Lightening Online

GROCERIES

I am so sick of grocery shopping.  I much prefer my home system of occasional bulk shops with a weekly top up.  This shopping every couple of days is driving me crazy.  I have no idea how some people live like this!!!  And I usually LIKE grocery shopping.  Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m forever in a different store with no idea where to find anything.

It is a much more expensive way to shop as well although I’m gradually improving on not picking up “extras” when I do pop to the grocery store.  That’s one source of extra expense although the unit pricing of smaller sizings is more expensive as well.  A few times I haven’t been able to bring myself to pay the extra and we’ve had to have the same meal a couple of times close together.  LOL.

WASHING & IRONING

I’ve only had 1 place where the washing machines have been $4.  Townsville!!!  Everywhere else they have been $3 which is a bonus as I was budgetting on having to pay $4 a load.

What I can’t believe is that I haven’t touched an iron in over 4 weeks!!!!  Me, who can’t work out how other people rarely iron!  Me, who usually spends an hour plus a week ironing!!!!  Me, whose counsellor set her a challenge NOT to iron her kids school uniforms – a challenge I failed I must admit.  I haven’t ironed a thing since we left home!  And you know what?  You can’t really tell.  Or I don’t really care.  I’m not sure which.  LOL.  I will have to iron a couple of things this weekend (for church) but that will be my first ironing for the trip.

CLEANING

I was most perturbed when I first saw signs in caravan parks asking me to mop the shower floors after my shower.  What?  I’m supposed to be on a break from cleaning aren’t I????  LOL.  Actually, it’s not a bad idea and one I’m tempted to implement at home.  Wonder if I can have a “clean after each use” policy for all areas of our house? 

At least the caravan is quick and easy to clean, which is a good thing because it seems to need cleaning constantly with all the traffic moving through it constantly.

BUDGETS

Things seem to be going to plan as far as our budget goes.

Our average to date for caravan park sites works out to $47.29 which is under our $50 budget.  We’re pretty happy with that considering we had 5 nights in the Whitsundays at $77 a night.  The only other places we’ve gone over our Narrabri (an absolute rip-off) and Rockhampton (but only because we paid extra for an ensuite site while Farmboys back was bad).  I expected Cairns to be more expensive than it was but we found a really reasonably priced place in a lovely location (Cool Waters Caravan Park).

The $350 we budgetted per week for living expenses seems to be about right.  One week I finished the week with $5 left.  Another week we had $100 left (admittedly a week where we had meals supplied for a couple of days).  Generally speaking though, it seems to be allowing a couple of take away meals and a few treats on top of our regular eating.  We have eaten out a couple of times now on a different budget but that’s not much different to how things would work if we were home.  I worked out we’re spending about $25 a week on washing, $25 on spending money ($5 each), $100 on take away and treats (eg ice creams) and $200 on general groceries.

Our sight-seeing budget has been depleted rather rapidly in the past week but we were expecting that.  Cairns is a beautiful place but it’s not cheap.

OVERALL

Life on the road has it’s challenges but it’s also lots of fun and really worth the extra thinking power needed to work a few things out.

Trailer Boy (our 5 year old) has nicknamed this place (Cairns) “Ugly Beach”.  We drove passed the beach yesterday and the whole way back to the caravan he sang a little ditty that he made up.  It went something like this:

“We are at ugly beach, ugly beach, ugly beach

We are staying at ugly beach, ugly beach….”  and over and over it went.

It was hilarious!!!!

I tried to take a photograph to show you what it’s like but I’m not sure it does it justice:

It’s like this big mudflat.  They do have a narrow strip of sand which I suspect has been trucked in!  And the shallow goes forever when the tide it out!  They do have a lovely Esplanade though with lawned areas, paths and heaps of playground equipment as well as a water play area.

Cairns Esplanade Waterplay

I think we must be spoilt for nice beaches back home because so far, Queensland has not really shown us a beach that we’d consider “nice”.  We’ve seen some nice water spots but not so nice beaches.  I just assumed they were all white sand beaches up here.  I was wrong.

I can forgive it it’s “ugly beach” though as the town is absolutely lovely and nestled into the hills.  It’s all very picturesque.

