A mixture of hello and aloha, credit to a friend of Dad’s who began to say hello and realised he hadn’t said aloha so he changed half way through, therefore creating Haloha!

The rustling of palm trees, the sweet scent of coconuts and the sound of waves breaking on the shore is more than enough to make you love Kauai. The beautiful flowers in bright colours are everywhere on the island and add to the amazing views. There are not many places in the world where you can swim with a turtle, relax and read under the shade of a coconut tree, swim and surf all in the same day. The locals are friendly and give a great atmosphere to the island. We spend hours at the beach soaking in the sun and taking some great shots of the amazing fish with our go-pro. We found a sea snake, a fish with a horn and lots of huge colourful fish. Golden sand and clear blue water (not to mention the wildlife) makes it paradise. 

In Kauai we did a day car trip around the island. The island has an untouched atmosphere to it. It is so tropical and green. Palm trees, flowers and fruit give Kauai its beauty. On the way we stopped at many look outs, at lighthouses, canyons, mountain ranges, villages and more amazing views. Mum and I went on a hike through the rainforest to see the Napali Coast. Awesome views of the 6-foot waves and the beach followed us the whole way up the mountain. We really got a bird’s eye view from up there. With volcanic rock in sleek shards and a wild pineapple trees it was a really interesting walk. In our thongs (flip flops, jandals, slippers whatever you call them) we were only intending to go to the first platform but its beauty drew us higher and higher (much to the annoyance of the rest of the family who were waiting in the car). 

Halloween is huge in America so we joined in and went to a corn maze. Kauai Christian Fellowship every year designs a whopping 4-mile maze of twists and turns. A lady told us that one year, they had to evacuate people it was so hard. She said it was an easier maze this year. Even so it took us 1 hour to get out. We started it in the evening and by the time we were out it was pitch black. To make it better (or worse) the older kids dressed up as zombies and scared us. When it’s pitch black with only your torch it can be pretty freaky when someone jumps out at you. Timmy was crying. We even had to ask the zombies the way out in the end. It was fun all the same. When we got out the stars were amazing. They covered the sky.

The beaches in Kauai range from little coves with no waves to huge and roaring 20+ foot waves. Our local beaches were Poipu Beach and Brennecke Beach (or as the locals call it “Break Neck”). Poipu was a nice flat swimming spot popular with tourists and locals alike. The snorkeling was amazing. Huge fish that come in schools of five plus, reflective fish that give the impression that they’re rainbow and angelfish roamed around the shore not more than 10 metres out. From the shore we saw a seal frolicking and showing off in front of the cameras and families of sea green turtles floating in the shallows. 

Brennecke Beach was our bodyboarding spot. Slightly dumping, the odd big set but forgiving. The life cycle of the Brennecke wave: The waves start as massive hills in the distance. Then they move in. A couple body boarders miss it, a couple gets dumped and a couple successfully catch it then pull off when it breaks. A few turtles swim through it, their shadows illuminated in the wave. Swimmers dive under it and it picks up its final riders, the little grommets aka Lachie and Timmy. Then it crashes on the sand bank and is pulled back into the ocean. If you get dumped you get tossed around lightly and hop back on your board. It’s a whole another story at Manly Beach. In Kauai the waves help you gain you confidence in the ocean. It is the same at my favourite beach, Hanalei Bay. It’s no wonder so many pro surfers and bodyboarders come from Hawaii. 

There are chickens all over the island. Roosters crow in the morning and hens and their chicks waddle around. They also dig heaps of ditches, which probably have caused the odd twisted ankle. Why? In 1992, hurricane Inici swept through Kauai destroying the many chicken pens in the island. The chickens expanded and turned wild. There are chickens everywhere you look!

The Native Hawaiian dance of Hula is a great opportunity to experience the origins of Hawaii. At our local shopping centre they had a performance on from the local dance school. Their costumes were stunning. The dancers stomach and hip muscles must have been super strong with the amount of moving they do. I gave it a go myself (and failed). It was extremely hard. At the end Timmy and I got ‘lai-ed’. My lai was made out of frangipanis. I made my own lai too out of blossoms I found.

