THANKS, THANKS, THANKS

A big THANKS to Aunty Tanya, Elliot, Takia and Kai. This photo shows the proceeds of the pocket money you gave Will and Laura to spend on their trip. Will got himself a video of "Starwars the Clone Wars", a set of marbles and a wriggly wooden snake. Laura also got a snake, a baby doll (called Emily) and a bag of paraphernalia to go with dolly! They are all much loved and getting lots of use.

Introducing : BINDI ANNA JONES, Laura's pet spiny leaved stick insect. She was only about 1-2 cm long when Laura first got her so you can see how much she has grown. She munches up her gum leaves, makes no mess and is super quiet...we all love her! A big thanks to Kylie and family for letting Bindi join us on our trip.

RESCUE HELICOPTER

First video is the chopper taking off. It also shows the back of the caravan park where our site is. There are cabins up higher on the block, ahead of where our bus is. The showers, toilets and pool are also up that way.

The second video is the chopper coming in for a landing.

These videos are especially for Hughie and Nikita. (but everyone else is welcome to have a look too). We knew the kids would love to see the rescue chopper that has its landing pad just near the caravan park. It can be a little noisy at times but you really do get used to it, sometimes it goes out 2 or 3 times a day. I apologise in advance if the kids make you play them over and over Jen! I have been to see if we can get a tour through the emergency services base where the helicopters live. We are waiting for a call back to arrange a time, I will show you any photos I take.

EVANS HEAD

On Sunday the 22nd March we went for a day trip to Evans Head, a lovely little seaside town about 1/2 hr drive from Lismore. The first thing we saw when we arrived were these cute little crabs. Hundreds and hundreds of them, running about everywhere and burrowing into the sand if you got too close. They had a blue shell and made a "tinkling" sound when they ran and brushed against each other. Click on PLAY and see what I mean...

The weather was lovely, perfect for walking on the beach and letting the water lap at our feet. When it was time to turn around and head back Will had a pocket full of smooth black rocks and Laura had dripping wet shorts! What a surprise!! We found a little shop where we could buy an ice cream and watch people go by while Laura dried off. Then we found a park and the kids had a play.

The next day Chris came back to try his hand at catching us some tea from the rock wall in the photo above. He spent the whole time getting bites and replacing his bait but unfortunately, no tea. He did spot a shark swimming by tho'. YIKES!

This anchor was caught in a fishing net near Ballina. It was dragged along the bottom until the net broke, then it was retrieved by divers.

WILL IS NOW 9!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR WILL,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Guess who had a birthday today and turned 9? Our big boy Will. He has been patiently waiting for this day for weeks, repeatedly telling us there are "X" number of days until my birthday. Now it has finally arrived. We had a leisurely breakfast (during which Aunty Shas rang to say happy birthday), did a short morning of school and then were going to head off to the water park in Ballina, but unfortunately the water slides aren't open during the week so we will go tomorrow instead. Will was OK with that, it meant he got to spend a couple of hours on his new "batman LEGO" PS2 game. After lunch the family (minus Deb) went for a swim. It was too cold for me, brrrrr! After tea we sang "happy birthday" as you will see on the video, and enjoyed a lovely chocolate mud birthday cake. All in all I think Will had a lovely day:).

FUN, FUN, FUN!!

Last week we went for a drive around Lismore to check out the sights. First we went to the airport, but being a Sunday there were no planes coming or going. Next we went to Bunnings, always fun to be had there, but alas we had no money to spend so that was also a short visit. Then we found a little park and stopped there for lunch. It had this cute little train which Chris and the kids went on (I volunteered to take the photos!). There were lots of little birthday parties going on around the place so we will come back one day during the week when it's a little quieter.

As you can see it was as much fun for Chris as it was for the kids!

Taking a dip

We get to swim almost every day (once school has finished of course). The water is pretty cool but we tell ourselves it doesn't matter because the air is lovely and warm.
Will and Deb are usually the first out, once we start shivering and turn blue!
Will likes to have his flippers on and then he can go anywhere. He is getting more confident every day. Laura is fearless and Chris throws her around all the time into the deep end, she loves it.

Laura has learnt a new trick...diving, and here she will show you how. Will can do a safety dive and get the ring from the bottom of the pool, and Chris can do a handstand. What a tricky lot they are!!

BYRON BAY

After school one afternoon we went for a trip to Byron Bay. What an excellent beach! The water was lovely and warm, the waves were small enough for the kids to play safely and the only problem was that I didn't take my own bathers. It's about a 40 minute drive from Lismore and the road was very windy (of course we forgot Will's accupressure wrist bands) and although we did hear once "Mum, I feel sick", we made it before any puking took place. Phew!

