The Hundredth day....

100 days- Narrabeen Beach, Sydney

Waiting for the storm- Hunter Valley

We left home on September 21st so today is the hundredth of our trip.
Lots has happened to us all- and we have laughed and learn’t at everything.
There have also been the negatives: lu’s 80 mossie bites in one night; the extremely challenging stresses of pre-pubescent daughters; the van break in and several other motorhome crisis’, to name a few, but we deal with it all and are taking an increasingly Aussie ‘no worries, no drama’s’ approach.
We set a pretty difficult task for ourselves today- pick the 5 best moments or places and your worst bit. I assure you picking the top 5 was hardest.
Here it is.

Olivia-
1- turtle rescue at Mapoon.
2- Aarukun speedboats.
3- Christmas day at Byron Bay
4- Dreamworld- ‘The Claw.
5- Meeting my new Aussie mates- misha, tashi and elyssa
Worst- The camp toilets in Serena

Georgia-
1- turtle rescue at Mapoon.
2- Christmas at Byron.
3- Movieworld- ‘Superman.’
4- Daydream Island in the Whitsundays.
5- Fraser Island.
Worst- Smell of Molasses at the Bundy rum factory. Georgia- top 5

Maddie-
1- Driving speedboats at Aarukun.
2- Surfing at Byron.
3- Movieworld- ‘Superman.’
4- Scuba diving the Barrier Reef in Daintree
5- Wild Dolphins at Yamba.
Worst- The nightime trip across a croc infested river in a tinnie at Turtle rescue.

Lu-
1- Whitehaven beach- just beautiful.
2- Turtle rescue
3- Spending time with indigenous peoples in Cape Yorke.
4- Winding down on Rawa Island.
5- Learning to surf in a storm on Rainbow Beach.
Worst- All 3 kids vomiting during our plane charter from Mapoon to Aarukun.

Andy-
1- Speedboat ride to Rawa.
2- Surfing at Byron
3- Storms at Rainbow beach.
4- Sunrise at Rainbow Beach.
5- Big Crocs, really close, in Cape Yorke.
Worst- Emptying the camper van waste water, every day.

The past few days have been a bit of a blur- 4 days of travel, but we did slip in a very enjoyable afternoon vineyard tour in the Hunter Valley yesterday. However we are now just outside Sydney in preparation for New Year fireworks at the Harbour Bridge.
Happy New Year. Love to all
Andy

St George Foreman- International Cultural Ambassador

Christmas eve. The ominous prospect of yet another BBQ beckons.....How do we convince the kids that this is how we should be celebrating Christmas ?
Then at 4pm Santa appears early. Our next door neighbour of the past 2 weeks offers us her magical ‘George Foreman portable roaster.’ Wow! an offer we couldn’t refuse. A mad dash to the shops in which we acquired a magnificient Turkey, Roast Potatoes, fresh gravy and all the trimmings. But sadly no pigs in blankets.
That done, the evening was back on course and we all got dressed up for a special Christmas eve dinner and drinks at ‘The Balcony,’ a place in Byron we have come to know and love for early evening gin and tonics. The heavens opening just as we were leaving so reminded us of England but a great evening of family tapas and paella followed and then back home to bed in expectation of Santa (who remember had to climb in through the vent in our loo!)

Christmas eve dinner

Christmas morning started at a very civil 6.45 am and Santa had somehow delivered. Our walk along the beach before breakfast, dressed up in white, red and green with Santa hats on, attracted the local newspaper reporter doing his piece on Byron at Christmas. Boxing day morning and we had made the front cover of the paper- unfortunately minus Georgia for who a call of nature coincided with the pic.

We take a walk whilst Fluffy pants guards the chocs!

Smoked salmon on muffins for breakfast, a present opening session and by a very relaxed 1pm we hit the beach. What a great atmosphere- lots of santa hats, barbies and very hot indeed. There was even a surfing santa wearing a mankini!

Santa's not so little helpers.

By 4 however the prospect of the turkey beckoned and we switched on George. Two and a half hours later we sat down to the most relaxed Christmas dinner you can imagine. What an amazing act of teamwork but we all agreed Lu gets a masterchef nomination.

Lu looking great- and the turkey wasn't so bad either.....

Alas, like all wonderful things, Byron is over. We loved every single minute.
The next few days we are heading south to Sydney for New years eve. We have just stopped north of Coffs harbour at a place called Split Solitude Beach. We spent the most amazing hour at the ‘Legends of Surf Museum’ run by the coolest 80 year old guy, Scott Dillon, we have ever met. He has been surfing since he was 3 years old and the museum is a tour of his memorabilia- great pics of him surfing the most famous waves in the world, a collection of amazing boards and other pieces of surf history. The camp is very relaxed, the only similarity to Byron is that we are right on the beach, but that is it. We are in the sand dunes, amongst the trees and it is very laid back indeed.
Take care and enjoy the holidays
Andy and Lu.
xxx

The Spaceman says eveybody look down....

