Thoughts on our Nations Capital

Pictures are:
Parliament house
Election result board
Questacon free fall and ball throwing while spinning game!
The Mint
The Institute of Sport
National Museum







We are still in Canberra and have had a very COLD week. The temperatures are about 10 or so, but the wind chill means it is about 1 or 2 degrees. There has been a dumping of snow at Jindabyne/Perisher and we are getting the cold mountain breezes down here in Canberra! We are managing to keep warm though and are really enjoying everything.

This week we have visited lots of places in Canberra. We went to Questacon - the National Science and Technology Centre. Lots of fun with lots of sciencey things to do, play on and learn and we even met some friends from Busselton there - by chance - which was very exciting. Our favourite was the 6.7m free fall slide which the kids loved and did over and over. I went once and that was more than enough for me!

We went to the National Library, Jerome wanted to see what he could research for his book writing. We visited the Royal Mint, to see where our money is made and how that process is completed. We returnted to Parliament House for more reading, viewing and learning. We visited the Australia Institute of Sport and did a tour there of the facilities as well as some more role play and elite sport practice in their games room! We went to the Canberra Glassworks, the High Court - and was able to sit in on the sitting court where all 7 Justice's were hearing a current case. That was a really amazing experience and we are so thankful to God for the freedom we have in our country and the fact that fairness and justice is upheld.

We visited the National Museum and greatly enjoyed reading and listening to the stories of Australian's through time as they have experienced joy, devotion, difficulty, hope and fear.

A highlight of our time was to visit the National Tally Room last Saturday evening and be amongst the throng of busyness that follows a day at the polls. And with the result in the balance it has made it a very interesting time to be here in the Nation's Capital. As I consider all the things we have done and seen in our Nations Capital and as I contemplate the state of our Government, if anything I realise the urgent need to pray for those who lead this nation and those who govern. "The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases" Proverbs 21:1.

There is such a need to intercede for our land and it's peoples, that there might be a new flood of revival amongst the people of this Great Southland, that throughout this land of "red dust plains and summer rains, there might be a flood, and to this Great Southland God's Spirit might rain". Where people have turned their backs on the truth and believed the greyness of no abosolutes, that they will see the truth. Where people are bound by materialism and consumerism, that they might know the peace that comes from the hand of the Lord, Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. Where people have lost faith, lost hope in our leaders, that there might rise up a new generation who will stand for the right and true morals and values which this country was founded on.

We are a blessed people and a prosperous nation, but we must continue to pray and seek God who is above all government, parliament and law, that His will, will be done in our country, our government, our communities, our family and our individual lives, so that His name may be lifted up and all men will be drawn unto Him. May God be glorified in you and through your life.

CANBERRA

Jerome writes:

After a fabulous week together, we sadly said goodbye to the Westlakes last Sunday and we decided to stay a few more nights in the cabin, before pushing on to Canberra. On Monday, we went up Mt Hotham. The snow was falling thickly and at one point, the strong wind was driving the snow in all directions. That was the closet we came to a blizzard! We spent the day tobogganing at Dinner Plain and it snowed heavily at one stage which was great, then not long after the sun came out! We all enjoyed hot chocolates before leaving the snow that day.

On Tuesday, we left Porepunka and we headed to Canberra. We spent one night at Albury again, before arriving in Canberra on Wednesday. It was raining and soggy when we arrived at Canberra and it was cold! On Thursday, we went to the Australian Electoral Commission at the old Parliament House and we learned about the history of democracy in Australia and the voting process. We even did a mock-up of an election, with Peach, Apple, Orange and Banana as the candidates!

We went on a tour of Parliament house, which I enjoyed. We got to see the House of Representatives and Senate. I learned that between the five buildings of Parliament house, there is 8,000 rooms, 21km of hall and about 2,000 clocks, all of which read exactly the same time! All the clocks have a red and green light on them - when the green light comes on the parliamentarians have four minutes to get to their seat in the House to vote on bills that are put forth. If they don't get there, they are locked out!

On Friday, we went to the Australia War Memorial. We went a tour of the memorial and were amazed at the hardships that our soldiers faced, particularly those brave men that fought at Gallipoli, lest we forget. There was so much to see there and many detailed and interesting displays, much symbolism and imagery that allowed the viewer to be able to picture how difficult the circumstances were. We hope to go back and learn some more at the memorial this week.

Today, we went to the Cockington Green miniature village. It was amazing to see the attention to detail that the modelers used when constructing the little people and buildings. There was an English village, with a cricket match, wedding and a soccer game. The other half of the gardens was an international section, that featured buildings from many countries. I enjoyed the G-scale train that you could operate yourself! We went for a ride on a miniature steam train and saw an exquisite 34-room dolls house. It had tiny toys that the doll-children played with and tea table with tiny cakes and teapot.