Tonight the park is having a pizza night in the camp kitchen right near where our caravan is so we’re looking forward to a social night out for that.  Tomorrow (Monday) we’re heading up to Kuranda on the skyrail (coming back on the train).  It should be a lovely day although I hope it’s not raining like it has been today.  At least it’s not cold though.

Our experience of Townsville was a strange one.  I didn’t like the town at first but it kind of grew on me by the end of our second day there.  It’s hard when you pull into a town and everything is unfamiliar.  Particularly when there are one way roads and split roads where you have to get on the right section depending on whether you wish to turn left or right at the other end.  Once you get used to it though, it’s okay.

REEF HQ AQUARIUM

This is the biggest attraction Townsville had to offer us.  I thought it would be a great introduction to the Great Barrier Reef.  When we first arrived, I was surprised at how small the building seemed to be.  However, they had a LOT of informative talks and tours which really made the entrance price worthwhile.  The kids had a wonderful time, learnt heaps and we weren’t worn out from a day full of walking (everything was fairly close togethers).  They had an interesting section upstairs for the kids as well.

We got there at 10am and the day was easily filled in.  We left just before 4pm but would have stayed longer other than Trailer Boy wasn’t really well enough for us to.  We’d seen everything but the kids would have happily played and wandered around for longer.

MUSEUM OF TROPICAL QUEENSLAND

I thought this sounded quite interesting and wasn’t hugely expensive ($33 for our family).  They did a mock canon firing and there was a large exhibit all about the Pandora Shipwreck.  They had a section of hands on activities a little like Questacon which the kids loved and also a section about Rainforests.  We expected to be there for 1-2 hours and ended up being there for almost 3.

By the time we had a late lunch, got the boys hair cut and went for a drive up the Castle Hill lookout, the day had been filled in.  So much for our quieter day after having been at the Aquarium all day the day before!!!

We’re not finding it difficult to fill in our days.  In fact, blogging and schoolwork and all the bits and pieces of life (washing, grocery shopping, haircuts, medical appointments etc) seem to be getting in the way of what we really want to be doing.  LOL.

We drove to Cairns today (Friday) and I’m already in love with the place.  I haven’t seen much of it yet as we needed to take Trailer Boy to the doctor this afternoon (and Farmboy had another Chiropractor appointment for his back).  Can’t wait to have a good look around.  The scenery is absolutely spectacular!!!!

While we are here in the Whitsundays, we wanted to take a trip to at least one of the islands.  There are so many to choose from and the budget and time is limited.  We did toy with the idea of a day trip that included a couple of the islands but decided it would be simpler with the kids to stick with the one for the day.  Daydream Island is one of the closest and seemed to be well set up for day visitors, especially children.  I’ve always wanted to see Daydream Island too and as it worked out, a day trip is a perfect length of time to explore and see most of it.

The day began early with a 7.40am pick-up from our caravan park.  Here are the kids waiting excitedly for the bus to arrive:

Being school bus kids, I didn’t expect them to get all that excited about the bus trip.  Although, I guess the bus was taking them to a destination much more fun that school!!!

We arrived at the marina in plenty of time and enjoyed watching the boats coming in and out:

The boat above is not the one we went on but is the same company as we used.

It was lovely weather for a boat ride and we enjoyed having a look around.  The guide pointed out a couple of the other islands as we went.

What amazed us was how covered in trees all the islands were and how close to the waters edge the trees grew.  There were tiny little bays with beach but the rest of the islands were covered in growth.  It wasn’t what we expected at all!

After a short stop at another island to pick up some campers, we arrived at our destination:

Not long after we arrived, there was a fish feeding at one of the lagoons which was interesting and informative:

There were sting rays and small sharks and a whole range of tropical fish and coral.

From there, we set off to explore the island while the kids were still happy to walk.  We began with a visit to lovers cove:

It wasn’t really anything special though.

We then headed off on the Rainforest walk which was almost the entire length of the island.  There were lots of beautiful views along the way and it was quite a pleasant walk (although tricky in places).

Our tickets included vouchers for the Boathouse Cafe for lunch so after a stop at the playground for a play (the kids that is lol) we went and had lunch.  Next to where we were sitting was another lagoon and just after lunch they had another fish feeding there.

It took a me a LOT of attempts to get this photograph:

These clown fish are rather timid and hide in the anemone only darting out very quickly for food.

