2008 Kids Expedition Team
Casey at the 2011 Explorers Symposium
Posted by Hi, this is Casey from Team Australia. I can’t believe it’s already been three years since our trip Down Under! Anyhow, I was at the Explorer’s Symposium on June 21st, and I would like to tell you about it. I arrived a little early after a two hour drive from West Virginia, which gave me a little time to explore the garden behind the National Geographic building. It was filled with a large variety of beautiful plants, which all of the birds seemed to enjoy.
The reception started at 5:00 pm, so I had an hour to talk to the other kids from the trips to the Galapagos, South Africa, and Peru, and some of the National Geographic staff who I hadn’t seen for two years. I also enjoyed the excellent food they served from different cultures. At 6:00, two Buffett Awards were presented to Moi Enomenga and Paula Kahumbu for their role in Latin-American and African conservation, respectively. Moi, a native Ecuadorian from the Huaorani tribe was given the Buffet Award for helping to build the Huaorani Ecolodge, which helps to collect funds for the Huaorani and promotes environmental conservation. Paula is a Kenyan Emerging Explorer for National Geographic who has played a fundamental role in African wildlife conservation, such as leading the fight to ban a pesticide that is killing many of Africa’s endangered wildlife including lions and hyenas.
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Hello from Abbie
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!
An Entry from Grace
Hello to all of you who read our blog! Thank you so much for your comments and feedback. Thanks for all the comments on our amazing adventures.Your questions about our amazing adventure are welcomed… Here is more information on our trip.
We are going to keep adding to the blog and add new pictures too. We did have a fantastic time in Oz! Australia’s time difference from L.A. is about ten hours ahead-also, some of the kids were like me…they live on the eastern U.S., so add another 4 or 5 hours to that! And yes, the plane delays and layovers did make us VERY tired, but it also gave us time to get to know one another. The 13 hour flight was very long, but our flight attendants kept us supplied with food and meals, warm and comfy with pillows and blankets, and everybody had individual TV screens on the seat in front of them to keep entertained. We could watch TV shows, movies, or play games or listen to music. Thank goodness for that!
Videos
The videographers from Tourism Australia, Jeff and Chris, were very nice to all of us! Here is a photo of me with them.
It was fun to be in the movies and to watch them! When we went to Taroona Primary they let us into their library, so we all crowded around the few computers to watch the movies!
Boomerangs
Throwing the boomerangs was very hard. It was sort of like throwing a baseball, except that you had to lean back, then hurl the boomerang forward, and we only got one try. My mom bought a boomerang while we were there, however, so I’m going to practice throwing it at my school’s football field (before summer ends). I am determined to throw it hard enough to make it come back to me! When the Aboriginal guides did it, it was amazing hearing the *WHOOSH* of the boomerang as it circled you, then dropped. They actually do come back! One even nailed one of the guys filming us for a video. He tried to catch it, but it whacked his equipment instead. It’s harder than it looks.
The 2008 Hands-On Explorer Trip
Video courtesy of Tourism Australia
Video courtesy of Tourism Australia
HOEC Kids’ Last Day in Australia
This is our last blog from Australia, so several of us wanted to write our thoughts about our amazing adventures so far. We still have a full day planned for tomorrow…but probably the next blog to appear here will be after we’re all back home. Meanwhile…
Video courtesy of Tourism Australia
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G’day mates! This is Maya, reporting for the first part of today’s adventure. Our day began when we took a bus ride and arrived at Taroona Primary School, set atop a gorgeous hill overlooking the sparkling bay. There, we met with our Tassie buddies that we had been e-mailing prior to the trip…
Video courtesy of Tourism Australia
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Hey, it’s Abbie and Mara! After the joy of sleeping in yesterday morning, we waved goodbye to tropical Cairns and our awesome tour guide Tracy. While waiting for the plane to Hobart, Tasmania, we also played pranks on others in the airport…
Video courtesy of Tourism Australia
The Adventure So Far
Video courtesy Tourism Australia
Video courtesy Tourism Australia
Alex and Michael
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…
Missy & Savanna
Hi, this is Savanna:)
Today was packed full of exciting adventures–much like every day here in Australia. Not only did we get to experience the sights of the Barron Gorge National Parks’s wet tropical rain forest from the world’s longest Skyrail, cuddle with koala bears, and hand-feed little wallabies.
At the end of our midday excursion we got a chance to walk around in Australia’s largest butterfly sanctuary…
Video courtesy Tourism Australia
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Veronica and Zach
Hi, this is Veronica. This morning we got up and checked out of our hotel nice and early and headed for Hartley’s Crocodile Adventures. We saw lots of different animals there, from crocs to cassowaries. We hopped in a boat, equipped with metal grid and glass windows for protection against the croc’s massive jaws. Every once in a while, Andrew, our guide, would hang a chicken head out the front of the boat and the crocs would jump and claw for it. Which made for great shots. The boat was a frenzy of camera clicks and kids running from one side of the boat to the other trying to get a killer shot. I think I got a couple good ones. After the (life-threatening) boat ride, we went on a walk around the park with a guide to see the rest of the animals. When we started our walk we were greeted by a little swamp wallaby…
Video courtesy Tourism Australia
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Photo From the Plane
The Great Barrier Reef from the air, approaching Cairns
Benjamin and Elisabeth
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.
Adam’s, Grace’s, and Casey’s Blogs
The plane was delayed!!! 
Hi, I’m Adam DeSerio. It was great getting to meet the other kids at LAX in an awesome Private lounge! We had free food, and received a gift bag containing Aussie leather hats, and an Australian dictionary. Everything was going great till one of the hosts told us that our plane had been delayed till 2:30 a.m., and originally we were going to leave at 11:20 p.m. Most of us slept right there in the airport. When we finally got on the plane at 1:30 we were notified that we ONLY had 13 hours till we would land in Brisbane! It is really funny because the leather hats were made in Australia, were shipped to Los Angeles, then were taken back Down Under, and will eventually end up back in Los Angeles! Ha, ha–it’s great!
Welcome to the HOEC Blog
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.
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