Thursday morning James, Daniel and I hopped into the car and
started our road trip to Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road and Adelaide. It was
nice just casually driving, stopping when we wanted to/needed to and not
worrying about having an agenda. Daniel seemed to like his new travel toy.
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| New toys are fun! |
We stopped for Daniel’s breakfast at a rest
area, stopped again so that James could take off his jumper (which woke Daniel
up). We got a token photo at Dog On A Tucker Box which was random.
Then we
stopped in Gundagai for lunch. We were able to see a little bit of their ANZAC
march and then went down to a park to eat, followed buy a short play in the
park (mainly on the swing).
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| As you can see, Daniel was excited about the stop |
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| Looking at a Ned Kelly sculpture |
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| Looking at the horses in the ANZAC parade |
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| Enjoying a swing |
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| Watching Mummy on the swing too |
We then headed on the road again. Daniel fell
asleep so we didn’t get to stop at Hollbrooke to get a photo with the massive submarine,
but I was very surprised by how big it was and in the middle of no where. We
then continued on our way to Bowna where our accommodation was. It was my first
time staying in a caravan park, in a cabin and we were pleasantly surprised.
The place was simple, but clean and worked well. They had a feeding/pet the
animals time at 4:30 so we headed up to see the animals. James and Daniel got
to feed a deer, sheep, a kangaroo and geese. It was pretty cool.
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Daniel wasn’t
too excited by it but just seemed to look around, taking it all in. We then
went for a walk around to the late which was very pretty with the sun starting
to set.
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| My family |
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| My boys |
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| So happy |
In the morning we got ready, packed the car and then headed
on down the road. Unfortunately Daniel was asleep so we couldn’t stop to look
at Ned Kelly’s town (which I would have found very interesting) or to stop and
look at Winton race track but we drove past both places. Daniel did quite well
having a 2 hour nap. Unfortunately due to bad planning we had no lunch for him
and we weren’t going to get to Melbourne until the afternoon so we stopped at
Subway for lunch. They were lovely and made Daniel a half sub with avocado on
it. He quite liked his sub. After a play in the playground, where Daniel made a
little friend, (he even was sneaky to hold hands with her) we returned back to
the car and finished the leg to get to Melbourne. Daniel wasn’t too happy to be
in the car again (he was also quite tired). After arriving at our apartment, we
opened the door and broke it. The key wouldn’t come out. The maintenance guy came
and couldn’t fix it either so tomorrow he will come back to have another look
but we may need to change apartments (we heard nothing from him in the end so didn't move). We will wait and see. Daniel ate dinner
well and has gone to sleep which is great. Hopefully he will sleep well.
Daniel did sleep really well! He slept until 5am which was
wonderful for James and I to be able to have a solid nights sleep. Our first
day in Melbourne was a changed plan. We were going to go see and ride Puffing
Billy, but when we looked up ticket prices we quickly changed our minds. It
wasn’t worth $100 to ride a few stations, nor $50 to ride just one station.
Instead we decided to do a road trip down to Phillip Island. Daniel again
travelled really well. We started the day early so we would be able to make the
most of being at Phillip Island. Unfortunately because of having Daniel we
couldn’t stay for the March of the Penguins at night but we had planned to do a
couple of different activities instead. First stop was The Nobbies. This was a
boardwalk out at the furthest point on Phillip Island that went around to the
blowhole.
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| Looking at the penguin |
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| Just after it had blown |
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| Splash! |
We then hopped back into the car to travel to the other side
of the island to watch the pelican feeding. Daniel wasn’t very interested in
this at the start but he slowly started to take in different bits.
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| Waiting for it to start |
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| Pelicans! |
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| The stingray next to the pelican. It really was huge! |
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| Surf's up! |
When we arrived we were able to go into the motor museum
which was very interesting. I tried to have Daniel go to sleep, but that was to
no avail. There were old school race cars and motorbikes as well as a lot of
photos and newspaper clippings.
James loved walking around reading the
information.
Pretty impressive. We walked over the footbridge, listening to the
cars speed underneath us. Then it was up to the timers’ room, much quieter!
(but still not quiet enough for Daniel to sleep). Here we learnt about how they
do the timing and tracks. Next we went to the race control room. It was
interesting to see all the different cameras around the track and the ability
to rotate them 360 degrees and use extreme zoom. We learnt that the tv cameras
never use this footage as they zoom in on accidents to check whether everyone
is ok. The tv footage looks at the different cars and then shows a replay of
the accident when they see the thumbs up from the driver that everything is ok.
