For Mother’s Day this year, there were so many secrets going on around me in our house. It was exciting and fun that our kids are old enough now to be involved in the planning and execution of surprises. Unfortunately, Shane had to be away for work over the weekend, but he more than made up for that by spoiling me with all kinds of treats.

The celebrations started on Thursday night, the night before Shane left for his trip. We went out for dinner at Ole, a Mexican Restaurant in Torquay, where we enjoyed the homemade chips and guacamole as well as the tacos and margaritas.  After we had dinner, Shane and the kids gave me some beautiful cards and tickets to go up the gondola at Arthur’s Seat in the Mornington Peninsula. I was very excited about this and very impressed that Shane remembered that this was something I had wanted to do here. 

On Friday, Alexis had school and both Alexis and Reid has Auskick that night. Auskick is footy practise for young kids, footy is a right of passage for an Aussie kid and footy on a Friday night is not complete without a sausage and bread at the end of practise.

Saturday morning started with a card from Shane and the kids with some money in it. We had decided to go to Arthur’s Seat and use the tickets I received to go on the gondola. The money from the card was meant for us to have some coffee and cake while we were there. We drove to Queenscliff and took the ferry across Port Philip Bay to Sorrento, where we got off and drove to Mt. Martha. 

Along the beaches in Port Philip Bay, the iconic bathing boxes line the beaches, some bold and bright in colour, and I had wanted to see them for ages. Mt. Martha is a small bayside town that boasts of these beautifully bright and colourful bathing boxes. Seated on the edge of the beach, these iconic bathing boxes are the symbol of Aussie summer. No more than a shed, with no water or electricity, these historic boxes have been passed down through generations and remain in high demand. We stopped for a few minutes to see these beautiful bathing boxes as well as collect some gorgeous shells that had washed up on the shore. 

We drove on to Arthur’s Seat to take the gondola up to the highest point in the Mornington Peninsula. The gondola is a newly updated attraction as the former chairlift closed in 2006 due to safety reasons. We thoroughly enjoyed the 15 minute ride up the hill, admiring the breath-taking views from the bay all the way to the city, as well as trying to spot wildlife as we soared above the bushes.

At the top, we took some time to look around and admire the view. We also enjoyed a coffee and some sweet treats in the cafe.

A short walk from the gondola is the Enchanted Adventure Gardens. We walked the 500m and entered the park to find amazing gardens, mazes, brain teasers, obstacle courses and thrilling tube rides.

We had a blast at the Enchanted Adventure Gardens but the time came to return to the gondola and descend back down the hill.

I really enjoyed our day on the Mornington Peninsula and as we drove back home to Torquay, I felt totally spoilt and dearly loved by my wonderful husband and beautiful kids! I think Mother’s Day might just be better than my birthday!

 

Over the Easter weekend, we decided to head west on a road trip to South Australia. Starting in Torquay, we planned to drive to Warrnambool, then on to Mount Gambier and the following day to Adelaide where we would spend the weekend and return home on Monday. Adelaide is about 700 kms from Torquay and it should take about 8 hours to drive there. However, having two small kids with us, we decided to stretch out the drive over two days.

Our trip started in Warrnambool, about 2 1/2 hours west of Torquay. Shane spent the day at the Flight Centre in Warrnambool while Alexis, Reid and I filled our day at Flagstaff Hill. While we were there, we met the two new Maremma dogs, Avis and Amor, who would eventually replace Eudi and Tula, the dogs that currently work on Middle Island to protect the fairy penguins there.

At the end of the work day, we picked up Shane and continued west towards Mount Gambier, where we would spend the night. We arrived early evening and were excited to see the prison where we would spend the night. We stayed at The Old Mount Gambier Gaol, a refurbished jail that offers a variety of boutique hostel accommodations.

We stayed in Cell 27 which used to house women and was made up of 3 individual cells as well as a common area. It has been changed into a 2 bedroom, lounge, bathroom and kitchen family unit. We wandered around the prison to discover many interested stories and facts about the prison, as well as to see the men’s yard, the chapel and the yard for the most notorious prisoners, including the cell where prisoners had once escaped.

That night, after settling into our cell, we went out after dark to meet some of the residents at the Umpherston Sinkhole. There are numerous sink holes and caves all around the Mount Gambier district. Thousands of years ago, the Umpherston sinkhole had been a cave that had formed by the erosion of limestone rocks by seawater waves. When the top of the cave chamber eventually collapsed, a large open pit, or a sinkhole, was formed. Umpherston, the owner of the land where the sinkhole is located, created a garden in the sinkhole, clearing the existing vegetation, carving a path in the side of the rock and erected a set of steps so people could enter garden filled with all sorts of flowers, shrubs and ferns. Originally, there was a lake at the bottom of the sinkhole where people used to have boat rides, but the water has since dried up. Umpherston died in 1900 and over time, the sunken garden fell into disrepair. However, the City of Mount Gambier eventually took it over and it became a South Australian Hertiage site. It is now an incredible garden, taking over the interior of this massive sinkhole and a sight to be seen. 

