Geelong

We booked tickets to John Williamson in Geelong a little while ago. We didn't quite realise how far it was from where we were staying at Kilsyth, so we ended up booking into a cabin at the Big 4 Caravan Park for the night. Was very weird pulling into a caravan park without the van, we kept looking behind us and seemed to want to pull into the caravan section and set up!

First stop was Little Creatures Brewery, not that that would surprise anyone! Mark tried a few beers and we had an early dinner before the concert.  It's an interesting brewery and restaurant set up in an old factory...... Marks heaven.

Mark drooling at the set up!

As we've travelled around Australia we've listened to a lot of John Williamson music. He seems to have a song about a lot of places we have visited. We were so incredibly excited, and the kids were too!! The concert was held at the Geelong Performing Arts Centre, we stood out a bit in the grey haired crowd.  We had a blast though, he played so many of our favourite songs. I just loved watching Jake passionately singing Tru Blu and Charlotte singing along to Waltzing Matilda.  Considering John had a cold, it was pretty awesome. Such a great way to end our trip with some iconic country music. Was a little bitter sweet for Mark and I as it reminded us of many happy occasions on this trip. 

After the show we got to meet John and get his autograph and photo. Jake shook his hand and said "we've been listening to your music for four years as we travelled around Australia". John thought we had good taste in music!

The cabin we stayed in had a spa which we all made use of as a treat. The kids had some fun with the bubbles. Charlotte said "I feel like a movie star". 

The funniest moment was when the kids came running out of our room. Charlotte said 'we think you have a bed warmer'. Apparently they'd found the electric blanket but didn't know what it was.

The next morning we went for a walk by the river. I got traumatised by a magpie again, this time it attacked a cyclist and I got away, horrible horrible evil birds. The kids had fun at a playground, especially on the flying fox.

After that we had a walk down along the waterfront. We enjoyed looking at all the wooden poles made into statues. Great photo opportunity. The pier's a lovely area with restaurants and a few fishermen.

That's about it for Geelong. I kinda thought it would be more citified but it wasn't at all. Just like a bigger version of my home town.

Melbourne

After leaving Bright we headed to Kilsyth near Melbourne to stay with our travelling mates the Ellis family, Kaz,Dan, Sam, Will and Zac. We hadn't seen these guys in a while as they have finished travelling in their van and we had loads to catch up on. They even had space in their front yard for us to park our van and leave it there whilst we were in Thailand.  Was lovely to chat and have a few drinks with Dan and Kaz, by the bar and in reminiscence of days gone by, sitting around a camp fire! And of course the kinds ran around as if no time had past.  Not surprising considering we have spent a fair bit of the trip with these guys.

One afternoon/evening we went to visit our friends the Radfords. They are originally Tassie people who now live in Melbourne with their two kids Thomas and Hannah now.  We had a really lovely evening catching up and chatting about old times. We don't get to see these guys very often but it's always the same and we had a great time.

We also went and had lunch with my Auntie Jill and family in Brighton whilst we were in town.   We had a yummy lunch then the kids entertained themselves in the spa whilst we relaxed and chatted.

Whilst in Kilsyth it was Halloween and of course the kids wanted to dress up, its cute that their not too old for this yet.  Kaz had organised pumpkins and the kids had a great time carving them for the first time.  They looked so good that night with candles in them, very cool and scary Jack o lanterns! The kids danced around with disco lights and had a mini party.  Then proceeded in demolishing lollies and a ginger bread house.  A pretty funny Halloween.

We all had such a great time hanging out and seeing how our mates had settled into 'normal' life post travelling.  We went to the boys basketball, out shopping and for lunch and even got a group photo with Santa.  It was amusing to watch all the kids insist on travelling together in the Ellis car, it was lovely and peaceful in ours!

Charlotte's first motor bike ride with a boy

Sammy and Charlotte even cooked us breakie one day

We timed it well, so that we were in Melbourne for my Grandad's 90th birthday party.  We got all dressed up in some tidy fancy clothes and met at my cousin Tracey's place for pre dinner drinks and nibbles.  There was quite a group of us with cousins, aunties and uncles.  We hadn't seen each other in a long time, it's been a while since we've had a big family occasion.  It was pretty loud and noisy, us Thorp's aren't exactly quiet shy people!  We had a delicious dinner at a Greek restaurant with more chatter and laughter.  Grandad he had a wonderful time surrounded by his family.  Its a pretty special milestone to achieve and he's doing it proud!

On our last day in Melbourne we decided to go for a road trip with the Ellis gang to a Chocolate factory for lunch and to Coldstream Brewery after lunch.  Its a really picturesque area, lots of rolling green hills and bright blue skies.  We had such a lovely day.  It was a fitting way to end our stay with these guys.  They have been so great letting us stay and experience some of their life in Kilsyth and to store our van whilst we went to Thailand (that's a whole nother blog entry to come).  We have been so so lucky to meet some truly fabulous people as we have travelled this big country.  We said our goodbyes and headed off to the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry to begin our last part of this epic journey we have been on for the last four years.