Sawtell

Saturday 31st Aug
We spent the morning eating this amazing cake that Emma-Jane bought for us ( with all the kids it didn't take long for it to go!).

 It looks good and it tasted fantastic!

 Emma-Jane strummed out some tunes which was very nice in our forest setting.

And she showed us some photos she had taken of the area.
Eventually we packed up and said goodbye and headed to Sawtell. We got to the caravan park at lunch time. Unhitched, had lunch then a few of us went shopping. My hate for the GPS was fueled after my shopping. I used it to get to the shopping centre which was in Coffs Harbour and it was lucky that I took notice of where I was going as when we had finished shopping I tried to start it up again to get me back to the caravan park but IT FROZE ON ME! Ahhhhh. Grrrr. #&*!#**! So I had calm and used my homing pigeon instincts and praise God we got back okay! Not long after we got back my parents turned up. Everyone was very excited to see them as we hadn't seen them since March.

They had to listen to 6 kids try and tell them all at once about the exciting things they had done in 5 months! Dad mentioned that he thought it was a little hot as they had come from SA where it had been cold and wet. We said we thought it was a little cool coming from Darwin!

There were some resident parenties in the caravan park and they were very friendly but didn't let you get any closer than 3m from them. They were a bit slow and really only wanted to sun bake to get warm! We made sure we kept the swags zipped up and the tent done up. Would not be fun going to bed with one of these!

Half Way Creek

Friday 30th Aug
We had to stay another night here as we were booked into Sawtell caravan park on the Saturday. The kids did some school work and some exploring in the trees. They made a cubby house out of whatever they could find.

This is what Baylee made and he even found the glove to complete the look.
At tea time Emma-Jane came to catch up with us which was fantastic. A lot of talking was done until we were all turning blue with the cold and decided we would continue in the morning!

Lawrence

Thursday 29th
In the morning we packed up again and headed further south. We were planning to stay at a free spot at Lawrence and that took us off the highway and we got a better look at the country and the farming. We also got to go on the ferry which everyone thought was great. Once the car and caravan were on and the car turned off, the ferry started moving and Manning realised that this was a little odd and said " Are we moving". Even though we had been on a few ferries this still was a funny feeling as the car was off. We got to Lawrence in time for lunch and it was a nice little town but it had all these signs around saying camping there was prohibited. I went and asked in the local shop and they didn't really know but thought it should be fine if we were only staying a night but we eventually decided to move on. As we drove off after a good lunch and play on the platground this is what we saw!

This house looked like it had nothing holding it up! As we drove passed it it was held up just in the centre! Amazing!
So we drove on in search of another free spot. We drove through Grafton where Emma-Jane Budarick was working and out to Half Way Creek roadhouse. Out the back of the roadhouse there is a huge grass area which caravaners are welcome to stay. The roadhouse is open 24 hours so if we felt peckish at midnight we could just join the truckies and have a meal! 

It was really nice weather, out in the sun!

 

Burringbar Park

Wednesday 28th

This was the last thing we saw as we hoped into the car to head home Tuesday night. This was my favourite ride.The Green Lantern.  Check out the drop that goes back on itself! The adrenaline junky family was leaving it all behind!
We packed up in the morning and headed into NSW and into a slower pace of life. We didn't go very far. Stopped at  Murwillumbah ( try and say that!) to do some shopping. Then onto our free spot for the night at Burringbar. It was a nice little town. The camping spot was right in the middle of town and the kids enjoyed playing in the trees near by.

Movie World 5!!!!

Tuesday 27th
Well back to our favourite world for the last time. We really are getting to know the place.

 Kimberly and Bugs and Mannings head!

 Wonder Woman and Super Girl and two people we didn't know dressed up next to us!

 Manning wanted a photo with these camels. Josiah there too.

 Tweety , Kimberly, Baylee and Daffy

 Baylee, Josiah, Ethan and Kimberly ready for take off on the Batman ride, straight up.

 Kimberly got some braids put in.

 Zane , Manning and myself relaxing in the cow hide chairs.

The ride the Green Lantern as we said goodbye to Movie World. A lot of fun has been had by all!!!

Wet'n'Wild 2 and Movie World 4

Monday 26th
It is warming up here which is nice for us. This was our last day at Wet'n'Wild and the kids made the most of it going on their favourite water slides. The day was warm and very enjoyable.
At about 2pm we decided to pop over to Movie World as the coffee is better there! Well, there are more roller coasters too so coffee wasn't the only thing.

Kimberly got her photo with Cat Woman. Cat Woman can also crack a whip which is impressive. What a great job, you get to dress up in super hero outfits and act for the whole day. Our kids would earn a lot of money each day as that takes up a lot of their day, acting out characters. 

Sea World 2 & Movie World 3

Sunday 25th
We are getting the most out of our tickets. We went back to Sea World as we missed a few things the first time. They have big pools of reef fish and sharks and you can go under ground and look at them through glass which was excellent. Tim and I both agree that what you can see on top of the water is only such a small amount of what is really in the water. Just amazing. There was a penguin area with Arctic  penguins in it and just like on Happy Feet the movie the people were looking in at the penguins and the penguins were looking out at the people. Like it was a stare off. It was funny. Great to watch them as they are very playful under water.