Waikiki was our final stop on our extravaganza. Waikiki beach is probably the most famous beach in the world. It was crowded with travellers from Europe, Asia, America, Africa and more. Dad, William and I went surfing on the calm rolling waves. They were very small and you couldn’t really do much on them, but it was fun catching them and (if it was a good wave) cruising down the beach. William survived a conk on his head by another surfer’s big fibreglass board. Unfortunately he lost enthusiasm and never caught a wave. As I write this we are about to go stand up paddle boarding (SUP). 

Hawaii was a perfect end to our trip around the world. Saltwater, sand and sun, Hawaii was fun!

Banff was our first taste of the Rockies. As soon as we drove past an incredible mountain with snow reflecting the sun and rivers almost frozen trickling down the face we were instantly awed. We stayed in Canmore and had a beautiful view from our apartment. The average temperature was 6 degrees and very cold, but it was fun dressing up in coats, beanies, gloves and scarves. In the morning William, my Dad and I would rug up and head over to a coffee shop, passing grass covered in frost, cracking and marvelling at frozen puddles and always looking at that spectacular view of the Rockies that surrounded us.

The lakes are an unreal shade of glacial aqua blue. We went for a cruised walk along one of those beautiful lakes. My brothers and I made a dam out of rocks on the shore. The scenery was unbelievable. Lush green forests surrounded us, towering mountains with a dusting of snow and an aqua gushing river right next to you. It was the most amazing feeling. 

Lake Louise was as blue as the sky. It was beautiful hiking around it, passing great pine trees and a beach with Inukshuks. Inukshuks are rock people that originally came from the First Nations. You can find it anywhere in Canada. It was the symbol of the Canadian Winter Olympic Games. 

The Grassi Lakes hike was thrilling and amazing. We trekked through an overgrown path and leaped over small gushing waterfalls and watched for bears, elk and other wildlife. At the top a pounding, colossal waterfall met us. It was made by lots of little river flows creating one big waterfall. The scene in front of us was phenomenal. The whole town of Canmore lay in out view. We learnt a little bit about the history (how an Italian built the track and his love for the area) and made a dam out rocks on the flowing river.

Ice fields parkway was the most spectacular drive I have or ever will go on. Pristine snow drifted down onto the sheer cliffs dusting the caps like icing sugar. Golden trees sway in the breeze and the mammoth mountains tower over you. We stopped at a lot of amazing places. On one stop we went to look at a glacier. It was snowing so hard my face felt like it was going to fall off. The wind whipped us and the snow covered our car in snowflakes. My favourite stop was when we walked on a bush path. The trees had a light sprinkling of snow. It was magical. We caught intricate snowflakes, marvelling at how different they all were. Another incredibly aqua lake was at the lookout. Rushing waterfalls waited for us at the next two stops. They fell for 20 metres. It was quite a sight!

Our first encounter of Jasper was when a lone male elk stood right next to the road, parading in front of the cars that pulled over. He was the first of the ten (approx.) elk we saw just on the highway. We found more roaming around Jasper. Dad, Lachie and I went for a hour horse ride in the forest. It was a great way to see the Canadian forest. Our Japanese guide chatted to us along the way telling us about the wildlife of the forest. That included bears. He told us how to tell the difference between a black and a grizzly bear: If you sneak up behind it and kick it hard, it’s a black bear if it scampers up a tree and it’s a grizzly bear if it turns around and eats you! It was a joke of course but we did see the scratched on trees from black bears climbing the trees. Unfortunately (or fortunately) we didn’t see any bears much to the disappointment of Lachie and I. Mum, William and Timmy went bike riding and came across elk. They were right between the stag and his girls. Especially in this season elk are more dangerous than bears. They have giant antlers that look like they had sharpened driftwood stick stuck to their head. Jasper was the perfect end to our incredible Canadian Rockies experience.