After the swim we went for a stroll around the town. We bought an icecream and Chris said we are definately going back there another day. They were VERY YUMMY! I also found a lovely little clothes shop with lots of brightly coloured and tie-dyed kids clothes that I'm going to spend up big at (once I get a job). Can't wait. Looked for Jonno's pizza shop but couldn't find it. Now I know it's "Legends" we will have tea there next time we head to Byron.

The best laid plans...

Well to be fair to anyone following this adventure I guess I'd better put in the crappy stuff as well as the great bits. We were not long out of Canberra on Saturday the 21st of Feb when we came to our first (and never to be forgotten) weight station at a lovely little stop called Murulan. We pulled in thinking "great, this should take about 5 mins" and ended up wasting about an hour after the lovely man told us the trailer was not satisfactory to carry our 4WD and could not legally be taken any further. Major bummer!! I will leave out all the hair pulling details, suffice to say that our only option to get us out of there was for Deb and Laura to jump into the Jimny and to follow Chris and Will in the bus. Luckily the bus was big enough that it wasn't easy to lose, but it wasn't nice to think that we were heading thru' Sydney with 1 map (in the bus) and 1 mobile phone (with me) and that if I did lose chris I would have no way to communicate with him!! ARRRHH! The other problem we had was driving thru' a very busy little town trying to find a guy in Hornsby (just out of Sydney) to try to get the trailer load limit changed. I almost had a nervous breakdown and was so glad to see Chris finally give up and head for the highway (while we were all still in one piece). We made it that night to a 24hr servo just out of Newcastle and boy had we earned out bourbon that night!

After sleeping on it we had made a definate decision to head to Lismore so the next day was solid driving (with a few well earned sanity breaks in between). The kids were wonderfully behaved, considering the general mood at times was a little low. But having said that, we were still glad to be on our way and the scenery was great. Haven't seen so much green grass in ages.

On the morning of Monday 23rd Feb we drove into Lismore Palms Caravan Park and made our first official working stop of the trip. Well of course as yet there is no actual work but we are getting there. And the thinking about it sure does work up a sweat! Makes you appreciate the daily dip in the pool, even tho' I think some days only a Victorian would see it as warm enough!

Canberra

Laura on the steps of the Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial, Canberra. On the little pond there was a duck swimming with her ducklings. The domed building at the back is the resting place of the "unnamed soldier" and every inch of wall and roof is covered in the most magnificent mosiac.

The kids getting in a bit of learning, with the headmaster watching on!

The kids were amazed to see all the names on the wall (and this was only one wall, there were just as many on the opposite wall). We were trying to find any family names and were fortunate that we couldn't.

What a lousy shot of Canberra! Smoke from the awful fires (still going when this was taken) have made the view very poor. At the extreme right of the shot is Parliment House, the little bridge going across the "lake" leads to it.

OK, I know what you're thinking, Deb was not drinking when she took this one! I'm sure there's a perfectly easy way to turn this around but I can't find it so just lay your head on the side and get over it!! It's a big communications tower on Black Tower Hill and we could go as high as the roof of the middle "disc" with the double row of windows. You might be able to see the big spikey fence that kept us from jumping off, if you look closely.

As you can see, the Botanic Gardens in Canberra were lovely. We took a picnic lunch and ate it with the lizards and other wildlife.

Good bye to Colac...

Nanny and Jessie checking everything is ready for the trip.













The Stevenson family ready to start their big adventure around Australia.

Laura and Will giving a last hurrah before we drive off.

On Tuesday the 17th February, 2009 we finally departed on our big adventure. After more than a year of planning, organising, saving and building, we were finally ready to kiss all the family and buckle up our seatbelts. We only got a few hours down the road when we got a phone call to say there were problems with a water pipe at the house we're renting in Colac. The shed was flooded!! We were not going back, let me tell you, so luckily Chris' dad took care of it for us. Thanks Don!

We stayed our first night at a truck stop about an hour out of Gundagai. We were parked on such an awful lean I thought one of the kids might roll out of their bunks, but luckily no one did. I had to keep my hand on the frypan while I cooked tea to stop it slipping off the hot plate! We were so tired we all went to bed early to the sound of trucks roaring by and woke early the next day.

We had a short days drive (with a little stop to see the "dog on the tucker box") and got to Yass by lunch time. Did you know that the dog apparently did a POOP on the tucker box! What an educational experience this has been already!

Nice little caraven park in Yass so we stayed there for 3 nights. Learnt that there were floods in Grafton (where we had planned our first working stop) so no hurry to be off.

OK, time to hit the road

The final countdown!
Will and Laura are testing out their beds in preparation for departure. They look happy, but not very tired!!

Chris is showing off his new BBQ and yet to be completed table/storage hatch door.

Will and Laura loving their new home and ready to move in!