Pocketful of Sunshine

Yes that is blue sky! And yes that is my mother on the phone 😂 social life doesn't stop just because you're on the beach!

The rain was predicted to pause today. As this may be our only beach day, we packed all our beachly possessions on to our poor little wagon and set it to work. Seven Mile Beach was a stone's throw away, and we managed to get everyone there before 9 am to enjoy the lack of rain and relatively warm temperatures. To our delight, the sun even made a few appearances! At one point, one may even say that it was too hot. Geez there was no pleasing this mob...But have no fear! We had in our trusty little wagon one of many lockdown purchases. The very handy Cool Cabana Beach shade was awesome. It was easy to set up, stable and kept the grandparents happy. 

The children kept themselves busy in the sand and surf. Boogie boards were put to good use both down the steep sand banks as well as in the water. The cricket set, as well as various other balls were also played with. After 3 hours at the beach, the sun was still out! We decided to have a quick simple lunch of pies from the local bakery and make our way to the river side of Shoalhaven Heads. This time, the kayaks from the Ong's rental house were put to good use, along with our fishing gear. Alas, no fish were caught.

Go little wagon go!

Cool Cabana. An awesome lockdown online purchase!

Sunglasses = sun!

Happy boys!

Seven Mile Beach - unfortunately a lot of erosion due to weather :(

Time for river activities!

And he's off with rod and bait ready

The non-water, sudoku puzzling crew

By mid afternoon, tiredness started to creep in and it was time to head home for a quick rest before Christian's birthday dinner at Bangalay Dining, a higher end dining venue which focused on native and local ingredients. The food wasn't too bad but the service was SLOW. They were obviously short staffed. We were the first to arrive and the last to leave! By the time we left, the sky was rumbling with hints of the predicted storms. Let's hope we do get some more rain reprieves in the coming days. Otherwise we will be watching test cricket which isn't a bad alternative wet weather activity!

Murray cod in Nasturtium flower, our favourite dish. Back left - smoked crocodile. Back right - cucumber with goat's cheese and pepperberry

Emu tartar

Oma and Opa still happy!

On The Road Again

Another trip, another covid-19 update...

Previously, ...on "Albany Trips Derailed By Covid"...we had our Queensland trip cut short due to an outbreak in NSW. Fast forward 6 months to today, the NSW delta variant outbreak had spread to Victoria and ACT, thousands have been infected, hundreds have unfortunately died, but as a result, we now have an excellent vaccination rate in Australia and the country has abandoned a covid-zero strategy. However, states within Australia have been fragmented, with tensions high between "Covid' states and those who have been "covid free". International borders are open to Australians in half the country but we are still unable to travel freely within Australia. In short, the country is a mess. And just when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, enter Omicron! Curse you new variant...

We had cancelled our December trip to Singapore and Thailand in the face of so much uncertainty and so we find ourselves on the road again exploring the great state of NSW. Curse you Delta. Lara now can't come because her piano exam had to be rescheduled thanks to an unvaccinated child submitting a false vaccine certificate. Curse you covidiots. Hopefully, our planned trip to South Australia to watch the test cricket between England and Australia won't be affected by a nervous South Australian government. Fingers crossed...

It felt rather odd leaving Lara behind in the morning, but she seemed happy and relaxed with Moose and so off we went, for our traditional McDonald's breakfast on the road. We didn't quite manage to follow through on the "leave before light" tradition, due to too many Christmas parties on the day before! It was an achievement to have packed, load the car and tidy the house by 8:30am! We didn't quite bring the whole house this time around but somehow still managed to bring a lot of STUFF!!

Our first stop, to buy MORE stuff. Specifically, we had to buy more remotes for the Nintendo switch, as it was one of our rainy day contingencies, and the chance of rain was very high. Curse you La Nina. With the most important "to-do" of the day ticked off, we made our way to visit my Uncle Andrew near Wollongong. It has been a while since we have seen him, and the first time since his diagnosis of bowel cancer in June. Curse you cancer! My parents had driven down earlier to spend more time with them and deliver them Indonesian food from Sydney. 

It was great to see Oom Andrew in good spirits and good physical health. It was also nice to have Tante Chiko cook us Japanese food. Yum! We scoffed down our lunch, sipped and learnt about hojicha, and enjoyed apple pie biscuits from Coles. Can't get better than that!

