Brisbane Trip Day 22: Brisbane

We had another quiet morning, chatting, playing with kittens, playing Roblox, watching YouTube, I did some work with my photos. Caitlin and one of the girls wanted to go shopping again, so I dropped them off at Riverland in Ipswich, then I went to Jaycar to get a new cable for our USB charging box for the car – it stopped working when we were on our big trip and I’ve been using the fan charging cable ever since. The guy there was very helpful – looked at it and said it might be the fuse, so checked it, changed the fuse for me and charge me 40c. I got back in the car and it worked again – very happy! I got petrol and milk and headed back home for a cuppa with my friend.

The girls were ready to come home around midday, and we decided to all go into Ipswich and meet them there and have a play at Queens Park. My friend took the boys and picked the girls up at the library, Amelie and the oldest girl and I went in my car. We were almost there when it started raining, so I popped back home to get my clothes inside – I want them dry when we leave tomorrow. Back to the park where we found the others. It was a very cool playground. The girls borrowed my camera and took some modeling type shots, they had a lot of fun. Caitlin and one of the girls were wearing the same coloured skirt, they looked good together. Caitlin had found some high-heeled boots at the op shop so was very happy to finally get some.

It started raining fairly heavily and we moved under a gazebo to have some sausages and cake for lunch. Liam’s shorts had got caught on the flying fox so I rummaged in the car to find more pants for him – most things were at the house but I managed to find something acceptable. As the rain eased all the big kids went back out to play, and Amelie danced for my friend and I – to Shake it Off and You Belong With Me. It was pretty awesome.

We wandered across the road to the Nature Reserve where there is a free animal zoo. We saw wallabies, wombats, snakes, lizards, turtles, bilbies, spinifex hopping mice, and birds. Very cool. At the end of the walkway is a petting zoo where we patted a steer, a sheep, and looked at some goats. It was a lot of fun.

The boys and Amelie went back to the park and the rest of us went to look for the Japanese gardens. At first we went the wrong way and found an orchid greenhouse which was quite pretty. We located the gardens and had a wander – pretty paths and bridges and trees and ponds and streams and lilies. There were lots of water dragons – at one point we saw 12 on the same area of grass. We even saw some swimming which was a bit exciting. There were turtles in the main pond who swam right near us.

My friend left to take one of the girls to dancing, and I went back to the park to collect the boys and Amelie, the other girls followed soon after. After a bit more of a play I did 2 trips to take everyone home. I had a cup of tea and relaxed for a little while, then started on sorting out the car – getting all the rubbish out of it and reorganizing things so I could put our bags back in. Once that was done I packed all our bags and got everything together inside so we wouldn’t forget anything in the morning. It took a bit longer than I’d hoped but really wasn’t too hard. One of the girls cooked dinner and I did get to sit and relax once I was all packed. The boys played more Roblox (they had 2 ipods connected to the xbox so they could all play the same game), Amelie watched YouTube and the big girls did yoga and gymnastics together. They made up some 2 person yoga positions, then the boys came outside and they started to incorporate them into the yoga as well, and ended up with a 5 person position. It was really cool to watch them work it out, come up with the ideas then play around with who should be where, and adjust as necessary. The mozzies drove us inside after a while.

My friend came home around 11 so we had a bit of a last chat before I headed to bed, everyone else went fairly soon as well as we all have an early start in the morning.

Half-lap Day 5: Keith -> Hahndorf

The kids all slept well, I was awake for a while listening to the very long, loud trains rattling past, and the noise of the highway. We were all awake fairly early though, which meant we had time for a leisurely breakfast and for Millie and I to have our showers, before beginning to pack up. The kids explored the caravan park in between helping with pack up. We’re getting more efficient as we figure out what order to do things in and the best way to put everything in the car and trailer. We were on the road again just before 11, our quickest getaway by far.

On the way we listened to Almost Super again – it’s great to find a book that all 5 of us enjoy, and this is definitely one of them. We also watched the terrain around us change a few times – low flat bushes, and areas of wetlands as we passed the Coorong.

