The Grand Summary - or the Kennojus family's best and worst of 2012

Kms travelled: 40,425 (approx)
Days away: 325
States and territories visited: all of them!
Longest drive: From Tenant Creek to Lawn Hill - 798kms
Most expensive tourist 'experience': Swimming with the whalesharks (Exmouth, WA)
Number of hospital/doctors visits: 3 (2 for Sash, and 1 for Bill)

Best campsite
Zara + Sasha: Bussleton Big 4 Caravan Park (WA)
Bill: Big Lagoon, Francois Perron National Park (WA)
Kate: Shelly Beach, Albany (WA) + Conto Campground, Margaret River (WA)

Best Day
Sasha: my birthday in Bussleton (WA) and Movieworld (Gold Coast)
Zara: Movieworld (Goldcoast)
Bill: Fishing with George in Kalumbaru (Kimberly) and day at Michael and Julia's in Hobart
Kate: Hiking at Mitchell Falls (Kimberly) + walking in Bungle Bungles (WA)

Best tourist 'experience'
Zara: swimming with the whalesharks (Exmouth, WA) and snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef
Sasha: swimming with the whalesharks (even though he stayed on the boat!)
Bill: Tasman Island Cruise (TAS)
Kate: Ord River canoe trip (WA) and watching the total solar eclipse (Mareeba, QLD)

Worst moment
Zara: saying goodbye to Melbourne visitors
Sasha: crashing off bike on Mariah Island (TAS)
Bill: driving 5 hours to Kununurra (WA) with offensive boring guy
Kate: eye infection and chat to racist Perth couple in Alice Springs

People we loved from Melbs:
Cam, Greta, Dash and Jett
Jane, Sasha and Nina
Prue and Graham
Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry
Anna and Thu

Best fishing spots:
Lincoln National Park (SA)
Denham (WA)
Big Lagoon, Shark Bay (WA)
Honeymoon Bay, Kimberlys (WA)

Longest hikes:
Freycinet National Park (TAS)
Uluru base-walk (NT)
Pound Walk, Ormiston Gorge (NT)

Best hikes:
Frenchman's Peak, Cape Le Grande National Park (WA)
Mt Tubyularup, Stirling Ranges (WA)
Hollow Mountain, Grampians (VIC)
Pinnacles, Grampians (VIC)
Wineglass Bay, Freycinet National Park (TAS)
Rainforest Walk, Cape Tribulation (QLD)

Nicest beaches:
Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park (WA)
Cape Tribulation (QLD)
Shelley Beach, near Albany (WA)
Bay of Fires (TAS)

Worst bities (mozzies and sandflies):

Ubir, Kakadu (NT)

Kalumburu, Kimberly coast (WA)

Francois Perron National Park (WA)  

Number of flat tyres: 2 

(1 on Gibb River Road, Kimberlys (WA), 1 on Hume Highway (NSW))

Number of tow-trucks used: 3 

(Gibb River road to Kununurra, Litchfield NP to Katherine, Tully bridge to Tully)

Favourite driving songs:

Sasha: Somebody That I Used to Know, Gotye

Zara: Little Lies, Fleetwood Mac

Bill: Signatune, DJ Mhedi

Kate: Oh Yoko, John Lennon

10 Spots (in no particular order):

Kate and Bill

1. Gunlum, Kakadu (NT)
2. Karijini gorges (WA)
3. Bungle Bungles (WA)
4. Lincoln National Park (SA)
5. Cape Range National Park (WA)
6. Litchfield National Park (NT)
7. Zebede Hot Springs, El Questro, Kimberlys (WA)
8. Lawn Hill, Budjamulla National Park (QLD)
9. Uluru (NT)
10. Mitchell Falls, Kimberlys (WA)

Zara and Sasha

1. Theme parks (QLD)
2. Tim and Stephanie's house (NSW)
3. Tanya's house (NT)
4. Cow Bay (QLD)
5. Great Barrier Reef (QLD)
6. Bussleton (WA) 
7. Marg's place (WA)
8. Louise's place (WA)
9. Big Lagoon and Monkey Mia, Francois Perron NP (WA)
10. The Katherine Public Library (NT)

Hurrah! Back in Vic and nearly home (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Last night in Wodonga - beautiful campsite.
Back to Melbs

Questacon and a night with family (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Drove to Canberra, visited Questacon for a couple of hours, then to Gundaroo to stay with Tim and Stephanie.