Byron Bay, Tuesday 16th December 7.00am

Our second morning at beautiful Byron and it feels like the sun has not left a perfectly cloudless sky. This is our base for Christmas and it would be hard to beat right now. We are no more than 30 seconds from the beach and 2 minutes walk to the very cool main street of this bustling town. A real mixture of people- lots of families and backpackers as usual, but what seems to give this space it’s feel is the locals. They are, relaxed, man,.....of course they are all friendly and very chatty, everyone is in Aus apart from the low life who broke our van, but they seem to appreciate they live in an exceptional place- even the drunks who have a special tree on the beach they hang out under are cool. Add to that the surfers, their babes and a mix of hippies who appear to have got stuck here at some point in their lives, and you have Byron.

7pm Yoga and boarding at Byron

All appreciating a perfect surfing beach with crystal clear water, at Australia’s most easterly point. I think if Captain Cook had discovered it he would have abandoned ship, stayed, and changed the course of history!
A testing week beforehand though with both Lu and myself having our first ‘lows’ of the trip. Both really triggered by the handbag incident which unfortunately we are reminded about daily due to the stuff taken. What added to it was a mini cyclone that hit us on Tuesday evening in Ballina. Yet another storm had hit us and seemed to have passed whilst we were enjoying a ‘teach the family’ Black Jack’ session, when from nowhere a wind appeared, rocked the van like a toy boat in a bath and then ripped our canvas awning and almost wrenched the supporting steel frame from the van, completely bending it in the process. Luckily our insurance covers it (yet again) but we felt exceptional vulnerable in our little home.
We patched it up with string and tape and got out of town the following morning. The new one is being fitted next week.
And so to Yamba- another tiny fishing port about 350km south of Brisbane. Without doubt, Yamba grew on us. The weather was nothing special as we arrived but as with so many places, as the sun came out, so did it’s character. A campsite with pools, slides, free kids cinema, a great waterfront setting and an en-suite loo proved what we needed. With the arrival of Johnny, Indra, Mish and Tashy-our third encounter- our gloom was lifted and thrown out with the trash. Several bottles of Rose, local fizz and many beers all added to the fun and slightly cloudy head in the morning. The highlight of the stop however was yet to come.
We had tried unsuccessfully to rent some tinnies (small 4m motor boats) late Saturday afternoon so we booked an early Sunday start. The brilliant sunshine that greeted us when we woke up glistened on the Clarence river and we could see why it has been named Australia’s most beautiful. Half an hour into our adventure and Geogia and I noticed a fin about 10m from the boat. Two more appeared in quick succession and we realised we had come across a family of bottle nose dolphins- 2 adults and a pup- feeding.

Gulls on the Clarence

We were then treated to 45 minutes of slowly trailing this family as they fed in the shallows. Not another soul around and it was absolutely magical. Of all our wildlife encounters, whether in zoos’, parks or even the crocs in Cape Yorke, this was the most memorable.

Dolphin hunting.

Farewells again to Johnny and the Kurzines, we will see them again in the near future en-route to Melbourne.
So to Byron, the road trip winds it was on.
Take care all
Andy

mavis the motorhome

8th December 08

Hi its Mummy and Georgia here, nobody has caught up with the blog for a while so here we go.

Brisbane –Our first city! We stayed in a camp site only ten minutes from the city centre. This was great for all our sight- seeing, culture injections and our last chance to shop for Christmas, for anything that wasn’t going to be from a surf shop that is.
Brisbane is set up with its museums and galleries along a stretch called ‘The South Bank’ a very similar feel to London.