Our set up in the carpark at Monarto Zoo

After a couple of hours we reached Monarto Zoo, which we have reciprocal membership to as part of our Zoos Victoria membership. So it was free for us to go in which saved us over $100. We packed a bag with food and hats and sunscreen and in we went. As we were arriving in the afternoon we decided to get straight on the safari bus (the kids checked out the meerkats while we were waiting). We saw Przewalski horses and zebras and bison and rhino

and other animals, before we hopped off to go and see the giraffe talk. The added bonus of this talk and feed was that there were zebras (Millie’s favourite) and they came up to feed off the ute, right underneath where Millie was standing. It’s the closest she’s ever been to a zebra and it was extremely exciting. We really got to see the detail of their stripes and how fluffy their ears were.

Our view of the zebras at the giraffe talk

Waiting for the cheetah

We had a bit of lunch (tuna and ham and cheese and crackers) while we waited for the bus again, then got off at the next stop so that we could hear the cheetah talk. This cheetah had been hand raised and so the keeper was able to go in the enclosure with her. She said at the start that the cheetah might not come up for us to see her ‘because she IS a cat…’ She did come eventually and it was amazing to see her interacting with the keeper, just like Winky at home. The talk was interesting and we all loved watching her. At the end the keeper asked the kids (ours and one other family) why they weren’t at school. Mine replied that they were homeschooled, and she said that was great, and that coming to the zoo was a very educational way to spend the day. She asked what they learned from her talk, and LiAM said ‘not much’. After everyone stopped laughing I explained that the cheetah was his favourite animal so he already knew most of what she had said, but that she had confirmed his knowledge. She asked him to tell her something about cheetahs that she’d missed, so he said that they have the black stripes below their eyes so they can see better in the bright sun. She was impressed, and chatted to him a bit about all the types of cats in Africa, and was even more impressed when he said that hyenas are related to cats. She said that he could be a zookeeper one day with that amount of knowledge and interest.

Hand feeding a cheetah - how cool would that be!

We raced back down to the bus and continued on, seeing rhino, hyena, painted dogs (including puppies, who chased the bus as it drove past) and lions. Back to the visitors centre where we watched the meerkats for a while, then the kids spent some of their money in the gift shop while Tony went back to the car to make us some hot drinks. Caitlin bought jewellery, Millie a little Schleich fennec fox, and LiAM a plush snow leopard and a Schleich hyena. It was a tough decision for the younger two with so much to choose from, and balancing the idea of getting awesome animals with not wanting to spend their holiday money too quickly. Everyone was happy with their choices in the end (and LiAM’s snow leopard has not left his side since).

We continued on towards Adelaide, still trying to figure out where to stay for the next couple of nights. We’d had a couple of suggestions of free camps but I didn’t have enough internet signal to download Wiki Camps and couldn’t find more information on them any other way, so we looked at caravan parks. The prices were all within about $10 of each other, with the Hahndorf Big 4 right in the middle of the price range, so we decided to go with a bit of luxury for a few nights before heading north into more unknown areas.

It was fun driving through Hahndorf and remembering last time we were here (which was before Millie turned 1, I was shocked to calculate that that means it’s 6 years since our South Australia trip! I loved SA then and I’m excited to be back). We stopped for groceries and then on to the Big 4 – the kids were very excited as we drove in and then more so after they had explored and found a pool, mini golf, outdoor chess, a great kitchen, nice toilets, and a games room.

Tony and I set up while they explored and then had sausages on the BBQ for tea.  Caitlin and I put the annex up by ourselves while Tony cooked. After we’d eaten we all went up to the games room and played air hockey (for free!!!), ping pong and fusball (all free). It was so much fun. I got better at fusball with a bit of practice – Tony is really good though so I was no match for him. We went close at air hockey, one of the few physical things I have a chance of beating him at. We each played the kids as well and they all did well.

I came back down and set the beds up and we put up the second wall on the annex so that if it rains (which is forecast) all our stuff will stay dry. The kids were exhausted so I read to them for a while then finished getting ready for bed myself.

Sydney Trip - > Day 5 to Day 10

Over the rest of our time in Sydney, we spent a lot of time hanging out at the house, as well as a few outings, which made it feel more like a holiday (less like being at home). On the Friday afternoon we took all the kids to Sydney Aquatic Centre at Homebush - Millie's favourite pool and somewhere she's been wanting to go back to for months. We were there for about 4 hours, swimming in the kids pool and going in and out of the fountains and tipping buckets and showers, going around and around and around in the rapids, hanging out in the spa, going on the big slide (Millie is still not tall enough, but there were plenty of other things to do to keep her happy), and running over to be dumped on by the massive bucket of water. Millie and I usually keep well away from it, by the end of this visit though she was running over with everyone else to be there for the massive wave of water. I did it once and was happy to not do it again.

