Dorrigo National Park, the Big Banana and home again

So on Monday, we ventured out to Dorrigo National Park.  The rain was still pounding us so we prepared by packing along extra clothes, extra shoes, beach towels, and rain gear.  We had planned to spend two days at the park, doing one long hike/walk each day.  For Monday, we decided to take the 5.8 km walk that orginates from the visitor centre and goes down to Crystal Shower Falls and Tristania Falls.  We got to the visitor centre and piled on our rain gear.  First up, the Skywalk.  On clear days, you are up at the same level as the tops of the trees and you can see way out over the whole park.  Pictures online are really cool.  Monday was rainy and so much fog and mist that you couldn't see much at all. 

Tom and Sam were actually excited about taking a long walk in the rain.  Joe, on the other hand, had no interest in it.  He had been begging to go to the park since the day we drove into Coffs Harbour.  He just didn't want to do it in the rain.  Sorry, bud, nothing we can do about the weather. 

Joe complained and was miserable during the entire walk.  The rest of us were fine for the most part.  We were doing fine until after we got to the waterfalls. 
Crystal Falls:

The boys thought it was cool that we got to hike down behind it as well as see it from the bridge.  We told the boys over and over that if it hadn't been raining so hard, the falls wouldn't have looked as cool. 
Tristania Falls:

This picture makes the falls look kinda small, but it was huge!  There was so much water going over it.  We stood on the bridge in front of it and Jay proclaimed "Holy Moley, that's alotta water."  After we left the falls, Sam said "holy moley, that's alotta water" over and over to himself for the next 15 minutes or so.  It was so cute.
Here's the guys standing on the bridge in front of the falls.

The water goes down under the bridge and the over another falls on the left side of the picture.  Totally incredible and amazing! 
After we left the falls, the boys were starting to tire.  Even Jay and I were starting to tire.  We were all wet and a little cold and had a 2 km walk back to the car still.  Of course, there were also the leaches.  Tom thought the walk was fun until we had to take a couple of leaches off his legs.  Leaches are harmless, but they do drink your blood.  They don't carry any diseases like ticks do, but Tom was freaked out by them.  When they first climb up on you, they are tiny skinny little things.  If they attach on and drink for a bit, they start to swell up like a water balloon.  The ones that you see in movies are after they've been fed.  Once we got done with the walk and in to the bathrooms to change, we had to deleach as well.  Tom had gotten all of his off while still on the walk, Jay had one on his leg and one of his face (which I'd seen at the end of the walk and removed for him), Joe had seen them all before they got off his shoes and Sam and I... We weren't so good at not getting leaches.  Sam had two on his legs, one under his arm and one on his belly.  They'd all been on there a bit and were pretty big.  Eww.  I had three on my ankles that weren't big, one on my knee that was, and one on my stomach that was huge.  Ewww.  Leaches have both a pain killer and a anti-clotting agent in their saliva.  Sam bleed a bit (about 10 minutes) and the clotted.  The ones on my ankles were about 10 minutes, but the one of my knee was about 90 minutes (got blood all over my pants) and the one on my stomach was still bleeding 4 hours after I removed it.  At this point we were back at the cabin and I put a bandaid on it. 
We did a quick dinner that night and went to bed without to much fuss.  We were all tired from that day.
We had to be out of the cabin early the next morning as check out was 9 am. 
We drove over to the Big Banana.  The Big Banana totes itself as one of Australia's most famous icons.  Hmmm.  Never heard of it until we went to Coffs Harbour so it must not be that famous.  There is a banana plantation, a walk upto the top of a large hill for viewing Coffs Harbour, an Ice rink, a waterpark, and slide ride all at the Big Banana.  However, it was closed at 9 in the morning and not opening until 10:30.  We didn't want to wait around.  So we took a few pictures and left. 

We decided to give the kids a bit of fun and headed to an indoor family fun center.  It opended at 9:30 and we were the first ones there.  It had a big climbing structure, a ball pit, indoor mini golf and a nerf ball blasting zone.  It was good fun, though Jay was tired and wanted to leave shortly after getting there.