Once lunch had settled down, the kids went for a swim in 1 of the many pools they have on the island:

It wasn’t exactly hot, so Farmboy and I preferred this location while they were swimming:

With this view:

It was very relaxing!!!!

I did decide I should at least dip my toes in the ocean (which was warmer than the water in the swimming pools):

The biggest problems was, there was no sand!!!!  The entire beach was made up of tiny pieces of coral:

Apparently you have to go to Whitehaven Beach if you want nice white sand.  Goes to show how lucky we are back home where pretty much all our beaches are sand.

It was a lovely day and a reasonably affordable way to take the kids to one of the islands.  One day Farmboy and I hope to have a “second honeymoon” at one of the island resorts.  It wasn’t something we could really afford when we got married so we promised ourselves that we’d do it “one day”.  I think we’d choose another island now that we’ve explored Daydream Island.  There seem to be plenty to choose from and I guess there aren’t many people who get to explore them all!

Today (Monday) we’re having a quiet day.  The kids spent a couple of hours at the park kids club this morning which gave Farmboy and I some welcome time together.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head to Townsville.  We’ll spend a couple of days there before heading on to Cairns and Port Douglas.  Our biggest decision next will be which tour to go on to see the Great Barrier Reef.  It’s a fairly expensive exercise for the 5 of us so we want to be sure to make a good decision about which tour to go on.

Yes, we are in the Whitsundays.

Jealous Much? 

I’d love to upload lots of wonderful photo’s to show you but I haven’t taken any yet.

Now, don’t get all mad at me and demand photo’s.  I will take some eventually.  At least, I hope I do.

The thing is, I haven’t been going all that well.  All the effort of getting away and then dealing with the kids 24/7 without a break and long car trips has taken a lot out of me emotionally.  Not to mention all the stress with Farmboy’s back and the extra workload that put on me.

So, we changed our plans slightly and decided to stop in at the flash Big 4 caravan park here.  It’s way out of our budget at $77 a night but has heaps for the kids to do.   We’re hoping a few days here will give Farmboy’s back a chance to heal and me a chance to have some “time out”.

This morning I took all my gear (laptop, magazines etc) to the pool, thinking I might blog “poolside”.  But, I was so exhausted I just kind of lay there.  Even reading a New Idea took effort.  So, I didn’t.

Before long, a massage therapist set up there and I booked in for a 30 minute massage.  Honestly, that may well be the best $30 I spend this trip.  I couldn’t believe how much better I felt afterward!!!

Now, if I could get that every day, I might just come back more relaxed than I left!!!  LOL.

We were originally thinking we’d stay here for 4 nights.  Basically a long weekend of R&R (rest and relaxation for those not familiar with that term).  Instead, we’ve booked to stay a 5th night and will take a day out to visit one of the islands while we’re here.  It also means the kids can go to the kids club on Monday (they were booked out for today by the time we arrived) and give Farmboy and I a couple of hours together.

Hopefully, by the time we leave here on Tuesday morning, we’ll all be feeling a lot better for our stay.

With Farmboy’s back issues, we made very few plans for what we may or may not see in Rockhampton.  It was very much a “take things as they come” time in the trip.  Up until the farm we stayed at over the weekend, the trip had been reasonably planned out.  From here on in, we don’t have any “set” plans which is good as it meant the back trouble didn’t really “upset” any plans we might have made.

I have discovered a bonus to washing in caravan parks.  By 8.30, I had all my washing washed and hung out (well, not quite all as I ran out of pegs).  It was fun having 3 washing machines all going at once!  :)  I did leave 1 machine for others to use. 

We began our day by dropping in to the Visitor Information Centre which also had the Tropic of Capricorn spire.  Farmboy thought we looked like Japanese tourists as everyone had their cameras slung around their neck taking photo’s.  We had heard that Rockhampton had a free zoo which I kept in the back of my mind as a possible activity but given we’d recently done the Dubbo Zoo, I wasn’t worried if we didn’t have time to visit.  We were then told that the Botanic Gardens had a lovely playground and cafe so decided to head there.

