trees for their joint project to save the Tasmanian devil, and more.