A story I wrote about the wildlife of the Canadian Rockies

The Canadian Rockies surrounded me. Colossal imposing mountains with pristine snow-capped peaks bearing sheer drops and sweet smelling pine forests inhabited with who-knows-what. Magnificent reflective rivers and lakes gush through the valleys of the ubiquitous giants of the Canadian Rockies. Patterned snow decorated the ancient sleeping giants. My eyes couldn’t help been drawn to the towering mountains. Golden trees let go of their leaves in a glittery beautiful frenzy. Untameable, untouched wilderness was laid out in front of me. I was looking at one of Canada’s most symbolic landmarks. I marvelled at an enormous landslide shaping the pine trees to desolate islands. It was pure natural unexplored territory. The Canadian Rockies had taken many lives over trying to find out its secrets. I shouldered my backpack and stepped into the wilderness.

I was either very brave or very stupid. No turning back now. I was petrified at the thought of being at the mercy of this awe-inspiring/terrifying place. I peered behind me, treading carefully. Who knows what animal could be lurking in the shadows.  A cougar, grizzly bear, coyote, elk or maybe a moose could be watching me. I shuddered. Suddenly before I could shout “Help!!!” a bear appeared before me.

The Giants have slept for ages and ages,

Even as time has turned it pages,

Melted snow streams trickle in races,

Across, down and through their faces,

The Giants sleep as pine forests grow,

They sleep still when they’re covered in snow,

In the slumbering giants bears make their home,

Explorers venture into the unknown,

On the giant’s rocks elk and deer leap,

For the Giants of the Rockies forever still sleep.

British Columbia is beautiful and don’t they know it. The state number plates slogans are ‘Beautiful British Columbia’ and ‘British Columbia the Best Place in the World’. I’m not sure about the last one but British Columbia certainly has beautiful scenery and places. Whistler and Vancouver were our stops there.

We had a great time in Vancouver. We met old friends, made new friends and spent most of our playing and hanging out with those friends. Thank you Armfields, Wells, Fleur, Ellie, Beckett (and the rest of your family) and everyone else for giving us such a great time. Special shout out to Ellen, hope your arm feels better (she fell off the play equipment and broke it)!

In Vancouver we went bike riding around the sea wall. It was so foggy I could barely see 50 metres in front of me. It was kind of eerie but fun and a new experience. I have never seen so much fog! 

In Whistler our stay was heaps more action-packed. We stayed in a three-story place (not including the basement) with some friends. Whistler was awesome in Autumn (I mean Fall ;). Golden, amber, scarlet and crimson leaves danced out of the trees and glided down onto the grass. It was quite a sight. The trees look like they’re on fire flickering with their Autumn colours. Mountains in the distance add an amazing affect to the scenery. 

Ice-skating is a ‘must-do’ in Canada. Ice hockey has got to be the most loved sport in Canada. In Australia almost everyone does swimming lessons and/or knows how to swim. In Canada it is the same with ice-skating. I’ve only skated once or twice before so as you can imagine I wasn’t exactly a pro. Some of the little kids were doing way better than me. I can skate around (generally slowly) by myself, fall over and that’s the stretch of my abilities. There was a free hockey play area and people from 5 year old to 50 year olds were zooming around like they had been skating since they were babies (which they probably had). I can tell why ice-skating is so popular.

In Whistler Village, we wondered through, stopping at the playgrounds, great views interesting sites and a market along the way. Our second trip to Whistler Village ended in an authentic American/Canadian candy store experience. There was a whole wall of gazillion boxes of lollies and treats. I took a little bag and scoured the through lollies separating the good from the bad. Aarghh … I felt sick after that. Some of that candy was gross.

Canadian Thanksgiving happened to be on our agenda. We had a home cooked feast fit for the queen, thanks to our friend Jo. We had a maple turkey , sweet mashed potato, tri-coloured potatoes, roast veggies and a apple pie and pecan pie (both made by me).

