Our Goodbyes

Wow!

We can hardly believe that today we are heading out to New Zealand to begin our long journey home. (the date is actually the 23 of December)

How the time has flown this year.

The last few weeks have been taken up with finishing off lessons, completing more paper work, packing up, as well as saying goodbyes to all of our new friends.

Jocelyn and Avery completed their surfing lessons at Manly Beach with the Luckhursts. It was fun watching the kids as they challenged themselves. Tom and Martyn even gave it a go! I stayed on the beach with Angela... oohing and ahhing.





The Luckhursts organized a goodbye picnic/paddle for the exchange families. We reflected about the highlights of the year, and shared our thoughts about what we had learned.

We wondered what will these kids will look like by the time we meet again?

Last Friday we went to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate Gregory and Avery's Birthday again with the Luckhurst. I guess they are not bored with us yet. We had Tippanyaka where they cook the food right at our table and then the kids had to catch some of it in their bowls... fun!

That night we got some pictures down at Circular Quay.

We have had an amazing and challenging year! 2007 will be one to remember!

It is difficult saying our goodbyes but we are looking forward to going home.

We hear that you guys have been having quite the snow storms, hopefully we will have a few snow days when we get back!

If we don't hear from you before, we hope that you have a wonderful Christmas. We will be thinking of you having a white Christmas with lots of snow activities and then warming up with family, friends, a good book or movie inside. We plan to be at the Antarctic Centre in Christchurch on Christmas Day... a little reminder of home.

Namaste,

Tom, Ginette, Jocelyn and Avery

Our last few adventures!

Greetings Family and Friends!

I guess it has been a while since I updated the blog. I have been putting so much pictures on facebook instead.

For Halloween we had some friends over for a party. It felt kind of weird having a pool party for Halloween.

Tom and I were king and queen for the day, thanks to Jocelyn's artistic talent.

The big hit was the Gerein's pumpkin pinata, and the Luckhurst's baked treats. Everyone had a spooktacular time.

The next day we dragged ourselved out the door to do a Sydney Opera house tour with some of the families that were still left in Sydney. We learned about the history of the Opera house and its construction.

The following weekend we went to the Blue Mountains for the last time with the Luckhursts and the Southwells. The weather forcast was lousy. Saturday was cool, it was foggy and wet, but by the time Sunday came the sun was shining and things warmed up. Just goes to show though when the company is good, not even bad weather gets in the way.

We said our good byes to the 3 sisters!

A few weeks ago we did a walk around Bondi beach to see The Sculptures by the Sea... some interesting things here...

The bugs are really big and scary here in Australia.

We are not sure how much more time we will have to update the blog in the upcoming weeks... especially when we are in New Zealand. It is less than 4 weeks until we begin our long journey home.

Thanks for your emails. It is so nice to hear what you all are up to. We cannot believe you got a snow day in November... yeash.

We are missing home heaps now, especially with the Christmas season approaching.

Take care,

Ginette, Tom, Avery and Jocelyn

Oberon Exchange Weekend

We started the weekend on Friday night arriving at our billets and getting settled in. Our billets were lovely hosts and we enjoyed being out of the city on a country farm. As a special treat they gave us a tour of their farm and the kids got to feed the baby lamb with a bottle!

On Saturday morning, the exchangees meet in town to begin our morning drive out to Kanangra/Boyd National Park. We were happy to see the Canadians, Val and her son Kieran make it down from the Gold coast to participate in our exchange event. The drive out to the park was on a pretty dusty road, the bushwalk was quite a climb, and the flies were a tad annoying, but the effort was worth it, as the views were spectacular!

Here, Tom is actually laying down on a lower ledge. It looks pretty impressive though. The boys in the back are Avery and Kit checking out how far it is to the bottom. Honestly, it did not worry me too much when I was there as it seemed safe, but now looking at the photos creeps me out!

You cannot see what is underneath you when you are up there.

After lunch we headed for the Jenolan caves. We ended up doing the Lucas Cave tour after a caffeine fix to get us through the afternoon. The cave tour was brilliant! The guide had interesting stories, and the lighting showed off the massive size of the cave and the impressive stalactites and stalagmites. He taught us that stalatites hold 'tight' to the roof, and stalagmites 'might' get to the top.

On Saturday evening we gathered at the Royal Hotel for a delicious meal, where our billets joined us. The adults had time to socialize, as kids were rarely seen after finding a playground outside.

On Sunday morning our billet gave us a tour of the local school. I don't know of any school that has an agricultural program like this one. They care for various animals, hatch eggs, and grow a garden. Avery now wants to become a farmer.

We then headed out to Evans Crown Nature Reserve. We wondered how we would make it through another bushwalk, but our tireless leader Beth continued on. We were revived when we saw what we would explore. The reserve was surrounded, and towered by these massive granite boulders just tempting us to climb them. We made it up to several lookouts and took heaps more photos to fill up our harddrive.

We're in here somewhere.

Avery and Kit again.

The ETL at Oberon.

Missing home.
Ginette, Tom
Avery and Jocelyn















For lunch we stopped off at Tarana Pub to conclude our weekend. We said goodbyes to our wonderful exchange friends. For a first time exchange activity, we would definitely say this is a keeper!

Our last Term Break in Australia

Well... our last official big holiday in Australia has come and gone. We spent the last holiday on the beach... actually many beaches on the north east coast.

We got some terrific photos! We have dowloaded many of the photos on Facebook as there is just so many... so you can find us there.

We did not get much sleep on the beginning of our holiday; cramped quarters all night, sharing a blow up mattress, Avery coughing, Jocelyn talking in her sleep, and noisy campgrounds was just part of it. The sun beating down on the tent really early in the morning just made things worse.

