Travelling Blog

Easter 2026

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 04:48:00 +0000

Easter Hills 2026

Merrijig for another Easter.

Friday 3 April - Thursday 9 Apr

- Tessa rode high speed into the bottom fence. Balance bike has no brake.

- MTB/Run/Hike

- Saturday; Creekside x2, Parkrun

- Sunday; Misty twist into DRT

- Monday; Plain creek track with short epic

- Tuesday: Alpine ridge run

- Wednesday: Epic Enjoy Loop from carters

Friday

Arrive at 2:15pm, driving straight through for the first time in 5 years? Well done kids.

Crispy Chicken Tacos

Saturday

Park Run at Mansfield. DK just beat Ez by a whisker.

Mansfield market - found biltong, mugs, labubus necklaces, missed the art show this year.

Riding bikes

Bunny crafts

Quick double creekside

Cash 'n' Guns

Crumbed Chicken

Sunday

Easter egg clue hunt with maps. Extend this for next year (and print it, my handwriting is terrible)

Easter Egg search hunt

Getting chocolate

Misty Twist into delatite chase (32km, 2:00 hours)

7 wonders is back

BBQ

New DRT trail is still shut

Monday

Fire and damper

Lost two uncles and two aunties

Plain creek track with lower epic (18km, 1:22 hours)

Bicycle Laps, bring some paint next time to plan out some tracks and on the verge too, perhaps.

Spagetti

Tuesday

Dixit & Monopoly & Ticket to Ride

Lost the cousins and grandparents

Short alpine ridge jog (7km)

Cookie making

Goulash

End of an Era, good bye high chair

Wednesday

Drive to the top of Buller. Explore the quiet streets then climb to the summit (from summit car park)

Enjoy Lap (38km, 3:30 past the gnomes hours)

Some quiet movies.

Badminton

Finish the puzzle (0km, xx:xx hours)

Need a new fire alarm

Pizza

Thursday

Pack up and drive off before the rain.

Drive straight through again in less than three hours.

Hastings Point & Brisbane 2025

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 30 Sep 2025 07:09:00 +0000

September School Holidays

Music of the Trip: This is what it sounds like, Golden, ( K-pop Demon Hunters), Roar (Katy Perry) and some Barbie Girl.

Hastings Point

Tasman Holiday Parks - North Star

Friday - Fly Melb - Brisbane - Drive to Hastings Point with Sushi Train lunch.

Saturday.

5am start. Weather warm in the morning and overcast by PM.

7am Beach. Playground and kids club. Water park and slides.

PM, went to shops in Tweed Heads and picked up second pair of new bathers.

KPOP demon hunters for movie night.

Could've brought floatables to float down the river. A very kid friendly beach nearby, MM Estuary combined with the MM south beach combined with warmer weather and empty of other persons. Almost perfect?

Sunday.

5am start Beach first up, BBQ snags for lunch, kids club and pool. Quick 10km run and F&C for dinner.

Monday

Later start, 6am. Playground into water park before 9am. Lunch Kids club. Run was shortened after stopping and spending an hour watching humpback whales pass Norries Head, was also confused finding a plane wreck, turns out it was filming for netflix show but everyone was elsewhere for lunch. Pop up pizza van and ice-cream for dinner then... **DJ Shorty Brown** - what a surprise hoot. Both winners of some golden bling.

Tuesday

A day of rest perhaps? What a busy three and a half days.

6:15am wake up, wandered with bling around the campsite before picking up Zoe to do the same at her 7:15am wakeup. 7:45 off for a morning bush walk and around to the beach, 'i'll' just put my feet in. Of course they are going to roll around in the surf. Back for de-sanding shower before Marine Discovery Centre. Exhibits and holding some animals and learning about mangroves. Lunch. Kids Club, 24km run to Kingcliff as the kids icecreams and splash park., and restaurant dinner.

Wednesday
Drive North to Brisbane.

