My summer learning journey in 2019/2020!

I spent 8 days in Googong, just outside of Canberra, Australia with my younger sister and her family. She now has a busy toddler and a 3 month old. So whilst her husband returned to work, I helped out with changing nappies, doing bath time, reading lots of books and teaching Freddie to sit on the potty! In addition, we had a family reunion as baby Lizzie was baptised and I was asked to be her Godmother. So I saw my Dad and stepmother who flew down from the Gold Coast. For the duration of this time, the Australian bushfires started raging in surrounding states such as Victoria and New South Wales. The outside air was stated as the "worst pollution" in the world. We were actually housebound for 3 days and Freddie's daycare was closed for 2 days after the statutory holidays. The second day we visited the local community gardens which were so dry. Then we could not leave the house because of smoke inhalation and smog and I didn't want to aggravate my asthma. I was sure that children who were on their school holidays must have been feeling anxious. My sister told me that those families that had driven to the coast for their summer break were now either stuck there or travelling back taking them 3 times longer than normal. The temperature sizzled at around 38c most days and then we hit a record high of 44c! Lots of government buildings and offices had to be closed due to the fact that the smoke was coming through the air con units. My brother in-law filled their 2000l water tank with the garden hose as there was talk of losing town supplies and we also prepared for lack of electricity which thankfully didn't eventuate.It was quite phenomenal to be part of this devastation that Australia endured. Finally, my son sent me a photo of the strange sky colour that hit NZ whilst I was away that had travelled 1000 miles...we had the same in Oz. I was so saddened to hear about the wildlife that also lost their lives in addition to innocent people. It felt good to back in Aoteoroa where I felt safe back on terra firma!