Mr Cow in Australia

Having enjoyed trips to Egypt, Scotland, Malta, Wales, Fiji, a very brief stay in the U.S.A. and, of course, six months in New Zealand, Mr Cow was starting to really enjoy travelling. So when he heard that Paul and Laura were planning a long weekend in Australia, he knew he had to go with them.

When they opened their bags in the hotel in Sydney (one of the main cities in Australia) he jumped out and surprised them. They didn't seem to mind and he was pretty pleased when they agreed to take him round the city with them.

The next morning they were up early, so they headed off across the city centre to the Royal Botanic Gardens. The gardens were full of strange tropical plants and huge palm trees. The sky was clear and blue and the weather was warm. When he heard a strange chattering noise in the trees, Mr Cow looked up and couldn't believe his eyes.

The trees were full of enormous fruit bats. They were the size of cats with wings and they were very, very cute. Because bats sleep all day and go out to feed at night, it was nearly bedtime for them. They were chattering and flapping their wings as they settled down, every now and again another bat would fly in and they would all start chattering again. Mr Cow was impressed.

Further into the park, Mr Cow saw all sorts of strange and interesting looking birds. There were Lorikeets, which were green and red and blue, Sacred Ibis, which were tall and funny looking, with long curved beaks, and Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, which were noisy and friendly.

On the far side of the Botanic Gardens, Mr Cow found himself on the edge of Sydney's famous harbour. The view from the gardens was across the water to the Sydney Opera House, one of the most recognisable buildings on the planet.

Mr Cow decided he had to go and have a closer look. There were lots and lots of steps leading up to the opera house from the harbourside, Mr Cow found out later that this is because a lot of the building is actually underground. The steps take you up and over all of the boring parts of the Opera House.

The Opera House itself was fantastic. Just like in the photos Mr Cow had seen, only in real life. Happy that he had seen one of the greatest sights in the world. Next he decided to see the city from the water, so he took a ferry out onto the harbour.

The city looked fantastic from the boat and he loved seeing all of the landmarks.

Sydney was everything Mr Cow had imagined and he was really enjoying Australia. What he didn't know though, is that the next day Laura and Paul were taking him out into the Australian countryside to find some of the really strange Australian animals.

The first place they went was an animal park called Featherdale.

Featherdale is the home to most of the really interesting Australian animals, most of them don't live anywhere else on earth. The first animals he met were Koalas. Although they are sometimes called Koala Bears, they are actually marsupials and are more closely related to kangaroos than bears. The one Mr Cow got to meet was a two year old Koala girl called Renee. They got on pretty well. She even showed him that Koalas can climb well because they have two thumbs! Mr Cow thought that was very strange, he'd always got on well with just his hooves.

Next, Mr Cow met some of Australia's most famous animals. Kangaroos.

The first one he met was a bit too friendly, it tried to eat one of his hooves. Paul rescued him though and made the kangaroos behave. Mr Cow enjoyed it much more after that.

Next, they went out into a part of the Australian countryside called the Blue Mountains. The views were amazing, great big cliffs and gorges and eveything was so green. Mr Cow was quite surprised, he'd always thought that Australia was just a big, red desert. He found out later that the Blue mountains are still quite dry, and that the trees there are good at surviving without much water.

The next stop for Mr Cow was the Jamison Valley, home to rainforest and an amazing rock formation called 'The Three Sisters'.

There is an old legend that says that the rocks were formed when a magician turned his three daughters into stone to stop them from being eaten by a viscious monster calles a bunyip. Then he ran away from the bunyip so it didn't eat him. While he was running he lost his magic stick, so he's never been able to turn them back.

Just before he went back to Sydney, Mr Cow was taken to a national park where he got to try and spot some of the incredible Australian animals in the wild.

First, he saw a kookooburra, a bird which is like a huge kingfisher.

Finally, he saw wild kangaroos, can you spot them?

On the way back to Sydney and the airport Mr Cow had time to think. Australia had been fantastic, he decided that he would have to come back for a longer holiday.

The return of Mr Cow

Mr Cow has been a bit disappointed at the way he's missed out on adventures lately. He's been to Queenstown to snowboard twice, but each time he's been packed back into the car and taken down to the medical centre before he got near the snow. He didn't get to ride in a helicopter and worst of all, when Paul and Laura went to Auckland and climbed a volcano, they didn't even take him with them. He wasn't happy and boy did he let them know!