 Baylee, Kimberly, Ethan and Josiah did this activity in which you could climb anywhere you wanted with a harness on that would slide along a beam above you. This is Ethan at the pole deciding which way to go. Most of the time you had 4 options. 

 This is Baylee who decided to try the top story and stay up there to see if he would be less afraid the longer he stayed up there. When we asked if it worked he said no! He has made decisions to experience as much as he can no matter what fear he had, in case he never comes back here again!

 Not sure which one this is. There was 4 stories and steps up to each level.

 This is no fear Josiah! Bold as! Walked so freely and things didn't wobble as much as those that were afraid and tight in the muscles.

 This is Kimberly, determined never to let anything beat her.

This is Ethan with muscles that meant he could spiderman up and down these levels if he needed.
After we thought we had done all we could at Sea World it was off to Movie World again for the rest of the afternoon. Movie World is our families favourite. We were in time for the parade which we hadn't seen yet.  

 See Tim pointing at Bugs, well Bugs pointed right back and laughed and there was this hey it's you, I like your shirt, hey that coffees good coffee non verbal conversation that was really funny. They are good actors.

And there was Batman hanging off the side of the car. Tim is going to turn our go kart into the Batmobile.

This is the crazy fast Superman ride which I am yet to go on and that is very popular with it's huge speed. Tim caught a picture of it as it was sling shot out of the shed which it starts in and up the first incline. Crazy but the kids keep going back!

The kids madly ran around to as many rides as possible while Tim finished his coffee.
The weather has been excellent again. Warming up. 

Wet and Wild

Saturday 24th
A great day for Wet and Wild. The weather was warm and there wasn't too many people. They shut down some of their areas in this slow season then I think they open the rest at the start of September when the weather starts to get a little warmer and the tourists hit Surfers. There still was heaps of rides and things to do in Wet and Wild. Some free fall water slides and some crazy ones in rubber tubes. The hot spas were very nice but cold when you got out.

 Everyone took turns at putting their faces in these. Tim and I think it is Josiah here.

Manning in the fun kids area.
I didn't get any photos of the big slides the other kids went on but we intend to go again and get the most out of our tickets. This closed at 3:30pm so the kids were very keen to change and pop over to movie world.

This is us at the entrance. The older kids went on the roller coasters again and Zane and Manning wanted to buy some lollies and sit and watch cartoons on the big screen in the main street. So that's what we did for an hour before it also shut. Just another big day out with huge thrills and adventures.

Movie World

Friday 23rd
We have some roller coaster junky kids! Just the sight of the roller coasters as we rocked up to Movie World got everyone buzzing! A lot of the time Tim took the older ones and I took the younger ones and then we came together to watch the stunt cars or batman or the wild west. They do a good job of making it look very real and there is some great stunt driving and stunt acting. It was a fun packed day with not a lot of rest time. The older kids just loved their huge, fast upside down roller coasters and even Zane's smaller one went quite fast for little kids, but he loved it. Manning preferred the taxi driving cars and at one point over took Zane in a slick manoeuvre! Manning came up to me afterwards and exclaimed " now I can drive real cars!"

All checking out Batman's car.

Watching the stunt car show. There was a lot of rubber being burnt here!

Zane's roller coaster.

 Zane and Manning in Tweety Bird cages

 Zane and Manning in little dodgem cars.

 We found Yosamity Sam. We have some actors in our family too.

 Zane and Manning driving the taxis.

Zane and Manning got to ride in the drivers seat in the train!

 This is just part of the Superman ride that the kids went on. It's the only one I didn't go on. It is super fast and high! About 0 - 100km in 2.4sec    4Gs. Amazing to watch.

 Zane is in the bottom of the picture. In the background in the Green Lantern roller coaster. I went on that!

The plastic super heros on the roof, the real super heros on the ground!!
Another big day, another tired bunch of people. It's like going to the Adelaide show everyday. The weather was excellent but the traffic was terrible on the way home even though it is a motor way!

Sea World

Thursday 22nd
There was a lot of excitement in the Coleman caravan as we packed and got ready to head to Sea World. There wasn't much of a line up to get in and not a lot of people there. The kids didn't have to line up for the rides much at all. We got a seat to see all the attractions. It was a beautiful day. Excellent all round.

 We went on the sky rail first which was a good idea as it gave us a birds eye view of what was around and where it all was. We filled up 2 cars though.

This is the kids coming in at the end of the roller coaster ride. The older 4 and Tim spent most of the day on these.

 Kimberly went with Manning on the merry- go-round.

 Manning and Zane on the aeroplanes.

This was specky. They had a jet ski show and this was a new invention. There is a man in the air just by water pressure. He was able to move himself around and even dive into the water with it then shoot straight back up in the air.

 Josiah, Manning and Zane with the big Walrus.

The sea lion show was excellent. You can't see very well but in the middle was a huge sea lion acting along with these ladies. It was a great show. Of course all the way along the animals are getting a fish for their great acting.

The dolphin show was also excellent. You can only just see a dolphin in the air.
We had a great day and the kids ate a huge tea and in bed and asleep early! Happily exhausted!