Holiday - 2006/10/20

• It was Taemar’s Birthday today. Tae was woken by Stephen coming into our bedroom and quietly saying, “Happy Birthday Mummy”. Tae thought it was the best possible way to wake up.
• We got away before 9am & our first stop was Mait’s Rest, a rainforest. This was an excellent walk of about 20 minutes. There are some enormous Myrtle Beech trees in the rainforest. Stephen said, “That tree is so high, I think it touches the sky”. It was very interesting because it was a Eucalyptus forest connected to a rainforest. The rainforest will encroach on the Eucalyptus forest unless there is a fire. The Eucalyptus forest recovers very well after a fire, while the rainforest does not.
• We visited Otway Lighthouse which was completed in 1848 after a shipwreck that lost 400 lives. The lighthouse was operational until 1994. It was originally powered by whale oil, then kerosene, and finally electricity. It has now been replaced by a solar powered automatic lighthouse, the “Tupperware Lighthouse” the locals call it. We were able to climb to the top of the lighthouse, and it was incredibly windy at the top.



• We drove to the 12 Apostles, and they are spectacular, although the weather was cloudy and a bit drizzly. It was also quite windy, and I can say, “the sea was angry that day my friends”.


• We next stopped at the Arch. We got a chance to experience the full range of Victorian weather. In a five minute period it went from sunny to sleet that was not so much falling as being flung horizontally. Mike was carrying Stephen & we all had to run as fast as we could back to the car. By the time we arrived at the car we were wet, but Stephen and Mike were laughing at each other!


• Our last stop was London Bridge. We were a bit tired of running in the rain carrying Stephen so we took turns to visit London Bridge. We were interested to read that one of the arches collapsed in 1990, and while no one was injured two people were trapped on the newly created island and had to be rescued by helicopter.
• We arrived at Warrnambool at around 3pm. We had booked ahead knowing it was the weekend coming up and we’re staying in a nice cedar cabin. We also booked a cabin for Cecelia & Brian and they are staying opposite our cabin. The caravan park is right beside the lawn tennis centre – with about 25 lawn tennis courts. It looks like a great place for tennis!
• Brian & Cecelia had arrived before us, but were out when we arrived. However, we had only unpacked the car and started sipping a cup of tea when they arrived back. Stephen was especially excited to see his Nan & Pa, not least because he could show them the latest addition to his toy collection – The King & Sarge from the movie Cars.
• We all went for a walk around the park where we are staying in Warrnambool. Stephen was keen to have a swim in the heated swimming pool but we managed to convince him it was too cold for swimming.
• Stephen & Mike then went to Adventure World, an enormous playground in Warrnambool. They had a great time on the slippery dips & particularly on the tire roundabout. Stephen would sit in a tire and Mike would spin the roundabout as fast as he could – it was awesome fun!
• We all went out to dinner at the RSL club. Once again Stephen had fish & chips followed by ice cream. Cecelia & Brian both had roast lamb & Tae & Mike had Scotch fillet steak with prawns and Tasmanian scallops in a Korma sauce (it sounds a bit strange, but it was nice).
• Drove 190km.
• Google Map