Hands-On Explorer Trip Blog - National Geographic Kids

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!

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.

Video courtesy of Tourism Australia

Video courtesy of Tourism 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