Queesland- by Anna

When we arrived in Brisbane after 24 hours of unexpected flights, we went to my mom’s friend Shane and her husband Brian and their daughter Ella’s house. We settled in. Half an hour after we arrived, Shane and Ella came home. We had a fun evening celebrating Shane’s birthday, learning a new dance, and swimming in their pool. Ella introduced us to vegimite that I liked but my

sisters thought tasted like salty fish and really disliked it. We also had a BBQ and ate birthday cake. Wednesday started off with a swim, then we went shopping for our Secret Santa. I got my mom. After shopping, we went for another swim then had a lovely dinner. It was a fun night! Thursday morning we watched a Christmas movie. In the afternoon, we went to Southbank, which is in the heart of Brisbane. We went for lunch at a Mexican restaurant and I ordered chicken fajitas. We went swimming in an ocean pool and the adults went to the restaurant. Friday, we said our goodbyes then we drove to Caloundra, a town an hour north from Brisbane. When we arrived, we met Nerissa, Sue and Ian. Nerissa and my mom were roommates back when my mom lived in Australia. We were smoking hot because it was 40 degrees outside and it felt like we were in a sauna the entire day. We went in their pool. Saturday, we went to the beach with Nerissa and my mom’s other friend, Carrie and her family. I learnt how to surf, it was a blast. We spent the evening at Sandpoint Christmas carnival with Shane, Ella and Brian. We went on a mini bungee activity, took pictures at the photo booth, had dinner, and watched fire works that lasted thirty seconds because of the wind. We all had a big laugh about that. We had to say our final goodbyes which was really hard. Sunday, we went for a swim at the beach with the same gang. The waves were a bit to choppy, so it was too dangerous to surf. Then we came back and made a Gingerbread house with Sue. Later on in the evening, Nerissa and my parents went out for dinner and Sue and Ian took us for a drive to see Christmas lights. It was so fun! Monday morning we all got to work with our cooking and baking for Christmas. I made a Mississippi Mud Pie, Elise made Carmel slice and Amee made our traditional meat pie called ” Tortière” with my dad. We definitely had some fun volley ball games on Christmas Eve. That night, we got cookies and milk for Santa and we could almost not fall asleep bacause we were so excited. The next morning was fun. We started with gifts. We got a ticket to the Australia Zoo and we got the best present ever from Santa! We got tickets to go see Ed Sheeran live in Portugal! We were so excited that we couldn’t talk about anything but that, in the morning. In the afternoon, Carrie and Dan came over with their kids Mayson, Blayke and Ruby and also my moms friends Max and Michelle. We had an awesome Christmas lunch, a pool party and then after Max and his gang left, we played volleyball with Carrie and her family. It was a fantastic night. On boxing day, we went to the Australian Zoo. We saw tonnes of animals snakes, koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, Tasmanian devils, beautiful birds, some giant lizards and tigers. We even got to watch a crocodile show with birds as well. It was cool to see the Irwins history. We also got to take a picture, holding a koala. After the Zoo, we went to the beach and had fish and chips with Carrie and her gang. Thursday, we packed up and left Caloundra. Goodbyes are always tough.