Travelog for: Tippi

Look what I found in the front yard. This is a beautiful native tree called a Christmas Bush. It's probably called that because it flowers from late November through December.


Aren't the blossoms beautiful?

Here's what else I did this weekend.
When I got here Bec said she'd been looking for someone to help her put up her family's Christmas tree. Of course I instantly offered to help.
First we had to get all the boxes containing the tree and decorations down from their shelf in the laundry. There were a lot of boxes!


And the shelf was very, very high (especially if you're a small rabbit!)


Next we had to unpack everything. Bec's family have a lot of decorations!


Bec said before we could do any more we had to blow up the inflatable Santas because they're older than her and a very special part of Christmas. Funny thing that happened though was that the Santas made a noise like they were screaming the whole time Bec was blowing them up!


Bec's family uses an artificial tree each year as it's less messy and less expensive than a real one. It didn't take us too long to have it all put together and all the branches sitting right.


Then we had to sort out all the decorations. Bec made this candle when she was in Kindergarten!


It seemed like we were never going to get all the decorations sorted out. And of course we had to stop half way to apply first aid after Bec dropped the transformer for the Christmas lights on her foot. OUCH!
Can you see me?


Now we could start decorating the tree. Little by little we got tree looking pretty. I helped as best I could with the small decorations. 


Does this ornament remind you of anyone? (That's a fridge he's holding!)


And here's the finished product!


Now all it needs is the presents!

Today we had a Christmas picnic at Garrison Point. We were all a little worried about the weather and emails and Facebook messages flew all over south west Sydney as it rained all week. Luckily yesterday afternoon the sun came out and has stayed out. Yay!

We were lucky to get an undercover picnic table as it was really warm and sunny today. We had a lovely view of the Georges River where we could watch boats and jet skis go past and close to the playground for the kids. (Those slides looked like fun, but they were burning hot!)





No barbeques - there's a fire ban in place, so we had to deal with just cold foods. Very yummy anyway - salad sandwiches, pasta salad and coleslaw and then bliss! Some watermelon for desert. Perfect for a summery picnic.





We just had to watch out for the flies. They're a part of every Aussie barbecue / picnic and such a nuisance!

Shhhh!
Don't tell Kalli!
Today I went with Bec's class to Darling Harbour to visit Wildlife World (Kalli can't know because she's been wanting to go there and Bec forgot to invite her along this morning! )

After morning we went for a walk on the Pyrmont Bridge to fill in some time and check out the view. It was a nice, sunny day (much better the weather has been) and we all enjoyed looking
at the view. We saw lots of small boats,


the South Steyne (a floating restaurant)


The naval ships at the Maritime Museum


and lots and lots of Christmas flags.


And, there is Wildlife World, our destination (after we walk back along the bridge - which is a pedestrian bridge by the way) and down about 100 stairs, well, I might be exaggerating, but there are a lot of stairs!)


In front of Wildlife World you can see some of the many cruise boats that travel around the harbour showing tourists the many sights.

Once we were in Wildlife World, I got to get an up close view of many many Australian animals, like the cockroaches, ants and spiders. Ick! I hope I don't meet any of these creatures while I'm here.


Look at this snake. I was very glad there was a glass wall between us. I bet it could swallow a little rabbit like me in one gulp!


This is a Shingle Back lizard. Once a long, long time ago Bec went to South Australia to visit her relatives and got into very big trouble for disappearing for a very long time with one of the neighbour boys on a hunt for Shingle Back lizards.

The smaller of the two lizards is a Blue Tongue Lizard. So named because of the colour of it's tongue. Bec has one living in the building debris in her backyard!

And a goanna. This one followed us up and down the window to the enclosure.


I also got to meet some wallabies. They were having a lunch of carrots, sweet potato and broccoli which made me very hungry!


Our next stop was inside the bird enclosure where we got an up close look at some of the native birds. I don't remember what type of bird this is:


but this one is a rosella or a rainbow lorikeet. It was very friendly.


More wallabies and kangaroos, dozing in the mid-day sun.


This is meant to represent a cave with Aboriginal paintings inside. Around this area were many Dreamtime stories, explaining how various animals got to be the way they are.


And, now this what you especially can't tell Kalli about. I met a koala! If she'd been told to come along today she might have almost completed her mission by now!

We all feel terrible that we visited members of her family without her.

We've been doing more Christmas shopping, and it's finally just about complete!


I've been a very helpful (very good little bunny - hopefully Santa's been watching while he's been making that list!) and have helped to wrap all (well, nearly all) the presents!


It is very amazing how many of the wrappings in Australia don't represent the Australian Christmas. There's lots of snow, holly ....

We were busy for a very long time.


But, finally we got it done. I don't know how anyone can stand the suspense of wondering what is under the tree for them! How will they wait for Christmas Day to come so they can open them?