Ellen and I decorated the table with maple leaves and flowers and all of the kids made a turkey or an owl cup animal to put on the table too. We ate until we were stuffed (just like the turkey) and still had heaps left over.

British Columbia is beautiful but my experience there was even more beautiful.

Finding the States – our search for all 50 of the USA state car number plates

It started off with just a friendly game… But soon our search to find the number plates soon expanded into a fully-fledged quest to find all 50. We are determined to complete it.

You should see the excitement on all of our faces as soon as someone shouts out “LOOK! THERE’S A NEW ONE!” On the first day (in New York) we found 15 different number plates. From New York to New Mexico, from Washington to North Dakota, we made it our mission to find them. In New York we got to 31 plates, in Washington DC we found 15 more. Then on highways and in Vancouver we spotted the rest except for Hawaii and South Dakota. As I write this we are on a flight to Hawaii so we will definitely get that one, so we have 49. 49! We got so far only to find that we were missing 1! It was disappointing since we had tried so hard. Unless magically someone from South Dakota has transported their car to Hawaii I think our hopes of finding South Dakota are finished .

We got 49 states out of 50. Has anyone else made it their mission? If so, please comment how many you got!

Washington DC is the home of American government, so of course there is lots to do and see. For the 5 days we spent in DC we toured around and had a great Washington experience.

The first day we smashed all of the famous buildings and places. For 8 hours we walked and walked and walked. First we went and saw Capitol Hill. The building is so powerful looking and a bit intimidating but is a beautiful architecture. Towering columns, fresh white paint, and statues of people and to finish it off a huge dome based on the one I saw in Florence. It definitely looked like somewhere where humongous decisions were made. 

We walked on, stopping at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum (which I’ll talk about later). The Washington Monument came next. It hurt my neck looking up at the tall obelisk. Unfortunately they were still fixing it because of an earthquake that happened years ago so there was scaffolding on it. We ran to the White House. Why did we run? Marine 1 (Obama’s helicopter) was flying over our heads on its way to the White House. I sprinted across the field and bellied up to the fence in hope of a glimpse of this famous American president. I was too late but something strange happened. The helicopter came back and landed again. I thought maybe the president had forgotten his handkerchief. They were off again but then came back! The pilot kept doing it. I heard someone say Obama was in New York so the Marine 1 pilot was practising. It must have been a new pilot. We were very lucky to have been there. It’s not everyday that Marine 1 fly’s over your head 15 times! 

We moved on to the reflection pool and chucked a few pennies in it. Some of the pennies look really old. Soon we came to the Abraham Lincoln statue. It was probably 8x the size of the real Abraham. He looked regal but also kind like he knew what he was doing. White seems to be the colour for important buildings and statues in America so of course Abraham was made out of white marble. His famous speech was written on the wall too. To get home we had to walk for another half an hour to get to the subway. The walk to the subway pushed our limits just a bit too far especially Timmy. Let’s just say we were happy to get home and sit down.

The Smithsonian museum collections are incredible. It is the biggest set of museums in the world with 19 museums and 8 labs. We went to both the air and space museums and the museum of natural history. I think the museum of natural history in New York is better presented. In Washington, they have a stuffed polar bear put up high where you can’t see it. If that were in the New York one it would have a beautiful mosaic behind it and scenery matching it’s natural habitat and they would make it look like it was catching a fish. The New York museum felt like you were in a frozen zoo. But apart from that the Washington was pretty good. I loved the air and space museum. We went to both the one on the Mall and one out near the airport. I preferred the huge museum at the airport. It was an old aeroplane hangar. It had a Concorde, the space shuttle, Discovery, the Enola Gay and a lot of other strange and wonderful aircraft. The Enola GayOne looked like a banana, another was a glider that looked like something out of Star wars and a helicopter with a cockpit so small I’m sure the pilot would get claustrophobia. The area was absolutely massive! Everywhere you turned you would see at least 30 aeroplanes. The other museum had a lot of important amazing aircraft and spacecraft like one of Amelia Earhart’s planes and part of first spacecraft to the moon, the Apollo 11 but it didn’t have the giant machines that made the other one so spectacular. 

