A Belated Holiday Post

Here are some belated holiday pics. We took the Scenic route to Sydney to collect a Double Bass. Lots of our holidays seem to be shaped around collecting peculiar things from far away.

First up we headed towards Parkes so the man of the household could visit the Dish. you know, that Dish.



We then figured seeing as we had the time it made sense to make the most of our reciprocal rights afforded to us via our Melbourne Zoo membership and headed towards Dubbo.





From there someone in the family had a hankering to see the Big Golden Guitar. Have to say I totally love the cheesiness of Australia's big things and will nearly always stop if in the area. I was however quite content to skip the wax museum.



From there we decided we had had enough of the freezing cold mornings and headed for the coast.


We reached Port Macquarie just in time to meet that big band of bad weather that hit the coast. We had one morning of brilliant sunshine when the kids woke me before dawn to going and play along the beach. In my half awake state I forgot my camera so didn't get any photos of the spectacular sunrise, however the kids did find a very stinky dead puffer fish which Lucas was very excited about as it is his current favourite fish. It was all a bit eeww for me.



We also spent a drizzly afternoon at the Koala Hospital before turning south and heading for Sydney. In the rain. Lots and lots of rain.



The weather eventually cleared and we then spent a week playing tourist around all those iconic sites. We traveled almost exclusively by public transport. Mainly on upstairs/downstairs trains and fairies (ferries) and lots and lots of walking. Or in Lucas' case lots of being carried.

We walked across the bridge





We caught the ferry to Manly





We touched the tiles of the Opera House





We visited Taronga zoo and marvelled at those views



And generally happily exhausted ourselves.



We stayed at Lane Cove River Tourist Park, which for anyone staying in Sydney on a budget I would highly recommend. It is run by Parks NSW and is located in Lane Cove National Park. It is easy walking distance from North Ryde Train Station has good clean modern facilities and you get to share your environment with possums, bush turkeys, lots of other native birds and we even saw what we think was a potaroo.



After rearranging all our stuff to fit in the double bass it was time to head home. We galloped home in one looong day while still managing to squish in one more 'big thing.'



Since our return we have all taken turns getting sick so I think we need a nice big rest after our not so restful but great trip.