5000 Kilometre's Later!!

First off, a belated, Happy Easter to everyone. You may have noticed that I have been unusually quiet with my blogging over the past fortnight and this is because we have been on a little family holiday!! We had so much fun road tripping down the east coast of Australia. A lot of people thought we were crazy driving in the car for so long with a 7 month old baby. The truth is, Sam was fantastic in the car. He loves his car seat and the motion of the car puts him to sleep! So, my advice is if you have a little bubba, who doesn't mind being in their car seat, definitely add a family driving holiday to the list of your things to do. The family time is great but it is also refreshing to get out and about.

So where did we go and what did we do? We drove from Brisbane to Melbourne, and back again. We stopped in to see Mr J's family in Armidale, NSW, and then down to Wahgunyah, Victoria, to see Sam's Grandy. 

At Mr J's family farm

The Dish at Parkes

An afternoon of fine wine and cheese at All Saints Winery

Sam with his Grandy

We continued down to Melbourne where we met a baby Gorilla, baby elephant and orang-utans at the Melbourne Zoo. We also explored dinosaur fossils at the Melbourne Museum and watched our football team, the Roar, play Melbourne City. 

We then tracked even further south to venture along the Great Ocean Road. Words cannot explain how breathtakingly beautiful this part of our country is. It is a must see. We stopped in at Bell's Beach, saw the lighthouse from the 90's television show, Around the Twist and of course, we marvelled at Twelve Apostles. We stayed the night at Apollo Bay and our only regret is that we didn't give ourselves more time here.

The view from our room at Apollo Bay

On the way home, we stayed with Sam's Great Auntie in Canberra and stopped the night in Port Macquarie. Unfortunately, the energy for our homeward trip was diminished as Sam picked up a virus while we were in Melbourne. With Sam spiking temperatures of 39.5 degrees and not sleeping, it made for a very tired, stressed and unhappy Mum and Dad! But in the end, we made it home safely. 

Visiting the War Memorial

Visiting the Telstra Tower

Sam tasted Nutella for the first time - he definitely like it!

What did I learn from travelling with baby? I had to be organised. We still cooked all of Sam's food but this meant visiting Woolworths at almost every stop. Mr J threw in an esky, which was great, as none of our food was wasted. I also packed the baby Panadol and thermometer, which turns out were lifesavers. 

In the end, our trip was a success (even if bub was sick towards the end). We have made some special memories and seen a beautiful part of our country. Better yet, our travels were done in a way that let Sam see five of his Great Grandparents over Easter!! What a lucky little boy.

Phoebe
xo