Stop to look at whales and dolphins at Norries head. Nice walk along the boardwalk, and long play at the playground before driving to Currumbin. Lovely lunch and pirate ship playground on the foreshore Mickeycheese Lagoon, before swimming up the river (a lovely beach ruined by being off leash dogs), before looping back around to the car.

Stop over in Forestdale. booking.com fail with a host family has an undisclosed 2 yo and very poor insulation. Almost hilariously bad, thankfully post 8:30pm it was actually fine. Some mexican for dinner.

Thursday

Start the day with some sing-a-long k-pop, trampoline and meet the Bells for morning tea/lunch. Some basketball and netball practice, running around the dirt tracks before looping to a playground.

Step count says it's the first day that was relaxed - not enough steps so a brisk 6km walk around the gap to find some steep roads to get the steps and heart rate up.

Friday

Another train museum! but with Dinosaurs? ~4 hours spent at Queensland Museum Rail workshops in Ipswich, Zoe's enthusiasm is what extended the stay from the 2.5 -> 4 hours driving the tilt train and steam trains. 3D dinosaur puzzles, made plaster fossil moulds. Bring your own food if you go, says no food, but that's just in the main centre, enough space to sit and eat outside.

Dane lost the keys on the tilt train, but thankfully a kind soul had handed them in, written a note of the windshield, and personally told us they gave in our keys inside.

5km run with Zac to get the legs moving. Steaks for dinner.

Saturday

10th Ashgrove anniversary 7am parkrun, tropical plant market purchasing. Kids and Zac expired at Police park followed by skate park and school monkey bars. Home for more food and head off to Lone Pine Koalas. Great day of picnic lunch, feeding Koalas, Sheep dog shows, Birds of prey - Owls and Wedge tail eagles. Tessa, you were very difficult today, "this too shall pass" is our current motto to get us through the contradiction that is your requests/actions/demands. Home for thai dinner.

Sunday

Morning swim at Bells, Enogarra Dam pm with catfish biting anyone coming to close. . Salmon bowls for dinner. And Darts.

Monday

Brisbane scenic 27km jog along Brisbane river back to gap. Long swim then off to space at the planetarium. Pool heat pump still required for Brisbane October weather :D (bit cold!). Planetarium movie was ho-hum but longer viewing exploring real stars would be great, reckon Zoe would enjoy that more. Then Botanical gardens next on quite a hot day. Pasta for dinner.

Tuesday

Off to the bakery before 7. Ended up with three in tow and up at the playground and skatepark. Much fun, and shorts became holey after sliding down the ramps.

Easter 2025

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 05:06:00 +0000

Easter Hills 2025

Merrijig for another easter.

Friday 18 April - Monday 21 Apr

Just off the back of proper flu A

- Drop at Yarra Glen park for some morning Tea / Lunch

- Mansfield Park Run

- Market + Art Show + Icecream

- Solid bike track, lots of pushing kids up the hill (spoiler for 2026, no adult did any pushing)

- Fun competition games, three legged race, egg and spoon, etc

- Eggs! So many eggs! Painting eggs too

- Squishy colouring

- Fire

- More egg games

- Dancing to Chawumpumpy ump etc.

- MTB/Run/Hike

- Friday Creekside x1

- Saturday; 5km Park Run + Creekside x1

- Sunday; 11km creekside run

- Monday: Up to HH and back down delatite river

- Kids spent a lot of time making a hwy in the driveway

Europe 2024

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Thu, 31 Oct 2024 11:33:00 +0000

33 Day Trip London -> Vienna -> Nuremberg (and surrounds)

London 12 Days, Austria 3 Days, Germany 18 Days.