We went shopping and went to a hat shop that has a machine that sews your name into your hat. Its really cool watching it write you name in the side of the hat you chose. 

We also went and saw the Pentagon where all of the military secrets of America are kept. I saw a lot of army, navy, marine and air women and men. They were all kitted up in their uniforms. I also got to see the FBI building, the J. Edgar Hoover building, which was not really what I expected, it was just the same as all of the other buildings on the street.

What I liked about Washington D.C. was that it was it had beautiful low-rise buildings like Paris, a interesting history like London, great museums like New York, a pleasant clean metro like Tokyo, Beijing and Shanghai and lots of trees and a calm chilled feeling about it like, well like Washington DC.

New York is known world wide for its craziness, its land marks, style, theatre, for being busy 24/7 and as the city that never sleeps. 

One of our first New York experiences was going to the top of the Rockefeller building. My cousin recommended it as opposed to going up the Empire State. I agree with her; having the Empire State building in the view makes the view a whole lot better. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, it was a clear blue sky and we could see for miles. I could see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State, The Chrysler building, Central Park, where our apartment building was and a lot of buildings I didn’t recognise. It was spectacular! 

After the Rockefeller, we went and checked out Fifth Avenue. Yellow taxis honking their horns, locals rushing, tourists stopping and staring, very fancy and expensive shops and on the corner the big apple (store) in The Big Apple. The only shop we stopped at was F.A.O Schwartz, the biggest toyshop in the world. I went and played the big piano with my feet, slipping and sliding with Timmy. Lachie was having a New York birthday so I bought him a magic kit. I saw a ridiculous Etch-a-sketch covered with diamonds. It was $1500. Ouch! You could explore the shop for hours. There were toys everywhere for 4 floors.

Down the road from where we lived, we were lucky to have one of the world's best cupcake shops, The Magnolia Bakery. They made melt in your cupcakes so we made quite a few trips there for some morning tea to take to Central Park and eat. My favourite flavour by far was their coconut cupcake. Delicious coconut cupcake with meringue frosting and covered in toasted coconut. Mmmm…. Yum!

Central Park was our haven in the ‘city that never sleeps’. We could run around, play with acorns and just get all of our energy out. It is massive! But I think I prefer in London where there are lots of smaller parks. Central Park is a bit more over grown and more wild then the ones in London, which I like. They are just different. Squirrels are a bit of a novelty too us. There aren’t any squirrels in Sydney so when we see one, my family and I make a fuss. It must be funny for those watching us.

My first Broadway performance, the Lion King, was on Times Square. It was just… WOW!!! Even the use of capital letters, bold, underline and 3 exclamation marks doesn’t show how incredible it was. The music, the singing, the costumes, the backgrounds and mechanics were unbeatable. If you have the chance go and watch it. They couldn’t have done a better job bringing the original movie The Lion King to life. 

The statue of liberty of liberty was a great gift from the French. I really like how it was once copper but over the years with the snow, wind and rain it turned aqua, one of my favourite colours. The Staten Island ferry was a great way to view it and the buildings in New York. It looks beautiful with skyline of New York in the background.

Grand Central station was certainly grand. High ceilings and chandeliers were the complete opposite of the other dank, stuffy subways of New York. I guess that is part of the reason why it is so ‘grand’. Grand Central Station is in so many movies, so I recognised it pretty well. Of course Apple had a shop in the centre of the station is so after we had had a good gawk at the station, I’m afraid to say we played on the iPads!

New York has to be the most famous of all of the cities of the world. I had heard and seen so much about it and of course I had high expectations. NYC didn’t let me down!