We then went into a pit. It is much smaller than I thought it would be from
seeing them on tv. We then went to the winners platform. This was cool to stand
on the first place podium with James and Daniel (who still hadn’t had a nap).
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| Having a drink of champagne to celebrate his winnings |
James loved the tour! I
found it interesting too – but not enough to make me love V8s :-)
We then headed back home (Daniel fell to sleep pretty quickly in the car).
After dinner we then watched some tv and then went to sleep. We were very happy
to have gone to Phillip Island! Yay for spontaneous plans.
Daniel again slept until 5am which was great! A big
difference to the week before with numerous, distressed wake ups. Today was an
adventure around Melbourne. We headed to the tram station, because you have to
catch a tram in Melbourne, just because you can. We travelled to Flinders
Street Station.
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| On the tram. Ding ding |
Daniel loved being in the Ergo on James’ back. We then walked
down to the Yarra River Cruises booth to find that it wasn’t open yet.
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| Walking over the Yarra River |
The
cruise started at 11 and it was 9:30 so we went for a walk to get a coffee for
James. We found the place down a random street (as all the good coffee places
are) and then walked around to a park for Daniel to have some milk. We then
headed to the Queen Victoria Markets because we had time to kill and were
amazed at how massive they were.
After a quick wander through we then headed back to the
Yarra River by tram. We just made the cruise (and again Daniel was still awake)
to head up stream. Geoff was our captain of the ship and was very funny with
his commentary. We went past the Botanical Gardens, up to Herring Island and
then back down the river past the sports precinct. After about 15mins Daniel
finally went to sleep! It was interesting to learn that they have adjusted the
Yarra and the direction, depth, width in different places to help with the
floodwaters. There is only 1 original bit of the Yarra left which is barely in
the CBD.
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| The original part of the Yarra |
They have also got rubbish collections around the river and over a
short period of time they collect enough rubbish to fill the MCG (Geoff then
added that that is also called Collingwood supporters – cheeky man!). The
floating bike ramp was also cool to see and seemed to be well used by the
locals.
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| Arty NRL stadium |
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| Fed Square |
When the cruise had finished we decided on a spur of the
moment to do the down river cruise too – partly because Daniel was still asleep
and also because it had been interesting to learn about the history and sites
of Melbourne. We headed under some very low level bridges and headed down to
the docks area. This area is being developed in a lot of places as it was the
dud end of Melbourne. It was interested to see the Bolte bridge and hear about
how the designer made the 2 pylons on the side for artistic appeal – they
aren’t even connected. They are also just taller than the height of the Harbour
Bridge so Melbourne could have one up on Sydney (so immature!).
It was cool to
see how they used the docks and the equipment to move the containers (and also
the location from Bastard Boys – the telemovie).
It was funny to hear about the
cement ship that caught on fire and so they sprayed water on it (as you do)
however the cement was dry cement, which hardened and they had a problem with a
solid cement ship.
Daniel woke up toward the end of the cruise and had some
good time sitting on James’ lap looking around.
We then went for a walk down to the banks of the Yarra to
have our lunch. Daniel had a great time crawling around the grass, trying to
catch seagulls, eating leaves and climbing over James.
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| I'm gonna catch you! |
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| Come back! |
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| I'm coming to get you |
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| Fun times |
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| Fine, I'll catch a leaf instead |
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| There it is |
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| Can I climb you Mummy? |
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| Coming up |
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| Almost there |
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| Thanks for the help |
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| Smiles with Daddy |
I think this was one of my
highlights from the trip so far – just hanging out with my boys, watching them
have fun together and laughing lots. After lunch we then headed back to the
Dutch Orange Festival that we stumbled upon. So much orange! So much yummy
food. We watched a lady and man make wooden tulips on very old school machines.
Then we bought fresh stroopwafels. Yummy!
Daniel needed some milk so we sat
down and I gave him some milk while James and I ate poffertjes. Very tasty.
Now
it was time to catch a tram to the MCG for our first Melbourne AFL experience –
Hawthorn vs North Melbourne. James and I were quite excited to experience the
atmosphere – we just hoped that Daniel would co-operate and have a nap before
the game. We bought our General Admission tickets
and basically got lost trying
to find some seating (there weren’t exact seats just the area but the stadium
was massive! We didn’t want to sit in the wrong spot). We headed up to the top
tier and found some seats at the city end.