Trip Counter:

Days: 33, Countries: 3

Trains: 44-54, Buses: 8, Trams: 3, Taxis: 2, Planes: 6

Parks: 23, Hospitals: 1, West End Musicals: 2, Theme Parks: 2

Driving: 700 km, Hike: 20 km, Run: 80 km

Steps: 16500 per day

Trip Synopsis:

Travelling with kids is equally insane and rewarding. Both being positives. Plans were kept very flexible with most things planned about five days ahead of time. We managed to do much more than expected and turns out you can push a 4yo to walk significantly more than they do back home. The overall goal of catching up with friends in Germany was completed with hosts kindly accompanying us for 3 full weekends of activities. Despite my semi-reluctance to go to London, it is easy (language/culture) and there's weeks of activities there we didn't do and the kids 6 months on are still saying they want to go back to London (and legoland) weekly.

Trip Itinerary:

UK (London)

12 nights, staying in an area dwelling in Craven Hill Gardens just north of Kensington Gardens, Bayswater/Paddington/Lancaster Gate Station.

Wednesday: Flights via Singapore with 2 hour layover. Smooth flights.

Thursday: Early arrival 6am, Kensington park and head to our Airbnb. Home cooked pasta for dinner. 1 Park. 1 Train

Friday: Hamleys, Buckingham Palace State rooms tour, Tessa and Zoe had the ipad and audio tour hilarious. Tessa completely lost it after a little bit of time so had to run through the latter half. Zoe had a blast on the tour, loved dressing up at the end. Dinner out near bayswater Pizza! Bus + 2 trains. 2am wake up.

Saturday: Battersea Park Zoo and Battersea power station and shore for lunch. Fajitas, never get the super-mild one, it's smokey. 2 Parks. 2 Trains and a bus. Tessa now on 3am wake up.

Sunday: Princess Diana Memorial Park / Kensington Garden / X Park. Tessa now 4am wake up.

Monday: Young V&A. Markets. Liverpool Street. Paddington Station. 2 Trains and a bus. 5am wake up

Tuesday: Shrek Adventure and Trafalgar Square. Pret lunch. 2 Trains. Full sleep

Wednesday: Natural History Museum, with some Pret for lunch (again) with a double header Phantom of the Opera. Snags for dinner. 1-3 Trains

Thursday: Bubble Planet. Very nice Boxpark Wembley Stadium Lunch. London minion tower tour half marathon. Waitrose chicken dinner Back to going to bed at 9pm. 4 trains.

Friday: Big Ben, Aquarium, Tower of London/London Bridge. Borough Market craziness for a quick pizza and too much free yogurt before dancing across to the tower of london before PD Kensington Park for T before some home cooked eggs and stir fry for dinner. 3 Trains. 1 Bus.

Saturday: Science Museum. 5 guys burgers for lunch in South Kensington. Les Mis Double Header. Extended our airbnb an extra night for gratis? That's 23 airbnb stays of varying length in the past 10 years and first time I've experienced that. 1-4 Trains.

Sunday: Rest? Cry? Scream? Should we Docklands museum? Post Office Museum? Nah, next time, perhaps just a quiet day dancing in Kensington Gardens before some more Italian for lunch. Weekends are noticeably stupidly busy compared to weekday activities. Head out to Heathrow for an earlyish flight Monday via out Hayes & Harlington and get the CC blocked as the uber never came. Zoe's first night in a hotel (according to her memory)

Attraction Rating

Top tier: Young V&A, Science Museum, Phantom of the Opera, Elizabeth Line, Tower Bridge

Worth it tier: Princess Diana Memorial Park, Shrek Adventure, Natural History Museum, Battersea Park Zoo, Les Mis, Buckingham Palace

Next tier: Bubble Planet, Hamleys

Lower Tier: Aquarium, Trafalgar squares/Piccadilly/Big Ben/Chinatown etc, Borough Market, Spitalfields Market

Missed out/Next time Tier: Post office museum, British museum, Mudlark Docklands Museum, Starlight express, London Zoo, Windsor Castle, Legoland, Waiting for Godot west end, Tower of London tour, Paddington Bear Experience, V&A, Camden Market, Imperial War Museum, Entire rest of UK/Ireland

Luggage fit check: Requirements, be able to carry all bags ✔️+ one child. ✔️

Comfy headphones fit check and quick stop in the Singapore lounge. Smooth run through customs - thanks for lift to airport from Karin

Found our plane

Leg 2 / 5

24 hours later, straight through Heathrow, Elizabeth line at 6 am and hit Hyde park

Adventure off to Hamleys to the see the queen

And pepper pig

Considered having a rest day straight up, but it was the last day for tours of the Buckingham palace state rooms.

