It began with the boring trip over seas on the spirit...well someone had to get the jazz to melbourne eh!
the most exciting part....yep at 1pm we passed the other ship!
Finally in Melbourne it was time to pack the car...Morning 30th December:
We drove out of Geelong and through Torquay heading towards the coast...
After coasting the coast for a time, Mothers hankering for Raspberries kicked in and we headed inland for lunch...Not far from Gentle Annies berry farm, is ...um..well a different Raspberry farm..and that's the one we went to...
The baby LOVED the Raspberries!
Whilst inland we explored the Otoway ranges...Mother and I did the tree top walk (A bit like Tahoon) They also do flying foxes through the trees (a bit like Hollybank) but we stuck with the walk...
After spending the night in Peterborough we headed back towards the apostles for a Helicoptor rideFriday 31st Dec:
It was extremely hot (38deg.) and very windy, perfect conditions for my first heli ride... it was beautiful but scary at times as the chopper ducked and swayed in the wind. Felt like you were sitting on a pocket of air that could give way at any second!
We found Gibson's beach and headed down the Gibson steps to get there...
It was extremely hot (38deg.) and very windy, perfect conditions for my first heli ride... it was beautiful but scary at times as the chopper ducked and swayed in the wind. Felt like you were sitting on a pocket of air that could give way at any second!
We found Gibson's beach and headed down the Gibson steps to get there...
It was SO hot that when we finally got to the apostles it was a quick duck out of the a/coned car...run to the look out...take a happy snap, and get BACK to the a/c car...didn't really want to spend time enjoying the view...even though it was spectacular...
Loch ard Gorge was next, apparently a couple of very lucky sailors washed up in here and were the only survivors from their ship...of course back then the stair case wasn't inserted for tourism purposes so we are still puzzled as to how they got themselves out of the gorge!
That night we spent in a hostel in port campbell...it also happened to be New Years eve...needless to say we didn't get much sleep!
Loch ard Gorge was next, apparently a couple of very lucky sailors washed up in here and were the only survivors from their ship...of course back then the stair case wasn't inserted for tourism purposes so we are still puzzled as to how they got themselves out of the gorge!
That night we spent in a hostel in port campbell...it also happened to be New Years eve...needless to say we didn't get much sleep!
New years day, Saturday 1st January: 1st stop...London Bridge...
I should of put up more photo's but really couldn't be bothered...We were lucky that a cold change came through on New year's day and we were able to enjoy the trip from Port Campbell to Mt Gambier a lot more...Many people do the great ocean road and stop at port campbell, but we found the coast line just beyond VERY picturesque, the bay of islands was amazing!
It was a fair drive to Mt Gambier, and we didn't know what to expect but it is WELL worth a visit with heaps of cool stuff to look at, we only got to view a couple of things but they were great! This blue lake was amazing!
..and this sink hole was beautiful!
Sunday 2nd January: On our way to Miningie...we spotted mums FAVOURITE THING! She'd being going on and on about cray fish and lobster, so we found a giant one!
On the way to Miningie we went through the Coorong, this is where the Murray meets the sea, it is a beautiful national park...to be honest we weren't expecting to see much on our way to Miningie but were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the Coorong... an impromtu safari began with some wild Emu on a great lake of salt!
Monday 3rd Jan: We headed into Adelaide through a plague of locust...we collected our first road kill...
...and enjoyed the city and Glenelg with some Copenhagen icecream!
Tuesday 4th Jan: We left Adelaide and expored the hills on the way out. A stop at Hahndorf being a must!....
We saw Bro & Sis Lee (formerly pres. lee) and Bro and Sis Challis (formerly pres. challis) What are the odds! They had also been enjoying a trip around SA.
We went to Melba's chocolate factory, which I found a bit lame...just saying...
But even lamer was the GIANT rocking horse jess made us drive 5 billion hours to see...
Sebastian got to see a llama though, so it was probably worth it. (although I think this is actually an alpaca) hmm
We stopped at a road side apple shed, (don't see many of them in tassie) and grabbed some delicious juice!
and spent the night in Pinaroo, in the WORST accomodation ever, this photo doesn't do it justice, i'm talking cobwebs, dust, cracks, smell, mould...
Wednesday Jan 5th: Wanna know what I did on my birthday? Drove through 3 different states that's what!
...had a swim at swan hill
Took a picture of a GIANT fig tree (yes the biggest fig in the southern hemisphere, planted by Burke and Wills, right out the front of our motel!)
...and attended the most AMAZING sound and light show, along with a million mosquitoes, a crazy tour guide, some jolly music, and a possum.
Thursday 6th Jan: Another one to add to the list of GIANT things...here's a Cod...
....this is the jazz in NSW...we did cross the boarder on my birthday but didn't take a pic then.
We spent some time in Bendigo...Which I didn't like...but here is a statue of THE Sydney Myer, The man who is responsible for having the most confusing place named after him in Melbourne...the Sydney Myer music bowl, and YES every year when carols is on I say "Mum how come it's the SYDNEY Myer music bowl (thinking of the place and the company) and it's in MELBOURNE?" and every year comes mum's reply "Collette Sydney Myer was a person and it's named after him." blah blah blah
We made a commitment to go the whole road trip without eating fast food which we did!... and to celebrate our near successful completion we went out and got a family dinner box from maccas!