Bright lights, fireworks and caravan park residents in Sydney (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

Tall Timbers caravan park in Kemsey. 1 night thankfully.

To Sydney - 3 nights in funny caravan park with lots of permanent residents - almost all old guys with tatts on their necks, beer bellies, missing teeth and well-tendered gardens. Sash loved them and kept dissapearing into their caravans to watch telly with them while they drank beer. Bit awkward.

Went to carols in the park without really realising that they were run by the local christian church and so contained a lot of singing and talking about Jesus. At one point they called all the little christian kids down the front and so our kids, ragged, dirty and wide-eyed ran to the front and stood staring while the chirpy lady onstage talk to them about the true meaning of Christmas. They were confused but happy enough. Still we left early and scooted across town to watch an amazing Christmas fireworks display over Darling Harbour. Sash, who had never seen fireworks before, ooohed and ahhed then checked with me that I would still read him a book before bed that night, and then assured went back to oohing and ahhing...

Next day we took a ferry across the harbour to Taronga Zoo where we spent a happy day checking out the animals. The rest of our time in Sydney was spent doing a little Christmas shopping, checking out amazing residential christmas lights, going to see 'Rise of the Guardians' at the cinema and trying to extract Sash from other people's caravans...

Hippies, babies and plans for a commune in Nthn NSW (Dec 2012)

To be completed (soon!)

To Whian Whian (near Mullumbimby) - camping with hippies
Drive through gorgeous northern nsw mountains. Bill planned his commune.
Visited Bec and Nick and met baby Benjamin.

All class on the Gold Coast

Throwing all cynicism and class to the wind, we braced ourselves for 3 days of theme-park madness. After a year of rustic living, open spaces, peace and serenity, we were ready to go bananas! So we packed a bag of healthy snacks (ok not toooo bananas...) and headed for our first day at Movieworld (Hollywood on the Gold Coast!!). And we had the best day ever. Bill again displayed his incredible lack of fear by going on almost every single super scary ride there. Zara showed that she is truly her father's daughter by going on every scary ride she was allowed on. And Sash reminded us that he is still only 4 and finds the snail-paced merry-go-round quite thrilling indeed. Me, well I loved the Spooky-coaster with Zara, the stunt cars with the kids, the roller-coaster with everyone, the 4D movie experience, and the gluttonous bottomless buffet lunch... But most of all I loved how excited Sash was by the people dressed up as movie characters and how he lined up so many times to meet them that they all knew him by the end of the day. He wasn't interested in having his photo taken with them - he just wanted to hug and kiss them with pure adoration all over his beautiful face. He even kissed Tweety-Bird's feet...

We had planned to hit the water-slides at Wet N Wild the next day but the light rain was a bit off-putting (standing in endless queues in wet bathers), so we headed to Sea World instead. Again, a great day. We ooohed and ahhhhhed along with the crowd at the performing dolphins and seals - but felt slightly uncomfortable with the whole concept at the same time. Education verses exploitation and all that... Giant moving dinosaurs were cool though. And the Dora show. And Sash got to meet Spongebob and Squarepants and a whole heap of other characters who he did not recognise but loved all the same...

And yes, the next day we actually returned to where our hearts were - Movieland! You see, Bill had run out of time and had missed out on one of the scary rides. And the rest of us didn't need much encouragement to go back...

Gotta love the Gold Coast!