South side after walking through Hyde Park

Carved tree just near Princess Diana memorial park entrance

Really should've brought the sunscreen - Battersea lunch after the Battersea park zoo

Phone was " " this close to being yeeted off the edge of the bridge after being shirt fronted by Paulette

SHREK

A little drizzle but sun came back out by the afternoon

Young V and A minecrafting

Girls quickly solved the loud tube squeels and were experts by the 24th train trip

Toot toot

Exploring the Diana park with apple

SHREK

Walking to another museum

Liked her pret sandwiches

Westend Show 1: Phantom of the Opera

Late night Piccadilly. Not worth it, watch out for phone snatchers!

Bubbles!

Daddy we are right here. See big Ben...

Loved tower of London

Science museum?

Austria (Vienna)

Staying at Airbnb near Praterstern station just north of Prater (Large park with old-time amusements, including a landmark giant wheel dating from 1897).

Monday: In at 10am, Prater, Ferris wheel. 1 Park, 1 taxi, 2 plane buses, 1 plane, 1-3 trains

Tuesday: Great day at the imperial palace. Buy the wrong tickets to the maze and end up hiking to the top of Gloriette. T and D head to Stephansplatz while Z and P go for a chocolate making adventure. Take a hire bike in the evening to go and do some needed clothes washing. 4-5 Trains. 3 Parks.

Wednesday: Train into Rathauspltz, Tram to Museum Area and zoom museum. Walk to Karlplatz and train to Stephansplatz. Get some free chocolate before heading to Prater. Spend the whole afternoon into the evening at Prater with lots of rides and dinner. Figure 8 run around in the evening. 4 trains, 1 Tram, 2 parks.

Attraction Rating

Top tier: Imperial Palace Maze and Gloriette

Worth it tier: Prater, Old town, Chocolate museum (?maybe)

Next tier: Kinder Museum

Lower Tier: Laundromat

Missed out/Next time Tier:

Still forgot that sunscreen, lots of steps today at the Imperial Palace

Zoe loves mazes

Zoe loves the shade on a hot day

Zoe loves chocolate

Free mozart chocolate (again) for the girls in front of Stephansdom

Prata - warm up for Legoland and Playmobil

One of many trampolines bungees

Germany (Nuremberg, and bits of Regensburg, Augsberg, Gunzberg, Schwangau)

Graciously hosted with friends in Nuremberg which was chaotic fun, if you are going anywhere with a 2yo make sure you stay and play with others also with a 2yo! Staying near Rennweg in Nuremberg before making a short trip south staying in Schwanau, Legoland and Aystetten. Hanging our with friends in the park noticeably more enjoyable than any activity to date, doublely good when spent hiking up a hill with an unknown destination.

Thursday: Train cancelled so try and find a new one to take us to Germany. 2 short trains to get to the hbf, two longer trains to get to Regensburg. Delayed for 40 minutes. Some quick take away dinner before a night walk around the delightful medieval town. 4 Trains.

Friday: Hotel breakfast B&B to the delight of the kids. Finally make it to our 'destination' on Day 16, with 55% of our trip to go, but not before a trip to the ED for a cut lip and gum of Zoes leaving her mark on the town centre square. Taxi out to the kids hospital, thankfully a bill of superficial wounds and 50 Euro lighter. Note when taking the RE with no booked seats, walk to the quietest part of the platform - was a bit manic trying to find a seat. 1 Train. 2 Taxis. 1 ED.

Saturday: Brief walk to the castle and through main town, before a play at park near the river/library. Make sure to shop because everything is closed on Sundays in Germany. A delicious home cooked V meal. Perfect day with friends. 3 Parks. 0 Trains.

