Trip with Mumsy!!

 So, this year, for mum's birthday and mother's day present; I kidnapped her. Might not sound that exciting but, it was really, really awesome. I organised it with her boss and co-workers for her to have two weeks off and I planned to take her on a trip down south to see old friends and rellys.

The day that we were to set off, I had a heap of mum's girlfriends organised to go out for a brunch get-together. Meanwhile I drove into town got some groceries (for our roadside salad, lunches and smokos) and then went to mum's place and packed all her bags and packed the car. So when she got home (after I text to say the coast was clear), I was waiting for her with the car all packed and ready to head off. BLEW HER MIND!! Was awesome! She couldn't believe it and could not believe she had all the time off work and that everyone knew. Luckily I had her co-worker there to assure her she really had the time off or she wouldn't believe me.

 So, after a quick goodbye we set off to Bundaberg to stay the night with some beautiful relatives of ours and on the way stopped for a roadside lunch. Mum was still in shock I think. We had ham and salad, with home made salad dressing, home made fried rice and a flask of tea. Fit for a king! On to Bundy, for a catch up, going out to the RSL for dinner. Little were we to know that, soon after this meeting my beautiful uncle would pass away and this would be the last time we got to see him. Such a blessing that we had made the trip!
 The next morning, we headed south, to Caboolture to visit my cousin and her other half. We had a lovely stay here for a couple of nights. Was great to catch up and Jess even managed to get a day off work to spend with us.

We went to the underwater world at Maroochydore which I though was awesome and got very excited about how much you got to see. The photos don't really do it justice.

 Great to spend some time with my long lost cousin from Brisy.

After that we went to the "Australian Nougat Factory", OMG, don't bother!! Sorry, but it's just a house with someone there selling nougat. The front room had a little video showing how to make it (which you would probably see better on you tube) and there are a couple of little stands with the different types of nougat for sale. But there was barely enough room for the 3 of us to stand. In saying that, we did buy some nougat and it was very nice.

 The next place we went was to the Spirit House at Yandina. Wow if you are in the neighborhood, this place is worth the visit. The food is a little bit expensive, but it is to die for! The most beautiful Thai food I have had since eating at Thailand. Plus the atmosphere was just lovely. I really recommend this place, is was gorgeous. Could have spent all day there, and they do cooking classes too which would have been great to do!

After we left the spirit house, we went to the ginger factory, which was not at all what I was expecting. It was beautiful, like a little village! A number of different little shops (I was thinking there would just be ginger, but there were lots of little things), a great place to do gift shopping I think. We didn't leave ourselves enough time for this place. We then ducked across the road to the nut factory, which was more what I expected the ginger factory to be like. A nice little shop though and some beautiful little treats to eat. 

 Next day we went shopping at DFO and, as you can see, we went a little crazy! OMG so cheap!!!

Dinner with Jess and Daniel before we headed off to see some more friends in Maleny.

Secrets on the lake is where we had lunch and this was an amazing place. I would have loved to have stayed there. Wood carvings of animals everywhere, just beautiful!

This was the Montville Clock Shop. I nearly bought myself a co-co clock, but I couldn't justify it and with plans to do a hot air balloon ride, I decided against it!

Montville was just beautiful, so much so that it took us two days to do it and we didn't get time to see Maleny. Oh well there is always next time. Time flew here and before we knew it we were off to Byron Bay. With the hippies.

Jo and Tony are absolutely beautiful people. But mad about their cats, and I mean MAD!!! They buy fillet steak, barra, chicken thighs and lamb; then (wait for it), they cut it up into bite, sized pieces and bag it up so they can have something different each night! I tell you I want to come back as those cats. (Must have been reincarnated Egyptian cats I think) lol.


Too much wine and the cat decided to keep me company!

Isn't mum just so cute!!

My new favorite thing to say!

Spoilt by my mother!

Smoko at the glow worms

 So, off to Byron Bay. Via Mt Tambourine for a tour of the glow worms and a look about at the scenery. I wasn't overly excited by the glow worms, but it supports the industry by going there, so what more can I say. I prefer David Attenbrough better.

