Geelong

We've travelled all over the world - but never been to the bayside city of Geelong before.  We drove most of yesterday, an easy (but long) drive on the Hume Highway, skirting Melbourne city until Ms Google found our way to Ros and Pete's new home in the riverside suburb of Highton.

We've loved what we've seen so far of Geelong: hilly, upmarket Highton, gorgeous river walks, character filled Pakington Street in Newtown and glorious Corio Bay ...........

 It was windy and very cool today. We didn't come prepared for this weather after weeks and weeks of over 35oC in Canberra. But that's Victoria.. if you don't like the weather you only have to wait 5 minutes and it will most likely change - but it's stayed windy and very cool ALL DAY today.

 Fresh mussels have been everywhere on the menu today!

 I thought these camels were a very exotic sight on Eastern Beach today!

 We worked hard to avoid thinking these were a team of Tony Abbotts..... but he's rarely seen in Victoria these days (thank goodness).

 This pair make wonderful hosts. It is so good to see they have really landed on their feet in Geelong Victoria!

 The "ocean pool" at Eastern Beach - pretty deserted today in these very cool windy conditions...........

 We ate well today: lunch at The Sailors' Rest - opposite the Geelong Pier and then an afternoon beer at the big, bold and buzzy Little Creatures Brewery in Swanston Street.

Orange NSW

We've just enjoyed a two night stay in beautiful Orange (Central West, NSW). Orange is a rich fruit growing region (but no oranges) has a population of around 40,000 and is a well developed cool climate wine region only 2 hours from Sydney, so there is plenty here to charm the visitor.

After a delicious lunch stop at Canowindra we were still keen to dine at Mr Lim in Orange on Sunday night, a very high end Asian fusion restaurant with a focus on local ingredients and wines.... And we were very impressed!

Monday morning was a very cold one in Orange, so we started slowly with a coffee and light breakfast at the Byng Street Local Store - this city has a serious addiction to coffee and the Local Store, just a few blocks up from where we were staying, was really buzzing this morning.  

We took a walk around historic Cook Park (established 1873) and admired the large aviaries full of parrots, the Blowes Conservatory (with just a winter remnant of its flowering begonia collection), the duck ponds, and …….. 

 the fernery …………. This morning the pond in the fernery was covered in sheets of ice (and this was by mid morning!!) ….

But the most beautiful part of Orange are the inner city streets of beautifully maintained and preserved late 19th century houses. We could have walked for hours just admiring them and learning more about their stories (something we'll do more of next visit).

We drove to Mt Canobolas about 13 kilometres SW of the city. We were told Mt Canobolas (1,390 metres) is the highest point between here and the West Coast of Australia.

We can see there's been a fire through here in the past few months. Most of the gum trees were springing new shoots but the road nearest the summit was blocked to cars because of the danger of fallen trees, so we didn't quite make it to the top.

We loved seeing the beautiful country around Orange, fertile, carefully cultivated, lots of orchards and vineyards.  It looked a bit like country France to us.

We'd enjoyed our Phillip Shaw Sauvignon Blanc with our meal at Mr Lim the previous night so we were looking forward to our visit to their cellar door, just to the south of the city in Shiralee Road.

This was a beautiful tasting experience - and alarmingly generous. The experience had its desired effect and we bought a half dozen bottles each to enjoy later (I enjoyed the Chardonnay and other whites from this vineyard). 

Rob was a very responsible driver (no wine for him) so we were lucky to be driven to the nearby village of Millthorpe after the vineyard visit. The village has been classified by the National Trust and is full of charm. We loved our late lunch at the Old Mill Café before setting out to find Brett Whiteley's Millthorpe retreat (up until his death in 1992).

We were delighted to see the matchstick sitting by the front door (a lovely reference to the entry to Whiteley's studio at 2 Raper Street in Surry Hills in Sydney). Whiteley lives on in Millthorpe thanks to the new owners of this house.  

It's hard to believe we've never visited this part of the world before - and it's only a four hour drive from Canberra. We're definitely going back to Orange one day!! 

The London branch in Sydney

The London branch were well set up in their stylish Randwick Airbnb during their Sydney stay: lots of pool time for Eddie, fantastic toys to play with, great eating options nearby and plenty of shared time with Nanny and Poppa (and us)!  It helped (just) make up for the loss of Eddie and Ivy's Canberra playmates, although I think Eddie lost his Mojo for a bit - it was so quiet ...........

We didn't do too much in Sydney the first two days - it was too hot to venture far from the a/c and the pool. However by Monday we were able to set out on the ferry to Manly Beach - the classic Sydney visitor destination......

Eddie had recovered his Mojo by this and was a very animated traveller....

Manly had all the attributes Eddie looks for in a beach (namely seagulls!!)..........

Ivy had recovered her sleeping Mojo by today and we didn't see much of her until after lunch.

Lunch was truly amazin. We found the best restaurant eva..... chip pizzas on the menu... 3 thumbs up from Eddie!!

Ivy finally woke up - properly - on the ferry ride back to Circular Quay.....

Hope she doesn't forget seeing Sydney Harbour.......
Our last night together (last night) was lovely. We celebrated Eddie's 7th birthday with a cake and presents ..... The rockin rollin laughin kookaburra was a huge hit (yay!) - resulting in big smiles from Eddie....

and great hilarity all around....

... only to be relieved when those batteries wear out (soon I hope)!

Such precious times with these beauties.........

Can't bear to write how it felt to say goodbye!!!

Christmas 4

We'd all been looking forward to this Christmas celebration SO much. The London branch flew into Canberra yesterday so we all pretended today was the 25th and celebrated the whole Christmas thing all over again, but this time with ALL of Maxie and Rod's family together - just amazing!

Eddie's been to Australia before of course (in September 2011 when he was just a baby). This time with the benefit of age and experience he's really looking forward to seeing some cockatoos the most. So he was thrilled to find these cockatoo print boardshorts under the Christmas tree, from his cousins Ella and Abi.

Eddie's found two wonderful playmates here - his two big, handsome boy cousins: Ollie and Angus.

This is Ivy's first visit to Australia - and she can't decide who is her favourite big boy cousin just yet.

But she does like the selection of toys Abi left for her, as well as all the new toys under the Christmas tree.

After lunch Eddie shocked us all by voting to join the big boys (in the charge of Jeremy) to head off down the coast for the night. It's such an Australian thing to do that (he'll be ok Mummy and Daddy)!

Ivy was happy to stay behind  and catch up on some quality time with her Nanny (they'll head off to the coast in the morning).............

 .. and wear this beautiful hand made dress (exquisite work by her Nanny).

We'll be catching up with this branch of the family again, and another branch too, over the next two weeks - stay tuned!