I do love my kids dearly but we haven’t had a lot of “kid free” time since we left home which I’m finding a little tiring.  They also haven’t had a lot of “playground” time so I thought they’d appreciate the opportunity to play.  When we got there, we thought we’d have a little walk around the zoo first.  I was expecting just a very small area with a few animals to look at.  It was quite extensive and had some different animals to what Dubbo had.  It was particularly nice to look at their koala exhibit which housed a half a dozen koalas as Dubbo had only had the 1 and it was difficult to spot in the trees.

When we left the Botanic Gardens, we headed to the Art Gallery.   This isn’t the type of place I’d necessarily expect the kids to enjoy but Singstar Princess had picked up an activity sheet at the Visitor Information Centre and was keen to go and have a look.  They were advertising a special exhibit aimed at children called Colours.  I know some Art Galleries have free admission but have also been caught before with “special exhibits” being expensive so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it was all free.  The worksheet took the kids through the whole art gallery experience, talking about colour and emotion and even encouraging them to imagine the story behind a couple of the paintings.  It was an excellent introduction to art appreciation for them!

Farmboy had another appointment with the Chiropractor in the afternoon so I took the kids swimming in the caravan park pool.  Yes, it was freezing even though the pool was supposedly “heated”.  The temperature did get up to around 28C while we were here but the nights were cool.  It’s so lovely to be kicking around in t-shirts now. 

We then headed off to spend some time with some friends we’ve met through other friends.  It was a lovely evening together and the kids really enjoyed having other children to play with.

Everyone is a little on the tired side today (Wednesday).  We’re only planning to drive around 300km to Sarina where we’re hoping to take a tour through a Sugar Mill.  From there, we’ll venture to the Whitsundays for some well-needed R&R before venturing to the Northern part of Queensland.

It’s funny to think that we left 2 weeks ago today.  In some ways it’s going fast but in others, it feels like we’ve been on the road quite a while.

INTERNET CONNECTIONS…

Suck!!!!  I had a post written a few days ago and when I went to save before publishing, I lost the lot as the connection dropped out.  *sigh*  Should have been using Windows Live Writer instead of typing direct to my blog.  It’s been days now since I’ve had connection and I’m going mad!!!!

FARMBOY HAS HURT HIS BACK

Some of the time he can’t even move.  So, we’ve made it to Rockhampton and went to a Chiropractor today.  He’ll squeeze in 2 more visits before we leave here in a couple of days time and fingers crossed he has more mobility then.  He can hardly walk at the moment which is frustrating.  Thankfully we were able to get an ensuite site here in Rockhampton so it isn’t far to the bathroom for him.

WE’VE CRACKED A HEAD….

Thankfully not in the vehicle we’re using for the trip.  Farmboy’s ute was being worked on by our mechanics and they’ve discovered the head is cracked.  :(  There goes a few grand in one phone call.

BUT…

IT’S NOT ALL BAD!

We’re in Queensland. 

The weather is beautiful!!!! 

We made it to Rockhampton despite Farmboy’s back and are now somewhere he can get help (trust him to do it when we’re in the middle of nowhere!!!!).

We’ve had a lovely time visiting old family friends on their farm (well, other than Farmboy’s back) and looking forward to sharing with some friends tomorrow evening.

Oh, and did I mention we’re in Queensland???

And I’m sitting outside with only a t-shirt on.

And the internet is even working.  Let’s hope it stays that way long enough for me to publish this post!!!!

We decided to forgo an overnight stop in Coonabarabran in favour of having a night to stop at the Gwydir Caravan Park in Moree.  Our original plan had been to stop at the public hot pools on our way through town tomorrow.  On recommendation from someone we were talking to at church on Sunday, we chose to go all the way to Narrabri on Wednesday night and spend Thursday night in Moree.

The park here is lovely and the kids have had a WONDERFUL time in the warm pools.  They have 4 and each is a different temperature.  I can’t believe how different a 1C change in temperature actually feels.

We’re mostly surrounded by Grey Nomads although I did see a few kids tonight.  It’s interesting seeing the different reactions of these Grey Nomads.  Some absolutely love the kids and some just see them as a bother.  One guy actually told our 5 year old to “bugger off” which upset me a little.  What sort of example is that for a young child?  *sigh*

The people running this park are lovely and seem to be very aware of their guests needs.  Farmboy was heading off to the tennis court with the kids when someone from the office came running out with the key for the courts so he didn’t walk there only to have to come back and get a key.  Considering how run off their feet they are, I thought that was top service.

