Im back

HELLO! I have finally found my computer. Well not really hee hee.

Anyway, I have been so busy this summer and I can't wait to share some of the exciting activities with you. In this post, I am going to give u a quick overview of my summer.

My birthday was on August 4th. We didn't have a huge party, I just invited some friends over and we went down to the beach. I also invited some friends who live on Quadra Island, which is located off the coast of Vancouver BC. We met up with them on my birthday, by fluke, considering their final destination wasn't even Penticton! They where just driving through on that exact day at that exact time! The universe is weird, I know.

Earlier in the year, in June, I went to a homeschoolers' camp. It was great, in fact, that's where I met  my friends from the island. Not only did I make new friends but I had a great time. There were so many activities to participate in such, building camp fires, swimming, hiking all the regular fun camping stuff.   

The camp was hosted just across from the city of Kelowna, on the shores of Okanagan lake. The lake was great for swimming in, on the lovely summer days. Until the day when the wind whipped wildly and rain was so miserable, that one of the trees almost collapsed onto the field. Other wise I had a tip top time!

I also went to Bible Camp. Or bib-il camp, as I like to call it. This camp was hosted up in the Canadian wilderness. We also did the same fun camping stuff. But with a few exciting exceptions.  I had the opportunity to take part in archery, wilderness survival, field games and drama.

The camp was like a little village. It had a dinning hall, swimming pool and even it's own bus. I had lots of fun there, and for the first time in forever, there wasn't one rainy day!

Something exciting! My favorite app, "Infinite Flight," has recently released a multiplayer feature where you can simulate flying around with other people from all around the world.  I have been waiting for this latest advancement for years.  It does cost 10 Canadian dollars, but it's definitely worth it!

Here is a link to the 2014 trailer.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJSQulnTeD4 It does mention, in the description, that some features will be updated.  They have already been updated since the video was released.

My flight name is N852NG, look for me, leave your flight name in the comments and I'll look for you. Maybe sometime we can fly together.

Thanks for reading my latest, and when I mean late, I MEAN late, blog post.

Cya in the skys!

- Jera!

UP and Away! Yay I'm a Pilot!!!!!!

 

Hello there! Sorry for the lack of blog posts. We have just been settling back in to our regular life.

Anyhow... I FLEW A PLANE! My life long dream!

 

Here I am below in the cockpit of a  Kitfox Series 6.

It is a light weight aircraft and the pilot built it himself!  

      Do you see the rain on the windshield? It was actually hailing when we were in the air!

 

 Here I am taxiing to runway 16.

 

Still taxiing..

 

                                       And I'm off! It was a bit bumpy for the beginning of the flight.

 

                                                      

We banked left and flew over the city. I was in control right about...

                                                                                   Now

                              We flew for about 15 minutes and then landed on a very wet runway!

                                     Here the pilot is showing me how to turn off the aircraft.

              Here I am with my pilot! It was soooo cold once we got out of our nice, warm, heated plane.

 Thanks for reading my blog post! Stay tuned for more! :)

Along the way... places and faces.

                                                               A PICTURE POST
                                                             

Southport, Queensland

Homeschool group

During our drive to Sydney, we met up with a homeschooling group.

 

We joined in their activity. It's kind of hard to explain. It was like a jumping castle/floating island! The picture below explains.

There were lots of things to do on this floating island. There was a climbing wall, three trampolines, a swing, and mountains that you could climb to the top of.

       Here we are on top of one of the mountains. It was an up hill climb! Literally!

    WAIT A MINUTE! Is he giving me bunny ears?!?!?!

                                    Can someone out there please tell me what these are? Again they're a mix of two things! A bike and a train.

Wow imagine trying to fit this compass in your back pocket!

Do you see the white concrete and the dark concrete?
The white concrete marks Queensland, and the dark marks New South Wales!
It's on the border between the two states.
So technically, this picture was taken in NSW.  

 

Byron Bay, New South Wales

This is  Byron Bay's iconic lighthouse. It's still operational! 

As seen here.

 

As far east as we can go in Australia. We can't go any further east on the Australian mainland.

We visited an amazing place, Crystal Castle, near Byron Bay.

One of the worlds tallest amethyst crystals!

                                    Like the sign says.

                                                             A huge quartz crystal. Made up of so many points.