Daniel decided that he didn’t really
want to have a nap so we gave him dinner and then the game started. Daniel
wasn’t as engaged as at the SCG for the Swans match, but he was also very
tired! After the first quarter Daniel and I went for a walk along the hallway
to try and have him go to sleep, but he just wasn’t interested. Each time I
stood still, he started getting upset, but he showed no sign of going to sleep.
This was hard as I really wanted to have a fun time at the MCG and enjoy the
game. The crowd were great – very vocal for both sides and very excited when
goals were scored, umpire calls were wrong and when punch ups happened. At half
time we decided that we needed to head back to our apartment so that Daniel
could sleep. It turned out to be a very close game in the end (would have been
great to watch but we needed to look after Daniel first). We walked back to our
apartment which was a nice walk, but very warm after the 30mins. I gave Daniel
some milk and then we put him down and he went to sleep pretty quickly. Another
apartment error was that we put the dishwasher on in the morning but it hadn’t
stopped all day. No clue why. There were also lots of soap suds in it so we
hand rinsed the dishes. Not helpful. James and I then sat down to watch the MKR
grand final (a positive to coming home early). Yay for Dan and Steph for
winning! Daniel woke up a few times in the night which wasn’t great. He went
straight back down after a feed but it wasn’t his normal self. I think it’s
because we did so much in the day and he didn’t have his normal amount of
sleep.
On Monday we headed to the car nice and early to start our
journey to the Great Ocean Road – the whole reason why we started this trip. Before
the Great Ocean Road we stopped in Geelong for Daniel to have some breakfast.
We then had a short play at the coolest park. It had pipes to speak into.
Daniel was very curious when he could hear James in it but couldn’t see him.
Our first stop on the Great Ocean Road was Bells Beach to see the awesome surf.
The waves were HUGE and the view was amazing! There were heaps of surfers out
in the water. There is no way that I would be catching a wave that big. Some of
them got hammered in the water! I wonder if Daniel will become a surfer. He
enjoyed watching it all.
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| Watching the surf |
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| A surfer is on the left part of the wave. That shows how big the waves are! |
Next we headed to Apollo Bay for lunch. James loved
driving the Great Ocean Road (and Daniel slept well on it too). It had such
breathtaking views and the road was very fun to drive on with all the bends and
turns.
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| Beautiful views |
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| Sleepy bubba |
God’s a pretty amazing creator! We then went back down
to Apollo Bay for a quick stop so James could get a coffee, Daniel could have
some milk and I could get some ice cream. Everyone wins! Then we were on the
road again.
Daniel had another nap and we powered through to the Twelve
Apostles. What amazing rock formations.
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| See the storm coming in on the left side |
It was fascinating to see the waves
come in and crash against them. No wonder some have fallen down, but amazing
that these ones are still standing. The sun was getting low so it looked
beautiful and we also saw a storm starting to come in off the water. We hopped
back into the car and headed down the road to Loch Ard Gorge. As we got out of
the car the storm that we saw coming in had just arrived. We quickly carried
Daniel down to see these formations, had a quick photo of just 2 of them,
decided to skip the longer part of the walk and hopped back into the car.
Daniel enjoyed being in the rain, but James and I didn’t really. Fortunately it
was just a little bit of rain.
We continued to drive down the road, marvelling at the
coastline and the different rock formations. We drove past the Arch and London
Bridge which I would have loved to see and gotten photos of but I guess that
will just have to happen another time. We also drove past the Bay of Martyrs, which
at a glimpse looked amazing. Again, we will have to see it another time. We
stopped at the Bay of Islands and went for a short walk. It was beautiful to
see these formations. I don’t know what is different about it and the Twelve
Apostles but they were beautiful too and fascinating to look at. We watched the
bay for a while, looking at the waves coming in. I was surprised to notice that
one of the islands was so big, it looked like part of the mainland but you
could see the waves crashing behind it. Again, God is very creative!