Visiting Oom Andrew and Tante Chiko 

Along with my parents, we continued our drive down towards Shoalhaven Heads. We last came in winter and thought it would be a good place to return to in the summer. Fortunately, we had booked a house on Stayz well before the heated local accommodation booking craze, and the resulting price hikes. The rental was comfortable, had enough space for the extended family, looked as advertised, and was close to the accommodation of our friends, the Ongs. Elliot and Jonah made a bee-line for the skate park as soon as we arrived, making the most of the break in the rain.

Loving our new wagon! Courtesy of Nana and Grandpa. Awesome big wheels, great manoeuvrability, and takes 100kg!

Simple but clean and modern

Big backyard with fire pit. Moose would have loved it.

Excellent local skate park

We dined with the Ongs at their holiday rental on local fish and chips. The adults had wine and rocky road, the kids had nintendo time, and all was well with the world. We had to make the best of the situation. The forecast, unfortunately, for the upcoming days was rain, rain and more rain. For good measure, throw in a bit of cold, and then just to make sure...more rain. It was rather a shame, as we were right by Seven Mile Beach, a most beautiful and long stretch of beach. After a few messages to Lara to make sure she was ok, we settled in and called it a day.

We're Off!

I sit here in the First Class section of the SilverKris Lounge (yes you read correctly!!) contemplating our journey thus far. It had been a while since the beginning of our quest to accumulate enough points for premier cabin seat redemptions. We finally got enough to make the bookings about a year ago. This was our first trip as a family NOT travelling in an economy cabin.

With Canberra opening to international flights in recent years, Singapore Airlines had introduced a Sydney to Singapore flight via Canberra. This meant extra availability and when there are 5 of you in a family, you jump at anything that became available. Unfortunately only 4 business class seats were available and poor Malcolm had to take one for the team and travel in...First Class!

Some musings and observations on our experiences in no particular order...

The poor woman at the Sydney SilverKris lounge who couldn't decide which was worse, to have our children all under 18 by themselves in the Business Class section having unlimited access to alcohol or to have them supervised with us in the First Class section (which was empty by the way) when Malcolm could only technically take in one guest. In the end, Malcolm and I shortened her misery and kept our visit to the First Class section short and left shortly after enjoying our a la carte selection which was delicious.

Prawn Laksa on the a la carte menu in the First Class section

The chairs facing the runway, where we sat for a total of 14 minutes...

We like the booth like seats in the Sydney Krisflyer lounge which was comfortable, practical and private.

Private booth

Rather impressed that they managed to serve a "snack" on the 32 minute flight to Canberra.

This was the First Class snack. The business class plebs got a pre-made sandwich like you would get from 7-11 albeit a bit more gourmet. I wished I had a taken a photo of it! 

Not sure how anyone could enjoy a "scented candle" onboard?!?

The First Class amenities kit. Noted the "scented candle" 

The stop at Canberra airport ended up only taking about an hour. However, they seemed to be disorganised and everyone was boarded together.

Hanging out at Canberra airport

The "holding pen" for everyone

Just to proove that Brett Lee was on the plane!

Malcolm had Brett Lee as one of his first class buddies and all he could manage was "You first Binga" as they left the plane...

Lara was offered champagne on the flight...numerous times!

Jonah became pals with his flight attendant, Jamie, with multiple rounds of high fives. She then also proceeded to offer him toys closely followed by coffee with his meals.

Jonah suffered a minor (and short) episode of bleeding nose onboard. We were offered to be greeted by a medical team on arrival. I was so tempted to say yes just to see what would happen. Common sense took over and I politely declined.

We were asked to choose whether we would prefer to have our meal served as supper immediately after take off or as a breakfast closest to landing. I loved this! I chose breakfast which worked as I was very sleepy by the time we took off from Canberra

Breakfast number 1 

Not much is open at 5am in the morning, not even at the mighty Changi airport. This included the newly opened Jewel, located at T2 and requiring us clearing immigration. The family deemed that too much work which brings us to....

Malcolm being kindly offered to bring his family into the First class lounge! The riff raff were let loose and the children had their second breakfast of the day. The Haagen Daaz ice cream were also a hit as were the tea & coffee trolley which came to them offering hot chocolate. Lara chose to utilise the showers and reported the provided towel's were big soft and fluffy. Mal had access to a "private room" where we couldn't follow...while they he waved to Brett Lee

If you ever wondered what the First Class section in the SilverKris Lounge looked like at Changi...

Made to order Prata. Mmmm

As we sit here waiting for our flight London, we had to remember to relish every moment as this experience is likely not to be repeated and it would not be easy to revert back to being a pleb in economy!

Aloha Hawaii!

