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millienorwood
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Andromeda's Travel Journal
August 2009
Well, here I am about to embark on the first day of my around the world holiday. I have had a lovely time living here in Mollymook Beach in Australia, but now its time to get out and see the big wide world. Here are some photos of me at home in my Village before I left and other pictures from around Charissa’s local area.
How lucky I am that I have such wonderful host families around the world to stay with, I am very excited about all the adventures that I might have with them. I can’t wait to see you all and experience life all around the world.
Andromeda
Outside the Coumtry Market in the Village
Outside Charissa's frontdoor
Narrawallee Inlet, 5 minutes from Charissa's home
Jervis Bay,home of the worlds whitest sand beaches, 30 minutes from Charissa's home
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8/9/2009, 9:52 pm
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5hauna
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Saturday 22 August
Today I arrived with my first host family. The whole family came to collect me from the Post Office which made me feel very welcome.
I unpacked my things and sat down to catch up with the family.
I am staying in a suburb called Mana which is on the coast 20mins north of Wellington, the capital of NZ. Kate my host sister is very proud of the view from her deck as you can see Mana Is a Conservation Reserve Island from which her home got its name. Mana is the hazy flat topped island in the distance, on a clear day we can see NZ's Sth Is from here too.
I am going to take a rest now and freshen up after my journey and tomorrow we are going to go and visit a friends farm and see some new lambs. It is late winter here but the spring flowers and blossom trees are in full display so it is all very pretty.
My family tell me we are going to Mt Ruapehu (an active volcano) at the weekend. It is four hours drive north of here and is the hub of the North Island ski season. They have kindly borrowed some winter clothing for me from the Polarstar sisters so I will be able to enjoy the snow! 
Will keep you posted.
Love Andromeda
Last edited by 5hauna, 8/23/2009, 2:12 pm
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8/23/2009, 2:10 pm
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Sakura8
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
I'm just wondering I can't get pictures but would I still be able to host her?
Sakura
~Sofia~
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Sakura by name, Sakura by nature?
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8/25/2009, 12:12 am
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5hauna
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Sunday 23rd August
Today we went to visit Farmer Bret, he has a mixed sheep, beef and forrestry farm about one hours drive north of Shauna's. Farmer Bret is lending us some stuff for our trip to Mt Ruapehu next weekend. He also has lots of lambs and spring flowers.
I couldnt resist getting in among the lawn daisies as it reminded me of life in Sylvania.
And here are some of the daffadils in the paddock. This Friday is the NZ Cancer Society's Daffodil Day. This is their major fundraiser and they sell bunches of real daffodils as well as small pin-on daffodils to raise funds for cancer research. I am sure there will be no shortage of daffodils for sale this year.
This photo is of a mother and her (older)lamb in the yards. We were going to take some of me with the lambs in the paddock but Shauna's camera battery went flat. These things often happen when on adventures I find.
Tomorrow Shauna says we will go to the shop and see if we can get a postcard with lambs and daffodils that I can have my photo taken with instead.
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8/26/2009, 10:15 pm
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5hauna
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Monday 24th August
This morning Shauna and I went for a walk with her dog Pepe. Here are some photos we took, there are lots of lovely views to be had on this walk, especially on a nice still day when there are lots of reflections on the water.
This is me on a picnic bench looking over the Pauatahanui inlet. You can see the farmland in the background and Shauna lives off to the left between here and the sea.
This taken looking the opposite way to the other shore of the inlet.
Here are the Boat Sheds, we will be walking along behind these and on around the shore.
This is my favourite boat shed, it is lovely and bright and belongs to Shauna's posite!
This last photo is taken on our way back home aqnd looking back down over top of where we have been.
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8/26/2009, 10:50 pm
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5hauna
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Later Monday
This afternoon we went to the shops, I visited some of my friends srom Sylvanian at Shauna's local Toyworld Store. We also got two postcards one of spring lambs and daffodils and one of Plimmerton the next suburb around from here and where Shauna's children go to school (also where Shauna went to school and grew up). Here goes....
Thats all for now I will make another entry after the weekend.
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8/26/2009, 11:01 pm
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5hauna
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Monday 31st August
Its official 5hauna is the ditziest host ever. We drove 4 hours to Mt Ruapehu only to discover that the memory card for the camera was still at home in the printer. However all is not lost we bought a disposable camera from the information centre and hopefully when this is developed there will be some visual record of my visit to the snow. Andromeda
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8/31/2009, 12:15 am
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duckpuddle
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Monday, 28th September
I've finally reached Brunei! Phew, it's really hot and humid here, I hope it rains soon so things can cool down. Pei says she'll introduce me to the other Sylvanians and the Pinky St dolls soon, and I will be living with a bear named Angeles ih her house. I can't wait! In the meantime though, I'll have to live in her handbag...