At night, the Umpherston sinkhole is visited for a very different reason. It comes alive with hundreds of possums as they come into this peaceful garden to feed. With our leftover sandwich crusts in hand, we made our way to the sinkhole and descended down the steps looking out for possums. Reid had no fear and made it his mission to feed every single possum in the garden. Alexis, on the other hand, was a little more hesitant at first, but in the end, she fed and patted them as well.

The next morning, we made one last stop in Mount Gambier before driving to Adelaide. We drove to the Blue Lake, which is a large crater lake located in a dormant volcanic maar, and supplies the town with their drinking water. The attraction to this lake is the colour changing phenomenon. From December to March, the lake turns a bright blue colour and it returns to a colder steel grey colour from April to November. There are theories, but scientists aren’t exactly sure why this happens. We visited the lake in April, so the bright blue colour had already changed to a grey colour.

We spent the rest of the day driving to Adelaide, passing by endless vineyards and roads lined with massive trees, a gorgeous but long drive.

We finally arrived in Adelaide by late afternoon. We passed through the beautiful Adelaide hills and continued on to the coastal town of Glenelg, where we would be staying for the rest of the weekend. Glenelg is a charming seaside suburb of Adelaide with sandy white beaches, plenty of shops and many delightful restaurants. We settled into our Airbnb accommodation, a tiny cottage with charming features. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening strolling along the Esplanade, enjoying the beautiful coast and watching the stunning sunset.

The next day, we decided to explore Adelaide’s city centre on our way out to the Barossa Valley.

We drove northeast out of the city, past the Adelaide Oval, to spend the day visiting a few of the wineries in the famous Barossa Valley. The Barossa Valley is a wine-producing region, the shiraz grape being the local specialty, consisting of a variety of wineries offering tours and cellar-door tastings. We had great expectations for this particular day of our trip, but having two kids in tow, it didn’t go as smoothly as planned. We did, however, visit a few different wineries, experienced a couple of cellar-door tastings and enjoyed the landscape of the region. We started in a small town called Tanunda, which seemed to be the centre of the region and a good starting off point.

The first stop on our self-guided tour was Chateau Tanunda Estate. This wine estate is Australia’s largest and oldest Chateau (est. 1890) and boasts of being the birthplace of the Barossa wine industry where some of the first plantings and the first winery were established in the 1840s. It is a magnificent building, with elegant gardens, a croquet lawn and beautiful views overlooking the vineyards and the surrounding Barossa ranges.

Our second stop was Peter Lehmann Wines Estate but with lunchtime fast approaching and the crowds at the cellar-door tasting, we decided to move on to another location that may not be so busy.

We continued on our self-guided tour to Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop. Maggie Beer is a well-known cook as well as a writer and founder of Maggie Beer Products. A visit to her Farm Shop suited the whole family. The kids enjoyed the animals around the property as well as the turtles in the pond. The shop is a food haven where we tried all kinds of delightful dips and spreads. Shane and I were able to do some wine tasting, sampling wines exclusive to their cellar door. We would have liked to stay a little bit longer and enjoy some lunch but it was just too busy a day at Maggie Beer’s Farm Shop.

Our next and final stop on our self-guided wine tour for the day was Murray Street Vineyards. This vineyard turned out to be my most favourite of the day and more along the lines of what we had expected from the Barossa Valley. Murray Street Vineyards is set against a stunning backdrop of endless rows of grapevines with old stone winery buildings surrounded by beautiful gardens. We had a personalized sit down wine tasting accompanied by a delicious artisan platter of beautiful local cheeses. It was a very enjoyable, informative and relaxing experience with some of the best wines we had sampled throughout the day.

The next day was Easter Sunday and we drove to Brooklyn Park, a western suburb of Adelaide, to surprise some very special people, Nate and Ally Vawer and their kids. We know the Vawers from Toronto as Nate used to be the pastor at the church we attended there, the Meeting House. The Vawers were in Toronto for seven and a half years but recently moved back to their hometown, Adelaide, to be the pastor of Brooklyn Park Church of Christ. Nate knew that we were living in Australia but was taken by total surprise when we showed up at his church on Sunday morning. We had a lovely time and a wonderful catch up with Nate and Ally. It was so nice to connect with them and see how happy and settled they are in their new life.

After church, we drove to Port Adelaide to meet up with Kayak Adventure SA tours on Garden Island for the afternoon. We kayaked through the mangroves in the area, searching for dolphins with little success. While on shore, before even getting into the kayaks, we did see some dolphins come up above the water’s surface. It was a beautiful afternoon and a good upper body workout, especially when your partner is Alexis or Reid!

As we drove back to Glenelg later that afternoon, we drove along the coast, passing through many small and charming seaside towns. We returned home and decided to go out for a stroll along the famous Jetty Road, where we were certain to find something delicious to eat. 