After what was seemingly a long 9 months after our last overseas trip, it was finally time for us to fly to Hawaii! It was a first for the children catching the train to the airport and it was an easy ride and cheaper than a cab or uber. Surprisingly, Sydney airport was empty. Everyone else in the city must have already left on Friday! There was no line for Qantas' self serve check in kiosks. There was no line for bag drop. Wait for this....there was no line for immigration and security!!!! What!!!! As a result, we literally walked straight through everything and found ourselves with plenty of time to kill...As luck would have it, we wanted to visit the AMEX lounge and try the Qantas business lounge. After letting Elliot have 4 helpings at the AMEX lounge (again with only 1 other couple in the lounge with us), we thought we'd resettle ourselves at the Qantas lounge. With barista coffee and pastry in hand I was content. With a power point for their devices and ice-cream, the children were content. We waited for our flight to be called and before long we were off!

The flight was thankfully relatively painless. The plane was old though, with parts of the plane seemingly falling apart and the children were astounded that there was no USB charger onboard. Sigh first world problems! Fortunately for us, the pillows provided were quite comfy and our pre-ordered meals were served to us a good 30 minutes before the general meal service began so we could use the bathrooms and go to sleep earlier as well. Arrival was also reasonably easy. After waiting to get to the self serve immigration kiosks (the line kept moving despite being long), we were fortunate to get a friendly immigration officer. By the time we got to the luggage carousel, our luggage was already there and lined up neatly. Super! Nanna and Grandpa were already waiting for us when we exited the arrivals hall.

Hello Honolulu!

Our rental car was from Thrifty, which needed a shuttle to get to. Once there, we had to wait for a while to be served. However, the staff were friendly and soon enough we had our Dodge Grand Caravan loaded up ready to go. We finally encountered our first minor hiccup! The GPS DID NOT WORK!!! We had to use our back up offline google maps. However, it was almost like a choose your adventure story. It seemed like we kept choosing the wrong turn off, making a loop, just to choose another wrong option, making yet another loop...After about 4 loops, we finally tried the last option we had NOT tried and finally made it to the right highway! Woohoo!! We would be serious contenders for the Amaxing race. However, amazingly, we were still all talking to each other in the car after the event! With the stress of having to drive a left hand drive car that was bigger than expected, on the wrong side of the road, with very little sleep, I was VERY relieved to arrive at Disney's Aulani in one piece and hear those words "Welcome home!"

The car was bigger than I expected!!

We gladly accepted our beautiful, fragrant leis and refreshingly ice, cold water and were whisked to check-in. We deposited our bags and headed out to nearby Costco for much needed supplies and a quick and cheap lunch. Upon our return, I could not hold the children back any longer from the pools. We jumped in for a quick swim and a walk to the beach front prior to dinner back in our studios. The sushi from Costco were surprising quite tasty! We took advantage of the DVC only meet and greet for a photo with Donald but were too tired to stay for the other characters. I was exhausted and needed some rest for outlet shopping stamina tomorrow.
PS I would have talked about the studio villas we were in but I wasn't quick enough with my camera and the rooms looked like a disaster relief site with minutes...When we move into a 2 bedroom villa in 2 days hopefully I can share some photos then as well as the varying offerings available at Aulani for both general guests as well as DVC (Disney Vacation Club) members.

The gorgeous leis and our first visit pins! Okay so Mal wasn't here but he got one anyway!

Welcome home!

Even nanna and grandpa swam!

Our sushi platter from Costco

The view from pool view studio

Hi Donald!!!

Fraser Island

We had a mini break to Fraser Island to celebrate Jonah's birthday and to use up our expiring frequent flyer points. We had never been before and it was a surprisingly good time! Our home for our stay was the Kingfisher Bay Resort with most of our transfers included as well as whale watching and 4 wheel drive hire. Here is a short pictorial account of our weekend away...

Spoilt by freshly baked birthday cookies in the morning!

It was a day of multiple modes of transport starting off with a plane to Hervey Bay

Our transfer from the airport was included but we expect a limousine!!!

Once we've checkecd into the main island reception, it was onto a bus to head to the wharf

A little boy enjoying all the modes of transport

It was then onto the ferry to Fraser Island!

It was windy outside!

Our last transfer, a trolley to take us from the pier to the hotel building itself

The swamp behind the pool, turn around and you see...

this!

Happy hour!

Jonah's birthday meal. A bush tucker inspired menu. 

Emu jerkey

Birthday dessert

Unfortunately this dessert a big miss...it tasted awful and I eat most desserts!