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Hello, friends.
It's Ruby here and you're listening to News Time.
Hey, Ruby.
Hello.
This week on News Time, we're going to meet a tourist who's living large on a beachside holiday.
We'll float along with an outlawed fish, take to the skies with a teenager and her puppy in our wow of the week.
Okay, are your tray tables in the upright position?
It's time for takeoff.
The weather is warming up and you might have noticed more people out and about getting active.
Western Arundaman Charlie Ma has taken his fitness to the next level.
In fact, he's just completed all seven major world marathons.
It's like a running race.
My brother's been in it.
You get tired and you get sweaty.
Yeah, this is not a fun run.
A marathon is a race that's 42 kilometres long.
It's exhausting, but it can also help you get more stronger.
For 15 years, Charlie has been part of the Indigenous Marathon Project, which has taken him to marathons in Tokyo, London and Berlin, as well as in American cities Boston, New York and Chicago.
That left just one last world marathon to conquer.
The Sydney Marathon.
Charlie took to the track last month and said it was particularly special to run on Gadigal country.
Very impressive.
Charlie has become the first Indigenous man to run all seven world majors.
But it almost didn't happen.
A month before the Sydney Marathon, Charlie strained a muscle in his leg and that meant he couldn't train and he lost a lot of his fitness.
I think he couldn't run.
I think he had to ask someone to run for him.
Did he just have to hop?
Not quite.
Charlie drew strength from his family and friends and he managed to finish the race.
Charlie says the key to running is simple.
You put one foot in front of the other until you finish and it doesn't matter how long it takes you.
Best of all, at the finish line, you can celebrate.
I think he did a very good job.
He sure did and we are celebrating with you, Charlie.
Story number four.
In the coastal Victorian town of Portland, there's a visitor who's been making quite a splash.
He's been sunning himself on local beaches, wading through the town's canals and dining on the best local catch.
That's a weird hippo.
It looks like the mix between a seal and a hippo and an elephant too.
Wait, that's an elephant seal.
It's an elephant seal.
A seal that has a really long nose.
Yep, it's hard to miss Sammy the elephant seal.
That's what visitors call him anyway.
He weighs four tonnes.
That's about as heavy as two cars.
And he's been stopping by Portland for about three years now.
Um, maybe...
The people ask him to do some tricks, and if he does it well, they give him, like, some salmon.
Sammy's pretty good at grabbing his own food.
Not too long ago, locals spotted him catching and eating a shark.
That looks like a very, very tiny... Is it a baby one?
Yes.
Sammy ate baby shark.
Sammy did what?
I mean, a baby shark.
Maybe he needs some time to think about what he did.
How can he eat that?
Sammy moves fast, which is why wildlife officers have been keeping a close eye on him and telling people to steer clear.
And he might be a little fierce.
Exactly.
If, for some reason, you stumble across an elephant seal in your neighbourhood, it's best to keep at least 10 metres away and double that distance if you're walking a dog.
For Sammy.
Well, it's hard to say how long he'll hang around, but with plenty of tasty seafood to munch on and beaches to snooze on, I think we can say Sammy's given Portland his seal of approval.
Story number three.
A few weeks ago here on Newstime, we brought you the story of surfer Kilia Mahani-Galina who, at 12 years old, competed against her hero, Molly Picklam, in the World Surf League.
Kelia put in a massive effort, but it was Molly who progressed to the World Surf League finals in Fiji.
And guess what?
Molly won.
She's now the women's surfing world champion.
It's the first time an Australian has been world champ, since Stephanie Gilmore did it three years ago.
It takes lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of practice.
22-year-old surfer Molly, who often goes by the nickname Pickles, grew up on the New South Wales Central Coast and she began surfing at the North Shelley Board Riders Club.
While she was competing in Fiji, some club members got together to watch her on telly And they said they're all super proud of her efforts.
They're also excited about all of the young surfers that Molly's inspiring.
Maybe they could ask her to teach them how to surf.
Maybe they felt like they wanted to do it one day.
Molly lost her first heat to American surfer Caroline Marks.
But then she managed to win the next two, which secured her the win.
