Stanley, oh & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

We spent New Years near Stanley at a National Park bush camp. It was by the mouth of the Black River and was very beautiful, although a little wet and quite cold. We celebrated the new year with a campfire, some local scallops followed by marshmallows and some sparklers... does it get any better! It was a pretty spot and at low tide we were able to ride along the river bed and out onto the beach for a southerly view of The Nut.
The kids loved the chairlift up to the top of The Nut and we had a very windy walk once up there. Later in the day we had a look through the original house built for the caretaker of the Van Diemans Land Co's settlement.
Tim's great grandfather was buried near Stanley at Wynyard and so after scouring the wrong cemetery for a while, we found the right cemetery and then the gravestone. It was amazing really, his great grandparents and great great grandparents were all there on two tombstones.
On the way back from Wynyard we did a few walks in the Rocky Cape National Park. It was a cold, wet and windy day but we weren't going to let that stop us!

Around Penguin

We spent a full week in Penguin and did day trips from there. We visited a pretty cool cave, did a few bush walks and saw a waterfall, its so beautiful, lush and green. We went berry picking (raspberries, strawberries and blackberries) and had a beautiful picnic next to the river in Burnie with all those berries as well as some local cheese and cherries. We predict we will be eating our way around Tasmania!

Merry Christmas

A belated Merry Christmas to everyone, we hope Santa was good to you all. We had a lovely day, we were staying in Penguin (hence the giant penguin in a santa suit) which was beautiful and reminded us a lot of home, only colder (and minus the giant penguin). The kids decorated the tent and built a christmas tree out of sticks, sea sponge and flowers. We had a lovely day lazing around in the morning and walking on the rocks and spent the afternoon with my aunt and cousins in Devonport. It was really low key and quite nice to drop out of the crazy christmas hype, but we did miss being around friends and family at this time of year!

Tassie, here we come!

We left Jo & Simons at a ridiculous 4.45am for Port Melbourne. It took a few hours to board but finally we were on the ship and eager to go. Melbourne put on a very wet miserable morning and unfortunately the seas were pretty rough, resulting in a not so pleasant trip for poor Rexie. 

Wonderful friends!

It was so wonderful to catch up with great friends just before Christmas.

Thank you Mere, Mark, Sam and Jade for making us so welcome, we all loved being able to spend some time with you and see your gorgeous place again. The kids loved being able to hang out in the pool and Lola is still talking about Bell. Shepparton certainly turned it on for us with 42 degree days and a wonderful storm and thank you Mark for taking Tim & the kids to see koalas.

Thank you Jo & Simon, so grateful for you being able to put us up at such short notice. It made getting on the boat so easy and lending us your car went above and beyond! Was great to spend some time with you all and to meet Andrew, Tam & Tim. Look forward to catching up again when we get back from Tassie.

Sovereign Hill

Well we couldn't go through central Victoria without stopping at Sovereign Hill! The kids loved it... they ate boiled lollies, dipped candles, rode on a horse drawn cart and descended a mine shaft. Ye olde fashioned fun!

The Grampians

Continuing south, we crossed into to Victoria and spent four days in the Grampians. It was very beautiful, did some great walks and because it was pretty cool we were able to have a camp fire again, which meant marshmallows! We were all a little surprised at how many people were about, we had been the only people in a campsite for so long that a full campsite was a bit of a shock.