State Cross Country Champions!

Today was the South Australian state cross country championships held in Banksia Park, where 2 of the dwarfs did exceptionally well.

 

Miss K came 1st in her under 9 girls 1500m cross country run, completed in a time of 6.15.1.

Miss V came 2nd in her under 10 girls 1500m cross country run, completed in a time of 6.09.9.

 

 

Master X, who is 3, ran the 1000m fun run at the completion of the championship events. I have been told he ran the entire distance, although did need some help jumping over the creek.

Lake Burley Griffin Racewalking Carnival, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory

Over the Queens birthday weekend C, V & K were involved in the biggest race walking carnival in Australia, The LBG carnival held annually in Canberra.

 

We left early afternoon on Friday, drove to Mildura and spend the night there at the Mid City Plantation Hotel, before waking early on Saturday and driving the rest of the way to Canberra.

 

Unfortunately our family had come down with a viral infection which left those who caught it with a fever, horrible head ache and a feeling as if they were seasick (I came down with the same virus about 2 weeks ago). Thankfully some Maxolon and Panadol allowed us to continue on to Canberra. We arrived at the Carotel Motel in Canberra in time to meet up for dinner with the SA team, as we had planed to, however most of the kids where too unwell to go anywhere, so we had an early night.

 

C & V as well as some of their brothers had a pretty rough night, thankfully by the morning they had began to recover and the girls were well enough to race, however poor X was the next victim. The only good thing was whatever it was, it often left as quickly as it came.

 

K did an under 10 1km race, came 6th overall and 2nd in the handicap, she also did the under 12 2km and came 15th. V did the under 12 2km and came 13th, then the under 14 2km and came 25th. C did the under 12 2km and came 8th, then the under 16 3km and came 25th. The 3 girls made up the under 12 SA1 team and came 4th. V was in the under 14 SA2 team and came 7th.

 

Between the races and the presentation at the Burns Club in Kambah, we visited parliament house, the dwarfs where very excited to see the house of representative and the senate, especially C as she is meeting with our local MP today as part of a leadership event.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 16 - Grand Mercure The Hills Lodge, Castle Hill, Sydney

Disembarkment day, always the worst day of the trip. It's rushed, busy, complicated, tiring, stressful and it's just down right sad that you have to get off.

We decided we'd be the last group off since we couldn't pick our hire car up until midday and couldn't check in to the hotel until 2pm. While it was nice not to have to wait around off the ship, the truth is it's not much better waiting on board other than you still have access to the buffets, but there is only so much you can eat. We were off by 10am, in a maxi taxi by 11am and at the airport waiting for our car soon after.

We spent our final night of our holiday at the Grand Mercure The  Hills Lodge in Castle Hill Sydney. I specifically chose this hotel as the kids wanted somewhere with a swimming pool. Unfortunately the weather was so severe that it absolutely bucketed down and all we could hear was the clap of thunder, it was so close that someone in the same suburb actually got hit by the lightening! Needless to say no swimming happened that night.

Other than the disappointment of that, the hotel was rather nice. We had 2 ground floor rooms which both could fit 5 people in. It was close to the local shopping centre, restaurants and an AMF bowling centre was right night door. We had the buffet breakfast the next morning which was really nice. The staff were friendly and helpful, rooms where clean and well presented. There was plenty of parking available also.

 

 

 

 

Day 15 - Sun Princess S405, At Sea. (Food Glorious Food)

Day 14 - Formal Night #2

This one was much more laid back than the last one, well from our end anyway. We'd already got the family photo done and managed to get ready in less than an hour this time. Tonight seem to be a highlight for the staff, they had a parade with Baked Alaska which they all seemed to enjoy very much. I enjoyed lobster for dinner, had been a long time since I'd had that.

 

Day 13 - Isle of Pines, New Caledonia.

Our last port of call and our second time visiting the paradise that is Isle of Pines. We already knew where the best swimming spot was, right by the sacred rock and so headed there as soon as we got off the tenders. We swam in the warm crystal clear water for 3 hours, either just relaxing, jumping in or watching the tropic fish swim by.

After lunch we went for an hour walk, had a further look at some of the beaches and some of the hotels and resorts in the area.

Day 12 - Noumea, New Caledonia

 

This was our second time in Noumea, the previous time we had been it was a Sunday and everything but the local market had been shut. The weather also wasn't the best. Fortunately this time it was a Monday and everything was opened and the weather held off for most of the day. We spent the morning looking around the city centre and in the shops. We spend some time looking for a supermarket to buy a few items we needed and couldn't buy on the ship. Of course, after looking for the supermarket for 2 hours and not finding it we decided to go back to the ship for lunch, only to discover it is actually located directly opposite the place the bus had dropped us off.

 

After lunch the Dwarfs decided to go to the kids club and me and R returned to look around ourselves. We walked around the different shops, Mont Coffyn, then back down towards the hospital.