We next headed to our cute little B&B at Codrington
Gardens which we noticed on the map was in the middle of nowhere and
considering the time we decided to first stop at Port Fairy to get dinner (fish
and chips as recommended by Grandma K) and to give Daniel his dinner. Upon
arriving at Port Fairy we found the problem that most places were closed – not
helpful! The pub wasn’t even serving dinner. Fortunately we found a nice café who
were very accommodating of Daniel and us (but also was quite expensive). We
ordered a delicious Turkish bread pizza and seafood trio to share. The seafood
trio was so yummy! It had 3 pieces of fish, 3 calamari and 3 prawns as well as
chips and a salad. It was just the right amount between the 2 of us and such
yummy flavours. Thanks for the recommendation Grandma! As it was dark we then
headed to our B&B. It was a very cute, old fashioned 2 bedroom cottage, only
problem was that the air-con wasn’t working properly and it was very cold!
Daniel went down well but woke up at 10 quite upset. We didn’t know if it was
because he was cold (his room was quite cool) or if it was because of his tooth
coming through (his top left one) and he was chewing on his thumb and fingers.
As he was abnormally upset we decided to attack both possibilities. We put him
in 2 full jumpsuits and a 2-tog sleeping bag and then gave him some panadol.
After a few more tears he fell back to sleep for 5 hours. I gave him a feed and
then put him back down again. Poor bubba. In the morning though I noticed that
his tooth had broken through! That makes 3 teeth (and also the probable problem
last night). But then the owner told us that it was the coldest morning this
year being 4 degrees. That could also have been the reason.
Again we had a nice and early start but once we were all
packed we got to enjoy our full English breakfast. Yummy! Home cooked meals are
the best. We had eggs, a sausage, bacon (I gave mine to James) and toast. There
was a cute little ‘security’ dog who was wandering around the room which
provided a great distraction for Daniel as he ate his breakfast. The guy has
owned this B&B for 5 years and has developed it himself. There is a
cockatoo at the front of the place which says ‘hello’ and Daniel was intrigued
by.
Unfortunately the owner told us that kids have picked on the cockatoo,
hitting it and poking it with sticks so it now doesn’t tolerate little people.
Very sad to hear.
Now we were on the road again. We headed over the boarder to
South Australia. Very exciting! It is my first time in SA (besides the airport
for a short time). We stopped at Mount Gambier for a short feed for Daniel and
then continued on our way to Kingston to give him his lunch. Daniel did well
and had a good nap in the car. On the way to Kingston James felt like he was
starting to get a migraine – not good news considering he is the good one at
driving long distances! At Kingston Daniel and I had lunch in the park while
James had a short nap in the car. This seemed to help his head feel better. Daniel
and I then went to have some fun on the swings in the playground and James went
to look at the information board. When I took Daniel off the swing he got
grumpy and started to whinge. I said to James that I think he might throw
tantrums as he grows up, especially when he isn’t able to do what he wants. I
hope we know how to deal with that if it happens. We learnt that in Kingston
was the big Lobster called Larry. James took a photo of him just because. He
also found that it was apparently the best place for Fish and Chips so we got
some calamari and chips to have in the car for our next leg – I was driving so
James could still have a rest. The calamari and chips weren’t as great –
explains why the place hasn’t won an award since 2001. After Daniel had a short
nap and I’d driven for 2hours it was time to switch drivers and for Daniel to
have some more milk so we stopped at Tailem Bend. It had a pretty cool train in
it and a few fun bits of play equipment. Daniel had fun on another swing.
A further hour of driving and we were arriving at North
Glenelg, Serenity Cottage. It is such a cute place! Best accommodation so far.
Daniel was able to have a good hour and a bit of crawling around and play time
which was great after being stuck in the car for so long for the past couple of
days. There is a long hallway which he just loves crawling down (or being
chased down). The bonus of each of these holiday accommodations has been that
there isn’t lots of ‘stuff’ around for him to get into, just basics so we
haven’t had to do much to ‘baby proof’ the places. After a feed we put him to
bed and didn’t hear from him until 5 in the morning – much needed and greatly
appreciated!! James and I enjoyed planning our next adventures.
This morning we enjoyed a quiet morning – no alarms (besides
Daniel) and waking up after the sun had risen. Very nice after a lot of early
mornings. Once we got ourselves ready and Daniel too we hopped into the car and
headed for Mount Lofty. Today was a daytrip to the Adelaide Hills. James would
have loved to go to the Barossa but it was just too far, too much car time and
not much besides wineries so this was the compromise that he suggested. Mount
Lofty was beautiful! We have been very blessed with great weather this trip and
today was no different. It was amazing to see so far out and pretty cool to see
how square the CBD is. We considered doing the walk but after seeing all the
people in their sporting gear huffing and puffing when they got to the summit,
we were glad that we didn’t climb up. The pillar at the top was pretty cool to
look at and James loved looking at the fire lookout tower. It would be quite
crazy and scary to see a fire coming through the bush I think.
