about time I updated!

We're home from our holiday, and it's probably time I posted some pics and told you all a bit about our trip! We had a great time down south, the kids loved the camping and so did we, but we liked the 4.5 star hotel on the way home even more (don't tell the kids).

Our two nights in Shoal Haven were pleasant, we spent some time walking up and down the beach opposite the hotel, and swimming, and playing "which who" (otherwise knows as Guess Who) and just generally relaxing. I was suffering from pregnancy exhaust so I particularly enjoyed sleeping in and afternoon napping!

From Shoal Haven we drove straight on to the camping ground at Eden which is on the northern coast of NSW. Eden used to be the biggest whaling community in Australia, and the whole world for that matter. The camping ground was lovely, our only complaint would be that they had too many people there, but that's to be expected at that time of year I guess.. Stylish spent the entire time begging to go fishing so one of the first things we did was ask the locals where the best fishing spot was.

She spent many hours at the pier casting her line out, chopping up bait, and catching and releasing fish that were undersized. We did manage to bag one that was a good size though, and she killed it, gutted it, and filleted it all by herself (with adult direction). Spikee was also very keen on fishing but we tried to keep him away from the pier as much as we could because he is so active we were worried he'd go over the edge! But he did spend some time sitting in his cow chair holding a broken rod and enjoying the general experience. My favourite part of the fishing was seeing little fur seals diving about just off the pier. I got so excited when I saw them that I nearly cried (I'm such a sap)

On NYE the kids had a party next to the tent, they had junk food and then played with plastic dinosaurs til late. The camp ground had a pool and a mini golf course which we all spent lots of time enjoying. Spikee kept calling it cricket so for the first few days we had no idea what he was talking about.

We went to the whaling museum in Eden and spent a rather long time there! I expected we'd be done in half an hour like at most small town museums, but we spent a good two hours there learning all about whaling in Australia. It was both heart breaking and fascinating. Eden is now a thriving whale watching community but once upon a time it was the biggest whaling port in the world. There was an Orca called Old Tom who actually worked with the whaling ships and his pod to herd baleen whales into the port where they were slaughtered. This worked for the orca's well because they cooperated with the whalers and they got to eat their fill - mostly lips and tongues apparently - before leaving them to the whalers. The view from the museum was spectacular! Gorgeous blue ocean, red rocks, and luscious green grass on rolling hills.

We went to Merimbula twice and saw the aquarium there. The kids sat for ages infront of a large tank spotting all the different fish that we could eat if we could catch them. We saw Tasmanian Sea-Horses, huge lobsters, cuttle fish, an amazing octopus, and heaps more. We also went to the vinnies there and scored a few excellent things. Stylish got some great clothes, and I bought some Hairy Maclary books for Spikee that were in perfect condition, and a set of overalls for the baby.

From Eden we decided to drive inland all the way home because the coastal highway is dodgy at best, and also because we always go up the coast and we thought inland might be nice for a change! We drove from Eden to Canberra in about 4 hours, and decided to stop there for a break and visit Questacon (what used to be called the science museum I think). The kids had a blast pushing buttons, going in the earth quake machine, watching lightning being made, creating tsunami's, playing on the computers and so much more. The end of our visit to Questacon was slightly eventful though because when we got back to the car we discovered that A had left eh headlights on and flattened the car battery. Fortunately we always travel with jumper cables, and after pushing the car into a good position a women helped us.

So from Canberra it took us a bit over an hour to get to Goulburn where we found a nice hotel and went to ground for three nights. Ordering room service, swimming at the pool, soaking in the spa that was in our room, and just generally enjoying being back in semi civilisation!

So that's what we got up to on our holiday! We had a blast and hope to do it all over again some times soon! It might be a bit enthusiastic, but in the middle of the year when A has time off coz we have a baby we might nick off up the coast again. No camping though, cabins all the way!