Cutlers Cruz Aus: Sydney, Kangaroo Valley & Canberra and a couple of other places

Well the last couple of days in Sydney were pretty exciting. I got to meet the handsome Larry Emder( not sure about the spelling) and Kylie from Sevens Morning Show. Hopefully all of you saw me and the kids on the tv waving our little hearts out. That's right you all had to work.... sorry I was just thinking everyone is living the dream. I did ask Larry if he had any special ways of getting me onto the Price is Right but he told me just apply via the website, that wasn't the answer I was looking for, I was hoping that he would whisk me away with him and put me on the show that day. I know, I'm a dreamer.
Zara got to see her name in big letters thanks to the designer with the same name. She was pretty happy with herself telling the other kids " you don't have your name on the wall". Little did she know just around the corner was a sign for Levi's.

We left Sydney on the 24th May- Zara's birthday and headed towards Kiama. Our first stop was at Bulli and after having beautiful warm weather in Sydney we nearly froze our bottoms off as the wind was howling and the rain was joining us again.
Zara got a Barbie doll for her birthday and she was so excited her face had a smile on it the whole day but the highlight was when she saw her cake with the candles on. She grabbed Jamie's arm and was shaking with excitement. It was so cute to see, I wish I got that excited about things.
We called into Kiama to have a look at the famous blowhole but unfortunately there was no blow, just a hole. I'm not sure if it is a tidal thing or what but the ocean was no where near the hole. So we keep going to make our destination for the night, a free camp at Kangaroo Valley. We were told it was an amazing place to see wild wombats and it had heaps of room for the kids to run around. But we weren't told about the almighty drive up the single lane range. Towing a caravan the car really doesn't have a lot of power going along a slight hill, these ranges had signs on most of the corners to go 15kms at one point the car was spinning all four wheels and I thought we were going to wheel stand it. Little did I know that was the first time this Valley was trying to kill us.
We decided when we arrived that this was a pretty cool area, as we were told and we thought we would stay for the weekend and just do some driving to the attractions up and down the coast. The first night seemed to be fine, a little bit of wind, not to bad, wombats scratching themselves on the van and really quite. However the second day we went for a drive into Nowra to have a look around and it seemed to be getting quite winding, so we decided we should get back to the van before dark ( which was about 4pm). When we arrived the wind was gailing and the top part of the van was flapping around everywhere and the wind kept blowing out the gas flame on the fridge. Jamie said he was going to look for a sheltered area to move the van to as the wind just seemed to be getting stronger and the position we had right out in the middle of the campground was asking for trouble. He found a place and we moved camp, this however I think was the second time this valley tried to kill us as the winds were in excess of hundred kms an hour. I must say I have never been so scared in all my life, asking Jamie if it would be safer sleeping in the car, he assured me we would be fine but the way the van was flapping around I thought the opposite. So I was pretty much awake, shaking the whole night while the kids slept soundly in there beds. When it was daylight I checked to make sure everyone had survived and I told Jamie, "that's it, this van is going for sale and we are heading home, I'm not going through that again". He just nodded like the wonderful agreeing husband he is. But as you can tell we are still on the road and we are all safe and well.
Looking on the other side of the coin Kangaroo Valley was a really beautiful place to stay, the wildlife and the wide open space was fantastic,and with only one other caravan there it was so peaceful, we even made our own exercise circuit using the massive rocks for dips and running around the ground in between sets. The kids even got up close enough to pat a little wombat. So our planned weekend stay turned into 5 nights.

Then it was time to head to Canberra, because we looked at the coastline heading down to Batemans Bay while staying at Kangaroo Valley, we thought it would be nice to head inland for a change. That is definitely the best part of not having a plan on where we are going and just driving.
We thought it might be nice for the kids to see the Big Merino in Goulburn so we called in on the way. We were all extremely surprised at how enormous this sheep was, Levi especially when he saw how large it's testicles were. If I could have zoomed in on his face in the picture I think it would have been priceless.

Canberra is really a great place, I love that it is a city but it is really spread out but most of the tourist attractions are close to each other. We never really had any problems with traffic or parking, and best of all 90% of the attractions we visited were free and we also had really cheap accommodation at the Showgrounds. So overall I think I would definitely recommend it to anyone. One main point though you need at least one week to see everything and then maybe a couple of days to just chill out and winter really isn't that cold even at -3 in the van.

The attractions we saw were Questacon, Old & New Parliament House, The Dinosaur Museum, The Deep Space centre, The Sound & Film archives, The National Library, The National Gallery, The bus depot markets, The farmers markets, Canberra Glassworks, The War Museum, The Mint and Jamie was lucky enough to catch up with a friendfor a few sharpies at the pub.

Leaving Canberra tomorrow and heading for the snow.