it is really cold in Canberra, like 0° degrees over night and when we woke up it was 8° degrees and we could see snow on some mountains in the distance.
Today we went to Parliment House old and new. We went to old Parliment House for lunch, I had a potato and leek soup with a vanilla milkshake. While we were eating our food Mazzy saw Someone that she recognised in the distance. At school we watch a show called Behind The News and Mazzy saw Amelia the Presenter of BTN while she was being filmed for a “Democracy Special”, We got a picture of us with Amelia.
Inside new Parliment house we saw the senate chamber and heard a man talk about how it works and process of a making a law.
The Senate ChamberMaz, Dad and I sitting in the Public Viewing Area
A picture I took Of Mum, Dad and Maz in front of Parliment House
The thing that I found most interesting was the Lego model of Parliment House inside Parliment.
There was a display of Paintings of Previous Prime Ministers and we found one that had Dad’s eyebrows.
One Day I want to go back and see what it is like when Parliment is sitting and the politicians are there. I really enjoyed it and would recommend people to go and visit.
This was our first FULL day in Canberra here is what happened (really funny) 🙂
So we went to Parliment House and we found a photo of an old man that was a twin of Dad practically. (massive eyebrows) it was so funny! Then we saw the LEGO Parliment House and it was SOOOO amazing, idk how people make such amazing LEGO builds! We also saw the Senate and then we went and looked at the House Of Representatives I wish they were sitting though so we could see them in ACTION. Soon we were finished at the New Parliment house and we left to the OLD Parliment House. We had lunch there,I had: Bacon and egg roll Caramel milkshake sip of soup (haha that kinda rhymes) and some bread (one bite lol)
We finished up at all both Parliment Houses and we soon left to the Museum! there we so many exhibitions you could choose from, but we chose the Endeavour Voyage! It was so interesting and explaiined how and what happened only a few hundred years ago.
we soon finished up at the Museum again and left back to the caravan park. We then made dinner at the camp kitchen. We soon got VERY tired and left the kitchen, went back to the van, brushed our teeth got ready for bed and watched a movie then got into bed.
We’ve come from Wagga Wagga and now we are in Canberra! but the only sad part about Canberra is… IT IS COLD! realy cold, we even saw snow on the mountains this morning! The caravan park we are staying at is called Alivio Tourist park Canberra. The facilities are soooo nice! they have a pool, spa, water play area, tennis court, basketball court, 3 playgrounds, camp kitchen, perfect facilities, 5 handball courts, tennis court and last but %100 definitly not least…. THE BUFFET! we havent even been to the buffet yet! but I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY want to go! we might go on friday though, which is the day we leave to go to Kiama.
We also got our internet fixed today! I can finally watch youtube and Netflix now!
WAIT! but the very very very very very very very very very very very very very very very ver very very very very exciting thing was…… I MET AMELIA FROM BTN (BTN means Behind the news) I also got a pic with her!
Today we left Swan Hill and drove to Wagga Wagga. It was another long drive but we’re getting used to it. We drove through a tiny place called Chinkapook which we called Chickenpoo (our Aunty Lyn told us about it!)!!!
It’s a nice caravan park and a nice family stayed next to us. They have sold their house and are spending a year living in their van going around Australia! It was the first night of their Big Lap, and the second night of our Big Trip. They had 3 boys called Zack, Ted and Leo. The Mum took nice photos of us in front of our Maui van.
Us and our van
It was very cold in the morning. We think it was 8 degrees! So we went and bought a heater and thermals as it will be colder in Canberra maybe 1 degree!
So day one of our two-year trip round Oz didn’t quite go with the military precision which we are famous for, when we realised Dad’s contact lenses had been sat at OPSM all week.
The intended 07:00 depart was pushed back a bit, but we were soon off (well, 09:30am).
Next stop, literally, was roadworks on the Heysen Tunnels, so not off to a flyer on that one either. Thankfully that didn’t set us back too long and we were soon motoring down the freeway without a care in the world. Unfortunately, we were also motoring down the freeway with a fridge door which flung itself wide open. So the first stop on our five-year word trip was technically Crafers, when we decided it would be better to use the retaining pin on the fridge door. Like I think they said to at the shop!
Anyway … back on the freeway, a few minutes in and amazingly, the middle draw holding the pots and pans complety fell out, but due to the incredible packing ability of the pot-pan packer, it remained at 90-degreees, fully open on one side without a single pan falling out! Nice work, but we obviously had to make another stop, and so far our trip was resembling not much more than ‘where to get off and fix things in the Adelaide Hills’.
Things did improve however, and we finally started to make some serious inroads into todays target of about 500 k’s.
The travel experience was a bit further frustrated by the GPS not working correctly on the van, and when we did suss it out, it lost all its settings when we stopped at a servo.
The van itself is pretty good, but it rattles like you would not beleive. Or maybe you would. After all this is supposed to be a house on wheels so there is a lot to rattle.
Other comedy events included the kettle not working when we stopped for a well-earned cuppa in the middle of nowhere, and a coat which fell off a shelf and completely blocked the rear-view mirror (likely rattled itself loose).
But the good news in all this, is that we made good time, and hit Swan Hill at 5:30.
We grabbed a well-earned feed at the Federal (not a single veggie item on the menu) whre Jimi demolished a porterhouse, and mum and dad chullaxedwith a well earned drink.
Another reward for our efforts was great positioning at the caravan park, with our site right on the banks of the Murray. There are pics attached …. enjoy!
Our first destination on our trip is Swan Hill, on the border of NSW and Victoria. After a 500km drive to Swan Hill, we arrived at big4 riverside caravan park.
This was a big stop on our trip, taking up ten percent of the driving for the whole trip, we are travelling 5,000 kilometres to cairns and this drive was 500 kilometres.
I liked the view of the river from our site and walking across the river to the pub for dinner, we later realised that we had crossed the border to NSW.
This year in 2021 we are going on a big trip around part of Australia. I am very excited because it will be the first time we will have been around any other part of Australia for the first time in my whole life. I’ve seen a bit of South Australia but never any other places.
I am most looking forward to the caravan parks, and the water parks (including Wet n’ Wild World). I’m also looking forward to the fun things we are going to do.
This is a screenshot of us planning our trip from Adelaide to Cairns, up the east coast. We currently have booked the first two weeks of accomodation as well as the final week. We will be traveling in a Motorhome, it is a Britz 6-berth frontier.
Jimi and Mazzy Adventures 