The Holiday is over

That's all folks!

Our holiday has sadly, come to an end.

But marks the beginning of the next chapter of our lives.

The blog has been and will be, great to look back on and remember our amazing adventure and all the places we have been. What a holiday of a life time.

It's something that every Australian should experience at least once in their life time.

 We hope our adventure's inspire you to get out there and live your lives to the fullest.

Life is too short for "maybe" or "one day". Thank you Nan Edwards for teaching us this valuable lesson in life. We miss you dearly.

Guy and Rachel.

The End

Week 38

East Victoria 9th - 15th Sept 

Well it was time to set off again, making our way back to the NSW coast. Stayed at Buchan Caves for a few nights its a lovely spot there safe for the kids to roam at their leisure. camp fire spots and a night walk to spot the possums they kids found four of them. And lots of time spent watching the kangaroos jumping pass and a spot of fighting between them as well.

Then we moved on to Mallacoota stayed there for 3 nights, what a great hidden Gem I can imagine in summer how busy it is with keen fisher men and boating extremists.
We took a boat out for a few hours and took out luck at trawling at the back of the boat, well that was so exciting I caught the first and largest salmon( Go Mummy) so the game was on Zach wasn't going to let me catch them all so with in the space of an hour we had caught 7 salmon.

We visited Eden and Merimbula (fish an chips for lunch) then headed back to Mallacoota.

Then we had a phone call and had to head back to Melbourne so we moved on and stayed at Inverloch foreshore Park for the weekend and caught up with Guy's Aunty and Uncle, spending the day with them was lovely.

Then we headed to the Carrum Downs Caravan Park.

Week 35

Melbourne 26th August - 8th September

What a couple of weeks. There was no day that we were not busy!

It was spent catching up with friends and family that we haven't seen in over 8 months. It was great to see everyone's smiley faces. I know we didn't get to see everyone in the short time we where back. There will always be next time, and I can be more organised.

Curtis was able to enjoy his birthday with family and friends. Amity was able to have a mini birthday party at skate world to with her closest friends.

Zach got to see Billy..... and have asleep over with his other mummy...lol

Amity got to enjoy a girls night out shopping with Aunty Flick, Angela and Mummy.

Curtis added Aunty to his vocab, it was very cute.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS, WELCOME TO DOUBLE DIGETS"

The time came to say goodbye and keep moving.

Week 34

Coffs Coast to Sydney to Melbourne 19th - 25th August

What a busy week.

Monday

School work was on the agenda again! A little shopping. Afternoon drive to the look out. I drove (Rach) my palms and feet were sweating. The drive was windy, steep and no railing..... We all survived. The views where amazing.

Tuesday

Time to move on and explore a little further south, we had morning tea at Nambucca heads, then kept on our way we stopped just outside of Forrester.

We skipped a few towns we know, but we have explore some of the area in our previous trips. Free camp spot 115 out of Camps 7 ($23a night and school age kids $7) washing machine's are free. What a bugger I'm up to date on all the washing.

Wednesday

We took a drive to Nelson bay, I'm sure this place is lovely in warmer weather, it was cold and blowing a gail when we were there. We took the kids to have a look at Fighter World, next to the Newcastle Airport. What a great place to visit. You are able to get up close and they even had a few cockpits that you can sit in. They had a few jets fly by while we where there. Then we drove on to the Hunter Valley staying at Cessnock Big 4 van park.

Thursday

 Exploring the Hunter Valley, it was a wonferful day. We started at the Hunter Valley Gardens, then explore the Hunter Garden Village. From the British shop to the Cookie shop, to the chocolate shop to the wine tasting to the liquer tasting, we couldn't leave empty handed so a lemon and lime liqueur and a fiq liqueur, packet of lollies and 4 mini bottles of red.

The next stop Lindemans, yep another bottle then to to cheese tasting, then to Wyndam vale yep another bottle.

Then we caught up with a work colleague of Guy's, Jason, for a coffee. This turned in to dinner at his house which was lovely meeting his family.

Friday
We left the Hunter Valley to drive to Terrigal and have a look at the Central Coast.

We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon, after setting up at the Lane Cove National Park caravan we went to Bondi took a stroll on the beach. The kids were trying to spot one of the boys from Bondi Rescue ( No luck). We decided to have dinner at Bondi. We thought that we would explore Sydney by night and look at the pretty lights.

Saturday

We left bright and early to be at Canberra for Lunch to take the kids to see Parliament House.
It just happened to be the 25th opening anniversary and without knowing, it was an open day. We were able to explore the house of reps, the senate, everything. There was an Australia Flag  which is as high as 2 double decker buses hanging in the Grand hall. People had the opportunity to go into the Prime minister's office. The que was over and hour wait so we didn't go through. We were able to walk on the top of parlement house the kids enjoyed the roll down the hill, the photos say it all. Then continued the drive and stopping at Albury for the night.