Canberra is a great place with a lot to see and do. We caught up with friends this afternoon which was really nice (the locals always have good tips for what to do around the place) and we are bracing ourselves for more cold weather this week.

Kathryn's Birthday

Yes, it was my birthday today and thank you to everyone who sent me messages, emails, cards and pressies. I was very spoilt and loved being with Sal and the family for the day. We had planned to go for a drive and then out for lunch, but on returning from the park office Darren and Geoff reported it was snowing up Mt Buffalo, and so it was on to get ready and get up there as fast as possible.

We were quick to pack up and get in the cars with all our gear and headed up - half way up it started snowing and we were all very excited. Geoff put chains on their car wheels and we put the Patrol into 4WD. It took over an hour to drive the 25km as the snow fall was quite heavy. When we got up it was a white winter wonderland of soft, fluffy new snow. And we spent the next three hours playing, toboganning, making and throwing snowballs, building snowmen, building igloos and then trying to make the biggest ball to roll down the hill as possible.

We couldn't have asked for a better day, it was everything we could've imagined and more and as we went around the table in the evening saying what we were thankful to God for, we had to conclude we were so grateful to God for giving us this most beautiful wonderful part of His awesome creation so we could enjoy it together and all on my birthday, which made it one that we will remember for a long time.

We topped the day off with a lovely dinner out, sitting around a fire with good food and great company, what a day!

SNOW!!!!

Here's lots of pics of our FUN FIRST DAY IN THE SNOW. It was fantastic weather and we had a super time sliding down on toboggan's with the cousin's, which was really great. The snow was compact and hard, perfect for sliding down and the sun made us quite hot as we climbed back up the slope.

After lunch we climbed to a higher point and made a little snow man with the softer snow we found and then Josie made a BIG snowball as well as Darren, Jerome and Cameron made a stack of snowballs to get Geoff! Lucky for Geoff their shots weren't that great!

We found some huge icicles hanging off the rocks and the kids decided it was hot enough to use them as icypoles!

It was an awesome day and we loved being with our family and doing something so unique and different as the awesome snow. Stay tuned for more snow photos later in the week.

Australia Zoo

Jerome writes:

Having being given a voucher for Christmas for admission to Australia Zoo, we spent two days there and got to see what a wonderful job has been done to create a sanctuary for many of the worlds endangered animals. It was so well set up, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We learned so much and we marvelled at all the different animals God has created.

There were lots of opportunities to get hands-on with the animals, we got to feed the elephants (I got some snot on my hand!) The Crocoseum crocodile show was educational and intriguing as the big crocs jumped for their food - that was Grace's highlight. The tiger show was Dad's and my favourite, they were really so like big pussy cats. I learned that there are about 3000 tigers left in the wild and everyday about 1-5 tigers are killed for their skin, teeth and other things. It is said that at this rate, by 2020, there will no tigers left in the wild. They had a play time and would splash in the water right in the front of us (behind the glass window) and it was quite amazing to see these big animals so active and fun.

Having learnt in Character First, that the Otter shows Joyfulness, we could really understand why! We watched these two cute otters duck and dive and run here and there with lots of energy as they were fed and as the keeper talked about them. They really did seem to be intelligent, busy, happy animals - Mum liked the otters the best.

We got to pat a koala, have a photo with a beautiful blue and gold macaw as well as pat lizards and a snake. Molly and Sophia enjoyed the pony ride, since they were the only ones allowed to do it (we were all too big!) We all marvelled at the HUGE Reticulated Python, about 7m in length and it was really fat as well.

Josie said she loved the memorabilia display. It was a tribute to Steve, showing his journey in croc catching, then when he met Terri and got married and then all the work in did in raising the awareness of his passion - saving wildlife. As sad as it was that he so tragically died, his legacy lives on in what the Zoo does and what it stands for and all the staff at the zoo carry his passion.


After our days at the zoo, we spent the weekend at Toowoomba. We went to church there and met some family of a friend int Perth. It was nice to have a contact and talk about home! Leaving Toowoomba on Monday, we drove south through NSW and are now in Albury - covering 1200km in four days, it was nice to see the crops in the farming districts and the local courntry towns that really reminded me (Kathryn) of our country areas in WA. Albury is cold, 4 this morning, max 12 and tipped to be 1 tomorrow morning. Welcome to the cold!!

PS It was fun to visit "The Dish", just north of Parkes. It was the 64m diameter radio telescope dish that is operated by CSIRO and was used to beam images of the very first man on the moon - as in the movie "The Dish" although there are alot of inaccuracies in that movie too - ie no one has played cricket in the Dish, there was no power failure and the Prime Minister didn't visit - shows you can't believe everything you see. Great education as we watched some astronomy movies in 3D and did some great science!