Winter holiday June 2013

Our first family winter holiday to Australia. We had a 10 day stay at down under, and it was indeed shelf shocking cold for all of us. It all started when lc bought flight tickets from a Quantas airline. It would fly us from spore to Sydney to Melbourne and back spore. Sounded like a good round trip. Then it started us on a real winter holiday with accommodation bookings and checking the weather daily for a few weeks, especially the snow conditions at Mt Buller, Melbourne, where it would be the highlight of our trip. Goping on a winter holiday can be expensive when you have to invest in cold wear. We were fortunate to borrow most of our clothing from friends, but we still bought both kids good jackets to keep them looking good and warm - they were really cheap ones from Bossini and Giodarno but they served them well enough. It was a midnight flight from spore. The kids slept well, lc and I were on and off, catching glimpses of some movies here and there. Airline food was horrible, only drinks and free flow servings of fruit were reasonable. After 7 hrs, we arrived very early in the morning at Sydney airport. We settled for a McDonald's breakfast, with pancakes and coffee. Then got our rented car that brought us to the Bondi beach apartment where we would stay for 4 nights. Accommodation was old-fashioned and nice with sufficient kitchen tools to get our first night dinner going. We were blessed with a groccer just down the road. Unfortunately, a rather expensive one. Lc had to run a couple of rounds to get all that we needed for the night, like meat, veggies, cheese, pasta, milk and water. Poor him, he had a lot to carry that day! I did my part fixing us a hot pasta dinner. Kids had a bath and relaxed in front of the tv for non stop cartoons at ABC channel. Day 2 in Sydney was our Blue mountain adventure. It was quite a drive to the mountains. We arrived at the Three Sisters - three pillars of boulders standing side by side, Nathan spotted a shorter 4th one. We had a short walk in that area. Lc googled a nice cafe for lunch - the Walters cafe. Then we drove to Pulpit rock look out. The view was magnificent, but not for the faint hearted. We stood there and marveled at the greatness of those beings and sensed how minute we were, and more, the creator of all such things - our majestic God. Day 3 we had a ferry cruise to Sydney harbor, took pictures of the famous opera house and had a stroll in Borganic gardens. Walking in the park was always such a breeze and a pleasant experience because of the cool fresh air. We still felt tired after an hr, particularly for my baby 's short legs that couldn't carry her very long. We took a cab back to the harbor to catch the ferry back to the other port where we stopped our car. Day 4 was a playground day. After breakfast, we took a short walk at Marks park, not far from Bondi beach, took some lovely pictures of the crashing waves, then headed to Centennial park for more playground time and strolled along Darling harbour. I bought a pair of leather boots, which was quite nice, for Aus25, not too steep at all. We headed home for dinner and did some packing for our next day's travel to Melbourne. We took an early morning flight from Sydney to Melbourne, rented the car, and took a long drive to Mensfield, a small town at the foot of the snowy mountains we were going to venture the next day. We had a nice warm dinner at the 'Deck on high' owned by the same people of the hotel. The hotel was Victorian-styled, very pretty rooms and lightnings and even a fire place, but breakfast was just crusty bread and packet milk which we did not like very much. Instead, we popped into a nearby bakery for toasted ham and cheese croissants and of course, freshly brewed cappucino. We rented boots and a jacket for Hannah for the mountain adventure. We took a mini bus up. The journey was about an hour. Thankfully, the roads were not too winding. Upon arriving at the top, we were pleasantly surprised by the sunny day we were blessed, but also knowing the icy slopes would not wait for us very long. We took a chair lift up to near the summit, kids ran and dug their feet into the frozen floor, took some blocks to throw and took some pictures. Nathan had the most fun, he laid on the ice, walked with daddy to the summit, picked up a lot of ice with his hands and kicked out piles of snow! Hannah was more conscious, stuck really close to me and hardly moved far or fast. We rented a plastic board called a 'tobergon', and slid down the slopes many times. Nathan never got