Sunday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CURTIS, 2 YEARS OLD TODAY
We drove to Melbourne, arriving at a suburban caravan park at 2 in the arvo, then dinner for Curtis's Birthday with family and friends.

Week 33

Gold coast to Coffs Harbour 12th - 16th August

Monday
We spent the day exploring the surf outlets in Ashmore, then into surfers for lunch and time for fun at Time Zone, Jake didn't know where to go he was a little overwhelmed, we all had a lot of fun even Curtis got into it and gave it a go.

Tuesday
We decided to make use of our VIP passes and take one last trip to Movie World. This time Amity got more adventurous she went on the Batman ride, Asylum, Road Runner. Curtis did extremely well having a go on the dodgem cars by himself and even drove the taxi ride, our baby boy is growing up so quickly. Wet n wild again to do all the rides that didn't get done last time, this time it was Guys turn to go on the flush drop.

Wednesday
BBQ lunch at the playground with Barb and Russ, it was lovely spending time with them before we continue our trip.

Friday
We moved on to Yamba for lunch.

We arrived at Coffs Harbour. The weather changed from sunshine to rain and wind.

The Big Banana was a must see by the kids. Then with the good eyes that they have they spotted the lolly shop, after watching them make personalised lollies for a wedding the kids got their tastings, we didn't leave empty handed with a mixed bag of lollies for all to share.

How amazing are these?

The kids made use of the amazing van park, even though it was on 24 deg they had to go in the pool. Played on the jumping pillow, games room and kids playground. We went for a walk on the beach, Zach tried his luck at catching his own bait with the jar that he got from Russ, and nope no luck at that. Guess we are not meant to fish!!

Week 32

Gold Coast  / NSW north coast 5th – 11th August 2013

 On the  Monday it was a visit to Wet an Wild and then a stint of shopping at Harbour town.

On Tuesday we changed caravan parks and stayed at the Broadwater foreshore park. We then popped into Sea world for a look and then dinner with Aunty Marion. Zachary loved being able to play with Toby again.

 

On Wednesday we spent the day at Sea world

 

Thursday we caught up with Barb and Russell for Morning tea and lunch. It was wonderful to see them again. It had been so long since we parted ways in WA.

 

On Friday we had to move on, there was no sites left for the weekend as the park was booked out. We headed south through surfers and on past Tweed Heads... oh... we're in NSW.... we stopped in Kingscliffe for lunch and looked for somewhere to stay.

 

Saturday morning we checked out the local markets and then spent the best part of the day in Byron Bay relaxing on the foreshore after visiting the Byron Bay cookie factory outlet and eating sushi rolls for lunch. Clothes are optional here on the beach!

Sunday was spent doing the school work.

 

Week 31

Noosa 30th July to 5th August

Monday was school day…all day….

On Tuesday we left Pomona and moved to Noosa heads and stayed with Nigel and Jodi at Yve and John’s for 4 nights. The kids have been so excited to see their Uncle Nigle and Aunty Jodi, welcoming them with big hugs.

 We went shopping at Hastings Street, where Amity picked up a bargain of One direction thongs for $5....

 

On Wednesday after school, we drove around the area exploring Maroochydore and Buderim again. We found “Guy’s Avenue”  lol..

Thursday arvo we all tried a spot of fishing at Noosa spit. Jodi managed to catch a bird after the birds kept diving and trying to eat the hooked bait just after we cast out the line.

 

 On Saturday we said good bye to Nigel & Jodi and headed south for the Gold Coast. It was great catching up and Zachary and Amity enjoyed being spoilt by their Uncle and Aunty. It was great seeing family again. We look forward to the next catch up.

We stopped at Bribie Island for lunch and then visited one of Rachel’s Cousins nearby.

We stayed at the Mt. Tamborine Caravan Park so we could visit the theme parks which Zach and Amity have been hanging out to visit all year.

 On Sunday we spent the day at Movie world!!!

Week 30

Sunshine Coast

Tuesday 23^rd July

We stopped at Gympie and let the kids have a play. As demonstrated by Curtis, the playground kept them very busy!

 Using the Camps Australia wide book we found budget accommodation at the Pomona showgrounds and stayed for 7 nights.

We dropped in to see Yve and John in Noosa and ended up staying for dinner. There were lots to catch up on. Jake was more than happy to entertain Yve’s with he’s adventures. Yve’s gave the kids a teddy bear each to look after. Jake loves he’s green bear.

On Wednesday we went out to find some local big things. First the Big Shell.

Then the Big Gingerbread man and the Ginger factory.

Then onto the Big Pineapple!