Mt Tambourine 

 We didn't stay long in Mt Tambourine because we had another place I had been told to visit. The Crystal Castle. This place was amazing, and I have heaps of photos but it's one of those things that you really must see for yourself. I hadn't told mum about it, so it was a surprise. She thought we were going to a hippy convention! But just absolutely amazing! We could have spent all day here.

 Some absolutely beautiful scenery in this part of the world. It was a lovely drive from the Crystal Castle over to Byron Bay. We stayed with some beautiful people and I'm sorry but I can' remember where it was but there were wonderful.

Friday night park entertainer/ fire dancer. He was pretty good. 

 We decided once we had checked in, to go and get a feed and mix it with the hippies on the beach. They were all congregated around a few people playing drums and a couple of various string instruments. After a while it go a bit hypnotizing. Mum's like, "That takes a lot of talent doesn't it!" It wasn't until she said this, that I realized they just played the same thing over and over again. Ha ha was funny.

Trying to keep our eyes wide for the selfie!

This meal was at Fish Heads on Byron beach!!! THE BEST SEAFOOD PLATTER EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG. It was delicious! I was kicking myself that my hubby wasn't here to enjoy it. Absolutely beautiful1

After our stay with Jo and Tony, we must have been attracting cats, this was on our car outside our hotel room.

The next morning, we drove the 10 hour journey to the Hunter Valley, where I accidentally misguided mum into a 7km round trip walk for our diner. After the big drive, the walk was exactly what we needed, but maybe not so far. Oops. We had sore feet and were exhausted.

 HOT AIR BALLOON TRIP!!

Was an awesome ride to say the least. This was mum's official birthday present. Apart from the "Happy Birthday," as we were leaving for the trip, "I'm your present, for two whole weeks" ha ha.

Leaving Hunter Valley and heading across to Narromine we saw some beautiful scenery. Not sure exactly where this was though. 

After our early morning balloon ride, and our 10 hour trip the day before and our extended walk, we were exhausted. So we decided to head to Narromine, to see the rellys. We had planned to spend and extra day in the Hunter Valley, but we weren't wineos, and the scenery there didn't appeal to us. So we headed out.


Our stay in Narromine was very relaxing. We got to spend the mornings on outings, and the afternoons, kicking back and reading/ snoozing/ relaxing with a wine. It was just lovely. So nice for mum to be able to spend time with her family that she doesn't see often.

 I got to see some sheep being 'scanned in lamb' we even saw some triplets on the scanner. All of which was very foreign to me after being with cattle and never seeing sheep ever. I got to see a ewe being shorn which was pretty cool, and I was very impressed with the sheep dog and wished I could have put him over our bitch here.

 Got to see "THE DISH". Mmmm if you just want to look at the photo, I will understand. I didn't find it that enthralling.

Mum and I with Aunty Nance. 

Old mine site. I think it was gold. 

 Mum even made it into the paper, can't take her anywhere. She's there with Aunty Nance and Uncle Keith.

Time with the rels was over before we knew it and we were off again on our way home.


We stopped over in Lightening Ridge and had a bit of a look around. Was very interesting. Went down a mine, had a look at a few very interesting sites. As you can see in the photos.

The drive up to Lightening Ridge was lovely, but leaving Lightening Ridge was a bit rough because the country was so bare. Just dirt. We went via the Nindigully pub, and had a beer but we decided to keep going to St George for the evening. By this part of our trip we had worked out that we could order a single feed with two plates and it would be heaps to feed us both. At St George, the waitress served it up for us on two plates and we thought she was awesome!


The next day we headed for Roma and called on a friend of ours for a cuppa and a spot of shopping but before long we were off again to spend the night in Springsure. My best girlfriend is almost about to drop with bubba number two at this time and subsequently, every time she got up for a pee, I woke up. So it wasn't a good sleep (since then little Zac was born and is healthy and cute as a button). But lovely to catch up and see the family. The next morning we headed for home. The final leg. We made it in good time and I unloaded mum and had a cuppa before I headed home alone for the final 1 hour leg.


This was one of the most memorable trips of my life and I know I will always cherish the time with my mum and the beautiful friends and family that we were so lucky to be able to visit. Good people are not always easy to come by, but let me tell you that every person we got to spend time with, is a treasured and valuable friend. This is something that I will remember forever!!!