Events

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 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.