The Great Ocean Road

We are back on the mainland, heading west on the Great Ocean Road. Its Easter holidays and the roads and shops and parks are all busy, the boys are loving having lots of other children around.

start of the Great Ocean Road

We pulled in at Bimbi Park for a week of camping under the koalas. Whilst we were there, the boys had a turn horse riding around the campground - which, as you can see, they LOVED xx

giddy up little-doggy

Lucky-lukie rides into town

We had a koala visit the caravan to check out Nige's handiwork on the solar panels - there were heaps of koalas here - see piccies...

checkin out Nige's work on the solar panels

just relaxin

hanging out with the koala

While Joel P was taking out the Rip Curl Pro at Bells in six foot perfection, 100kms down the coast at Johanna, we were wave watching 12-16 foot sets roll in...

Johanna Beach

The boys (and zeke) were suitably impressed

After Easter, we continued along the Great Ocean Road, doing a quick head count of the Twelve Apostles.

some of the Twelve Apostles



nice family shot - all looking at the camera



Happy Easter to you all xxx



our easter table



Happy Easter friends and family xxxx

our easter piccies

The wildlife in Tassie...

We saw some Tasmanian devils!!! Woohoo!! In the past month in Tassie the five lucky ducks have seen wombats, emus, kangaroos, koalas, the three tassie snakes (tiger, copperhead and whip), blue tongue lizards, wallaby, pademelon, echidna - running along the road, possums, sugar gliders, seals, fish galore, crayfish, abalone, quolls, fairy peguins...

And of the non-native variety we have seen alpaca (walking down the street on a lead) camel (on a farm), bison (also on a farm), dogs, goats, buffalo, ostrich, geese, cats, ponies, rats, mice, pigs, sheep, bulls, cows, horses, swamp hens, chickens, heaps of birds (including albatross and Wilbur a one-winged wedge tail eagle), skinks, ferets, rabbits, guinea pigs and dolphins - very lucky ducks!

just havin a yawn

 

wombat



koalas

feeding the kangaroo

feeding the joey

the emu with attitude!

Wilbur

camel

the kangaroo with the lovely eyelashes

 

oh sunny days xxx

Cradle Mountain - Tasmania

We stopped off at Gowrie Park, about 30kms out of Cradle Mountain, by Mt Roland for a couple of nights in the hills.

hello friends xxx

base of Mt Roland, North West Tassie

We arrived at the Cradle Mountain National Park mid-morning on a perfect hiking day, just stunning, visibility was great, it was warm and made for a really great day to do the Dove Lake Circuit (6km) with the boys.

With Frankie in his pack and a backpack full of food and water we caught the shuttle to the start of the Dove Lake Walk and it took us about two and a half hours to go round.

Start of the Dove Lake Circuit



Perfect day at Cradle Mountain



Look closely for the adventurer in the tree

Tree hugging

Lunch break

On the track



Boys on our lunch break

an old hut on the walk

happy boy on lunch break

checkin things out

After the walk, we stopped for icecreams in the afternoon and went to the pub in Sheffield for dinner, huge day, everyone exhausted.



The West Coast - Tasmania

We did a huge driving mission of a day to get out to the West Coast, woooohooooo, we've really been looking forward to seeing this part of Tasmania. First stop was Strahan, via Queenstown, then on to Granville Harbour.

Granville Harbour is so beautiful. As we drove towards the Coast (for those of you who were at our wedding), its the Aussie version of 'Bull Creek, Otago, NZ'!! It is just stunning here, about twelve people live here full-time and the rest of the population visit on weekends...

... took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up at Bull Creek!

Granville Harbour, West Coast, Tas

Playing on the coast

 

West Coast sunset

West Coast sunset

hangin on the rocks, West Coast

Land of the Giants - Mt Field National Park

We visited the Land of the Giants Campground and the Land of the Giants Walk in Mt Field National Park, which is great.

The forest is dense with trees, ferns and moss, so lots to talk about with the boys and the trees made all sorts of letter shapes (homeschool was covered for the day). Some of the eucylyptus trees (aka 'The Giants') are around 75 metres tall, the first branches are at around 35 metres - huge, it was pretty exciting for the adventurers.

Land of the Giants campground - playing by the river

The Land of the Giants Campground

Land of the Giants campground - a local Pademelon

Land of the Giants Walk

The Giants

Bushwalk

A fallen Giant

Frankie found a caterpillar at the campground and after some research at the National Parks office we found out it was The Emporer Gum Moth.

We left the West Coast, heading inland and stopped off on the way to do the Nelson Falls Walk.

Nelson Falls

Nelson Falls Walk