Day One

The Flights
I was worried about two things on the long flights. One was complete meltdown, and the other was that the kids would be awake and we'd be asleep. Neither happened. The long flight was longer than it should have been. We had to stop in Noumea to clean out the toilets. It was still dark, maybe 4 am local time, so we didnt' get to see much of the beautiful South Pacific island.

The Car and Driving
We've got a Kia Carnival minivan. Big enough to hold us and our stuff and drives fairly well, although the brakes make funny noises. It took about half a minute to get used to right hand drive again. We planned our route out of Sydney to contain only left turns. The only right turn I had to make was at a roundabout and it worked!

McDonald's
We haven't yet stopped for groceries, and the kids saw McDonald's and Hungry Jack (Burger King) signs, so we stopped fo rlunch and let them play on the playground. They made friends and ate happy meals and got toys just like at the McDonald's at home. I had a great Thai chicken sandwich, not like at the McDonald's at home.

Royal National Park
We passed a town called Waterfall and went in search of the waterfall. We fired up the GPSr, connected it to the laptop, and powered both off of the cigarette lighter. We're near S34 E150. There are a few caches around the park, but we're not going to find them today. We entered the park and immediately passed a lay-by where we saw a man sitting on a rock. Rich said he had a bag of swag and was logging a cache. I got to do a u-turn and the next lay-by to go back and check. Nope, he was just eating his lunch. We pulled in and found the waterfall. Pictures when I can upload them. It was just beautiful. He was part of a large group of hikers. The boys started to play, but the drop-off was 200m down to rocks, so we stopped that right away. Connor splashed in the stream, of course, and had to get his socks changed.

Sublime Lookout
This was the top of the world. The views were tremendous, and again, pictures when I upload them.

Finding a Motel
This was the hardest part of a long day. We decided to stop around 4 and couldn't find a place to stay until a long time after. I was getting too tired to drive when we finally found a decent motel. It had a double and bunk beds, which sounded perfect. Unfortunately, Andrew didn't want the top bunk, so after much consternation, he and Connor took the bottom bunk. I think we lasted until about 5, at least I did, until we crashed. Peace reigned until 2 am, which I think is about 11 am tummy time. Connor woke up first, then Andrew got annoyed enough to climb to the top bunk. Three hours later, I gave up on sleep and put on Nickelodeon. The good news is that we can get bunks for the kids and there won't be any more fussing.