Haven't even left yet.

We decided to go home via Sale and turn up at Cann River to Cooma. Thursday we travelled to Sale. We stopped in Melton to fix a couple of things for the couple who rent a house we own there.
It was so hot the whole time we'd been away, I foolishly bought Hollie and Chris some chocolate form The chocolate shop in Ballarat. We were only out of the car about 1/2hr. The two little chocolate owls turned to blobby owls. Oh well.
We stayed at the best Western in Sale and as soon as I turned on the air conditioner this huge cat turned up at the door. He came in like he owned the place. Probably does. He was so thirsty, we filled the sink with some water and he gulped it down. Of course he looked very hungry so I went up the road and got him a tin of cat food which he quickly ate down. After that he curled up on the bed and had a nap. He went out when we went to bed but turned up first thing as soon as I turned the air conditioner on again in the morning.
The next morning we had breakfast delivered at 6;30am and left by 7am. We stopped in Cann River for a coffee. We wanted to have lunch at Bombala at the pub that is now owned by the couple featured on the Sea Change programme on sunday nights. Just as we got there we saw the couple leave the hotel, towells over their arms, obviously off for a swim with the kids. Another time maybe.
We carried on and finally had lunch at Bredbo and looked around the xmas barn. What an awesome shop, worth a drive out there from Canberra. I had a pumpkin and pesto lasagne for lunch with a salad. Highly recommend.
Arrived home around 2pm. So very, very tired. Back to work and reality on Monday. Has been a lovely 3 weeks, I have soem beautiful memories. Will add photos when I get more memory next month.

We left early as planned on Tuesday 2nd Jan. We decided to take a bunch of CD's with us only to discover our cd stacker, which is in the boot of the car, had been stolen. Strange, last seen the morning we left for NZ, left in locked car in a security car park near the airport. Will phone them but not holding my breath. Didn't help that Steve also discovered when we got home last weekend that the big truck, left at home as we felt this was the most secure place, had been siphoned dry. Not like a car that gets siphoned, a truck is hard to get diesel into and the lines will be dry. We weren't going to let our holiday get ruined by these things so we carried on.
Trip down to Melbourne was nice, stopped at Ettamogah Pub. I love this place, so cute.
For lunch we stopped at a cafe called HalfWay Cafe. This place was the kind I love to discover. Very, very old and filled with bits and pieces for sale. Lots of antique items and other bits you'd normally see in a garage sale. The thing we were amazed to see though, all through this store, on the ceiling, the walls and shelves are parts of super V8 cars, signed by the drivers, such as Peter Brock, Craig Lownes to mention a few. Great for the race fans which of course includes Steve.
We got into Ballarat around 2pm, this was the first time for both of us and we just drove down the main street both pointing and yelling, "look at that one" "Oh see the lace on that one". The historical houses in this place amazed us. One after another. We found Anne, the owner of the B&B we were staying at and picked up the key. She owns and runs a little bedding gift shop with all the accesories I love so I was in heaven.
As we spent the next few days in Ballarat we were to discover like many towns in Australia, it has its set of problems such as bored youth etc but overall we found it such a friendly town. People were so helpful and quick to chat.
The first morning I went for a walk and stopped to pat a dog who was with two elderly gentlemen. They were very quiet and never said a word until the owner piped up and said "don't spoil her too much" then he laughed. I realised as I stood up why they were so quiet, I'd been giving them a birds eye view down my top. Oh well, probably topped the morning off for them.
We really did fall in love with this town and hope to go back soon. Maybe not everyones cup of tea but it would suit us.

Well today is New Years day and we're getting ready to head for Melbourne tomorrow. We hope to leave about 5am as we have an appointment with someone down there at 5pm. We've booked into a little B&B which is a renovated miner's cottage at Ballarat. Here is the website.
http://www.ballarat.com/elgin/
How cute is it? Didn't make the New Year last night, Steve and I went to see a movie in civic (Babel). I enjoyed it except the new theatre is very small and the screen large and so we ended up with blurred vision and the lady next to us left after an hour because of a sore neck. Very hard to make out what was going on at times. One of the characters was deaf and mute and so to understand her now and then the movie went into total silence and the only thing you could hear was the man two rows in front of us snoring.
Anyway we got home around 10 so I went straight to bed and read for a while before I crashed.
Not sure when I'll update this as it depends if we go anywhere there is internet access. Will take lots of photos though.

I got up at 6am, eventually we were all showered, breakfasted (is this a word?) and packed to head home. Judy arrived to say goodbye. The part I absolutely hate. We left just after 8am. We stopped in Mokau for coffee and a quick snack. I think my family has stopped in Mokau, especially returning home, all our lives. Really good food. We sat and watched a couple trying to hitch a ride. He was a real character and had we had the room we'd have loved to have given them a ride but they seemed to have more baggage than we did.
We then stopped just out of Huntly at a large tourist restaurant and shop. Really nice food and great view. Carrying on the only other stops were for fuel and a toilet stop. I said to Tineka and Phillip and we could just pull up in front of the airport and say quick goodbyes. I hate airport goodbyes bigtime. We got there just after 2pm for checkin, flight was due to leave at 5pm. The time went quickly though. Finally we boarded, no delays and all was well until just after the meal one of the passengers in the row over looked like he'd fainted. They pushed the button to call for help but they sure took their time coming. By the time the attendant got there his poor wife was panicking. They called for a doctor who took even longer to come. Next thing the young girl behind him started throwing up, then someone somewhere else started doing the samething. To top it all off a 4th person collapsed in the aisle. By the time we landed they had airport quarantine waiting, police and an ambulance. Was a really worrying time not knowing if what we had was contagious and how long would we be delayed.
Thankfully they announced we could leave. I believe he was taken to hospital but we never heard anymore about the others. We finally arrived home lst night about 10.30. I went straight to bed abd dont remember a thing until I woke around 5 this morning.

Well the weather really stank. Our 2nd day there was the best. Clear sunny skies, we went down to the beach and the kids swam. We all had an icecream and got burnt. But, that was the end of the lovely weather. Our other sister Bev arrived with two of her children and various grandchildren on the 20th Dec and it started raining and that was it. There were 28 of us for xmas and we were pretty much stuck inside for the day. My two sisters and I put on a singing, dancing item for the family, who quite frankly looked pissed about the TV being turned off. We made them suffer through it anyway. We lipsinced to 'We are Family, I've got all my sisters with me'. They should be thankful we didn't actually try and sing it!!
Anyway after lots to eat we went for a walk down to the beach cliff where mum always loved to walk to and sat staring out to sea.
While we were there I got to revisit so many places of my youth. Steve, Hollie and I also went down and visited mum and dad's grave site.
On boxing day, Steve, Hollie, Phillip and the Momfug went to New Plymouth and did some shopping at the sales. The next day Bev and her family left and we sat and watched the awful storm outside. Suddenly around 3pm it all blew over, the skies cleared and so we jumped in the van and headed back to New Plymouth. The kids all went to a movie, including Hollie who actually sat with all the kids and from what I hear played up more than they did. Judy, Steve and I went and visited Phillip who was with Tineka and her Mum and Step-dad who were up from Wellington visitng family. We then went and had a cappuncino, picked up the kids, had dinner at MacDonalds then went to Pukekura Park to see the lights at night through the gardens. I believe this would be one of the most beautiful parks in the world. We got home around 11pm. Was such a nice day.