Alan's family had organised a 60th reunion of arriving in Australia down in Kiama, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to test the waters on a holiday as a family of four. We have some tweaking to do!
We flew to Newcastle (with four people in two seats) and picked up our car for our first stop at Lake Macquarie to spend some time with Alan's mum and her husband (Grandma and Opa). It was interesting having four people squeezed into two seats on the plane!It was rainy weather but that did not stop us from getting out and exploring. Alex and Lara loved wandering around Grandma and Opa's yard, exploring the trees and watching the rabbit who visits every day - very cute! We even managed to squeeze in a wet walk down to the Lake without getting washed away.
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| Alex's first plane ride |
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| Exploring the trees with Opa |
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| Loving all the boats |
The second day was a gorgeous day so we decided to head out the Hunter Valley - a region neither Alan nor I had yet visited. We tried a few local wines, yummy biccies and generally enjoyed the gorgeous scenery.
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| Winery fun |
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| Looking for fairies | | |
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After bidding goodbye for now to Grandma and Opa, we made our way towards Windsor via Wiseman's Ferry. This wasn't as exciting as we thought as the ferry was arriving just as we turned up with two children needing desperate nappy changes and generally being extremely unhappy. So we crossed the river to the sounds of a screaming baby. Lara had no idea she was even on a boat! Ah well. The silver lining was that there was a great little playground on the other side so all was well (in Lara's world at least). I got my coffee at the cafe, Alex got to get out of the car, and Alan, well I don't know what the bonus was for him!
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| Across the Hawkesbury at Wiseman's Ferry |
We stopped for lunch in the gorgeous little town of Windsor. Everyone loved the big paddlewheel on display in the main street and we also thoroughly enjoyed a visit to the museum. Very interesting to see how far the flood reached. That night we stayed in a slightly dodgy caravan park with speedboats going up and down the river and a good old fashioned tall metal slide with no sides. Lara and Alan both enjoyed that one!
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| Windsor paddlewheel |
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| Caravan park on the river |
Off to the Blue Mountains the next day, we stopped by Wentworth Falls for lunch and to stretch our legs on a puddly wet bushwalk. Lara thoroughly enjoyed testing out her non-waterproof shoes in all the puddles. Gorgeous scenery, especially with the low clouds streaking across the mountains. We managed to find some shelter for lunch, sharing with a German couple on holiday. It kind of felt like we were in a large baker's oven.
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| Exploring the puddles |
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| Checking out Wentworth Falls |
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| Alex in the baker's oven |
Day 2 in the Blue Mountains saw us heading to Scenic World. Our first exciting adventure was the steepest railway - the old coalmining tracks that hauled the coal up out of the valley. It's fantastic as the beginning of the descent goes through a crack in the mountain itself before coming out to a great view of the Three Sisters. You had to really brace yourself too so you didn't fall on top of the people below you! There is a lovely easy walk at the bottom with some interesting historical information as you walk around - Lara loved riding on the pit pony. We took the cable car back up to the top then hopped on the Skyway to cross the valley where we went on a little bushwalk to some falls, had a play in the water, then found our way back to the caravan park.
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| Heading down the world's steepest railway |
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| Checking out the view through the floor of the Skyway |
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| Riding the Pit Pony |
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The next day the weather started off quite promising and we hopped in the car for the drive to Jenolan Caves. I had forgotten how impressive the entrance was. We sat down for a bite to eat before heading off to see the Lucas Cave. With both kids attached to us in carriers, we managed to keep them mostly quiet and under control (and one of them asleep) enough to allow us to really enjoy this tour (and allow the rest of the visitors to enjoy it too!). The formations were just gorgeous and they have done a magnificent lighting job to show it off. Looks like great fun to be the electrician/maintenance guy here. After the cave tour, we went for a wander around the little blue lake at the entrance, lizard spotting on the way, and to our delight, we saw a platypus. It was the first time I've seen one in the wild (not for lack of trying) so I was quite stoked. The sky started to look quite threatening about now and the distant rumbling of thunder was not quite so distant, so we headed back to the car. A massive thunder boom struck as we were walking through the entrance cave - sounded magnificent. We managed to get Lara and Alan into the car before the rain hit, and I took shelter under the picnic shed to feed Alex just as the skies opened and it bucketed down. I was in a shelter about 8x8 m and still got wet! Alan pulled the car right up along side but I just sat there watching as the hail rained down on our hire car. Luckily, no damage was done.
The afternoon stayed wet and cool, but it was a good time to avoid crowds to head out to the three sisters.
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| Rain in the valley |
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| Three Sisters walk |
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| The rainy Three Sisters |
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| Lara thoroughly enjoying the lack of crowds |
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| The Broken Column |
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| Gorgeous straws |
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| Lizard spotting |
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| The threatening skies |
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| Convict built bridge at the entrance to the caves |
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Saying good bye to Katoomba, we made our way to Kiama via Featherdale Wildlife Park. Both kids loved the animal antics. Especially the goat that tried to eat our pram! Arriving in Kiama, we settled into our caravan park and had a play in the playground with a fantastic view before heading down for a splash on the beach.
Day two in Kiama saw us exploring the town and local attractions. Unfortunately the weather was not presenting us with any blowhole action, but we had a lovely time up at the lighthouse. We bumped into Grandma and Opa around lunch time so we found a spot at a Mexican Restaurant for lunch. It happened to be the weekend of the Kiama Jazz and Blues Festival so we were serenaded with free jazz while we lunched.
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| Views at the lighthouse |
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| Lunching with Grandma and Opa |
The next day was reunion day and it was great to catch up in the gorgeous park at Kiama SLSC with Alan's family. The kids had a ball, as did we with so many babysitters on hand.
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| Grandma and Alex |
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| Most of the family at the reunion |
Our last day of the holidays and we drove to Sydney, arriving just in time to catch our flight back home.
