23 - 25 September 2016 - Days 174 - 176 - Ballarat

It was sad to be leaving as we all had a great time on the farm and loved catching up with our friends.  Just as we were about to leave Tom pulled his 22 rifle out.  Well the boys eyes lit up and they were allowed to have a few goes each.  Both John and Tom showed them what to do.  Cooper did a great job and hit the target twice.

A massive thank you to John and Sue for having us and we look forward to catching up with them again next year.  We have so much fun with you guys.

We finally hit the road after saying our sad goodbyes and our first stop was the Giant Koala.

 

We arrived in Ballarat and dropped the van off at the Big 4 Goldfields and went straight to Sovereign Hill which was only a few hundred metres down the road.

We had a great time at Sovereign Hill and the kids had an action packed day.  They participated in old fashioned ten pin bowling, dipped candles, went to school and wrote with old fashioned ink pens, watched a gold pour and tried their luck at gold panning.

At the end of the day we went on a mine tour which went for an hour.  We boarded an old tram which took us underground and we were in the dark for 90 seconds before arriving in the old mine.  It was a scary ride down but we all enjoyed it and learnt alot on the tour.

That night we went back to Sovereign Hill after having a really quick dinner back at the caravan park and went to the Sound and Light Show.  The show was good but a little different as it had no actors in it just Sounds and Lights set around a mining town scene.

The next morning we were a little tired and had a lazy morning before we went to The Gold Museum.  The kids completed the school worksheet that the museum gave them and found different things in the museum before they received there price which they were very happy with. It was a gold chocolate coin.

The boys missed out on having a horse and cart ride the day before at Sovereign Hill so we used the second day free tickets that we received and went back in.

I had noticed an oven in the camp kitchen and got abit excited at the thought of cooking something in a proper oven so I made Mitch his favourite, Zucchini Slice that afternoon.  He wasn't complaining!!

That night we had a relaxing night and the boys watched the football.

We decided to stay in Ballarat another day so we could visited the Kryal Castle.  The Kryal Castle was a funny place with jousting demonstrations, wizards that made magic potions, a maze, pantomimes and a torture chamber.  For the entry fee of $92.00 it was abit of a rip off and we had completed it all in 3 hours but the kids found it interesting.

After a quick shop we took the boys to the skatepark and went out to a Chinese Restaurant as we haven't had chinese since we have been away and thought we deserved a treat.