Friday 7th Jan: Jessica woke up with a severe case of whinginitchyican'thandlebitesedness...so Kyle and Jess left us in Ballarat that day, so mother and I went and explored Sovereign Hill for ourselves... Here is the Gold fields medical room, according to the guide, this guy had one year of training and this entitled him to be the GP, the surgeon, the vet and the dentist, needless to say Hayden liked this idea very much, although I wouldn't be happy to go to him! Note the saw...just saying!
Mother decided to try her luck at discovering her fortune...
We saw some redcoats march into town...
...and spent some time doing proper handwriting!
My page includes many ink splodges...
but hey! at least I finished!....
The lady gave us BOTH an A+ what's with that? Clearly mine is better! and here we see the problem with a rating scale... just saying!
So we did it! 9 days together without killing each other! $200 petrol in the jazz...that's it!
I should of put up more photo's but really couldn't be bothered...We were lucky that a cold change came through on New year's day and we were able to enjoy the trip from Port Campbell to Mt Gambier a lot more...Many people do the great ocean road and stop at port campbell, but we found the coast line just beyond VERY picturesque, the bay of islands was amazing!
It was a fair drive to Mt Gambier, and we didn't know what to expect but it is WELL worth a visit with heaps of cool stuff to look at, we only got to view a couple of things but they were great! This blue lake was amazing!
..and this sink hole was beautiful!
Sunday 2nd January: On our way to Miningie...we spotted mums FAVOURITE THING! She'd being going on and on about cray fish and lobster, so we found a giant one!
On the way to Miningie we went through the Coorong, this is where the Murray meets the sea, it is a beautiful national park...to be honest we weren't expecting to see much on our way to Miningie but were pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the Coorong... an impromtu safari began with some wild Emu on a great lake of salt!
We also saw millions of pelicans and pink salt lakes!
Monday 3rd Jan: We headed into Adelaide through a plague of locust...we collected our first road kill...
...and enjoyed the city and Glenelg with some Copenhagen icecream!
Tuesday 4th Jan: We left Adelaide and expored the hills on the way out. A stop at Hahndorf being a must!....
We saw Bro & Sis Lee (formerly pres. lee) and Bro and Sis Challis (formerly pres. challis) What are the odds! They had also been enjoying a trip around SA.
We went to Melba's chocolate factory, which I found a bit lame...just saying...
But even lamer was the GIANT rocking horse jess made us drive 5 billion hours to see...
Sebastian got to see a llama though, so it was probably worth it. (although I think this is actually an alpaca) hmm
We stopped at a road side apple shed, (don't see many of them in tassie) and grabbed some delicious juice!
and spent the night in Pinaroo, in the WORST accomodation ever, this photo doesn't do it justice, i'm talking cobwebs, dust, cracks, smell, mould...
Wednesday Jan 5th: Wanna know what I did on my birthday? Drove through 3 different states that's what!
...had a swim at swan hill
Took a picture of a GIANT fig tree (yes the biggest fig in the southern hemisphere, planted by Burke and Wills, right out the front of our motel!)
...and attended the most AMAZING sound and light show, along with a million mosquitoes, a crazy tour guide, some jolly music, and a possum.
Thursday 6th Jan: Another one to add to the list of GIANT things...here's a Cod...
....this is the jazz in NSW...we did cross the boarder on my birthday but didn't take a pic then.
We spent some time in Bendigo...Which I didn't like...but here is a statue of THE Sydney Myer, The man who is responsible for having the most confusing place named after him in Melbourne...the Sydney Myer music bowl, and YES every year when carols is on I say "Mum how come it's the SYDNEY Myer music bowl (thinking of the place and the company) and it's in MELBOURNE?" and every year comes mum's reply "Collette Sydney Myer was a person and it's named after him." blah blah blah
We made a commitment to go the whole road trip without eating fast food which we did!... and to celebrate our near successful completion we went out and got a family dinner box from maccas!
Friday 7th Jan: Jessica woke up with a severe case of whinginitchyican'thandlebitesedness...so Kyle and Jess left us in Ballarat that day, so mother and I went and explored Sovereign Hill for ourselves... Here is the Gold fields medical room, according to the guide, this guy had one year of training and this entitled him to be the GP, the surgeon, the vet and the dentist, needless to say Hayden liked this idea very much, although I wouldn't be happy to go to him! Note the saw...just saying!
Mother decided to try her luck at discovering her fortune...
We saw some redcoats march into town...
...and spent some time doing proper handwriting!
My page includes many ink splodges...
but hey! at least I finished!....
The lady gave us BOTH an A+ what's with that? Clearly mine is better! and here we see the problem with a rating scale... just saying!
So we did it! 9 days together without killing each other! $200 petrol in the jazz...that's it!
I'd just like to plug Tassie, cause pretty much there was nothing apart from the extremely blue and pink lakes, that we saw that you couldn't see down here. Our east coast is just as beautiful... just saying! But it was a good experience and good to see some different stuff!
p.s if anyone actually read all that GREAT effort! A+ for you too!