Sunday: A terrific day of household activities and play with some up at 6am and others at 10. Head to the espresso lab for morning tea/ coffee/lunch. Head to another park and then more household fun activities with an afternoon of cooking class. A Nona handed-down special multi-handed potato gnocchi recipe delight. Late night park with slides. 2 Parks. 0 trains.

Monday: Stadtpark before a rainy afternoon. Some salmon bowls for dinner. 1 park. 0 trains.

Tuesday: Train museum. Must say better than expected outing from 10am-5pm, walk back through town or sleepy u-Bahn. Amazing shepherds pie dinner. 1-2 trains. 2 park.

Wednesday: The zoo. Another much better than expected outing from 9am-5pm. Come all this way to look at kangaroos? Great goat feeding, playgrounds, dolphin shows. Randomly Zoe also requested that we stay in a hotel as soon as we get back home to Australia. Not sure any hotel could beat the way too nice hosting at DVM Nuremberg with a lovely stew for dinner. Late night walk around old town. 2-4 trains. 2 trams. 2 parks.

Thursday: Day of rest, 2 outings to supermarket. Rice paper rolls and some bean Bonanza. 2 parks.

Friday: PlayMobil Park. Another terrific outing especially because Maya and Dennis joined. Take away pizzas with late return. Managed to connect the S4 to the 151 bus with only a 4 minute turn around both times successfully without too much stress at all. 4 trains. 2 buses. 1 giant park.

Saturday: Day of rest, outing to the city for some lite shopping, snacks (3xNurnberger) and craft. 1 Park

Sunday: Hike through Fränkische Schweiz in Pottenstein with Stephy, Ginny, 2 boys too. Car pick up at airport was mostly successful albeit took a bit too long. Delightful day at kids pace up and a much faster runnings kids pace down. Delightful lunch outside at Kapellenhof before some Vietnamese dinner with quite a few gins and card games. 1 forest, 1 train, 100km driving

Monday: Drive to Fussen/Schwangau. Stayed at Luna hotel room 6. Zoe got carsick pretty early on, so was a slow meader of 250km over 3.5 hours. Stopped in delightful Donauworth for lunch/playground/WC (although lets be honest, what small-ish german town is not seemingly delightful). More snitz for dinner. Paulette a bit freaked out by the autobahn, but most of the driving wouldn't be on autobahn. 1 Park

Tuesday: Day at Neuschwanstein, early run to pick up some tickets at 8am. Only person in shorts and t-shirt in the line (again). Picked up some tickets (17EUR each) for 10:10. Got to the P4 parking about 9:15 with lots of car parks available 12 EUR for 6 hours. Got a horse ride up (20 euro for the 4 of us) and walked into the castle just on our 10:10 tour 426. Zoe and Tessa did amazing during the audio tour and it was much better than expected. You could do the day without going to the either castle and just walk around, however the tour while shortish was well received. See diary entry circa 1983-84 for a description. Very well pointed, gold throne room, spiral stair case palm tree, central heating, and kitchen (zoe, apparently) were highlights. Roast Mexican sweet potato bowl. Lovely goulash and kids spagetti for lunch at Kainz Restaurant, although the proportion sizes were all wrong. 1 Forest. 4 km driving.

Wednesday: Drive to Legoland Deutschland leaving behind the awaiting the Austrian alps. Just a few days here and know that exploring this area would be a level above anything London could provide, however, as much as I much prefer this, driving with 2 under 4 counteracts all of that. I suppose we could get them an iPad each for driving, but, that doesn't sound fun. Legoland by about 1030 and immediately get cracking on some rides... and Zoe doesn't let up. Finish up about 3:30 and head back to our castle of the night. Pretty nice dinner before sleep. 155 km driving.

