Email from Luke

Dear class

I hope that you are having a  great time at school.  Maybe we can see each other again.

I caught three aeroplanes in two days and travelled half way round the world to get here (See Pic 01).  Two of them had dvd players which was great.  It was a long trip.  My Granny and Grampa were at the airport to fetch me.  I am staying with them at the moment, which is so much fun. My granny makes me such delicious meals. They have a pool and a huge garden where I like to throw sticks for the dogs and climb trees.  Sometimes I go walking with my granny and grandpa, but the ground is so muddy and full of puddles because it is not quite summer here yet and I had to get some gum boots so I can walk in the mud.  In South Africa, Christmas is in summer, unlike in Ireland, because we are on the other side of the world.

We often visit the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens which are on the slopes of Table Mountain (See Pic 02).  There is a display of the most beautiful flowers in the garden, including plants that you can only find in the Cape in South Africa. These are called Fynbos, and our national flower – the protea – forms part of this group.  I have sent you some pictures of the flowers in the gardens (see Pic 03 – 06).  We also saw “dinosaur leaf” plants called Cycads, which were cool because they have been around forever (see Pic 07 – 09).   People can also climb up back side of Table Mountain from these gardens (see Pic 10).  I climbed up Nursery Ravine with my dad and my Godfather, and we went very very high and it was quite difficult.  Next time we will go up Skeleton Gorge with my cousin which is a lot tougher – you even have to hold onto chains to climb up the rocks.  I am looking forward to that and will send you pictures when I do it.  

We have done many other fun things.  We had lunch at a place called the “Barnyard” where we rode horses, picked up bunnies and hamsters. There was even a live Christmas turkey running around.  My mom took me to a snake park where I saw many poisonous snakes like Puff Adders and Spitting Cobras. There was even venom (snake poison) on the glass of the spitting cobra’s cage.  My mom also bought me a hammer and some nails and I plan to make some cool things with it.  I have met up with some of my friends here and we went to see a play called “Little Red Riding Hood” which was so much fun.

Next week I plan to send you some more news about the eagles and the cheetahs that we are going to see soon. I even hope to ride a camel.

I hope to hear from you all soon.

Love

Luke