On Saturday the other kids had karate and a rehearsal and other things on, and we went to Lizard Log park which has a great adventure playground, and spent 3 hours hanging out with my friend K. Her kids weren't around this weekend, so my kids played and K and I had a great chat in between helping my kids. LiAM wasn't feeling well so he didn't enjoy the playground as much as he'd hoped. It was a wonderful catch up. And warm - the first time I've been able to be outside without a jacket for many months now! On the way home we had an early dinner at Red Rooster, then home for a quiet evening with the others.

K and I at Lizard Log Park, Caitlin on the flying fox (taken by LiAM)

Sunday we headed in to Balmain to see my brother and his wife. We had a BBQ lunch sitting on their balcony overlooking the harbour, it was another beautiful sunny day and a great setting. After lunch we walked to the ferry and they took us over to Cockatoo Island - somewhere I'd never been and was very excited to visit. We wandered through one of the tunnels, examined the old cranes and railway tracks and docks, sat in the sun and ate ice cream, climbed up to the top part of the island and looked at the old sandstone buildings. On the way back to the ferry Millie fell and hurt her knee, but the ferry ride home calmed her down and we enjoyed looking at the harbour from the ferry and checking out all the gardens on the walk back to the apartment. We stayed with my brother for a cuppa, watching photos and videos of their recent trip to Thailand and Burma where they rode on elephants. They had great presents for the kids from their trip too, fans and soap for the girls and Burmese money for LiAM.

Lunch on my brother's balcony

Millie learning about sandstone on Cockatoo Island (and carrying her gift bag from her uncle and aunt)

Cockatoo Island

Monday, and the times either side of our outings on the other days, we spent at the house, playing with the kittens, playing on iPads, playing on the swings and trampoline, watching TV, sewing, dressing up in costumes (the girls did a photo shoot), making up dances and performing them for everyone, cooking (there were 2 batches of cupcakes made), playing Scrabble, and chatting and laughing.

Millie asleep with the kittens and mummy cat

Cupcake creation

Millie dancing her ballet dance

Tuesday we all went to the zoo - it only took just over an hour to drive there (boys and Millie in my car, girls in the other car). We got there just after 10 and left when it closed at 4.30. We started the day with a round trip ride on the cable car - very cool seeing the animals from above, and looking at the view over the harbour. We saw most of the animals, and stopped to watch the bird show and the seal show, both of which were excellent. We sat in the splash zone for the seal show (front row) and got quite wet, which Millie was upset about - she snuggled on my lap under my jacket for the rest of the show and was happy then. We played in the playground next to the lemurs, and then in the playground at the farm part. Millie had another 2 bad falls and hurt her knee again - luckily this time I had my sling with me so she could snuggle on my back and it wasn't so hard for me to carry her. We ended the day with a ride up on the cable car, then had ice cream and my kids bought souvenirs (a snow globe type thing with penguins in it for Caitlin, a small plush lemur (so cute!) for LiAM, and a Schleich seal for Millie, to partner the one she got a few years ago). Back to the car and LiAM and Millie and I were exhausted and still not well and wanted to go straight home, so the boys and Millie and I did that, only hitting a small pocket of slow traffic. L and the girls went down to the beach near the zoo and had a wonderful evening before heading home and missing the traffic entirely.

After checking out the zebras, Millie consulted her map to see where to go next

NSW Trip Day 6: Dubbo -> Orange

We all had a bit of a sleep in so when we got up we packed the car and cleaned up and headed out. We didn’t get time yesterday to visit the Zoo shop so we’d agreed to go back out there this morning (it was only 3km from where we stayed). The kids each selected some zoo souvenirs to buy with their money, and we watched the lemurs again for a while, then decided to one last drive around the zoo – our ticket from yesterday was still valid (and it hadn’t cost us anything anyway, as we have reciprocal membership through Melbourne Zoo– a family ticket at Dubbo was about $130 so we’ve certainly got our value out of our membership this year!). We said goodbye to each of the animals as we drove past, and we weren’t going to get out at all but the hippos were out of the water and near the fence, and the kids hadn’t seen the hippos close up the day before – when we jumped out, they were doing a feed and keeper talk so we saw all 5 hippos up close and learnt a bit more about them. Then back in the car to cruise past the rest of the animals, and then we left Dubbo for Orange, briefly stopping in Wellington on the way for some fries.