After spending a good time up at the summit we hopped back
in our car for a drive to the Wooden Toy Factory and Giant Rocking horse with a
sneaky stop off at a winery for James. The drive was beautiful! Much nicer
driving back roads than on the freeway. Fortunately Daniel got the memo and
fell asleep soon after leaving so James could go to the Golding winery. Daniel
stayed asleep (we have worked out that if you leave the engine running then he
will possibly stay asleep) and James enjoyed his tasting, coming back with 1
bottle which he is looking forward to enjoying when we get back home. We then
continued our adventure to the Rocking Horse. Daniel woke up just after we got
there – good boy! After some time on the little rocking horse out the front we
went into the wooden toy shop.
SO COOL! I wish I could buy all the toys in
there for Daniel but unfortunately we don’t have the money. Daniel loved
looking at all the different toys there. Ones to pull, ones to push, ones to
shake, puzzles, mobiles, so many different things! We ended up buying a couple
of toys to give him when he is older. We then went out the back to the animal
farm. As Daniel wasn’t very keen to feed the animals the first night of our
holiday we decided to leave getting some food. The animals weren’t too happy
about that. We were greeted by 2 greedy goats (1 who was eating into the bucket
of a young girl who was too little to move it away but wanted it to stop
eating. Once her mum helped close the bucket she said ‘you are a cheeky monkey mr
goat.’ So funny!), lots of peacocks, chooks, ducks and hens.
They all came up expecting
food. We then continued to walk around and had some sheep come up to us.
Again
when they noticed we had no food they just turned around to find someone else.
We saw some wallabies and an emu that seemed quite grumpy.
It was pretty funny
having 3 chooks follow us as we walked around the park.
We then found a couple
of kangaroos who were quite big. I know they are in the park but I was still
quite tentative with Daniel around them as he could make a sudden movement and
they could get startled and lash out – not something that I wanted to have
happen to either of us – so we were very careful around them.
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| Hello Mr Kangaroo |
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| Eeep. Please don't bite me |
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| This wallaby is smaller |
They still came
up quite close. Daniel seemed keen to look at them and try to pat them.
After
the animal park we sat on the grass to have our lunch. We then hopped back in
the car and went to Hahndorf, via Woodside to stop at a chocolate factory and
cheese factory. Melba’s Chocolate Factory was very cool. So much chocolate and
lollies and even little areas to watch the chocolate being made. It was hard to
choose something to buy but I got some white chocolate coconut rough. Hopefully
it will be yummy. We then went next door to the Woodside Cheese Factory and
tasted a few of their cheeses. I decided that I really don’t like goats cheese
– too strong a flavour that I don’t really like. But their camembert was very
tasty! We decided we’d try the other cheese factory in Hahndorf and if we liked
this cheese more we’d head back and get some. At Hahndorf I gave Daniel some
milk while James went to Rockbare to do some more wine tasting.
It was a very
cute winery, very traditional style. We then went to the Udder Delight Cheese
Factory but it didn’t really have much variety. After a short walk down the
street (beautiful autumn trees lining it)
we hopped back into the car to get the
camembert cheese and then headed home. We have had some of our cheese while
Daniel had his dinner, played in the hallway and Daniel had a bath. Now he has
just gone to sleep and we are going to have a quiet night in before heading to
Adelaide city tomorrow and walking around Glenelg. Looking forward to it.
While I have been loving this holiday and spending time with
James and Daniel I am also a little bit sad that we haven’t had as much freedom
as previous holidays because of having Daniel. Things like going out for
dinner, sitting on the beach watching the sunset, stopping the car when we want
(as oppose to continuing to drive so Daniel will stay asleep), doing things
that we would like to do – child free. I think it will be different when Daniel
is a little bit older and can walk around and be engaged with different things
like animals and sites. Then it will be more fun watching him enjoy the
different things. Just another transition I guess. It is a fun holiday but
yeah, I just am missing the old way of doing holidays a little bit.
This is Daniel’s thoughts on the trip so far. I think he is enjoying it.
Kl.aAAASCR/k/po/.,kk.,nd hdybn ..?
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