Thursday: Paulette expected that we would be done mid afternoon and lazily drive back most of the way to Nuremberg.... Instead we ended up leaving well after when the park closed and only got away closer to 1830. Full suite of rides again today, very much the parents getting the kids to move to the next ride than the kids. The weather for both days here was a bit dim and rained during the night, but never rained during the day. Park capacity was around 20-30%? Stay the night at our cheapest accommodation in Aystetten. 40km,

Friday: A foggy morning with a nice breakfast in Aystetten town with 'baby-chinos' the size of a large regular coffee. Head into Augsburg to check out the heritage listed waterworks. Paulette's observation is that everything in Germany is covered in scaffolding and the town hall here is no different, looks very impressive but it too is under renovations. Drive back to Nuremberg and return the car. 180 km driving. 1 train.

Saturday: Day of play in and around house. A park visit or two, some shopping.

Sunday: And last day already? Finally? Final brunch and Flora. Get to the airport way too early. Fly out 18:55, Nuremberg-Frankfurt-Singapore-Melbourne. Almost didn't make the Frankfurt connection due to intoxicated passenger, but overall smooth fast 27 hours door to door trip. 1 Train, 2 buses, 3 planes.

Attraction Rating

Top tier: Nuremberg Zoo, Play Mobil Park (3-9yo?), Train museum, Maya time, Neuschwanstein Castle

Worth it tier: Nuremberg Old Town, Legoland, Fränkische Schweiz/Pottenstein hike, Vanessa time

Next tier: Regensburg Children's Hospital, (Communication Museum? Probably?), Dennis time

Lower Tier:

Missed out/Next time Tier: Austrian Alps Hike (so so close), Tegelbergbahn, Nuremberg Toy Museum, Highline179, Erlebnisfelsen Pottenstein, Erlebnispark Schloss Thurn, Pepper Pig Park, Allgäu Skyline Park

Dancing in the streets - Hello Nuremberg

But first brief stop in Regensberg to give ourselves a bit of calm before imposing on DVM

No month long trip without at least one emergency hospital visit. No emergency teeth pulling and still made our train.

Walking through old town.

The ups and downs.

Family gnocci making!

Train Museum - A single button is enough to entertain a child for 15 minutes?

Perhaps it's time to get out Pa's layout at home

Racing

Equal and opposite

Heading to the Zoo

Terrific Nuremberg Zoo

With dolphin show! Rushed to get the early show because didn't expect to still be at the zoo for post lunch and before closing shows.

Playground number 1

Something about a lots of small kids and large body of water and rickety boats seems like a dangerous combination. Also a large number of slides that end up somewhere completely else leading to losing Tessa a few times.

Castle

Ride ons

Old town

Checking fit

P and D looking over Autumn Fränkische Schweiz

Potterstein Fränkische Schweiz. "I think we can all agree this looks exactly like Switerland"

Leaving Dennis and co to a week of work and quiet. Driving south to Austria.

Morning run get some Neuschwanstein tour tickets.

View from Castle

Looking back to the castle from a very busy Marienbrücke. The most touristy part of all the trip? We managed to avoid crowds and holidays in other parts of the trip.

Climb up towards Täfelessattel

1983/84 Neuschwanstein diary entry

Walk around the lake

To Legoland castle!

Tessa Safari -

"Canoe... canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe .. canoe... canoe... canoe ... canoe... canoe... canoe" Zoe figuring out you can run out of the exit and sometimes duck under things to jump the queue back in.

Unicorns. Surprisingly not nearly as slick, themed and tight as Playmobil.

Maybe they spent creating entertaining queue entrances. This is one of my biggest fears in life. Queues at theme parks. https://queue-times.com/parks/278/calendar/2024/10. 37% and 34% and it was fine. The following week 99%, no thanks!

Lego version of Neuschwanstein

Castle bikes

Heading to our castle accommodation

Zoe's first roller coaster

Love at first sight?

Attacking the hosts?

I think we found one of these in every place we went to in Germany

Two thumbs up for the trip - but time to go.

Butterflies at Singapore airport.

