We decided it was about time Toby got a week off work and so we decided that for the second week of the school holidays we’d take a trip south to the Snowy Mountains. We had an iconic Aussie location that we wanted to visit. It was Craig’s Hut from the movie “The Man from Snowy River”.
We were going to tent it but I changed my mind last minute thinking maybe it might be too cold, so we booked a cabin and off we set to Mansfield, a town nearby. It was a lovely town. We were staying just out of town by about 15mintues. Stayed in a place called Mansfield Country Resort. It was a good price and we were surprised by how nice it was when we arrived. We even had a washing machine and dryer in our cabin. They had a huge piece of land with 4 tennis courts, a big 2 storey games building with a gym, billiards, huge TV, sitting area, library and ping pong. Outside was a lovely pool area, then another building with a massive spa, then another smaller spa and sauna. There was 2 play areas, mini golf, skittles. A games room with ping pong (aka table tennis), pool and some paid games.
There were lots of cabins and we all had our own carports, we brought the bikes so the kids could bikes around and in Mansfield they had a big bike track where Toby got to take a bike ride, it spans for 134kms, he didn’t get that far.
The weather was fantastic the whole week we were to lucky. The first day we decided to go to Craig’s Hut in case the weather wasn’t on our side. We could drive a majority of the way but the last 2 kms we had to hike it. TJ did so well, not one complaint, and on the way back all the kids were good. Rocky had a good trip on daddy’s back! It was very up and down the whole way in, but worth it went we got the breathtaking views. I was surprised at how big the house was. I was glad they had toilets there for Gigi and I on arrival, too bad there was no toilet paper. Note to self: always take toilet paper with us when we got hiking. So Rocky’s wipe’s got some use thanks to Toby’s suggestion 
Our second day we decided to take the kids to The Mansfield Zoo. They had two beautiful white lions. One was making the most awesome noises, I loved it. The other memory was the fact several of the animals were allowed to roam freely, the kids weren’t too happy about that. Lets say 2 screamed their heads off, from the peacocks, ducks and kangaroo’s approaching them. I said well it probably doesn’t help you have food for them in your hands kids. Toby and I had a big laugh about that. TJ seemed to laugh through his fear. Toby even managed to get some video footage of Gigi and William screaming, it’s rather hilarious.
Day three we took a nice afternoon drive down to Bonnie Doon. Mom you might remember this from the movie “The Castle” this was the families favourite place to holiday. We found the town right near where we were and definitely felt of the serenity. I nice little town.
We spent the afternoon enjoying the resorts activities and basking in the huge spa.
Next day we ventured back towards NSW from being in Victoria to Gundagai where we stayed the night in the aid to allow me to catch up with my best mate from primary school. Sadly her kids were all away holidaying with grandparents. So my kids weren’t happy about that, we went out to dinner Friday night in Gundagai to the Family Pub and then Toby took the kids back to the hotel and Amanda and I went for a hot chocolate and catch up. Gundagai is a famous town as there is a song called Along the Road to Gundagai, it’s an Australian folk song, one of the top 30 of all time. My dad also liked to mention that he’s a member of the local RSL there. The original town was on that flat where the big bridge is, it was flooded several times and so they moved the town up off the flat in 1853.
Saturday morning we ventured into her town of Tumut for the Falling Leaves Festival, they had a big area full of tents and activities, the kids took a ride on the blown up slippery slides, TJ loved it. TJ also went into the petting zoo with Amanda, the others weren’t keen. Before long she had to leave to go to Sydney of all places to attend a concert literaly across the water from us in the Acer Arena. We ventured around the town some more before leaving for the big trip home. It was a lovely town I could see why she loves it there so much.
We arrived home about 4pm and all enjoyed our Real Aussie Holiday Adventure.
When we caught up on the phone Amanda said the concert of Black Sabbath she attended was terrible, they ended up leaving early. Total bummer, esp. at ticket prices of $160 each, too bad you can’t ask for your money back!
however I wasn’t willing to budge till I saw it, my childhood memories coming back here. About 11.30pm it finally started and boy was it worth it, so much fun, one car turned into a U-shape, and another car just wouldn’t die, it was smashed all over and still keep on, moving on. Jordan was the only one that saw it, but the other kids got to see it on the way out all the smashed up cars. One more sleepover and then it was time to them to leave. But not before a slip’n'slide which ended up biting the dust after one use, they sure don’t make things sturdy nowadays. When Uncle Edgar and Aunty Karen came, TJ got out his R/C car and they had a spin of it, it’s rather fast.