When he heard that Paul and Laura had booked a weekend in Christchurch, the biggest city on New Zealand's South Island, he was in their bag quicker than you can blink.


As soon as the bags were off the plane, Mr Cow was out and looking for things to do. First, Paul and Laura took him to the International Antarctic Centre. Most of the scientists and explorers to go to Antarctica leave from Christchurch, and lots of them help the Centre out.


The first place Mr Cow went in the centre was a room which was as cold and windy as the Antatrctic in summer. Mr Cow went in a skidoo in there (a sort of motorbike made for going on the snow),


then went in an igloo,

and then on a slide made completely from blocks of solid ice.

It was really fun, until they turned the wind machine on. It suddenly got so cold that it made his face hurt to breathe.

Maybe being in the Antarctic wouldn't be fun after all.

He thought that meeting some other animals might be more fun, so he went to find the penguins. At first they were a bit shy, but at feeding time they all came out to play.

Feeding time was pretty cool. The penguins whizzed in and out of the water and their pond had one glass side, so Mr Cow could watch them when they dived down to catch a sinking fish. What Mr Cow didn't know, was that Paul and Laura had arranged for a behind the scenes tour of the penguin centre. He got to see how the pengin tank worked, how the penguins were cared for and best of all, he got to meet one of the penguins being nursed back to heath in the penguin hospital.

The next day he was in for a real treat, they took him to a place called Akaroa to look for dolphins. They went out on a catamaran, crossed Akaroa Harbour and headed out into the Pacific. After about half an hour the crew of the boat called out, they had spotted dolphins.

Mr Cow had forgotten his swimming kit, but Paul and Laura had been lent wetsuits, so in they went. The dolphins were really interested in the swimmers and they came in really close for a look.

Penguins and dolphins made for a great weekend and Mr Cow was really pleased to have been able to go. He just needed to make sure that he could sneak away to Australia with them next weekend.

THe All Blacks' newest fan

Mr Cow is very excited. He has got a ticket to go and see New Zealand's rugby team (who's kit is all black and are sensibly called the 'All Blacks') playing against South Africa in July.
Best of all, the match is in Dunedin, so he won't even have to travel.
He's a very excited cow.

Exploring in Otago

Mr Cow had decided to stay on South Island in New Zealand (New Zealand is made up of two big islands called North and South island, and a few smaller islands) in a city called Dunedin.

Dunedin is the capital city of an area called Otago.

My Cow decided it was time to do some exploring, so he set off to explore some of the Otago coast north of Dunedin.

The first place he visited was a place called Moeraki. The beach there is covered with huge boulders which are completely round. They are called the Moeraki Boulders, which Mr Cow thought was quite a sensible name for them.

The boulders reminded Mr Cow of giant dinosaur eggs, in fact he found one which was cracked, so he had a photo taken of him climbing out of it as though he was hatching from it.

Next Mr Cow carried on up the coast to a town called Oamaru, which calls itself 'The Penguin Capital of New Zealand'.

Mr Cow didn't find any penguins, but he could tell that they had been there.

Instead of penguins he found this seal snoozing at the side of the road.

Next Mr Cow decided to go looking for film stars.

He found these rocks, which starred in the film 'The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe' as Aslan the Lion's camp. They are actually called Elephant Rocks, but he couldn't see anything that looked like an elephant.

Finally Mr Cow decided to drive home through the mountains, the road was just a dirt track and seemed to go on for ever.

When Mr Cow got home he was tired and dusty, but he'd had a great day exploring.

World Tour Part 1: Fiji

Mr Cow started his world tour at Heathrow airport in London.

He remembered his passport

and he made sure he held hands with an adult so he didn't get lost.

More than a whole day and night later (Fiji is on the other side of the world after all) he arrived.

He sat down and relaxed in the sunshine.

He relaxed in his bure (it's a little house, you say the word 'boo-ray') at the hotel and enjoyed the views over the beach.

He tried diving on Fiji's fantastic coral reefs with his friends Paul

and Laura.

He even found Nemo (or someone who looked quite like him).

On his last night Mr Cow relaxed with a big drink and thought about Fiji, he'd enjoyed himself.

He decided that next he'd go south, to New Zealand.

Introducing Mr Cow

This is Mr Cow.

Mr Cow likes to travel and have adventures.

He has already been diving,

mountain biking,

and mountain climbing.

Even though he's already done lots of fun things and had lots of friends, he wanted to see the world so he set off on a world tour.