South Pacific

The South Pacific trip was great!
We were exhausted when we returned, but it was well worth it.  One of our travelers calculated that we logged over 20,000 miles on this trip in just two weeks.  Wow.  Now I truly understand what jet lag means.

Some highlights of the trip for me?
1.  Mrs. Cook getting us in a fix where we all had to drink kava.  It is a very long story.  Suffice it to say that kava doesn't taste good at all, and as a matter of fact it tastes quite nasty.  We all had to drink from a communal bowl...something I didn't like, but I did it anyway.  Kava left your mouth feeling numb...what an experience....

Isabell getting ready to drink kava.  Notice the look on her face.  She was the last one to try it, and had witnessed our reactions to the indescribable taste.

# 2  We went white water rafting in New Zealand.  Wow.  It is New Zealand's winter, and the water was COLD.  We all wore wet suits.  The rapids were amazing.  The look of terror on Mrs. Cook's face was amazing too...unfortunately I could not bring my camera to capture it on film.  Just imagine the look in her eye.  Priceless.

#3  We got to pet kangaroos and koala bears...they are so incredibly soft.  That evening some of the travelers had kangaroo for dinner.  NOT ME.  I could never eat something I had just pet.  Our tour guide jokingly said that Australia is one of the few countries of the world where they eat their national symbol!

Guess what this is?  Yes...kangaroo...no way did I even taste it when offered..

# 4  We went to this great Chocolate restaurant in Sydney.  They serve nothing but chocolate dishes.  They have two big vats of chocolate as you enter the restaurant with pipes leading to the kitchen.  I have never seen Mrs. Cook eat so much chocolate in my life....

The vat of chocolate (one of them)

Eating our chocolate.  It was pouring rain outside.  And cold!

Mrs. Cook's crepe

Isabelle downing her hot chocolate

Isabelle with our tour guide, "Sludge"

# 5  Our tour guide was phenomenal.  Her parents are Serbian who immigrated to Australia before she was born.  She taught us so much about New Zealand and Australia.  I will never forget her as she made the trip extra special.  We called her "sludge", but her real name was Sladjana...but she told us Sludge would be easier to pronounce.

I hope that you all have had fun adventures as well this summer.  What have you done?  I am sure that you've enjoyed your time away from school.

The fire at Robious was an unbelievable surprise.  Mrs. Cook and I lucked out with just smoke damage, but I believe Mrs. Estes and Mrs. Moore lost a lot of stuff. 

Enjoy the remaining summer days...hopefully you will squeeze in as much fun as you can before we start up again.  I guess I will be having about 1/4 of you again...7th grade is much different than 6th grade.  You'll see....

Take care,
~Mr. McEwen