The good thing was that Tom and I had some peaceful moments getting up with the sun. We enjoyed going for early morning strolls while the kids slept in. Moonee beach had to be our favourite morning walk. This photo shows you why.

Our trip to Fraser island turned out to be quite an adventure too. Jocelyn and I got sick just before going. You can see by the photo she is not feeling to well as we head over on the barge.

Because we weren't feeling well, we decided to stay at a resort on the island so that we would not have to stay in a tent. We just figured that we all needed a good rest. It paid off because we recovered quickly and we were off exploring the island in no time. We also were glad to have a kitchen and a good shower to clean off from all the sand at the end of each day.

Fraser island boasts to be the largest sand island in the world, and is the only sand island with a rainforest in the middle of it. Driving on the island was quite an experience. Especially with Jocelyn recovering from the stomach flu.

There were a number of things to see on the island. We spent the first day just hanging around the resort and letting Jocelyn get caught up on her sleep and then headed out the next.

At the tip of the island is the Champaign pools. We got to explore the sea creatures in the area.

This has got to be the biggest jelly that we have ever seen.

The Maheno ship was shipwrecked in the early 1900's. During the war they decided to use the ship as target practice.

We have so many whale photos now it's ridiculous. Tom is looking for the perfect shot and thinks that he has to take a million to get the right one. I will just put one picture on the blog not to bore you too much. It is just so magical watching these gigantic beasts the photo does not do it justice.

Just before leaving the island we stopped at Lake Mackenzie. It is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. The water was crystal clear!

We were fortunate to be able to stay at our wonderful billets from first term on the way home. Good food and conversation. They had the kids have a go on their surf skiis... fun!

We have made some wonderful friendships here and hope we will be able to keep in contact with them when we return home.

We are hoping to have a spooktacular time this weekend at our Halloween party. We hope that you are having good fall weather.

Signing off,

The Andress'

Weather is cheering up!

Hello Amigos!

During the APEC weekend, we were planning to get out of the city but Avery had a tough time with a cold and we did not want to chance it in such cool weather. We ended up staying in Sydney, watching heaps of videos and visiting the Taranga zoo. The zoo was fabulous! It did not feel like the over commercialized places that we often have in North America.

Forget weightlifting, Tom has turned to croc restling as a past time in Australia. Grrrrr!

Mom... don't look... Avery and an olive python.

The highlight for the kids was the seal show!

But the highlight for Ginette was the talk about the Giraffe and the acadia tree. Ginette teaches about Evolutionary Spirals in the grade 12 Bio. In this evolutionary arms race, the acadia tree develops taller branches and longer thorns, but the Giraffe only develops longer necks and tongues. Then, the tree is able to do some interesting things with the chemical tannin to make it toxic to the Giraffe. To see this up close was cool, as she had only read about it. Wish Tom could have caught the Giraffe's tongue though, boy was it long.

The last few weekends we have been doing some Sydney parks. Martyn, an exchange friend organized a canoe/kayak along the river system. We finished it off with a barbie.

This past weekend we headed to Palm beach for a hike up to the lighthouse. Spectacular weather and good company!

Avery has completed his apron sewing project and is now wearing it to cooking class!

And the boy finally got a haircut!

Ta for now!

Ginette, Tom, Avery and Jocelyn

Keeping busy until next term break

Hello everyone!

We are counting the days til our next term break, trying to keep ourselves busy.

We are missing home lately as the weather is rather drippy this week, and we are thinking of how beautiful it is during the Autumn months at home.

Jocelyn finished up her soccer season. She learned a great deal of foot control this year. We enjoyed all of the families that we were able to meet at these early Sunday morning games but we are looking forward to our weekends being free. They have a lot of early morning weekend sport here... yeash...

Jocelyn also has had two band concerts the last few weeks. One at a competition and the other at the school fun fair. The band is sounding better every day!



Jocelyn got a nice shinner...slipped into a trampoline while practicing soccer. Of course I had to put this one on the blog. She is looking good now but, it got worse before it got better.

We got to see the eclipse really well from the back yard. Tom got this great shot!

There are a number of coastal hiking trails in the area. Last weekend the exchange group organized a walk from the Manly Wharf to spit bridge. We are enjoying these weekend hikes lead by Wilma and Nick. The hike had some spectacular views!

We stopped off at the beach for a little food, sun and sand.

Nick's keen eye spotted a pod of dophins in the harbour. Lovely!

This weekend was a long weekend due to the APEC summit. We had planned to go camping but with Avery and Jocelyn with colds we decided to stay close to Sydney.

Hope your fall is going well! We look forward to the colours next year!

Sayonara,

Ginette, Tom, Avery and Jocelyn

Winter is nearly over!

Hello Everyone!

Things are looking good as the weather is cheering up! For a country in drought, I have never seen so much rain. We are told the water is not getting to the centre where it is needed though.

We have been staying close to Sydney with activities mostly planned around Jocelyn the last few weeks. Jocelyn has had another band competition, her birthday party, and has been winding down in soccer as her season is over this week. and .... Jocelyn got her first black eye after slipping into a pipe! It is healing nicely now.

We went whale watching in Botany Bay. In the first photo we are standing on the first rock that Captain Cook has been said to step on when coming to Australia.

We could not believe how patient the kids were sitting around waiting for whales. It was worth it though, even though they were probably a km away it was magical.

Avery is busy with his power point presentation for school, practicing the guitar and playing around on the computer.

I saw my first red back spider this week. When I went for a closer look, a teacher cautioned me not to get to close as they jump... yeash!

This weekend we are doing more sausage sizzles with some exchange friends, and the soccer families. That should be fun!

Take care all,

We are thinkin of you as some of you are returning to school soon.

Ciao,

Ginette, Tom and

Avery and Jocelyn