Ruff-ruff! Hello everyone. Sorry it’s been a little while since I last posted, however, we have had limited access to the Internet.

I am now very excited to share a very wonderful visit we had while in southeastern Australia, outside of Melbourne, in a town called Foster.

Lizzie took us to visit Paul MacPhair’s Kelpie training center! This is a sheep dog farm – I wish we could have stayed there all day!

Paul and Anneke were the hosts and showed us around the property, and the operations of the training facilities.  Paul is a fourth generation Australian sheep farmer on the property, and Anneke, is originally from Holland (a dairy farm) — the two of them were great hosts!

They train the kelpies and also raise the sheep. Wool and lamb are two of the main industries of Australia – and, New Zealand.

Paul trains the puppies and the dogs to herd sheep and sells them to other farmers to help them with their sheep.

He trains them with three words like “stay” “back,” and “sit.”.  He rewards them with food and cooling off by jumping in the trough.

Of course, all the puppies/dogs were waiting for their rewards — good dogs!

Roxy is the mother of the young puppies.  At one point, she saw that one of her puppies was missing and checked on the one that I had.

There were so many dogs, I couldn’t count them all! I like the puppies the most – they were so cute! I got to hold the three week old puppies and they barely had their eyes open and could not walk.

We got to watch the older pups (10 weeks old!) when they were first being trained to herd sheep.

I also liked watching the adult dogs herding the sheep. After working, King and Gloria, (the names of the dogs), jumped into the water trough, too, as a reward for their hard work.

My favorite move is when they – “back” – the sheep, which is when they run up and down on the backs of the sheep.

Boy, do I hope I can go back there again someday…..maybe Paul would hire me to help!

And boy, do I miss my own golden retriever, Powder.

 

Thanks Jack and Sandy, for sending us videos and pictures of her, and especially, for taking such good care of Powder!

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Hello again, everyone!  I actually went to the prom in Australia, even though I am not in high school yet… Just joking!

This is a very different type of prom. The Wilsons promontory is basically a National Park, with most of the native wildlife of Australia.

We stopped on the way at the side of a mob of kangaroos lying in the sun and then, to emus (ostrich-like birds) walked out from the bushes just behind us.

Emus are native birds of Australia and are similar to the ostrich.

Then we set off on our hike. Only five minutes later we spotted a wallaby. Wallabies are smaller and darker and kangaroos and are really cute.

Along the way we stopped for lunch and then off again.

After a nice long hike we reached the beach.

The water was warmer than I expected, though I didn’t get to swim in it. Now we were on our way home – although we had a night hike planned.

Before we got in the car we saw our our very first wombat.  Wombats are like giant guinea pigs, but are not as cute as wallabies.

I hope you enjoyed this prom – entation – ha ha…..

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Boing — Boing!  Hop — Hop!  Boing — Boing!!!  Can you guess what’s bouncing now?

A kangaroo!  And Kangaroos are from which continent/country?

If you said Australia, then you are correct.  Our friend Lizzie picked us up from the airport in Melbourne after the flight across the Tasman Sea from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Melbourne, Australia.  Then we drove to Lizzie’s home in Meeniyan, Australia.

Lizzie is so lucky! All of us Americans want to see koalas, right? Well, anAustralian with a eucalyptus tree and no fences like the Lizzie, can see them every day!

We woke up the first morning and walked outside to see a koala right in her yard. It was so cute! Wish all of you were with us to see it!

Later that day, Lizzie took us to Coal Creek, an old fashioned town where coal was mined in the the 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Each building had a different subject such as, music, sewing, saddle making, blade Smith, and even a barber.

This was a famous music teacher’s home and studio, Miss Daisy Hardwick.

For some kids who like the gross stuff, one of the worlds largest earthworms was found here. Anyway, every building was great.

I also got to see what an old-school was like we are so glad that this is not how school is now.

“Sit up straight!”   “Arthur, that is not how you write an ‘a’!”

Once our bellies started rumbling we decided to search for the perfect picnic spot. The beach was a perfect place for that.

After the picnic lunch was another beach.  We went to Eaglesnest with a tall rock that looks like, well, an Eagle’s Nest!

The next day we went to three art galleries and I met a couple of artists.  One gallery had amazing artwork made from charcoal pencils and even iPhone digital creations. Another had odd furniture made from all recycled materials.

The last one had many books. I read a lot of them because I really like the author who both writes and illustrates her books. This was Alison Lester’s gallery in Fish Creek, Victoria, Australia.  Our favorite book of hers, “Magic Beach,” actually has “charging white horses” in it!  Do you remember what charging white horses are?

We will be enjoying more good home-cooked meals here, too, at Lizzie’s place — how can you tell?

That’s what we did the first few days in Australia….

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Cock-a-doodle-doo! Where are you?  I am in Oamaru, New Zealand.

We have visited Philip and Diana, who were dear friends of my grandparents and are now our dear friends, too!

Philip and Di are originally from England where my Nana and Grandpa met them, and they are retired (not expired,as Philip said) in New Zealand, although Philip works twice a week as a physician in Oamaru.  Both Philip and Di work very hard (but fun work) on their beautiful farm.

They live on the ocean where you can see charging white horses – an inside joke – any day!
Can you guess what charging white horses means (see below for hints)?

If you guessed ocean waves, you are correct!

I loved their exotic garden.  In fact, it is so beautiful, that it won the “National Garden of Significance” which is a really special award in all of New Zealand.

Not many gardens win four stars.  There are only four other people with four star gardens!

Philip and I picked lettuce for salads and Di and I picked rainbow chard for the chickens.

Every morning we fed the chickens leftover bread and chard.

One of the hens did not come out to feed because she was sitting tight on her eggs.The Cockrell/rooster fertilizes the egg so they can hatch. The hen sits for an average of 21 days. Unfortunately, the eggs didn’t hatch while we were there.

Speaking of eggs, did you know that eggshells are the color of its mothers ears? Now you know why there are brown eggs and white eggs and a lot in between!

The chickens at Philip and Di’s are free range chickens, which means their wings are not clipped and they can fly and walk wherever they would like. But the Cockrell/rooster makes sure they come back at night. The rooster also is a good alarm clock, though he wakes me up a
little earlier than I would like!

Philip and Di also have sheep!  “Lamb Chop” is the oldest and the matriarch of the herd.

We got to herd them from one Paddock into another Paddock (field or pasture). Check out this cool video:

https://youtu.be/liG_A1Q2P9Y

We visited the Oamaru Opera House – I miss my friends and being in shows in the Sacramento and Woodland Theaters.

One of Philip and Di’s friends, Sophie, invited me to go see the movie, Cinderella.  It was fun playing with her and her brother Jacob.

We also got to walk along the beach. I found a Paua shell. A Paua is the Maori name for a large edible sea snail.  In America we call it abalone.

I noticed Philip and Di ate a little differently. Every meal has courses, such as breakfast has cereal, then eggs, and then toast.

We ate out on the “bandstand,” a structure they had built outside by the pond with a table. It has beautiful views of the garden and pond.

Now you know all about our trip to Philip and Di’s – thank you Philip and Di – we can’t wait to see you again soon!

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