Last night we finally made it to Addo Elephant National Park. We got here in the night because the road was closed and we had to go another way.  Well at least we made it here.

Today we went for a drive in the park.  First we saw some zebras they were boring and they had lots of stripes all over them.  Then we saw an elephant.  It was so big and it was AWESOME.  Then we saw a Kudu they’re a type of deer.  

Then we went for a picnic and when we did there were lots of monkeys that wanted our food so they all came at us.  They were really scary.  I was sitting on a seat and a monkey jumped right next to me.  I screamed then I fell on the ground and grazed my knee.  It hurt lots.  Then I looked at the monkey and it put its hands in the air.  It was funny as.

When we were in the car my daddy said, “Why did the dung beetle cross the road” and I said, “to get to the dump”.  My dad said it was the funniest joke in a long time.

Today I woke up at Mountain Zebra National Park.  Later on in the day we will be going to ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK!!  

Last night a man called Michael took us on a night tour.  It started at 6 o’clock and it finished at 8 o’clock and Michael told us some really interesting facts and one of them was that ostriches sleep with one eye open and we saw lots of interesting animals like little jackals that looked so cute.  Farmers don’t like them because they eat their sheep.  Up to 40 sheep in one night.  They make a sound a bit like meow.  

I wish I could go back to Wellington and get some New Zealand milk because the African milk doesn’t taste to nice.   

Right now I am in Mountain Zebra National Park.  Tomorrow I will be leaving to go to …. ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK!!!!!!  I am going to see a real elephant in the wild for the first time.  I love Elephants. 

At Mountain Zebra National Park we saw Mountain Zebras and lots of other animals. 

This morning we left Lesotho and now we’re on our way to MOUNTAIN ZEBRA NATIONAL PARK!  And next we will be going to …… ADDO ELEPHANT NATIONAL PARK!!!!

Today a man called Tseliso took us to see real dinosaur footprints.  There were 5 of the prints and on our way to the footprints there were all of these poor people chasing us.  Then when we stopped to see the footprints my mummy gave one of them chewing gum.  And the rest of the kids wanted it but I don’t think that they really knew what it was.  

The dinosaur was one metre tall and it had a long tail.  But nobody saw it.  The dinosaur footprint was 60,000,000 years old.  I wish I could see it. 

Last night on the 17th (now it is the 18th) we arrived at Roma in Lesotho and now we are staying in this big house thing where we don’t have to buy and cook our food because other people do it for us.  Here’s a picture from my bedroom wall.

Today a nice man called Big Ben took my family and I to see a place called Soweto.  The place Soweto is short for South West Township.  Big Ben was born in Soweto, so he knew a lot about it.  Also today we went to a museum called Hector Pieterson.  We went there to learn about how the black and white people became enemies.  Because once the white people thought that they were better than the black people, so they came all the way to Soweto to get the black people to learn Africaans and not allowed to speak their own language.  All the students and teachers and principals did not want to only speak Africaans, so they said NO and the white people got angry, so they let out their angry dogs and the black people killed and stabbed the dogs until they were dead and the white people got even more angry so they started loading and shooting their guns to kill the black people.  The first person to die was 13 and his name was Hector Pieterson and I think that that gave the museum its name.  

On my first day I got here the taxi driver told me how to say goodbye in South African "sha sha boti" and also thank you in Zulu is "ngiyabonga" and if you want to say thank you for a lot of people, like lots of people saying thank you, it will be "cyabonga". 

-  By Meg Shepherd

PS the picture down there of me and my family and Ben, next to us is the picture of Hector Pieterson when he died.

You know right now I’m in a room.  And the room is in a hotel (and the hotel is five star) and the hotel is in ………………….South Africa!!

This morning I had to wake up at 4:30AM because my flight to Sydney airport was at 6:00AM.  5 whole hours passed at Sydney airport because there was something wrong with our first place.  Now I can get on the second plane.  The second plane is awesome and big but a bit boring.  But I get to watch some movies.