Friendly Beaches/Freycinet National Park

27th Jan, 10.
We travelled to Friendly Beaches Campground in the Freycinet National Park. Our camp site was just metres from the beach :)
We went for a walk along the pristine beach...

And went for a drive to Coles Bay and Bicheno.

28th Jan, 10.
The kids started back at school and there were no complaints about their new classroom...


School work was completed by 9am, so off we went for a difficult 11km walk to the Wineglass Bay Lookout, then down to Wineglass Bay, over to Hazards Beach and finally back to the carpark. The walk took a total of 3hours to complete and we were stuffed at the end, but all agreed that it was worth it.





We went to Richardsons Beach for some lunch, a swim and a kayak ride.

St Helens & Scamander

25th Jan, 10.
We arrived in Tasmania this morning and drove to Longford and had breaky.
We then drove to NE coast and stayed in Scamander (just south of St Helens).
We went for a drive/walk to the Bay of Fires... OMG just gorgeous!
The most white and powdery sand and clear blue sparkling water...:0 Just breath-taking!



26th Jan, 10.
We went for a few lovely walks today.
Halls Falls...


Anchor Stampers, where the original stampers can still be seen from the tin mining days...


Mt Poimena...


And St Columba Falls...


We completed the day with cheese tasting and purchasing at "Holy Cow Cafe".
What a great way to spend Australia Day?!?!?!?! :)

Melbourne

First stop - Romsey
We stayed 2 nights with Michelle, Darryl, Christie & Kane.
We went for a bushwalk at Hanging Rock.


Daniel & Kane went to play golf, while Chantelle and Christie went shopping.

Then we stayed a few nights with Nicole, Jamie, Alex & Sami in Sunbury.
The kids went swimming, they played Australian Idol, dressups etc.


They also went Yabbying.


We went to Aunty Colleen's for lunch, then afterwards Michael took us on a tour of Melbourne. The kids were happy to be catching a tram...


We spent a day with Louise, Andrew, Mia and Nicholas.
We were visited their by Berni and her 5 gorgeous girls... Molly, ALice, Georgia, Grace and baby Eliza. We ate lunch and had a swim in the pool.


WE had a lovely time catching up with the extended Shaghnessy family and appreciate their lovely hospitality. xxxxx

Benalla & Stringybark Creek

15th Jan, 10.
We met the Pace Family at the Rocket Park in Benalla...



Then they came to the caravan park for a BBQ.
My beautiful neice dislocated her elbow and broke her arm just above her elbow... she spent the next 2 nights in hospital. POOR MAKAYLA!

16th Jan, 10.
We went for a trip out to Stringybark Creek... where the Kelly Gang had a shootout with the police in 1878 - which led to Ned Kelly's execution in Nov 1880.



We then drove to "Power's Lookout" - Harry Power was the bushranger that took Ned Kelly under his wing and taught him bushranger trade secrets. This was site was where Harry Power had a lookout over the King Valley.

Beechworth & Benalla

13th Jan, 2010
We went to Beechworth.
Of course when we got there we ate at the famous Beechworth Bakery...
Then we went to the old Beechworth Courthouse, where Ned Kelly was tried in 1878 for a horse receiving crime and then held in the cell there in 1880 before being sent to Melbourne for the trial of the murders of Constables Scanlon & Lonigan.



This is Chantelle sitting at the Judges Bench...



And this is Daniel sitting at the exact dock where Ned Kelly once sat during his own trial...



In the afternoon we arrived in Benalla (3 days early) and surprised the Pace Family.
We all went out to dinner at the Royal :)

14th Jan, 2010.
Today we booked our passage over to Tasmania.
We go over on the 24th Jan and return on 15th Feb... Can't wait!