Old friends, an Xmas frenxy and dizzying heights in Brisvegas

Still shaking off the salt water and dreaming of incredible underwater scenes, we hightailed it to Brisbane - stopping for a forgettable night in Gladstone en route. Sash was pretty keen to check out the Giant Pineapple (being of the age where giant things appeal) but when we pulled in after a brief de-tour, everything was shutting for the day. A young attendant took pity on us and let us climb the pineapple and check out the history of pineapple production in Australia. We also took the obligatory photo of the family waving from the top of the pineapple, just below the stalk...

Upon leaving, I did a very unusual thing for me - I checked my facebook account. Much to my delight I happened to notice that a very dear old friend from Melbourne, Anna O, had posted that she was in Brisbane with another lovely friend, Thu! Turns out that they were just in town for the weekend and it just happened to be the very weekend we were passing through on our whirlwind tour of the east coast... I was thrilled at the chance to see two of my fave peeps from Melbourne so I rang Anna and we arranged to meet up the very next day in the heart of Brisbane.

We checked in at a caravan park near the water (for final fishing attempts by BT) and made plans for our brief time in Brisbane. Early the next morning we took off into town and headed straight to Myers to meet Santa and ride the santa-land train. Not surprisingly it was insanely crowded and took forever, but the kids enjoyed every second so it was totally worth it. The year in a tent must have addled our brains a bit because we actually purchased a copy of a really weird photo of the kids with Santa where they held their hands out and then someone photoshopped some reindeer eating out of their hands. Weird...

Following our Christmas frenzy, we met up with Anna and Thu for a lovely long lunch of catching up and laughs. It was truly wonderful to see them and a timely reminder that there are people in Melbourne who we were longing to see - and that our homecoming wasn't something to dread!

After fond farewells and promises to catch up soon in Melbourne, Anna and Thu headed to the airport and we headed for Brisbane's big wheel. It was huge and provided an amazing view over Brisbane. We ended our day in town with a peculiar dinner at a funky and outrageously expensive Korean restaurant. We were totally exhausted when we caught the train home - but excited about the next leg of our journey which would take us to the Gold Coast theme parks!!!

Bad food and great snorkelling at Reefworld

Back in Tully we told ourselves that we had made the right decision to sink yet more $$ into our landcruiser instead of taking to it with sledgehammers. But despite handing over great wads of cash we felt okay about our decision to fix what we already have rather than chucking it into landfill and buying more, more, more. Also a bit of respect for the number of kms it has taken us around this vast, sandy, rocky country...

Anyway we were back on the road and heading for the Great Barrier Reef. We all felt excited at reaching yet another great Australian landmark and although we were nervous of the crowds of East-coast tourists, we were excited to have a chance to explore such an amazing natural feature of our glorious country. Due to limited time we had booked a trip to Reefworld - a crazy all-in-one place built right on the reef from which you can snorkel, dive, go on a glass bottom boat, eat lunch, have a massage etc etc. We were really only interested in snorkeling but felt it was a good idea to have back-up activities considering Sash's inconsistent levels of enthusiasm for water-based adventure.

After a night at a caravan park in Airlie Beach we arose early and jumped a fancy boat to Reefworld. I spent most of the journey enjoying the fresh air of the outside deck while the others sat inside and eyed off the snacks from the bar. When I finally made my way inside I found them making friends with a group of fellow-passengers-  one of whom turned out to be my former Melbourne Uni workmate, friend and Hong Kong travel companian, Yee Fui. Great to see her and have yet another randomly encounter with people we know in odd spots in Australia. Yee Fui and her friends were spending the day on one of the islands so almost as soon as we had recovered from the shock of finding eachother on a boat in Queensland we had to say goodbye.

Shortly afterwards we arrived at Reefworld and despite the complete ensuing chaos we were soon wetsuited, flippered, masked etc and plunging into the warm water. Sash, our hero, decided that snorkelling was fun and had a great time spotting fish and coral - until his mask started feeling uncomfortable and he asked to go back on deck. Zara, our fish, happily snorkelled around for ages. As many snorkelers discover, the coral isn't very impressively coloured so close to the surface due to the sunlight - you really have to dive much further down to view the sorts of colours they use on the advertising brochures. However, the fish are amazing and the shapes and textures of the coral are amazing to see. We had a great time - which was good because the buffet lunch was revolting - almost inedible! We consoled ourselves by slipping down the waterslide into the ocean, going on the glass bottom boat tour and having another snorkel.

