Getting ready for christmas

Rachael and I enjoying a glass of vino without the kids

Archies great catch, he caused quite a stir with this. All the other anglers had never seen a flathead caught at Barwon Heads before and especially not such a big one

Evie and Archie enjoying some makeshift musical instruments and the local festival 

Rachael getting the kids excited, not that they need any help with that

Evie's netball team, last game of the season was a 6-6 thriller!!

The netball team down the beach with their trophies

A rather naughty shepard

The christmas dance!!!

Goldmines and Bendigo

The accommodation arrives

Evie and Archie don hats and light in search of the gold but even going 50 metres underground we fail to come up with any. We did have more luck with panning for gold though.

Some of the highlights of Bendigo

Pottery is the other big industry, the kids try their hands at making a few vase's for Rachael. They both had accidents but we have a collection of pottery pieces that prove they have the knack.

Filling our time

Archie after a tough time in the waves

A little walk in the woods

Evie enjoying the local produce

Archie and I doing the hunter gatherer thing.

Me trying something else to fill my time with, much to Rachaels pleasure.

Life so far

It was a first for Archie and I, we had a hair wash at the hairdresser in Torquay. In fact Archie insisted that he had the same treatment if not better!!

Rachael doing her usual thing down at Growler's our local haunt.

Rachael and the kids went to Melbourne to see an art exhibition. It was called the Art of the Brick, the kids were in their element it was all done in Lego!

Archie is making a swift exit as he has just been seen almost knocking this one over, the sculptor only took 3 months to make and Archie could destroy it in 3 seconds!!

Rach just back from the pub on the girls night out.

Evie in her new netball gear, they have played two games so far and you are looking at the only girl to score a goal or a basket whatever you call it!!!

Sadly they lost both games, but you have to start somewhere.

This is where we live now, quite pretty really.

Archie being invested into the 1st Torquay Joey's (scouts), he hardly spoke through the whole ceremony.

Our first AFL match, we watched Geelong v Melbourne. Geelong the local side absolutely thrashed Melbourne by 180 points. This ended up with the coach getting sacked and a big debate about whether AFL football has too great a gap between the top and lower teams, oddly reminiscent of the premier league.

Great Ocean Road

Just a quick taste of the views on the road, its amazing how the scenery changes as you drive along.  Some of it reminded us of Wales especially when it rained and the clouds settled on the hills.

Its become a bit of a tradition to play chicken with the waves whenever we stop as you can see from Rachael's face she nearly got caught this time.

They even have a little bit of rainforest this far south

A bit of the natural wildlife, we also nearly ran over some Kangaroos, they ran out in front of us, apparently they can do quite a lot of damage to a car, so lucky we didn't hit them.

Any one for surfing?

We all got a bit wet taking this one!

The Twelve Apostles as the pictures show the weather was the worst since we have been here but still a great holiday.

                                            Rachael dressed up for the North Pole, not Australia!!

We have furniture and Archie's 6th birthday

At last the furniture arrived, just hope it all fits in the rental house!!! 

deja vu!!

Been here before but a few weeks ago.

You wouldn't believe how much paper it was all wrapped in, must have been a whole rainforest but the kids enjoyed playing in it.  Rach made me go through most of it, to to look for a spoon that she thought I had not unpacked but still couldn't find it! not the most popular decision. 

Archie's 6th birthday, he managed to wangle it, so that he was on holiday and made the most of it.

A friend came round to play and helped make and decorate the cake.

 You can't see much of the cake once covered with all the decorations

We then went on to see Cars2 and they ate their own weight in popcorn and cola.