Day 1 was spent visiting Brisbane’s science museum which was really hands on and practical. Giving us a chance to sprint against Australia’s fastest 100m runner, problem solving, optical illusions, space, weight and much more. Mum says she couldn’t believe it when I tapped her shoulder and I was lifting a family size fridge, with the use of leavers, and Olivia with what looked like her head chopped off on a food platter thank goodness for optical illusions.
Over the next few days, we visited the Museum of Modern Art, The Brisbane Museum and an exhibition called ‘Game On’ a history of Video games. Great fun was had by all playing various games. Remember Ping Pong? Space Invaders (couldn’t get Andy off that) and hysterical time on the dance mat.
This year Christmas shopping just for the five of us was very strange , looking for small light portable presents that we could hide somewhere in the motor home. Happily Olivia will not be receiving any large pieces of moulded pink plastic this year. We did however start to feel a little bit in the Christmas spirit. There was a lovely large tree in the main square and children singing carols from all the local schools. There was a Australian post box in the main square which was just for letters to Santa, so the girls were able to send details of where we would be staying and asking him to climb through the vent in the ceiling, and to then balance onto the loo to get into our Motor Home (which we have now called ‘Mavis’) as we did not have a chimney. Olivia is still asking Santa to bring her Charlotte her best friend for Xmas.... Mmm not sure he will be able to do that one.
Another first for the girls on this trip and certainly a great experience for us all, one evening following a long shopping period we took them to have their first taste of Japanese ‘Teppenyaki’ We had wonderful chef who was keen to put on a great show for us pommes, all the girls could say was WOW. When it was time to make the egg fried rice we had to catch the raw eggs into our bowls......Andy did....the rest of us no way, so egg all over. Once the rice was cooked we also had to catch the rice in the bowl this time we all managed that one.
Brisbane bought more storms and high winds. The heat builds up each day and then like a flick of a switch, late afternoon the heavens open with rain, thunder and incredible lightning this goes on for most of the night, day breaks and you are greeted by a beautiful blue sky and warmth once again.
Pacific Pines, Claire, Tobi and the Theme Parks. – We arrived in Pacific Pines on the 30th of November, where we planned to stay the night saying hi, and ended up staying a week. We were visiting one of mummy’s old school friends (who she had not seen for 24 years) Claire Spillman and her gorgeous black Lab, Tobi.
We were greeted that night by a thorough face licking and lovely roast lamb. Our first roast for over 3 months! How did she know The Lucey’s love their roasts?
The next day we left the house at 10am to go to our first Theme Park, ‘Wet and Wild’. This was great fun going on all the water slides, the kamikaze, the black hole and all other sorts. Olivia managed to go on every ride. She has great guts!

The Aussie air seems to have given Mads a growth spurt!

The day after that, Claire had the day off work from the Gold Coast Hospital where she is a child’s physiotherapist. She told us about a place called ‘Tambourine Mountain with lots going on. I, Maddie and Daddy went on a very testing, 4 course of high ropes. That took us 3 hours, while mummy and Claire took Olivia horse riding. The day was great fun, having a picnic lunch, and afterwards an ice cream in a little village.

Decorating the tree at Claires.

On the 3rd day of December we went to Movie World. The Superman ride was the best rollercoaster. So fast, with vertical climbs, drops and loops.! The batman rides were good fun, as well as the soaking log ride and Land of Looney Tunes. Mum is sooooo not good at roller coasters so the land of Looney Tunes was about her level. Ha Ha

with mum in the Land of Looney Tunes!

School work couldn’t be forgotten, so another day catching up with that and our scrap books, which are beginning to look really interesting. That same day, dad went out to the supermarket and came back with his hair coloured peroxide white! Okay, okay, we all know that you were bleaching your hair for blond highlights, but now this!

Blondes have more fun.....

Last stop a day at Dream world. What a week of theme parks. We have definitely had enough of them for a long long time. At least we had experienced them before all the schools broke up for their summer holidays, they were quite busy with ‘Schoolies’ though which are the 16 and 18 year olds all out having fun after their exams.
We left Claire and Tobi who had been such great hosts all week. We did not want to leave our beds with cotton sheets, great showers, flat screen T.V the comfort of a home and good company. The aim for the next week was to travel south of the Gold Coast to explore as far as Coffs Harbour, about a third of the stretch to Sydney. That afternoon we met up with Pad and Lynn for lunch who were staying in Sanctuary Cove, just 10 minutes away. Unfortunately a few minutes after we had sat down, I went back to the Mavis – the van, to get a jumper only to find the glass smashed and the van had been broken into. Mummy’s new Orla Keily handbag which we had bought her for her birthday to use on the trip was the only thing that had been stolen but it contained a matching purse, mobile phone and everything else in the bag. Dad was amazed how much mum kept in her handbag...... So if you don’t hear from mummy that’s why. She was most upset about her photos she had in her purse of us since we were tiny, Olivia’s important glasses and of course her phone. At least the robbers had gone before I arrived back at the van. The rest of the afternoon was spent getting to the police station to report the crime and then trying to sort out fixing the glass.
So we are now in Kirra near Coollangatta the border to New South Wales catching up with our insurance company, getting the glass fixed in the morning and mummy and Daddy have just said we can do some school work. Yuk.
Hopefully we are going to see high school Musical this afternoon.
.
All our love to you all,
Mummy and Georgia,
xxx