Catching Up with Friends & Family

After several edits of our bags while we were at Mel's mum & dad's place, we managed to get our stuff to around 70kgs for the 3 of us. It meant we had to take out some stuff we wanted to take. In the end, we put a bunch of stuff in a box that Mel's mum will bring up for us or we'll collect when we return to New Zealand.

Our last little while in NZ was wet!

It rained solidly from Monday night until after midday. The little creek that runs through the farm was over flowing big time, creating a small lake and covering the road. For some reason the cows were very intrigued by all of this and most of them walked into the water up to their bellies. Then they buggered off. Weird.

The flight to Melbourne was ok, although it seemed like 1 out of 2 people had a cold and were coughing up a storm. I couldn't believe how many people didn't bother to cover their mouths when they coughed. Needless to say, Mel & I both picked up colds and have been sneezing and blowing our noses non-stop:(


Tilda was not keen to sleep at all. We put her in the bassinet, but she insisted on standing up so she could look at everyone. Especially the wee baby in the bassinet next to her. She cried a bit, but it could've been a whole heap worse. Despite being absolutely knackered, she was great while we gathered our baggage, went through customs and picked up the rental car.

We had booked a night in a motel that was reasonably close to the airport. Unfortunately, we had no idea that roadworks on the Western Ring Rd mean that ALL the left hand exits (where we needed to go!) were closed. We ended up taking the most epic detour ever. We didn't get to the motel until 11pm instead of around 9:30-10:00. The bonus was that Tilda had a good sleep in the car:) The motel was nice - clean, tidy and very quiet! Luckily we were able to give the wee girl a quick drink, change her nappy and put her to bed without too much drama.

The next day we headed up to Wahgunyah to stay with my mum & dad, with a smallish detour via Kyneton to see our friends Josh & Bri. It was great to see their new house and introduce them to Tilda, as well as pass on a present for their impending little one. The drive to mum & dad's was pretty uneventful and Tilda slept most of the way.

Over the next few days we caught up

with some friends here in Wahgunyah, as well as Tarawingee. It was great to meet Fiona & Adam's new twins and introduce Tilda to their elder daughter Chelsea. My brother Chris & his family came up to stay and Tilda was able to meet her cousin Hudson, who was born 3 months after her. Hudson was a little unsure about Tilda as she just wanted to cuddle him all the time:) By Monday morning they seemed to be firm friends, with Hudson following Tilda around the house getting into mischief! It was really cool to see the reaction from Hudson when I brought Tilda into the kitchen in the morning - he was totally excited to see her.

On the Sunday, we had lots of family come for lunch. Tilda was able to meet her grand-nana, aunts, uncles and cousins. She was terribly excited to have more kids to play with and by early evening was extremely tired. Despite a couple of protests, she went to bed and fell asleep very quickly.

It was great to see everyone as it had been 18 months or more since we had seen them. Dad cooked multiple roasts on the BBQ and lunch was awesome. It was almost like Christmas, but without the presents and hot weather. It's been really cold here since we arrived. We've basically had 5 frosts in row. Singapore looks better and better each day:)

Today is a quiet day. Time for some last minute washing and then repack the bags before we head back down to Melbourne. This time on Wednesday we'll be looking at apartments. Hopefully the searching won't be too traumatic:)

Ciao for now.

Tony