Back from holidays! Lots of adventures, a great chance to spend time together and be disconnected from much of the distractions of life.
Here are the kids at church while Dad was away working over the weekend. In school holidays, they tend to sit in the service and doing some drawing or paper folding.
With Dad back from the long weekend, it was time to catch the train to the airport, and fly to Tasmania! The kids haven’t flown in quite a while, but they did well. If anything, economy-sized seats are a good size for kids.
Huff had some butterflies before flying, but ended up pretty excited about it all.
Once we arrived at Hobart airport, the kids were keen to explore and take pictures. Puff made a mistake fiddling with his camera and deleted most of the photos he’d taken on the trip.
Nonetheless, he was keen to capture what he could for the trip. The first thing I want to wean him off is the use of digital zoom, but having him keen to take photos is a good start.
On our first morning in the Tamar valley, we went for a short walk together and noticed the different birds and the beauty of the fog over the valley.
Later in the day, we went for another walk, this time around the dam at a cherry farm. It was good to see him more cheery and upbeat, and less distracted by screens.
Huff was enjoying having some other people to spend time with, and posing fora bunch of photos here and there. Here she is with her dessert at a raspberry farm.
We went to a hedge maze place called Tasmazia (great name for Dad-joke fans), and explored their mazes and other attractions. If you’re ever there, start with the biggest maze, and work your way down; the one we started with was probably the most difficult!
After the mazes, we went toward Cradle Mountain to explore a bit: we were there too late in the day to make a day-pass worthwhile, but we managed to see some wildlife anyway: our keen photographer saw an echidna and a few wombats!
Make sure you fill up with petrol when driving around in Tasmania at dusk.We were relieved to find a 24-hour kiosk in Sheffield, and made our way home.
The next day we went to a museum called QVMAG; and the kids were big fans of the stuffed animal collection, and the science activities.
Dad and Puff practiced our sleepy faces, to see if there was a family resemblance. There was.
It was really great to spend unhurried time with the kids: I think that was one of the best parts about the holiday.
Huff had a great time with Mum too.
We had a chance to tell jokes, and enjoy each others’ company. Dad read almost an entire book (the Green Ember) to the kids in the course of our travels.
After a few days near Launceston, we headed to Hobart for a couple of nights. Our first night we went out for dinner, despite the cold.
The kids were keen for room service, and it seemed wise to feed them before trying to go to Salamanca Markets, so we relented. It took them a long while to eat all the food!
The markets were great: there are over 300 stalls, and you can spend hours just looking at things.
Puff found a musical instrument called an ocarina, which you may recall from Nintendo games. He was quickly figuring out notes and how to play.
With all our shopping done, the kids could relax on the grass a little bit.
That afternoon, we drove up to the top of “cloud mountain” (Mount Wellington), and had a look out over Hobart.
Huff in particular was a fan of scrambling over rocks.
The kids spend most of the trip (almost all) getting along famously, which was a big help.
On the way back down, we stopped for a coffee, and a short family walk.
We went to a couple of different church services, caught up with old friends, and then managed roasted marshmallows on the deck for breakfast on our last day.
It was an excellent time.