Author: alicedentt

Today we got up early (ughhhhh) and drove to volcano bay, which is part of the three universal parks. When we got there it wasn’t too busy, so me, dad and Barnaby went on the ‘aqua coaster’ which was very fun!! At volcano bay they have little wrist bands that everyone is given and you go and scan them and it saves you a place in the virtual queue so you don’t have to queue up!! You can also use them to buy stuff which is cool. We went on quite a few rides, but my favourite one was the ‘honu’ which was a very big slide that me and dad went on that had a very big drop! The park was also Polynesian themed, so they had Hawaiian and Maori music and names on the rides which was fun cause it felt like we were back there! At about 2 the daily Floridian storm hit so we sadly had to go home, we had a very good day though!

Sorry there aren’t many pictures, it’s difficult to not get your phone wet!!

Yesterday me and mum went to go and see dear Evan Hansen! It was my birthday present and I was very excited to see it, and I certainly did not disappoint! I was also lucky to be able to see 4 of the original broadway cast, as most of them are leaving soon. (If you don’t know what Dear Evan Hansen is about you should google it and listen to the soundtrack) Michael Lee Brown (who played Evan) was absolutely amazing, and a few people have asked me if it wasn’t as good as the soundtrack, as Ben platt is not there anymore, but he did an amazing job and it was honestly even better than I ever could have expected.

Yesterday we made a trip up the side of a mountain on the Jasper SkyTram! It was like a cable car, and the journey was about 7 minutes long. Once we got to the ‘top’ we started our walk to the summit of the mountain. On the way up it was very steep!! And also very slippery as there was a lot of snow. At one bit in particular dad fell into the snow and it was about 4ft deep!! When we finally did get to the top (after a substantial amount of moaning and groaning from me and Barnaby) the view was amazing!

The past few days we have been in Seattle! On the first day we went into the town centre and went to the Chihuly garden and glass. The Chihuly gallery is an ‘art’ gallery in which the art is made out of glass! There were beautiful glass flowers, ‘chandeliers’ and other art installations. We also saw some glass blowing!

We then walked to the first Starbucks! It was pretty busy but I am very glad I went there!! (I also bought a nice mug)

On the last day mum, dad and Barnaby went on a walk around the town we were staying in and I was a typical ‘lazy’ teenager and stayed at the air bnb, but I heard that Barnaby managed to drop a large amount of ice cream on himself 😂😂

Yesterday, since we are in San Francisco, we thought it would be appropriate to visit ‘America’s most popular tourist attraction’ , Alcatraz Prison! We first got a boat across, which was quite chilly and then we did an audio tour around Alcatraz! On the tour we explored the prison and saw the cells and learnt some of the escape stories and criminals stories. It was very interesting, if a little cold!

Hi it’s me Alice again, I know what a surprise I haven’t died 😂

Today we drove from the Grand Canyon to the Hoover Dam! On the way we stopped at the “Roadkill Cafe” which include a sandwich containing ‘mystery meat’ which sounded interestinggggggg…

When we finally got to the Hoover Dam, it was very windy!! Mum was a bit scared as she doesn’t like heights and the Hoover Dam is certainly high up. We walked across the top of the Dam and we were scared we might blow away! Mum was very brave and posed for a picture by the edge :

Me and dad also managed to take some pictures off the edge ( I was terrified of dropping my phone)

I am very glad we made it across safely and there was no earthquake like in the San Andreas film…

This week I have actually done some walking, which I know is very surprising! First we did a walk in Franz Joseph to the Franz Joesph glacier, on the way we saw lots of waterfalls (luckily dad decided not to go underneath one) and we also had to go across some stepping stones across a river! But, after a not toooooo hard walk we got a very good view of the glacier

Then, a couple days later we went to Hokitika Gouge! On the walk in Hokitika Gouge there was a bridge which was a bit wobbly which was very scary for mum! Once we got to the end of the walk you could climb down some rocks to get down to the river… but unfortunately I was silly and forgot to put fly repellent on so got virtually eaten alive!!

Today we are in Wanaka and we vistited 2 of the towns main ‘attractions’. First we went to The national toy and transport Museum. There they had 4 airport hangars filled with old toys, cars, aeroplanes etc… It was very interesting to see a load of old memorabilia and other collections of things but it was a bit weird… We also found something called a crap shooter.

We then went to a place called Puzzling World. At puzzling world they have loads of optical illusions and a maze. They also, surprisingly, have puzzles! We went in a room that was very weird it was basically a slanted room that confused me a lot! Mum described it as the ‘wonky room’. We also managed to complete the maze (after quite a while of walking around). Finally at Puzzle World they had a leaning tower that you could take funny picture with. Here are some examples….

This week we have been travelling quite a lot, but have seen a lot of stuff on our way! One thing we’ve seen is a Pink Lake in Port Gregory! You may be wondering how a lake can be Pink, well it is thought to be because of the bacteria and algae that live in it. It was interesting as some parts of the lake looked more pink, or purple, than others depending on where you looked from.

 

We also ticked off one of the things on our list and visited Natures Window. It was suprisingly difficult to get to as you had to walk along rocks and it was very high up! It also didn’t help that it was about 34 degrees… Whilst we were there we took a lot of photos and saw a black swan in the river below! I was also very clever and managed to hit my head on it 😦

 

Sorry we are a bit behind on the blog! We’ve been a bit busy this week having fun with Kay, Ed & family! On Thursday (25th) me, dad, Kay, Dan and Patrick went to movie world. Movie world is a Warner Bros theme park and has some pretty scary rides! The main rollercoaster (the hyper coaster) was particularly scary for dad I think. I really enjoyed the Green Lantern rollercoaster and the superman rollercoaster, which was extremely fast! For lunch dad also had a giant muffin…