It doesn’t look like a very big park but it stretches out quite a way.  We’re very lucky to have a site that is both near to the pools and near to amenities.

My only bug-bear (and I suspect this might be an issue the whole trip) is just how much parks are charging for children.  I have no problem with paying a few dollars extra for our children.  After all, they are using the facilities.  But, more than double???  To me that just seems wrong.  We’re not taking up double the space.  I would have thought that at least half the cost of a site is the actual SITE being taken up.  In which case, we should really only have to pay about half again, right?

I know that some parks go to a reasonable expense providing playgrounds and games rooms and jumping pillows for kids.  But why are other parks also charging so much for kids?  We’re paying $9-$12 per night per CHILD over and above the regular tariff.  *sigh*

Anyway, I can’t complain too much here.  We were going to be paying $20 entry fees to the public pools so that makes our site fees not so bad here where the pools are free.  And they did only charge us for 2 kids rather than 3 which is nice given they’re charging $10 per night per child.

It has been a lovely relaxing day which we desperately needed.

Tomorrow we’re off to Goondiwindi, which we’ve been reliably informed is pronounced “Gundawindi”….??????  It’ll be our first night in Queensland.  I can’t believe how much the weather has already changed.  We’ve come less than 400km North and yet the weather is so much warmer.  I’m not sure whether we’ll even need to use the heater tonight (that’ll be a first since we left home!).  Yah!!!!

Update: It’s now Friday.  I was hoping to post this last night but couldn’t get my wireless to work (we bought a Telstra Prepaid Wireless USB in Narrabri – only it doesn’t work many places so far *sigh*).  We started the day with a swim in the hot pools.  WHAT a way to start the day!!!!  On the road now (10-ish) and hoping I’ll get coverage somewhere to post this.

Our experience in Dubbo has been rather mixed.  It was nice to stop for a few days after having been on the road constantly for what seemed like forever (okay, that’s an exaggeration but you get what I mean right?).  When we booked into the caravan park, we were given a warning to make sure we locked our van at night and didn’t leave any valuables in sight in the car.  Now, we do both of these things already but we’ve never had a caravan park emphasise this on check in.  Around the park were signs about theft.  It left us feeling a little concerned and unsettled.

Being a tourist town, the caravan park wasn’t cheap either.  $54 a night for our family (still cheaper than the Big 4 which was $63).  I have a feeling our budget of $50 a night may get stretched a little.  What annoyed me though was that the bbq’s provided in the park all COST to use.  When you’re paying a reasonable fee, you’d think the last they could do would be provide free bbq’s.  I’ve never stayed in a park where they charged for the bbq’s before!

The washing machines were reasonably priced at $3 (some parks charge $4 per load) but the dryers were more expensive than I’ve seen elsewhere.  The cynic in me wonders if it’s because of the climate where people may not have the CHOICE but to use them.  I did manage to do 3 loads of washing and only used the dryers for 1 of those so that was something.

We went to the Old Dubbo Gaol on Sunday.  It was quite interesting although at $50 for a family, seemed a little expensive for a place that took a total of an hour to look over.  We were unfortunate that a staff member was sick on that day and we didn’t get to see the show they advertise that they put on.  Lleyton was particularly disappointed so we asked if we could come back another day to see the show and they agreed.

On Monday we went out to the Western Plains Zoo.  We decided to hire bikes to see the zoo.  That added $70 to the days spending.  At least I had packed up snacks and lunch so we didn’t spend any money on food or drink while there.  The bikes were well worth the cost as we all enjoyed riding around.  I was disappointed though that they only allowed you to have them for 4 hours.  Why not allow you to use them for the entire day?  Ours were due back at 2pm so it’s not like anyone else was going to get the chance to use them.  It meant we skipped all the shows in favour of making the best use of the time we had the bikes for.  To me, they should either make them a 3 hour hire (a little cheaper) and perhaps give the option of hiring for the full day at a rate less than double (since you only have 1 set of paperwork etc to do).

Anyway, we had the pick of the weather the day we were there.  The sun was shining and there was very little wind.  It did get cold around 3.30pm and we were told by the attendant in the zoo shop that the breeze was coming off the snow in Orange (yes B – you were right about that).

