Steve and I had been talking about taking the girls for a road trip this year, and our initial plans were to go north to Cook Town to visit some friends there, but things changed and we ended up heading south instead. Usually when we do a long drive anywhere, it's been to Bundaberg to visit family. In those cases, you drive pretty much with just the destination in mind and how fast you can get there with the least pain possible.
We've done so many trips to Bundaberg now that it's not exciting or inspiring. I was a little worried that driving to Sydney would feel the same, but was pleasantly surprised. Going somewhere new had lots to do with things, but I think also the time we had helped a lot. When we drive to Bundaberg we are generally dashing up and back in a weekend, or no more than three days. When we set off south we had a full two weeks ahead of us. There was lots more driving distance to cover for sure, but we spaced it out enough to make it manageable and it was a lot of fun.
We head off Saturday morning bright and early to avoid any traffic and our first stop was Byron Bay. We took the time to do the lighthouse walk and though it was cool in the wind, the weather was beautiful. It was a great start to our holiday. I was already feeling unworried about anything that might happen from here on out.
We kept driving with a late lunch stop at the Big Banana before we ended up in Nambucca Heads to visit Steve's Uncle Neil. We saw some whales off the coast on our tour of Nambucca and stayed the night before setting off in the morning for more driving south. Day two we started listening to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the car. The girls like listening to audio books in general, but it was time for them to have something more than the stack of Roald Dahl ones we have listened too before.
They have seen me reading Harry Potter before, and there is enough Potter stuff out there in mainstream marketing that they know who the characters are and a general gist of what the story would be about, but we hadn't let them read the books yet. Let's be honest here, they start with an evil wizard trying to murder an infant - not exactly general viewing right? But we decided now would be a good time for them to experience it, and if we were all listening together, perfect for us to gauge how they were taking it in (though I will say, book one is pretty safe).
We had talked to the girls about it and they were excited, but when it came down to actually putting it on, they got suddenly nervous and almost refused. After we talked them off the ledge and got through the first three chapters (one at a time), they were hooked and couldn't wait to hear more. It was so beautiful to hear their gasps and cheers as they listened to the story.
That afternoon, we drove into Sydney and stayed with Steve's Aunty Helen in the Northern Beaches. Big family dinner that night, which was a little overwhelming for the girls after two big-ish days of driving, but it was great to see everyone. The next morning we took a walk along the beach at Dee Why to avoid the peak hour traffic and then head off to explore the Manly headland.
Manly headland was pretty cool - we did some walks around the memorial site there and then went off and explored a cool rock formation near the beach.
That night we stayed with my Uncle John in Newtown way, where we were going to stay for most of the week. Of all our Sydney relatives, this is the most convenient location for being a tourist, since it's an easy walk to the train station and then 20mins to the city. We were really trying to tick some things off the bucket list for us and the girls this trip, so we did all the touristy things.
I'm always a little dubious about zoos and I did cry a couple of times at Taronga, but it's still amazing to see the creatures that God created for our world. The most exciting one to see was the capybara which was hilarious and fascinating.
We did a day around the Quay and in the botanical gardens where they had these really cool animal/plant sculptures. The most noticeable thing about this day was that Sophie woke up in the morning and couldn't find her glasses anywhere. Despite the fact that we knew they came home with us the day before, and that she put them on the bedside table as per usual before she went to bed, they were no where to be found in the morning.
We turned that house upside down looking for glasses, but to no avail. Every time I unpacked a suitcase at a future location I expected them to fall out and be found in some obscure pocket, but no. Sophie was without glasses for the rest of the trip, and the glasses have not been found.
We also went to Luna Park. This was probably Sophie's highlight, since she's an adrenaline junkie and was tall enough for all the rides. Rachel was a little disappointed to only be allowed on some, but quickly decided that was for the best, since she wasn't a huge fan of the rollercoasters anyway. Luna Park was also the day the weather turned pretty yucky. It was cold and drizzly all day, so I was pretty ready to go home as soon as we got there, but I'm always no fun at an amusement park.
That was Friday, and that night we left my Uncle to stay with Steve's Aunty Sue. It was the rainiest weekend ever. We ended up seeing some other friends on the Saturday morning, and then watching a movie together before heading to a big family dinner. Sunday was more and more rain, so we stayed in and ate food and played board games. I also gave everyone haircuts. The rain didn't really bother us in the end, since all we really wanted to do was spend time with the family, which we did just as well inside the house as we could have done outside.
Monday morning came, I packed up everything again (desperately searching again for the mysteriously disappearing glasses) and thus ended our extended family visiting for the trip. We drove off to the Blue Mountains for some of our own small family time. Given the awful weather, we stopped at a shopping centre to let the girls play in an arcade to kill some time, unfortunately, I also managed to leave the lights on in the car, so when we did go to leave we had a flat battery and had to wait some more. Luckily, it was fixed pretty quickly and we were on our way.
Our AirB&B was pretty nice, and seemed very spacious after over a week of living out of single bedrooms in other people's houses. We tried to check out the town on Tuesday, but it was still pretty rainy and miserable, so we ended up back home pretty quickly. Thankfully we had packed a few board games and most of the shops we had stopped in on our journey thus far had been book shops, so we now also had lots of books to read.
The next day we braved the cold morning again for some nature time at Scenic World, where Rachel happened to bump into a school friend from her class. The rainforest was beautiful, even if we couldn't see the view thanks to the rainy clouds.
Finally, on the day we left, the clouds cleared enough for us to see the Three Sisters and enjoy a small walk.
We were then off to Dubbo via Bathurst where we had seen a fossil and mineral museum on the map. The museum turned out to be quite fun, in an old brick school house. The girls gushed over all the pretty rocks and laughed at the animatronic dinosaurs on display. We made it into Dubbo in the evening and got some rest before our big day at the Western Plains Zoo.
What I loved about Dubbo Zoo was the amazing way they have build the enclosures to make it feel like there aren't any cages. Even the more dangerous animals had clever moats with submerged fences, rather than wire grills for us to look through. It was actually great to see the animals have space to move around. Reading about how a world wide organisation of zoos came together to repopulate a breed of horse that had gone extinct in the 60s gave me hope that zoos can be more than consumer cages for animals.
After Dubbo, everything was about driving home, but again, spaced out so it didn't feel awful. We stopped in Coonabarabran for a night, and then drove on via Narrabri to Goondiwindi. Since we had enough time (each day's drive was only 4 to 5 hours), we made sure to stop at parks where the girls could get lots of running around in. When we pulled into the park in Narrabri, we happened to pass a sign to the "Australian Telescope". Wondering what that was, Steve looked it up and we decided it was worth a fifteen minute detour.
It was well worth the detour, and we ended up spending nearly two hours at the site, going through the self guided information centre, admiring the big radio telescopes and having our lunch in the sun. Steve loved all the science.
Then we drove on to Goondiwindi for our final night on the track. We finished listening to Harry Potter at this point, and the girls instantly started playing a Harry Potter inspired imagination game. We had dinner at a pub down the road from where we were staying, and just generally had fun being together.
The next morning we packed up nice and early and drove on home. Made it back by lunch time, so plenty of time to unpack the car, put on a load or two of washing and do a quick grocery shop. And Sophie got her spare pair of glasses on. Hooray!
Then we let the girls binge on some episodes of Tin Tin for the afternoon while Steve and I dozed on the couch. It had been a great two weeks of traveling, and despite the driving, we felt rested and relaxed. Hopefully next year sees us going to Cook Town, even if we cut the drive by flying to Cairns first.