tired of it, having to pull it up, to the top again to slide down. He was really strong and independent. He had a ball of time. By mid noon, we caught the bus down to town for dinner. We had Chinese take away which I rank the worse meal of our holiday . Next day morning, we made our way from the mountain to town again. The one and only time I drove was the worse of all the drives. The roads were wet, and the air was very foggy. I could hardly see the way ahead. Once. I was tail-gated by a humongous truck. I was petrified. The found the next opportunity to stop by the road side and switched over. We had a quick stop at the Yara Valley Chocolate factory. We tasted the yummiest brownie with ice cream and a cup of hot chocolate. Then we headed off to catch our train - the Puffing billy. The train ride experience was really nice. It made REAL puffing noises as the engine started and smoke shot out into the air. The kids gazed at it intently. The scenery during the ride was mostly green hills, with cattle grazing and houses.We felt very peaceful just starring at the quiet space. We passed some small towns and waved at many friendly drivers who politely stopped for us to make our crossing. The conductors were really old, what a nice retirement job mending the carriages. They did it with a lot of pride. Finally arriving at our last accommodation in Melbourne town at St Kilda. This was by far the nicest place to stay, kids even commented that the flat was larger and nicer than our home. Well, I thought the kitchen was under provided. I searched high and low for a ladle to fry the beef, in the end, I had to use a spatula, which served me well for the next few meals. Next day was the Penguin parade , another highlight of our holiday. We visited a farm earlier that day, fed some. Kangaroos, horses and cows, goats, patted some lambs , rabbits and guinea pigs, and the children even had a pony and a tram ride! That was definitely not a working farm like the one we visited in Brisbane. Talking about the Penguin parade, we didn't have to wait very long long to spot the first group of penguins returning from the sea. Everyone was extremely excited, at first sight of the penguins, we followed them on the boardwalk back to theirs burrows, they were so small and cute. Some looked lost, waddled, stopped and looked around, and froze on the spot. Others went back home to feed their young. The kids starred at them in amazement. Seeing penguins in their natural habitat was an incredibly real experience, rather than seeing them kept in tanks at our zoo. The kids bought little souvernirs for keep sake. Nathan wrote about the penguins and he was going to do his show and tell on it. He's an animal lover. Last day was a relaxing day. We visited the Melbourne museum. There were many fossils- dinosaurs, whales and others. I liked the bug enclosure,. There were life bugs, ant colonies, the thorny devil, which was Nathan 's favorite and others. The cafe served horrible pasta and sandwiches though. The kids shared a bottle of fresh cold chocolate milk since they were so hungry from not eating up the over cooked pasta in canned sauce and burnt sandwiches. Lc insisted that we should take the city circle tram ride, and so we did, for a few stops. We brought the kids to a lovely children garden. I must say the garden was beautifully designed with a river flowing through it, picnic grounds, an aged old tree stump, climbing rocks, little hills, bamboo mazes, cut off logs for the kid to roll and push, water fountains and tall grass for them to play hide and seek. The kids had a ball of time running about in that small garden. There was also a tree house overlooking the whole garden, and a special spice garden next to it. We could explore the rest of the central garden more if not for the darkening skies and falling temperatures. We had to leave. We picked up some dried leaves to bring home for lead printing. Lc treated us to an Italian restaurant called Rococo for our final night dinner. Poor Hannah fell asleep very untimely, Nathan gobbled up his pasta dish, I loved my prawn aglio pasta and lc had fish. All was good. We treated ourselves to a slice of strawberry cake after dinner. All in all, winter in Australia was nice. We were blessed with many sunny days, no rain at all, and slight breeze. Our journey was smooth, and we met many nice people. We saw amazing snow on the mountains, and ascended some easy climb. Everyone was healthy and played really hard during the trip. We bought back many packets of nuts, some gums, and rocky road. Yum.