With tickets valid for 2 consecutive days (an excellent idea!!!) we went back on the Tuesday to catch a couple of the keeper talks and see the animals we hadn’t had time to see the day before.

We then went  back to the Gaol to see the show we’d missed on the Sunday.  It went a lot longer than we expected and was quite funny.  It made the entry price seem a little more worthwhile (they didn’t charge us to come back in).  Unfortunately, while we were there, we went over our 1 hour parking time by about 20 minutes and ended up with an $84 fine.  Seems a bit steep for a parking fine if you ask me and a lovely welcome to visitors to the town. 

When we got back to the caravan park, we found out that people we had befriended while there had been burgled the night before.  Someone had come into their van while they were asleep and stolen her handbag.  Unfortunately she’d just withdrawn $700 cash.  :(  That kind of thing just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

So, while we did enjoy the time we had there, we were kind of glad to pull out this morning and leave Dubbo behind.  After a 4 night break, we’re feeling ready to be on the road again.  We’re now heading North up the Newell Hwy.  Only a couple more nights in NSW and then we’ll be in Queensland.  We have no set plans for where we’ll stop tonight but we have booked into Moree for Thursday night as the caravan park there has pools filled from the hot springs and is very popular.

I have finally plugged my camera into the computer for the first time since leaving home.  It’s usually in the glove box so I have it handy and come night-time, I’m too lazy to go out in the cold and get it in order to download some pictures.  If you read our family blog, you’ll have seen some I managed to get loaded taken by Lleyton.  So, now here are some from my camera.

Trailer Boy making funny faces as he eats his dessert in the caravan:

He’s a clown!!!!

The silver tree located in the Albert Kersten GeoCentre at Broken Hill:

One of the many desert sculptures at Broken Hill:

It was a bit of a chore getting these 2 up the hill!!!!  They were ready to call it a day.

Getting our whole family in the picture:

That was another of the desert sculptures at Broken Hill.

An endless day of driving from Broken Hill to Nyngan:

There were times when the road looked like it was never ending.  Even though it was just under 600km, with a caravan, 3 kids and numerous roadworks, it certainly felt like a long day.  And very little of interest to see.  Not even many towns along that stretch!!!  We were certainly glad to have that day behind us.

On trial at the Dubbo Gaol:

Farmboy blamed it all on the kids!!!!

Where we think we’ll leave the kids for the rest of the trip:

LOL.  Just kidding!!!!

Trailer Boy wasn’t all that keen on the gaol.  Can’t say that I blame him.  It was quite spooky in places.  Not a nice place really but quite interesting nonetheless.

Biking it around the Dubbo Western Plains Zoo:

My first bike ride in 23 years!!!!

I have a feeling I might be a tad sore tomorrow!

Making a fashion statement in my bike helmet:

Farmboy needs to work on his photography skills as he was supposed to be taking a photograph of the elephant statue here!!!

I think the giraffes were my favourite exhibit:

Although the Gallapagos Tortoises were rather cute:

We watched them being fed and heard an interesting talk about them.  It was the only talk we got to today.  We’ll head back tomorrow to hear a couple more.  I think it’s great that tickets are valid for 2 consecutive days.  You’d have to really move it to see everything in the 1 day.

That about covers what we’ve done so far.  It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is day 7.  In some ways, it feels like we’ve been gone a lot longer than a week but in other ways, it’s going quite quickly.  I’m pretty happy with the way we’ve settled in to the caravan and tweaked a few things a little.  It’s also been very nice to stay in the same place for more than 1 night.

We leave Dubbo on Wednesday and start heading North.  Hopefully we’ll encounter some warmer weather soon.  The days have mostly been fine here but still quite cool and the nights have been freezing.  We’re certainly glad to have the reverse cycle air conditioner in the van to keep us warm!!!  We heard today that there has been snow only about an hour and a half from here so I guess it’s not surprising it’s cold.

Getting clothes dry has been a challenge.  I have 1 load on our portable line which has taken 2 days to get dry (moving it in and out of the annexe) and had to tumble dry a load at a cost of $6!!!!  :(  I don’t want to be paying $9-$10 per load of washing that’s for sure (cost of washing + drying)!!!!