  Walking the labyrinth. "A labyrinth is a walking meditaton...... a spiritual tool for reconnecting with your inner voice. An exercise for the mind, body and spirit."
-Sig Laregren
 

An enormous statue of Buddha. Also known as Siddhārtha Gautama

 

A rose quartz water fountain.

Spinning balls are always so memorizing. 

A Stupa is a mound-like or semi-hemispherical structure, that is used by Buddhists as a place of meditation.

  Australian Beaches
I think we have some of the best beaches in the world!

 

The shipwreck of the SS Wollongbar. The Wollongbar was leaving Byron Bay on May 14 1921, when a gale hit the east coast. The wind and currents where so strong, that the ship ran aground and sank. 


As you see below, time has take its toll on the old ship.

SS Wollongbar. This is all that is left of it.



The Big Banana at Coffs Harbour. ( That rhymes!)

Now that's a Big Banana!

 

Sydney Art Gallery

There where many amazing displays!
But this one was definitely my fav.

I still don't understand how they did that!

 With my cousins Jack and Laura.

Sydney Harbour Bridge

and

Sydney Opera House

 Boarding the ferry.  

 Luna Park. That face always gives me the creeps.

  It was like a mini Disneyland!

                                         Hahaha! This picture never gets old! I think it suits my sister!

On the train heading to Melbourne. It was a 10.5 hour train ride! But it took 12 hours.

 

 

Thank you for reading my blog post!

On the road...

Hello it's me Jera again.

And in this blog post, I am going to be telling you about our trip down the Australian south-east coast.

 We're heading to Melbourne to visit my mum's family. But flying
 is kind of old so we're driving down in a campervan!

We loaded up the camper van, and headed for the Gold Coast.

                          Bye house! We will miss you.

                                                 We left Coolum in this.

It is a Britz campervan (motorhome).

It seats six, sleeps six, and has it's own little kitchen and bathroom!

See my next post for details about the places we visited along the way.

We drove up until Sydney.

When we had to give our beloved van back:(
But, maybe it was for the best because...

 as you can basically tell from the picture above,

WE TOOK THE TRAIN TO MELBOURNE!

We got up at 5am to get to the train station and leave by 7:33. It was a 10 1/2 hour journey but it took over an hour longer as we had to make a few unexpected stops along the way.
( Thanks a lot horses )

Going Down Under

Hello, it's me Jera, again. And, in this blog post I am going to tell you about our adventure as we headed to Australia. It all started when we left Hawai'i.
Thank you Rudy and Dora for inviting us. Rudy, my dad's friend, is reason we came to Hawai'i in the first place.
We woke up, finished packing, said our good byes and headed for Hilo International Airport, which is a 3 minute drive from his house. We checked in our bags at the check in counter and headed for our plane.

This is our plane it is a Hawaiian airlines Boeing 717.

When we boarded and went from this....



to this in five minutes

 

We then flew 210 miles from Hilo, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Oahu.

Here is Honolulu!

The crater is an old volcano called Diamond Head.

We stayed in Honolulu for 3 days, or so we thought...
On Wed, Feb, 2 we headed for Honolulu International Airport.

We went through check in fine. Security, a breeze. We boarded our plane on time too!

Here is our plane. It's a Jetstar airways Airbus A330.

 Five minutes before we where scheduled to leave, the PA came on. It said," Attention passengers, I am afraid that we can't go any where due to technical problems in the communication  unit, you are free to move around now and we will get back to you as soon as possible." About 1 hour later the PA came on again," Hello passengers, said the Captain, we are unable to fix the problem and we think it might just be some interference from the hills, so we are going to be taxing to each runway to see if we can get a better connection."

So we taxied out to each of the runways to see if we could get a better a connection. 

We couldn't!

Everyone disembarked from the plane and we were all bused to the Hilton Hotel for the night.

        

Here's the view from our balcony at the Hilton

The next day when we arrived at the airport. The plane had been fixed and we where ready to fly!

We the flew 5,071miles to Sydney, Aus. Then we had to get a connecting flight from Sydney to Brisbane. Here is the lovely sunset as we approached the airport.

 

Sorry for the lack of pictures in the post. They will come, as soon as I get Wi-Fi on my Ipad.

EDIT NOW COMPLETE

 

See you soon, Jera.