The next day, we started the long journey home, taking a small detour to the Fleurieu Peninsula in the south, to see the beautiful town of Victor Harbor. The Fleurieu Peninsula is known for its world-class wineries, charming towns, rolling hills, wild surf beaches as well as pristine, white sandy beaches and its untouched rugged coastline. We reached Victor Harbor and enjoyed lunch at this charming seaside town with clear, turquoise waters surrounded by spectacular scenery. We made sure to meet the horses from the famous horse-drawn tram which takes patrons across to and back from Granite Island.

We reluctantly left the beautiful town of Victor Harbor to continue our journey home. We drove for the better part of the afternoon and into the evening, attempting to make it all the way to Torquay. However, as evening turned to night, we quickly changed our minds and settled on trying to get to Hamilton. When the GPS took us through small, remote, country roads with no streetlights, rarely seeing another vehicle on the road and no cell phone reception, we began to feel nervous. The anxiety and feeling of nervousness only exponentially increased when we began dodging the mighty kangaroos, who seemed to be appearing out of nowhere, jumping across the road in front of us. Alexis, Reid and Shane were on the look out and would let me know if they spotted a kangaroo in the darkness, while I gripped the steering wheel, white-knuckled, praying that we would get to Hamilton in one piece! After what seemed like forever, and several close encounters with the roos, we made it safely to Hamilton. We found the only place open for food at that time of night and enjoyed our Chinese take out in the comfort of our mediocre hotel room.

The next day, as Shane worked in the Flight Centre shop in Hamilton, Alexis, Reid and I passed the entire day at the wonderful playground at the Hamilton Lakes Edge Adventure Park. Later that afternoon, we finished the last leg of our road trip and finally returned home to Torquay.

 

We survived term 1 (barely) and I could not be more thrilled that I do not have to drop Reid off at kinder for another 2 weeks. To put it mildly, he did not enjoy kinder this term. For the past seven weeks, I have brought him to kinder three days a week (one of those being a half day). He has kicked, screamed, cried, pleaded, negotiated, begged, argued, sobbed, shouted, hollered, cried some more, hid under his bed, refused to put his shorts on, cried even more, hid under the couch at kinder, banged on the kinder door, ran away, laid on the floor in front of the door, hid under the table at kinder and cried some more…all in an attempt to avoid being left at kinder. It has been a rough term and Reid has not enjoyed a single day of it. He has refused to participate in most of the activities, he didn’t play with any of the other kids, he refused to use the toilet there and he would not sit at the table to eat lunch with everyone else. During whole group time on the mat, Reid sat under a table and refused to participate in anything that was going on. Many times I wondered why we needed to continue doing this to him and what he was getting out it. I often wondered if it would ever get better and what was the point of it all! But we persevered, made it through the term and now we can enjoy two weeks of holidays and forget kinder even exists!

Alexis, on the other hand, had a great term but definitely needed a break and was looking forward to some unstructured time with no routine to follow.  For this school holidays, we came up with a plan to explore as many different beaches in the area as possible over the span of the week. We also had a few more items on our Melbourne bucket list that we wanted to get to.

Melbourne Bucket List:

The Children’s Garden at the Royal Botanical Gardens, the Bamboo forest being our favourite.

The National Gallery of Victoria where we went on a scavenger hunt through the gallery.

The fairy penguins at St. Kilda Pier who emerged from the water after sunset to go back to their burrows amoungst the rocks.

Luna Park, the iconic amusement park, where we whirled and twirled until we felt sick.

Beach Hopping:

For the second week of holidays, we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and enjoy the beautiful beaches in our backyard, starting with a day at Point Addis. Our day at Point Addis may have been one of the most perfect beach days we have had yet. Not only was the weather perfect, the tide was out, exposing a maze of tide pools but we were literally the only people on the beach. It was absolutely perfect!

The next day we spend some time at the Torquay Surf beach. Another absolutely perfect day in terms of weather and tide but perhaps the most exciting part of the day was discovering 13 bright red and orange sea stars in the shallow water.

We made sure to spend some time at our beloved ‘Fishos’ or Fisherman’s beach, which happens to be the closest beach to our house and consequently, the one at which we spend the most time. Another perk to Fisho’s is Bomboras, a cafe on the beach offering the best spot to enjoy a coffee or lunch in all of Torquay.

The following day, we decided to go a little further away and take the Queenscliff ferry to Sorrento. Our good friend Glenis came with us to enjoy the day, introducing us to the world famous vanilla slice and exploring the white sand beaches of Sorrento. What a beautiful little seaside town, full of impressive historical buildings, quaint boutique shops and delicious cafes.

Our final beach hopping day, we went for a walk along the Surf Coast Walk, a 44km trail along the coast from Torquay to Airey’s Inlet. We hiked a small section of the walk, my favourite part of the trail along Jan Juc beach.

We ended up at the world famous Bells Beach, another beach along the Surf Coast walk, known for the annual RipCurl Pro surfing competition. We enjoyed the view as well as the unique black sand we found there.

Unfortunately the school holidays were quickly coming to an end. We filled the last few days with days of the park, the skate park, enjoying delicious coffee and playing outside. What a fantastic staycation in Torquay, exploring the beauty of the coast and enjoying the wonderful outdoors!