24 January 2013 – Tamworth Country Music Festival

So much for pulling on the boots this morning (kind of impossible considering I didn’t pack them into the van)!  Instead, we had a bit of a sleep in, got some washing done and then let the kids have a bit of fun by taking them to the pool.  After returning to the van for dinner, we stepped back out onto Peel Street to find out what happens at night.  Not really surprisingly it was just as busy as the daytime, people everywhere and all the pubs were full.  We found the Post Office Hotel where Chris E Thomas (and Doug) was performing but obviously couldn’t get in with the kids so listened from the outside for a while.  On the way back to the car, we also noticed 8 Ball inside the Court House Hotel.  We actually stood outside the pub window for nearly an hour listening to them play while the drummer and the kids were having fun pulling faces at each other… another late night getting home well after 11pm.  We are going to have a lot of trouble getting these kids into bed at a reasonable hour when school is set to resume!

22 & 23 January 2013 – Tamworth Country Music Festival

Another good few days here in Tamworth, we are absolutely loving it and even the kids are getting into the groove of it all.  The kids have again been running into lots of the “Star Makers” throughout the day, and been able to get lots of photos, including with Nathan Lamont (one of the four (and the only male) Star Maker finalists who will battle it out on Friday night for the title), Johnny Taylor (you may have seen him on Australia’s Got Talent last year?), Ben Ransom (who just happens to have grown up around Parramatta) and Victoria Edwards.  We watched Pixie Jenkins and Warren H Williams do a gig in the one of the shopping centres – and again the kids have photos.  The artists have all been really friendly and the kids thought that Pixie in particular was a real hoot.  There was another great act that we came across, called “8 Ball Aitken” (dude with long red locks).  Look him up on Youtube and have a listen – not only very talented but also really funny.

Mid arvo we came back to the van and had a break from it all.  You will never guess what happened when the kids decided to ride their bikes around the caravan park for a while – or perhaps you will?  Sami fell off her bike!  Yep!!  Amongst the gravel and grazed down her leg as well as the top of one of her feet, blood and skin and a few tears were shed.  We decided to stay in that night so we all stayed up until midnight watching Batman.

This morning we headed to Wests (the local club) and watched the Fender show.  There were lots of talented acts, many of whom we hadn’t heard of or seen before and the Fenders were lovely and shiny!  The jam session by all the musos to finish of the act was pretty damn good!  We headed off to a different venue next to see Chad Morgan perform (surely plenty of you know who he is but there is a photo below of him with the kids.  You will recognise him!  I might also mention that Chad is actually our neighbour two doors up in the caravan park.).  On our way out of this shopping centre, we heard music coming from within BigW so stopped to check it out.  It was The Viper Creek Band on stage inside performing – and damn they were good!

After hanging out at the van for a bit we went back to Wests and had tickets to another show, the Sunny Cowgirls.  They were also fantastic, even singing “I’ve been Eveywhere”, not to mention that they threw buckets of lollies to the kids in the audience, not that there were that many kids around.  Straight after this concert we rushed out of there and headed for Toyota Park for the free Kasey Chambers concert.  Lucky we got there early and were able to plant our chairs in a good position near the front for the show.  After arriving on stage fashionably late, Kasey and Shane came out – but you should have seen the audience rush towards the front of the stage – so much for our good position!!  It was a great show nonetheless (lucky we were also right near the speakers) and we did actually get a couple of pics.

That’s all from me for tonight – I need some rest to pull on the boots (so to speak) and hit the pavement of Peel Street again tomorrow.

20 & 21 January 2013 – Tamworth Country Music Festival

We farewelled our good friends yesterday morning and packed the van ready to head to a place that Josh and I have been wanting to get to for quite a few years – the Tamworth Country Music Festival.  However, to get there it meant travelling back along the Oxley Highway but this time we were better prepared.  We kept the kids up late the night before, gave them travel tablets before heading off and gave them each a spew bag for just in case.  They both watched a movie and then fell asleep in the car….. before we knew it we had gotten up that mighty mountain and finished with all the twists and bends and came to the mighty Apsley Falls.  This site is not far off the main road and well worth the visit (although if you were to ask the kids they would say differently).  There is a massive gorge with extremely tall slate walls.  It is possible to walk the rim of the gorge but due to limited time, bad weather and the kids non-stop whinging, we opted out and just went to a few of the viewing points.  One of these points showed where there had been a landslide where the wall had cracked and fallen into the river but the river was bare of water on the surface so all you could see below was the remnants of the slate in various size boulders.

The rain started to become a little heavy so we headed back to the car and finished off our drive through Walcha and into Tamworth.  We quickly found our caravan park, set up camp and had a rushed dinner so that we could clean ourselves up ready to head to the Toyota Star Maker show at the Tamworth Entertainment Centre.  We were ushered to our seats in the VIP area (thanks to Josh’s Toyota contacts) and sat back and enjoyed the show.  The 15 finalists were just brilliant and it was hard to pick a favourite.  We were able to SMS our votes through so the kids were pretty vigilant in watching so they could vote wisely.  A few of the previous Star Maker winners also performed including last year’s winner Bob Corbett who was absolutely entertaining and his entire band were brilliant!  The kids had a cd signed at the end of the night as well as a few pics with some of the previous winners.  It was about midnight by the time it finished and the kids slept until around 9.30am this morning – aahhhh heaven!