We have a ToyVoyager sized Christmas tree! With presents even!! Wonder what's in mine? It's the little one. Kalli has one too. (We'll have to go out tomorrow and buy one for Taro too!)

An early Christmas dinner with Bec's cousins who had come down from the Central Coast to celebrate on the weekend. No hot food - ham, cold pork, salad and rolls. I would imagine that this is very different to what I might be eating for Christmas lunch at home?


(plus the prerequisite Vegemite for one of the kids! I'm told Vegemite is very yummy as long as you spread it thinly with lots of butter. Not sure I'm game to try it!)

Today we went into the city to check out all the Christmas decorations in town. We left home late in the afternoon, around 5pm so that we would have some sunlight to view the city sights and not have too long to wait for it to be 8:30pm and the sun to go down so we could see the lights.


Last year, Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney was criticised for not putting up a lot of decorations, so this year they have tried a lot harder.

Our first stop was at St Mary's Cathedral to view the life size Nativity scene.




Next we went into Hyde Park to view the gardens, which, like many of the gardens around the city have been planted to represent the colours of Christmas.


While we were in Hyde Park we took the time to be regular sightseers and looked at the Archibald Fountain (it was very windy, so we got a little wet!)


and we also found one of the many Christmas trees that have been put up around the city.

Can you see me? I'm sitting to the right of Taro - I blended into the flower box a bit!

Next we went to David Jones (a large department store) to view their windows. Every year they decorate them with motorised marionette puppets depicting Christmas themes. Bec and her family used to come in to see them every year when she was little. This year the theme was The Nutcracker. (There are more photos on Taro's page)




Next we made our way to the Christmas tree in Martin Place. This is the largest of all the Christmas trees decorating the city - it is 20-metres tall. We looked at the tree for a while and then moved on with plans to come back to see it light up later.


Also while in Martin Place we stopped and listened to the Salvation Army band perform carols. We sang along with them a while before moving on to Circular Quay for dinner.

While stopping at Circular Quay  to get some dinner (fresh, beautiful fish & chips - Bec was going to take picnic photos but was attacked by seagulls wanting chips, one even hovered over her left shoulder scaring her greatly, so she was a bit distracted) we checked out the traditional tourist sights:




Then, when everyone had finished eating - a lot faster than planned thanks to the seagulls! - we made our way around to the Rocks with two plans in mind:
a) check out the Christmas scene there
b) get Taro a present.

By this time at night (7pm) there weren't many shops still open, but we did manage to find him a gift to put under the tree!

We also saw The Rocks tree, not as big as the Martin Place one though, but personally (or should that be rabbitally?) I think it might even be prettier.

Eventually, after a bit of a rest and some hot chocolate at Starbucks while we waited for the sky to get dark, we made our way back to Martin Place to see the tree all lit up. We waited anxiously for the clock to strike 8:30 and the lights to come on.

And then, as you might be able to tell from the clock, we waited some more. There was a fault with the timer and the tree lights stayed dark. We got very impatient waiting!
The decorations on the lamp posts had come on and they were very pretty, but where was the tree?




Finally we decided to walk up the plaza to Macquarie St and look at the Christmas Projections on the building and if the lights on the tree did finally come on we would be able to see them on the way back to the train station. The Christmas Projections are very pretty. What happens is that five landmark buildings along Macquarie Street are lit in a magical display of colour and light. The projection designs explore Summer in Sydney through a variety of themes.
This is the New South Wales state parliament house. (Again, there are other photos on Taro's page)


And here I am at the Mint building.

Aren't the projections beautiful?

Luckily, by the time we walked back to Martin Place the tree was all lit up! Yay!!




I was so excited!!!!!

Tonight we went out looking at Christmas lights. Lots of people in Australia decorate the outside of their homes and the good thing about it being Summer at Christmas time is that it is great for walking around the streets to view them all without getting cold! (Sorry, the quality of the photos isn't that good!)




I really liked these one's that move!


And this one looked like Santa was climbing the rope up to the window!


As you can see from the car's thermometer it was still rather warm out, even at 10:30 at night.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

After finishing our travelogs on Christmas Eve all us ToyVoyagers raced to get to sleep so Santa would come to visit us.

(Do you like the 'sheet' - It was made in Pakistan and one of Bec's families at school gave the scarf to her as an end of year gift!)
To help us fall asleep we listened to some Australian Christmas [size=3]carols
Six White Boomers (includes images of Australian Christmases)
12 Days of Christmas
An Aussie Jingle Bells

I woke up this morning to find that there was a present in my stocking. Yippee! A lollipop!

And a balloon!

Do you like my Christmas outfit? Bec's cousin made it for me. I'm a Christmas angel!