Tawonga - Mongan's Bridge

11th Jan, 2010
We spent the entire day at camp and swimming in the river.
It was another hot day!!!
Here are some photos of Rod and the kids jumping off the swing:







12th Jan, 2010
We planned to spend the day at Mt Buffalo but when we got there it was closed due to fire risk. The kids were happy to go back and play with their new friends.
Rod and I rode 2.5km to Ceccanti Winery, we had a lovely Tuscan lunch and drank a bottle of Merlot. We were glad the entire trip back was downhill :)
We also rode on our surf mats down the river with the trip taking approx 30mins.

Victorian Alps

10th Jan, 2010
We went for a huge drive today through the Victorian Alps.

Our first stop was at Fainter Falls, where we walked to a beautiful waterfall.



We drove through Falls Creek Alpine Village and continued to Anglers Rest, where we stopped to eat and swim... another 40C day... too hot for hiking!
We drove the entire loop to Omeo, Mt Hotham and then back to Tawonga.

A huge relief to jump in the river and cool off :)

Bright

9th Jan, 2010
We arrived at Mongan's Bridge Caravan Park at Tawonga, which is opposite a river and has huge shady trees. The kids have been swinging from a rope, as well as jumping out of trees into the river.

We went to a gorgeous little town called "Bright", with shady tree-lined streets, and a huge community area beside the river with a free slide and a diving board. They even have lifeguards on duty. The temperature reached 40C, yet the water remained a cool 12.5C.

Wodonga

7th & 8th Jan, 10.
We crossed the Victorian border.
Spending a few days researching, shopping and washing sheets.
Heading to the high country tomorrow.

Snowy Mountains

5th Jan, 2010.
It was extremely windy today so we made the most of the wind by doing some washing (by hand!). We spent the day around our camp. We saw an emu.
As it got closer to dusk we went for a short bushwalk to a deep pond in Thredbo River. We sat on the bank very quietly... and we were rewarded with a sighting of a platypus swimming across the river. It's bill was just out of the water.



6th Jan, 2010.
The kids went on a bobsled at Thredbo... they were given the tickets from a lady near our campsite.
We drove around to Charlotte's Pass, passing the ski slopes of Perisher Valley.

Mt Kosciuszko

4th Jan, 10.
Today we drove to Thredbo and caught a chairlift. At the base of the mountain we were comfortably dressed in t-shirts. As the chairlift climbed higher the winds reached 70km/h and we were freezing. Once at the top we were all very glad that we packed jackets.



After walking 2km past the top of the chairlift we arrived at the Mt. Kosciuszko Lookout. The mountain in the middle of the pic below is Mt. Kosciuszko. If you look carefully you can see the brown crate track leading to the summit.



The kids were very happy to find snow...



We made it to the summit... a total of 6.5km hike from the top of the chairlift. Mt Kosciuszko is 2228m above sea level, the highest mountain in Australia. The water travels 500km from the top of the mountain out to the sea.



The 6.5km hike back down to the chairlift was much easier than the hike up.
13KM - AN ACCOMPLISHMENT WE CAN ALL BE PROUD OF... YEAH!

Wee Jasper

1st January, 2010
We travelled to Wee Jasper... and headed straight for Carey's Caves where we met Jeff our tour guide.
Later that evening Jeff visited our camp site to listen to Daniel play his guitar... he brought along his Mandolin and they jammed together for some time.



Jeff told us about Signature Cave, gave us directions and a map of the upper and lower levels of the cave...

2nd Jan, 10
We had the best time ever exploring the cave, it's mazes, tunnels and crevices. We walked, slid, crawled and shimmied our way through the cave for several hours.











After that we swam in the creek.
We went to Micalong Creek and climbed up the side of a cliff that had a rope attached to trees to assist in the climb. Then we swam in the flowing creek below the waterfall.

Wee Jasper was way more fun than we ever expected :)

Canberra

30th Dec, 09
We went to the War Memorial for two hours in the afternoon... only completed WW1 section.



31st Dec, 09
We returned to the War Memorial for a few more hours... the kids loved the Discovery Zone.







After lunch the kids spent a few hours at Questacon.

New Years Eve was pretty quiet, watched the fireworks from the camp site with other visitors to the Caravan Park.