I think the kids were just happy to be doing something out of the rain for once. 
We stayed until about 11 and then headed out of town.  The weather was clearing so we had a picnic lunch on the banks of a swollen river.  We couldn't go back to Dorrigo National Park as the road was underwater.  My car is not set up for going through water.  (They don't close roads when there's water over them.  They just put up markers to show how deep it is.  If you get stuck, it's your fault.) 
We'd love to go back to that area at some point.  However, we have so much on our list, it's down at the bottom.
We spent a lazy day at home on Wednesday.  On Thursday, while Sam was back at his school, I took the big boys on an educational hike through the National Parks system.  The hike was called "Whose Poo is it?  The goal of the hike was to show everyone animal tracks and poo and identify them.   I found the first animal track.  A single paw print in some sand on the side of the trail.  Ranger Justin was stumped.  He didn't know what it was.  We didn't see much poo, just some rabbit and some dog.  But we did see some tracks: dog, rabbit, wallaby, mystery track, and crow.  It was an enjoyable two hours.  And the boys had fun.  (Oh, Selena and her two girls were with us, btw.)  After the walk, all of us met up with Aleeya (who didn't have her oldest with her) and ate lunch at Fingal Bay Beach Park.  After lunch, we all walked down to the beach for some sand and water play.  We left there at about 3:15 because some of the kids were cold and all headed back to Aleeya's house for ice cream and coffee.  It was a really fun day!

Off to a rainy start

So, after much planning on Friday, we decided to go to Coffs Harbour, about 5 hours north of our house.  This turns out to be the first vacation that we have taken as a family that didn't involve visiting family.  We managed to get a little holiday cabin rented.  There are two bedrooms, a living room, a small kitchen, a bathroom and fold out bed.  There's a pool across the parking lot and a beach about an 8 minute walk.  We mostly came up here for the Dorrigo National Park that I talked about in the last post.  Big problem though, it's pouring.  It is raining hard, non-stop pouring down rain.  We came prepared for some rain, but it looks as if it might rain the entire time we are here.  We'll make the best of it though. 

Day 5 of spring holidays

Today, Friday, is day 5 of spring holidays.  We've had some nice times in the first 4 days.  We are going to take today off as a rest and work day.  Jay announced late yesterday that he is going to be able to take Monday and Tuesday off work.  So I have to plan a mini trip and set it all up.  And I have to prep for it.  Things like laundry and packing. 
Here's what we've done so far this week.
Monday- Joe, Tom and I were out and about when Jay called.  Dave needed a place to crash for the night.  So we came home and cleaned up so that Dave would have a place to sleep. 
Tuesday- Aleeya invited us to meet her at the library, followed by lunch at the food court in the mall.  Sure!  This was actually our first trip to the library and it went well.  The boys all have their own library cards and I have one too.  We can get up to 10 books per card per visit.  And we can have up to 30 books out per card at a time.  That would be 120 books!  The librarian suggested not to get our full limit.  Um, yeah, no worries about that.  Lunch did not go as well because the kids were just a little too wound up for a trip to the mall.  Oh well, we survived. 
Wednesday- We went to a local park called Dutchies for a picnic with Selena and her girls.  About 10 minutes after we got there, a shower came through and it was overcast and cold.  We got a tiny bit wet, but decided just to tough it out.  The shower moved off and while it was overcast and cool the rest of the time, it was fun and relaxing.  The kids all had a great time.   We stayed there for about 3 1/2 hours.  After the park, we went to the post office to pick up my package and drop off some letters to be mailed.  Then we drove over to Aleeya's house for afternoon tea.  We had coffee and snacks while our 6 kids played.  Good times!
Thursday- We went to a great local beach.  We have about 20 local, named beaches and Fingal Bay Beach is a good one.  It is not a huge as Birubi and is much more protected from the ocean waves and wind.  We had a fantastic time!  The sun was bright, the waves were great, the breeze was cool and the water was freezing!  I only got my feet wet, but Joe and Tom went full in.  I used plenty of sunscreen on my face and arms, but still got burnt!  My nose got it and my legs!  I had capri pants on and anything below the pants got burned.  I need to learn to put sunscreen all over and I need some hats!  Hats are much more "in" here than they are in the States.  They are needed here, so part of our errands today will be hat shopping. 
Friday- we are catching our breath today as we are going away tomorrow.  Errands, laundry and packing.  Tomorrow we will be driving about 5 1/2 hours up to Coffs Harbour.  What's in Coffs Harbour, you ask?  Well, I have no clue, but it is close to Dorrigo National Park.  Dorrigo National Park is a huge rainforest park with elevated boardwalks through the upper levels of the rainforest.  It should be a great time with lots of hiking.  Look at this website for more info.  Coffs Harbour also has lots of beaches and we'll be staying in a little holiday cabin for three nights.  We'll be coming home on Tuesday.  So excited!