Hi, I had an amazing Christmas holiday to share with you. Well, it was a very unusual end of school term for me, because right after school I didn’t go home, instead I went to the airport and for my vacation, visited Seattle, Queenstown (New Zealand), Fiji, Singapore and Indonesia. I learned interesting things on this vacation and also had a lot of fun!!!
New Zealand gets a lot of sun…
The difference of the light in different countries is interesting and made me appreciate nature and our planet. In sunny New Zealand it only got dark at 10:00 pm meanwhile in Seattle it got dark at 04:00 pm. It is summer in NZ now while Canada & US are having their winter. My Dad explained that it is because NZ is in the Southern hemisphere. In the Pacific, Fiji and Indonesia got dark around 08:00 pm but had a very beautiful sunset, especially in Fiji where our resort was on the ocean and beach and where we had our meals.
Here is a picture of NZ at almost 10 pm:
Fun stuff:
We did three really fun things in Queenstown, NZ. First, we sped down a river with a jet boat where Chinese gold miners settled and worked hard. The Jet Boat was fast, furious and the handling was great. It can drift and corner around huge boulders that are plunged into the river bed, but the coolest thing was when the driver of the boat would spin around in circles and we would get water splashed all over our faces. It was a good thing we had raincoats as we got really wet!
The second fun activity was at the Goldfield where I got to mine for gold with a gold pan from gravel, but unfortunately we did not find any gold but we did find some seriously cool rocks. My favorite rock was green, very smooth and shaped like a bubble. It did not have any scratches or cracks but I had to wash it very carefully to see the green as it was covered with soil.
The third cool thing was a 9 hour return drive to Milford Sound from Queenstown. Although it was a long drive, we saw lots of ice caps and glaciers and they were so close we could almost climb them. We also saw huge waterfalls coming from all different sides of the mountains, which are from ice melting from the mountain tops.
At Milford Sound we went on a cruise that took us to see the beautiful scenery. At one point the boat got so close to under a waterfall I got completely soaked. We also saw loads of seals sleeping on a huge rock. There was one that looked like it was 3 times the size of me.
I really appreciated what I saw and I really want to thank my parents for booking the beautiful cruise at Milford Sound.
Fiji time!!
We then flew to Fiji and guess what, I got to eat for free with my resort bracelet! The staff told me that Fiji is where they filmed the movies Castaway and The Blue Lagoon but I have never seen these movies.
At the resort I went sea kayaking and paddle boating on the ocean, which was very adventurous and fun. One day my Dad and I went very far out where there were fishermen standing on rocks. The wind and current was strong and we had to paddle very hard. I also went snorkeling and saw clown fish (like Nemo) swimming around me and I think one of them actually sucked my toes
One very awesome staff climbed a coconut tree and brought 3 fresh coconuts down for us to drink. The milk and flesh from the coconuts was splendid because it was very tasty and different to the coconuts I have tasted before from Thailand.
The resort also had a kids club and one day we made a boat out of coconut shell and leaves. Here is me floating the boat on the beach.
I also made a lot of friends from Sydney, Australia. I wish I got to spend more time with them and I could teach them how to climb coconut trees.
I really enjoyed going to places I have never been to and doing things I have never done. I should really give credit to my Mom and Dad for planning this trip for us. I am lucky to have such an amazing vacation as I left on Friday for the entire holiday!!!
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