So today was spent walking along Peel Street being entertained by many buskers and loads of talent, both young and old.  The kids were star-struck when they kept running into the Star Makers from the concert last night and know majority of them by sight and name now.  We finished off the day by grabbing some groceries and then heading back to the van.  Upon getting back, the kids sat down for a game of chess while Josh sat down and planned out which performances we should try and get to over the next few days.  After dinner the kids washed and dried up the dishes and we all grabbed our chairs and gathered with many others in the caravan park to a free performance here put on by a few of the buskers hanging around.  There are so many talented people trying to get a big break but at the same time just loving performing their country music – and we love listening to them!

 

 

12 January 2013 – 20 January 2013 Port Macquarie (with the Demamiels)

Today we made tracks to the Sundowner Breakwall caravan park to set up for a week long of relaxing with good friends.  We arrived nice and early (around 11am) and got the shopping done before the Demamiels turned up.  I won’t go through all of the details of every day in Port but I can tell you that we had a lovely time eating, drinking, relaxing and more drinking.

A few of the other highlights of our time in Port Macquarie was spending some quality time at the many beautiful beaches including Town Beach, Flynns Beach and Lighthouse Beach to name some; having some nice bike rides along the breakwall and lots of walks into town and also trying to teach the kids to ride their skate boards; catching up with the “good children” family….. that is actually Tanya Croswell and her family on the Sunday afternoon; we took the boat out for a run along the Hastings River on probably the most windy of our days there (so it wasn’t out for long); jumping and swimming off the local wharf; a little bit of snorkelling at the Lighthouse Beach; a night out to Laurieton for dinner and kids' bingo; Josh took the kids to view a couple of massive marlin that had just been caught and brought in from the sea; and we had a big night out at the Royal Hotel on the Friday night where we also made a few new friends in the process.  We also had a nice surprise on the Friday night which included a phone call from my dad to say that he was in the area so he stopped over and spent the night out with us and stayed for most of the following day too.  It was a good little final trip to farewell more friends before moving on with the rest of our big adventure!!

11 January 2013 – Walcha to Port Macquarie (via the Oxley Highway)

11 January 2013 – Walcha to Port Macquarie (via the Oxley Highway)

We started to make tracks today towards Port Macquarie, even though we don’t have to be there until Saturday.  Along the Oxley Highway drove Josh, towing our not so light caravan and I think he was cursing the road for majority of the way.  This stretch of road has bends galore and is extremely steep and  quite narrow.  Josh had to sit on the breaks for most of the way (wait for the return trip to Tamworth when we have to climb back up the mountain ranges).  We stopped at a little place called Gingers Creek Café about half way through the trip and Sami was enjoying the fresh air after all those bends!  Zoe ordered a steak pie at our stop and decided she didn’t want to eat it “because it had meat in it”…. I don’t know what she thinks normally goes into her pie.  We fed the little skinks our leftovers and then continued on the journey down the mountains the rest of the way.  Only about 15 minutes on there was a gurgling noise from the back of the car.  I turned around to find Sami hunched over and vomiting… and it just kept coming.  There was nowhere immediate for us to pull over on the downward wind of the hill and there was nothing in the back of the car for us to catch the vomit with.  Zoe was looking a bit green around the gills by now but eventually Josh veered to the opposition side of the road where he’d found a very small shoulder of road.  We all jumped out of the car and Josh went into action.  I ran for bottles of water and towels but Josh went for the outside tap that was an extra on our van (up there for good ideas Josh).  He grabbed a bucket and sponge and started sweeping out the vomit from the car seat and floor.  All I had to do was clean up Sami and try to comfort Zoe to avoid her sympathy spewing (nice huh?).  We all finally boarded back into the car with the windows down and the air conditioner pumping trying to ignore the smell that surrounded us.  We finally reached the end of the winding road and further on, found our way into Port Macquarie.  After stopping for a very late lunch on the beach and playing a bit of soccer out in the sun, we needed to find somewhere to stay the night as we are a day early to get into our caravan site.  Fortunately, we’ve found a little park at a boat ramp and set up camp.  We did a spot of fishing before grabbing the swimmers and hitting the water (again).  Josh and Sami cooked up some lovely pork schnitzels for dinner (also from Walcha) and Zoe washed up the mess.  We are trying to get these kids house-trained….  While there was still light we had a bit more of kick around the park with the ball and then headed to the park table for a game of Uno, which by the end I couldn’t tell the difference between the blue and green cards it had gotten so dark.  The kids have finally hit the sack for the night (early night for them at 9.45pm) and Josh is outside chatting to a group who have come here to do some prawning.  Apparently last week they caught 9kgs of prawns.  Perhaps if Josh sweet-talks them enough we may end up with a catch ourselves?