Orange has grown a lot since I lived there (over 30 years ago so not a surprise!). We drove into town and I recognized a street name and showed everyone my primary school and our church, then found 2 of the houses we’d lived in while we were there. Finding the 3^rd house was trickier – I thought I knew the way but came to a dead end – the new Northern Distributor cuts through the country road we used to live on, so I found a way around that, then drove much further than I thought I needed to, and realized I’d missed it. I rang Dad and he described how to find the house, and on the way back I thought it might have been demolished – then I found it, tucked in next to a truck depot, and looking much smaller than I excpected it to be!

We checked into our caravan park then went to Cook Park for a late picnic lunch. I knew exactly how to get there and which side to drive to so that we could see the ducks and the swings – don’t know where that memory came from. The duck pond looked slightly different than I remembered but the swings looked exactly the same, as did the bandstand, the fountain, the little gazebo with seats in it, the avenues of trees, the rose garden. It was so cool to be there with the kids and have them play in all the places I used to play, and of course feed the ducks all our bread ends (and the crusts off our sandwiches). There was one big fluffy black and white duckling that the kids wanted to adopt, but we did leave him there… There were piles of leaves on the ground too which were lots of fun to run through.

Autumn leaves in Cook Park

Feeding the ducks in Cook Park

It was getting towards sunset so we left the park and went out to Mt Canobolas – past our old property on the way. We arrived at the top of the mountain in plenty of time to see the sunset, very pretty – and rather cold! After admiring the view for a while we went back down to Lake Canobolas as it began to get dark. We drove to the far side and walked a little way out on the dam wall, then Caitlin and I walked all the way back across and the others drove back. The kids had a brief play on the beach in the dark then we went and got supplies for dinner and back to the cabin.

Sunset from Mt Canobolas

It was Tony’s first time in Orange and I really enjoyed showing him and the kids all the places I remembered – it still looks like a really nice place to live.

NSW Trip Day 5 - Dubbo

The kids were very excited that the pool at this caravan park was open (the one in Griffith had been closed for the winter) so after a jump on the jumping pillow they went for a swim. The water had been heated to 20 degrees so it wasn’t freezing and they enjoyed it.

Once dry and dressed we headed out to Western Plains Zoo. The first thing we saw, in the free area where you buy tickets, were ring-tailed lemurs on an island – an excellent start to the day especially for LiAM. From there we drove our car around the zoo, getting out to walk to a few exhibits at a time then driving to the next section. I have always loved this zoo with its large open range type exhibits, and sharing it with the kids was very exciting. (The areas are large for each animal, and set up so that you can’t really see the fences or moats between you and the animals, so it feels almost like you are there with them). We saw black rhino, meerkats (including a baby), wombats (Tony’s favourite), African wild dogs, giraffes, simiangs (they were very entertaining, the baby only moved by somersaulting or spinning, and kept climbing up the rope then jumping on his mum), hippos, bongos, lions, elephants, white rhino, cheetahs, zebras (Millie’s favourite, including a baby having a feed from his mum), tigers, blackbuck (Caitlin’s favourite – a large herd, with a couple of beautiful dark males who stood out against the lighter females), buffalo, bison, onagers, przewalski horses, otters, greater one-horned rhino, dingos, emus, koalas, wallabies, ostriches, various antelope and deer, Galapagos turtles (including a baby, who was surprisingly small, the size of a small puppy maybe), spider monkeys and black and white ruffed lemurs. The highlight for me was definitely the cheetahs – there was a mum with dark stripes down her back and large, dark spots on her sides, and three cubs – they raced around and chased each other and wrestled together and jumped in and out of the tree, it was very exciting and amusing to watch. We made it around the zoo in time for the kids to have a play in the playground and watch the lemurs a bit more, then came back to the cabin, exhausted. LiAM said it was the best zoo day he’s had. The map had a list of 30 featured animals and LiAM was ticking them off as we saw those animals, he was thrilled that we got to them all.

mother and cheetah cubs

mother and baby meerkat

Blackbuck

Once back here the boys swept up the leaves around the cabin so we could stop trekking them all over our floor, and the girls went for another swim which Caitlin found was a perfect antidote to being so tired. I had a bath in the tiny bath in the amenities block which I did find relaxing – I haven’t gotten all of the bindi from my foot yet so I was walking tenderly and my whole body was aching by the end of the day. A relaxing evening in the cabin and then a relatively early night for most of us.