Visit to Sydney

Left Canberra straight after school bound for a weekend in Sydney staying with Cath, Eoin and Aoife. Driving along Lake George and over the Great Dividing Range, we were treated to a few brief snow showers, the second time for the day!

We opted to avoid the service centres detouring into Moss Vale for dinner and found an Italian restaurant making everyone happy! Continuing on we made it to Sydney around 8pm with Nadine, Sean and Lily arriving shortly after.

Saturday morning involved joining in with the normal Chalmers/Rothery routine - coffee followed by netball and then hanging around at the playground. Andy enjoyed a lovely run from the netball courts through Lane Cove National Park back to the house.

The afternoon was taken up with the main reason for the trip - Aoife's 7th Birthday Party held at CSIRO! The kids were kept entertained and engaged with 5 different activities all complimented with science concepts and facts.

First was turning white powder into fake snow followed by making their own bouncy ball. Next on the agenda was making slime. Katy discovered a little bit of balancing between the two liquids required to make the perfect slime!

The groups moved outside to launch rockets! Water bottles were filled with a small amount of water, inserted and attached into a rocket launcher, then pumped up with a bike pump before exploding high up into the air spraying water everywhere on the way! Despite the chilly conditions outside, the kids had loads of fun.

Back inside, the kids were introduced to liquid nitrogen and its effects in various ways with the finale of the science program was the science leader making ice cream with each kid receiving an ice cream to eat!!

The party was concluded with food and the all essential birthday cake - a platypus as requested by the birthday girl!

Sunday began once again at the coffee shop before driving a short distance to Bobbin Head in Kai-ring-gai Chase National Park. We enjoyed a short walk crossing the Cockle Creek by a cable stayed foot bridge. The path became a boardwalk continuing through the mangroves. Unfortunately the thousands of crabs we'd see (according to Cath) were obviously on holiday!

The path becomes rocky with a staircase winding through a narrow cleft in the rocks. A few minutes later we come to an Aboriginal axe grinding site. This significant and protected site has over 23 oval shaped grooves created by Aboriginals shaping axe heads.

We followed the path a little further arriving at a dry sandstone creek bed in the rainforest. The girls clamber over the rocks eventually being prevented to explore any more as the vegetation became too thick.

Then it was back to the start for snacks and an ice cream before embarking on our drive back to Canberra.