It takes lots and lots and lots and lots of guts.
I think her trainer pushed her really, really, really hard.
Molly's coach says she's still getting better at surfing and seven-time world champ Lane Beachley says this will be the first of many trophies Pickles brings home.
Hopefully the trophies she brings home are easier to get into the country than her world championship trophy.
It is so big and heavy that security at Fiji airport nearly didn't let her bring it on the plane home.
I think she said this.
Molly, keep riding those waves of success.
Story number two.
If you've ever eaten a sushi roll for lunch, you might have been handed a little fishy friend to go with it.
Soy sauce shaped in a fish container.
Yes, and they're always, always made out of plastic.
That's right.
For years, soy sauce has been served up in these little fish-shaped plastic containers with a teeny, tiny red lid.
But in the state of South Australia, this plastic fish is now extinct.
People kept on littering all the plastic.
It didn't go to waste and then it kept on going to the sea and different places in Australia.
Turtles might eat the plastic because they might think it's a jellyfish.
For quite some time now, the South Australian government has been getting rid of single-use plastics.
Things like plastic bags and cups and cutlery and straws, because they're all bad for the environment.
These plastic fish are also a problem because people drop them and they become litter.
Because of their hollow shape, they'll float in water and that can put sea creatures in real danger.
Whale sharks might just open their mouth and then eat the soy sauce and then they might die.
So if you're in South Australia and you want some soy sauce on your sushi, how will you go about getting it?
I would just put it in like a little container.
Like at some dumpling restaurants.
There's this soy sauce thing and I'll ask my mum if we can buy it and put soy sauce in it.
Good ideas.
The South Australian government has asked sushi shops to put out big soy sauce bottles.
But if people are getting takeaway, they are allowed to serve plastic sachets.
Most things are made out of plastic.
Yeah, it's not a perfect solution, but it's been said these sachets are lighter weight and less wasteful than the plastic fish.
South Australia has led the way and we've got to wait and see now whether other states and territories will roll with their own bans.
They might ban... ..sushi?
No more Mr Rice Guy.
I don't know about that.
OK, friends, time to jump off the sushi train now and ascend to the highest of heights.
It's time for... Wow, what the week?
This story made me go wild because it was very interesting and very weird.
Here's a question for you.
What's your greatest dream?
I could be in a video game and every day I could skip video game to video game.
I wish I could get an Oscar from an acting thing.
I wish I could be a sloth so I could just sleep all day.
I wish I could be a donut.
A donut?
Wow, that is a sweet dream.
In the Northern Territory there's a 15-year-old named Jennifer Hunt and she's not old enough to drive a car yet, but she's already living out her dream, flying a plane around Australia all by herself.
I think that's very weird, because I think a plane's much more harder to drive a car, especially if you have people on it.
That's actually kind of cool.
Earlier this year, Jennifer became Australia's youngest female pilot ever, at the age of just 15 years and five months.
And then she had a thought.
So the idea was, we were just driving home one night and I was like hey, why don't I fly around Australia?
A lot of people that I know know that I do crazy stuff.
Well, not crazy, but... out there.
I like to experiment with stuff.
By flying around Australia, Jennifer will become the youngest female to ever circumnavigate.
That means do a whole lap of Australia solo.
But she's not doing it alone.
She's holding her dog Scruffy.
Hot doggy.
That's right.
Jennifer is bringing her co-pilot pup, Bella.
Bella is a golden retriever.
She's three months old and she is the cutest little thing.
It might be hard for her to drive the plane because the dog might be barking.
Bella won't be going anywhere and neither will Jennifer's parents.
They'll be following her journey from a plane behind.
They say they're not too worried about her lack of Australia.
They think she's got the skills and abilities she needs to make it back to Darwin safely in about four weeks.
I hope you win.
Try hard.
And if you don't win, I'll still be proud.
And that is it, my friends.
We've done a full lap of the countdown and come into land.
Thank you.
Thanks, Ruby.
You are so welcome.
I hope you enjoyed Flying Air News Time.
Catch you next time.
Bye, Ruby.
See you later.
Or, as they say in Wurundjeri, Woi Wurrung, Twaganin.
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