Five States in Two Weeks – Brissie to Tassie!

Before heading south, we had a great Easter with Mum & Dad and my brother Andrew and his family, including a day on the boat for all the boys fishing and enjoying each others company. Finally, the crab pot came up trumps with 4 large mud-crabs that Jen, my sister in law, cooked up for us. They made excellent fresh crab sandwiches.

Then it was south again with a stop off at Port Macquarie on the north coast of New South Wales, a popular Aussie holiday spot, and no wonder why – this is a gorgeous place. We had the boat with us so one day was spent fishing on the Hastings River, with a little cruise around the canals to look at all the waterfront properties – most had big motor-launches but one house had a seaplane on its lawn!

We also decided to do a LONG 8km coastal walk, which included walking across five beaches to an old lighthouse at Tacking Point. I hope the photos do it justice as it was stunning – Ben actually thought it might be one of the most beautiful walks that he’s ever done. But an absolute highlight of the day must be watching a pod of dolphins riding the waves for fun! We all felt very privileged to witness this ‘Attenborough’ moment.  While the lowlight was probably the lone nudist playing Frisbee on one of the beaches – seriously mate, why bother with the hat??

We also fitted in a history lesson on early colonial living at Timbertown in Wauchope, with talks on bullock trains, gold-panning, forging and blacksmithing for Ollie, and a hands-on back-stinging practical in whip-cracking for Cameron-ouch!

After a lazy day at the beach, which saw a return of the dolphins while we were in the waves (admit to a bit of panic seeing the ‘fin’ in the water), and we were back on the road to Sydney. Here we expanded our knowledge of Sydney’s history with a day at The Rocks– the sight of the first settlement in New South Wales. These outdoor history lessons are a real hit with the boys, and the learning is quite tangible.

History was also the topic of the day when I had a very civilised liquid and seafood lunch with my friend Kim in Darling Harbour, while Ben took the boys to the Sydney Maritime Museum where they climbed through an old submarine, a replica of Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, and naval ships while Kim & I did our best to catch up on our own more recent history – the last 14 years to be exact – and so much to say! Ben also had the chance for a bit of lunching himself, meeting up with some of his former GE colleagues at the Opera House restaurant – nice!

Ben teaching Ollie to drive the boat on the Hawkesbury River

State number 3 was Canberra where we caught up with my former bosses and good friends from my days at the  Australian High Commission. We had a great reunion with Roxley & Loretta and Steve & Julie over a lovely dinner (we missed you Jen!!). Next day Roxley & Loretta took us on a tour of Canberra, with a timely trip to the moving and inspiring War Memorial WWI galleries.   And with History firmly ticked off the curriculum list we headed to Questacon, the Science Museum for some hand-on activities and an engrossing or ‘gross’ lecture on the Mummification process – very cool in the boys opinions. We decided to drive down to the Snowy Mountains in the Australian Alps and the popular ski resorts of Thredbo and Perisher-Smiggins.   It’s too early for skiing but as we watched the temperature guide drop down to 4 degrees we were greeted with icy rain and a dusting of snow across the tops of the mountains.

Poppies in the wall of remembrance.

This was a huge vertical gravity drop – easy for our daredevil.

State number 4 is Victoria and the self-proclaimed café-culture capital of Australia, Melbourne. But for us the journey was more rugged as we decided to cross the mountains, and border, via the Barry Way 4WD dirt track. It was a 220km journey following the meandering Snowy River through gorgeous eucalyptus tree covered mountains and along dusty narrow cliff roads.   We only saw 1 other car and so the wildlife was abundant as Kangaroos, Wallabies and even small deer darted out on the road in front of us.

Now it’s time to see what the southern states have to offer, as we hang out in trendy Melbourne, ferry it to Tasmania  (State 5!) and go ‘country’ in inland NSW!