Thursday and Friday were spent exploring The sunshine coast and doing the all-important school work.

On Friday night we caught up with the Kibble family (Guy’s work mate Ben & family) We felt so welcomed and enjoyed dinner and the chance to be out of the van for an evening.

We visited the infamous Eumundi markets on the Saturday morning, parking was almost impossible it was so big and busy. The rest of the day was filled up driving around the Maroochydore area checking out the sights.

Sunday brought the annual Pomona King of the Mountain festival and the crowds with it. Ben and his family came up for a look too.

 

In the  afternoon we lazed about at Noosa Beach playing beach cricket and soccer with the Kibble family it was a great way to see the week out.

Week 29

Fraser Coast 15th - 20th July

We left on Monday and drove south to Maryborough. After a BBQ lunch we drove onto Tin Can bay. After exploring the small sea side town and having a look at where the dolphins are feed, we decided to drive further to Rainbow beach which was booked out so we stayed at Carlo point caravan park just down the road.

 

 

For the next four day we camped at Inskip point. The days were filled with many hours of fishing, walks along the beach.... relaxing watching the Fraser island barge's take the many vehicles to and from the sandy shores. 

 

 

 

On Saturday we melted marshmallows over a camp fire and spent the afternoon driving up and down Rainbow beach collecting samples of the many different colours.

 

 

 

 

 

The weather was all over the place until the forecast for Sunday and Monday looked good to go and enjoy a visit to the island. 

Fraser  Island

This was Guy’s top item on his must do list on our travels.  We had waited for the weather to clear up and for the tides to be just right. The kids were just as excited when they saw we were going on the barge and driving on the beach.

 

We watched dolphins swim by as we departed from Inskip point.

Off the barge we hit some soft sand but didn’t get bogged and on we went, from hook point north along the beach.

There is a 80km speed limit on the beach…. We were overtaken by quite a few tour bus drivers who were more worried about keeping to a schedule than the speed limit it seemed.

 

We didn’t realise planes landed on the beach too.

 

We saw our first Dingo trotting along the beach and saw a few more during our visit.

There were a few obstacles and after watching a bus go over these rocks we thought it would be safe enough to follow too.

We made it to the ship wreck and joined the many tourists taking photo’s and watching the fish swimming in the natural aquarium under the hull. 

We still had a few hours before the tide came in so we ventured further north towards Indian Head.

We stopped and the Pinnicales and Zach spotted whales breaching in front of the horizon..

 

It was time to for Rachel to have a go driving on the beach but when we got to Indian Head she didn’t want to go any further due to the You tube videos we have seen of people getting stuck. So we swapped and after a successful drive up we came across a rough section on top. In hindsight we should have approached the section slower and with more caution. Guy managed to get the car airborne and the rest is history… the pictures below shows what happened as there was no video or photo’s of the event.

 

The main casualty was Jake’s sandwich which flew out of his hand and he was most upset about it. Zach just laughed…. Rach’s look was priceless…..you know….when words aren’t enough but if looks could kill?  

We kept going and stopped on top of middle rock and walked down to the Champagne pools. It was too cold to go for a swim for us. (oh  yes …and Rachel fell down some stairs… all good.)

With time running out (tides coming in) we decided to leave.  This is when a mud flap got caught on a piece of timber in the sand and ripped off. (Rachel gave Guy another one of those looks…..)

 

On the way back we stopped at Eli creek .

 

It was only mid afternoon when we arrived at the Eurong Beach Resort so we decided to go and do Lake McKenzie. Halfway there we came across a large tour bus blocking the one way track. Not knowing what was going on Rachel went to investigate. A 4wd was bogged on the track ahead. We were advised it was not safe for us to continue and that only they had enough clearance to continue.

So after the bogged 4wd was pulled out we watched the two tour buses negotiate the very boggy sand. I’d hate to be in those buses. They bounced and twisted and almost tipped over against a tree but they made it through.  With no winch and by ourselves we decided to reverse a km back down to a cross road and head back.  Well we couldn’t. another 4wd just then came around the corner and blocked us in! we had a chat to them and explained what was around the next corner. The nice more experienced person behind us showed us how we could traverse ahead. So we made it through, thumbed our noses at the bus driver when we saw him at the next stop and checked out the lake.

It was amazing to see a rainforest in the middle of the island. We drove back and by sundown we checked in to our apartment and got ready for dinner. The kids were so excited to be staying a night out of the van they asked if we could live here.

The buffet dinner was great and we looked forward to the comforts of separate bedrooms and a comfy couch to relax on.

Zach and Amity had a swim in the resort pool the next morning before we left . we then spent the rest of the day fishing the beach on the way back to the barge for the boat ride back to Inskip and our van.

We stayed another night at Inskip and left Tuesday morning and headed for the Sunshine coast.