Tuesday, 29th September
Pei took me to her university to watch a 'Rakugo' show. Rakugo is the art of Japanese comedic storytelling, and it has a history of over 400 years. The storyteller kneels on a cushion on a stage called a 'koza', and he traditionally uses only two props: a fan and a japanese hand towel. The most important part of Rakugo is the ability of the storyteller to be able to tap into the audiences' imaginations inorder to assume any number of different characters using his body language alone. He can play anything from a coy geisha to a loud drunkard to a tiger to a maniacal speed demon rickshaw driver.
We got this magazine, and later another one at the show.
The stage.
The MC, Chiyo. Pei's old camera doesn't do well in the dark.
The storyteller, Mr. Katsura Kaishi. Unfortunately here he looks like something out of 'The Ring'. *shudder*
The show was great, and Mr. Kaishi was hilarious. We laughed until we were fit to burst  All in all, we had a great time!
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9/30/2009, 10:08 am
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duckpuddle
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Wednesday, 30th September
We drove into Limbang, Malaysia today as Pei needed to take care of some matters in her home country. Brunei is a small country, so it took about only an hour to reach the border into Malaysia.
This is where we parked. The multi-coloured building is a department store.
We also took a quick walk round the area and got a few pictures:
A Chinese temple.
A mosque across the street.
A water vilage.
We also visited a few shops that sold toys, clothes and other miscellaneous items. Here I am, standing on a straw hat!
Toys, brushes, clothes pins and straw hats are amont the items displayed. Too bad we didn't have time to look around more.
We went to have a late lunch after that, at a small eating place in the colourful department store. There weren't a lot of people when we arrived as it was mid-afternoon.
Here, the employees are preparing and sorting out vegetables on unused tables for the dinner rush later.
We ordered some food and I got to try a little of everything 
Pei's mother ordered this, thick noodles in soup with pork meatballs, veggies, onion stalks, fried tofu and prawns. Mmm, nice hot soup!
Pei ordered a tamarind flavoured noodle topped with lettuce and cooked with fried tofu. It tasted slightly sour.
Her aunt ordered this noodle flavoured with curry powder and cooked with egg, onions, carrot and topped with lettuce. This one was the best!
Last edited by duckpuddle, 10/8/2009, 11:12 am
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10/8/2009, 11:07 am
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duckpuddle
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Re: Andromeda's Travel Journal
Wednesday, 30th September contd
After lunch we stopped by for a while at a pharmacist's to pick up some cough syrup. The pharmacist's sold everything from regular bottled medicines to herbal remedies to dried edible fungus and dried squid.
I'm riding a squid! I hope this is as far as I ever get to comming into contact with any of the giant creatures of the deep...
We had to leave after that as we had to be homeby 7pm. We stopped for a little while at a department store to pick up some mooncakes for the upcomming mooncake festival.
Here are some paper lanterns for sale. Children usually light these and walk (run) arund with them during the festival.
We also stopped at the open market before hitting the road to pick up some durians. It's durian season now, I was told. There are several varieties of durians for sale, and we picked up some with creamy white flesh. Even though the durians were loaded into the boot, the strong smell still ended up saturating the entire car...
Mangosteens!
The road home.
We passed by several interesting sights on the way back, but the car was moving too fast to get many good pictures. Some of the things we could not take pictures of included the big area filled with triangular chicken coops made up of two pieces of zinc leaning against each other, some buffaloes and goats.
A shed?
People selling fruits by the roadside. We passed by many stalls like these, mostly smaller individual stands though. Many people had fruit trees and some people have set up stalls in front of their houses to sell these fruits.
A couple of shots of houses we passed by.
The camera battery ran out after this so we could not take more pictures.
It was a fun trip! I really enjoyed seeing all these new sights. But I'm still living in a handbag... I wonder when I'll get to meet the other Sylvanians?
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Question from duckpuddle: In most of these pics I've tended to focus on the background rather than Andromeda in the foreground. Is it better to have her as the focus or the place around her? Or should I have both, some pics focusing on her and some on the surroundings?
Also, many apologies for the late update ^^;; I still have pics that I have yet to post!
Last edited by duckpuddle, 10/8/2009, 11:44 am
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10/8/2009, 11:36 am
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