A blog about Tash's travel tips & experiences
The 2017 Australian Lambretta Jamboree was held over a long weekend in March at the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, some 997 km away from our home in Sydney. Never being one to let a long distance deter him, Steve rode down to Victoria on his Lambretta, while I chose to drive down in the car with our children and luggage.
This was a short trip, much closer to home on the outskirts of Sydney.
During the winter school holidays in July 2016 I took a Friday off work so our family could take a long weekend break away from Sydney. Together with hubby, Steve, and the two children (then aged 12 and 8) we drove up to the Blue Mountains and Jenolan Caves. The weekend was balanced perfectly with activities, site-seeing and quiet down-time.
The Blue Mountains is about a 90 minute drive west of Sydney (2 hours if you are coming from the northern beaches like us). Its breathtaking landscape and scenery spans approximately 11,400 km² and offers an array of attractions, including bushwalking trails, waterfalls and ancient limestone caves. Aside from its world heritage listing, its many towns and villages also offer a delightful experience with their guesthouses, galleries and gardens and there are plenty of dining options from fine dining restaurants, to cafes, coffee shops and tea houses.
As a family we have been to the Blue Mountains a couple of times, but usually just for a day trip. However Steve and the children hadn’t been to Jenolan Caves before and I hadn’t been since I was a small child, so we were looking forward to discovering this part of the mountains.
This was how our weekend went: Continue reading “Our weekend in the Blue Mountains”
It’s strange how I seem to be drawn to foreign places far, far away, despite the fact that living in Australia we have some fantastic holiday destinations on our own doorstep.
However, in July 2013 I did arrange a trip closer to home. I had some work meetings scheduled in New Zealand’s Auckland and Wellington, so decided to take this opportunity to make a family holiday of it. We spent 9 days on the North Island, starting our tour at the top in Auckland and finishing up in the windy city of Wellington. The children were 10 and 6 at the time and loved this trip. They still talk about it today and ask when they can go back (and my daughter does a terrible NZ accent).
This was our itinerary: Auckland (2 nights) to Waitomo (1 night) to Hobbiton to Rotorua (2 nights) to Wellington (3 nights) Continue reading “Nine days in New Zealand”
Ok, so when someone says they visited the “The Grand Canyon” you need to ask them to clarify which part – it is absolutely enormous! Unfortunately, we could only squeeze 2 nights into our itinerary for our visit, so after doing my research I decided we would visit the South Rim. On most accounts that I read during my research, this was the most spectacular – the real Grand Canyon. Not to detract from the other parts, but we couldn’t see it all…. So South Rim it was. As it turned out, 2 nights (one full day) really wasn’t enough time to spend there either; there was so much more we could have done and seen, although from the children’s perspective, that was probably the extent their attention span could manage.
This was another trip that turned out to be a success, with all the planning working out well. Here are my tips and our experience of our road trip and visit to The Grand Canyon: Continue reading “Family road trip to Grand Canyon”