After opening our Christmas stockings we got to open our Christmas presents. I couldn't wait. I've been wondering what is in mine for a long time.


I ripped the paper open - I just couldn't take the time to peel the tape off carefully.....


And look, it's a Koala wind chime!


Next it was time to get ready for lunch. I helped put out the lollies.

and just couldn't resist trying a musk banana.

Very yummy!

Then I helped prepare the salad for lunch.

I cut up the cheese very carefully and sprinkled it on top of the vegetables.


Bec's family don't have a hot Christmas lunch. It's generally not a good idea when usually the weather is in the mid to high 30's! (Not that it got that hot this year!) Sometimes they have a seafood lunch, but this year they decided to have cold ham, pork and chicken with salad.


Oops! We almost forgot the Christmas bon-bons!

We had to pull and pull until they popped with a crack!



Inside the bon-bon was a very bad joke, a party hat and a small toy. I got a little fish and this joke:
What would you get if you crossed an elephant with a flea?
A squashed dog!

Desert was (again) cold Christmas pudding with custard. Normally Bec's mum makes the pudding, but she's hurt her back, so this year they had to have a store bought one, but it was still yummy!


After lunch, everyone else opened their presents. Traditionally in Bec's family they had to wait until mid-afternoon to open the presents because that's when her dad used to get home from work. Taro and I helped to pick up the wrapping paper and put it into the recycling bin.


Then it was time for everyone to have their afternoon naps, before starting the eating thing all over again!

There are three major sporting events that take place in Australia on Boxing Day:
1) The Sydney to Hobart Yacht race starts in Sydney Harbour.

This is one of the world's major yacht races and the record time for completing it in is 1 days, 19hours. The average time is around 2days. It is always a dramatic start as not only are there lots of yachts in the harbour lots of other people go out on small boats to wave them off. Plus the shoreline is very crowded from very early in the morning. We decided to stay home and watch it on the TV instead!


2) The Boxing Day Cricket Test is held in Melbourne every year.

It runs for 5 days and this year Australia is playing against India. It is a very trying game to watch for long periods. The team that goes into bat first (Team A) bats and gets as many runs as possible until they are all out or until the team captain 'declares' (decides to stop batting). Then they swap positions with the first batting team becoming the bowling/fielding team who try to stop Team B from matching or beating their score. When Team B is either all out or have 'declared', Team A goes back into bat for a 2nd innings until they're all out / declared before Team B gets their final innings. The team with the most runs at the end (once both teams have played two innings) is the winner. Confusing hey?

It can have very exciting moments, with dramatic outs or if a batsman scores a Century (100 runs - doesn't happen very often!) but for the most part it can be very boring. My hosts would rather watch the One-day matches, which are much shorter.

The final sport (and for this I don't have pictures....) is the post Christmas sales at the stores and people racing to get the biggest bargain they can on items that they probably won't use during the year.

Boxing Day is also Bec's future brother-in-law's birthday (boy, is that a mouth full!) so we went to their place for dinner.
They have a dog called Angel who I tried playing fetch with,

but the ball was way to big, and I was afraid Angel might mistake me for the ball!

So, I went inside and introduced myself to the cockatiels, Bib & Bub.

I don't think they've ever met a rabbit before, because they got pretty flappy and wouldn't stay to talk.


Then I went to see what else there was to do in the house. I found the Christmas tree and tried being an ornament like the little bear at the top. Not a lot of fun.

The tree is a fibre-optic one, but it only gets turned on at night to save electricity, so I had to find something else to do while I waited for it to get dark.

Look - TV sized motorbikes!

This looked like fun!
This smaller bike was more my size don't you think? Taro and I went cruising with our new friends.


After dinner (where everyone got one of these cute chocolates!)


we made Gingerbread Men! The plan had been to make them on Christmas Day. But with people coming and going and afternoon naps and all it never happened.
First you have to draw a design using the icing pen.


Then you have to add sprinkles to give it colour. This is harder to do than it sounds. I'm afraid my gingerbread man ended up looking like either a yeti or the bearded lady at the circus!


Once you're done you can sit back and admire your piece of artwork until the icing sets and it's time to eat it!


Eventually Stef turned the tree on for us to admire. Isn't it pretty?


Look, it changes colour as the disc in the base turns!

Summer has finally arrived in Sydney - hot and humid!
Bec talked us into coming out in the yard with her while she did some gardening for her mum. I thought that maybe it would be nice to sit in the shade on the edge of the garden bed and watch the world go by (Bec lives on the corner of two fairly busy roads, so there's always lots to see) but before I knew it I was handed a small weeding fork and asked to help out.


Look at all the weeds we pulled out! (well, once it was a great big tree called a liquid amber, but now its been cut down and shoots are springing up everywhere, so it's just an annoyance!)