The journey back to Airlie Beach was a hoot. The staff were clearly relaxed and some of the younger ones befriended Zara and Sasha and taught them circus tricks in the bar area. Hours of fun!

Highlights - definitely the blue blue ocean, amazing snorkeling and lovely staff
Lowlights - most definitely the lunch (what were they thinking?) and the loss of my ring (a precious inheritance from my mum which is now nestled amongst amazing corals on the ocean floor).  

The Dream continues... before getting stuck in the most humid town in Aus!

We said farewell to our tropical hideaway and stuffed one final homemade icecream into our gobs, before accompanying Dave, Liz, Ada and Henry for a picnic, walk and swim at the beautiful Mossman Gorge. Interesting to see that the Gorge area is managed by its traditional owners - apparently no partnership with local government and all staff were local people. Very slick operation - and a lovely place to spend the hours before our dear friends scooted off to Cairns to catch their (delayed!) plane back to Melbs.

We consoled ourselves with sushi train in Cairns where we stayed just one night before heading to Mission Beach where Bill was keen to try for some squid. We decided to detour slightly to check out a much touted tourist attraction called Paronella Park. We had seen some very glossy and intriguing brochures about Paronella Park but couldn't work out what it actually was or what we would be able to do and see there. The brochure just kept stating that 'the dream continues...' in romantic script. If this was a clever bit of marketing it worked!

Anyway, turns out Paronella Park is a big property and castle built by a Spanish dude called Jose. He arrived in Aus, made plenty of money and decided to build a castle - as you do... He opened 'his dream' to the public in the 1930s and had movies, dances, swimming and a cafe for people to enjoy. After the Paronella family left half the castle was burnt down and the rest left to rack and ruin. Then the current owners bought it for a song and have spent a lot of time and energy rebuilding and opening it up as a tourist attraction. They trade on the 'Big Dream' aspect - you know, follow your dreams blah blah. Other tourists rave on about this magic place but unfortunately we got a guide who was more interested in getting the tour finished than answering questions or lingering anywhere. We were literally jogging after him as he gave us the briefest explanations over his shoulder. So after the tour we still didn't really get what the place was, so we wandered around for a while trying to work it out, then gave up and left. But I imagine with the right guide it would be easy to be caught up in the strange, eerie magic of this unusual place... As we left, the kids were given a little yellow bag with 'the dream continues' printed on the front and a piece of rock (from the castle) inside... Righto...

We drove onto Mission Beach which didn't blow us away, and at which Bill had no fishing success. So we spoke long and hard with the friendly and very helpful guy at the Visitors Info Centre and planned our attack of Queensland's tropical islands and beaches... Only problem was that as we drove South our wonderful and reliable (NOT) car started being weird again before conveniently conking out on the small but very busy bridge into Tully (the most humid town in Australia). Luckily the locals were all friendly and helpful and soon had us off the bridge and towed to the local RACQ mechanic before we could blink. We were informed that the car needed all sorts of vital work and that we would  be in Tully for at least 5-6 days, so we settled uncomfortably into a local caravan park that was packed to the rafters with young people who live for a season in Tully and make a pittance picking bananas in the sweltering heat all day and then make a lot of noise and a big mess in the camp kitchen at night. Fun! As we sat sweating outside our trailer we made an easy decision to get outta there ASAP while the car was being fixed. And so the next day we headed off to beautiful Magnetic Island for 3 nights in a basic self-contained unit at the beach - where we swam in the pool and the ocean, hired a car to explore the island, went on a bushwalk to see WW2 ruins and koalas and rode inflatable tubes behind speed boats - for kicks! It was a wonderful, relaxing couple of days.