Trip Counter

London:

Trains: 20-24

Bus: 4 (+2)

Plane: 6

Parks: 7

Run/Ride: 26km

Vienna:

Trains: 9-12

Tram: 1

Bus: 0

Parks: 5

Run/Ride: 24km

Germany:

Trains: 15-19

Tram: 2

Bus: 2

Taxis: 2

Hospitals: 1

Driving: 750 km / 10 hours

Parks: 11

Hike: 20km

Run/Ride: 30 km

Easter 2024

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 04:21:00 +0000

;Easter Hills 2024

Merrijig for another Easter.

Friday 29 March - Monday 1 Apr

- Flamme Rouge

- Egg holders + eggs

- Decorating Bunny biscuits

- Fire and marshmellows

- Painting egg

- Todem Tennis

- Paper Egg games. What's in the paper cup?

- MTB/Run/Hike

- Fri: Creekside x 3

- Saturday; 5km Mountain High Fun Run. Double Flat down DRT. Jog out carrying the bike.

- Sunday; Buller climb to Box corner

- Monday; Creekside morning run, Creekside x3

Brisbane Australia Day 2024

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 09:11:00 +0000

Hot.

Humid.

Dangerously Hot.

36 degrees and 90% humidity.

And then rainy.

Tokyo 2023

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Sat, 20 May 2023 05:21:00 +0000

Tokyo Sumida for 9 days to say hello to new friends and old friends missed over the past many years.

"That was super fun"

"Awww .... I want to back to Japan" says Zoe on the drive home, "because I miss Kumi and Ryoga".

Trip Itinerary:

Saturday - Haneda to Kinshi via Shinagawa. First lap of Oyokogawa-shinsui park, shopping and recovery day.

Sunday - Run around Kinshi park, play in the clean sand at Mizumachi and sports lattest. Fancy dinner out and sky tree run home.

Monday - Tokyo dome Asabono and Lucy-lost food court, following someone with poor direction, to Jimbocho and walk home via Akihabara and Kuramae. Home made Japanese curry.

Tuesday - More runs around Kinshi park, working from home lunch and shopping and Olinas. Home made beef udon bowls.

Wednesday - Another run around Kinshi Park, Head to Asakusa Senso-ji shrine and temple. Sushi-ro near Asahi Golden Poop and another lap of Oyokogawa-shinsui park.

Thursday - Ueno Zoo then Yurakucho passport control and dancing golden people and take-out okonomiyaki.

Friday - Shinkansen to the Railway Museum in Omiya (some people only just made it on), trip home to Tokyo station to dinner with eventful dinner followed by follow up sushi-shinkansen at Kinshicho.

Saturday - Sumida Aquarium at skytree and another lap of Oyokogawa-shinsui park including the ship. Take away Curry for dinner. Shopping in lieu of Giants baseball.

Sunday - Another run around Kinshi and Onshi Park. Dress ups, Bus to Gas and Energy museum, Team labs, Hanging out with Kumi and Ryoga and katsu/banana in LaLaport Toyosu and triple train home.

Monday - Asakusa shopping kitchen street, final Sushi-ro, before departing Sumida for the airport.

Trip Counter:

Trains: 19 (including shinkansen but excluding mini-trains)

Bus: 4

Plane: 2

Parks: 13

Sushi Train: 3

Days: 9

Steps: 20,300 (avg per day)

19 hours 30 minutes Home-Tokyo Hotel

15 hours 45 minutes Kumis Place - Home

Heat map of our travels. 90% Sumida with a short bullet train to the train museum. First trip with zero trips to Daiba and the snow. Next time - spend some nights at Fuji.

Hello!

Most of the trip was in the shadows of Sky Tree.

Buk buk buk

Kids paradise, Tokyo Dome

Shinkansen Hiyabusa

Shinkansen Sushi Please

"It's got a table!"

Busy Trains

Park 7/13

Eating in public -- not allowed. Tiny children -- get presents.

Few days of rain, but still warm with a couple days of 30c.

Getting supplies

"That was super fun." "Water, trampoline and they made us take off our socks and then they gave us towels"

Banana for scale

Pushed Hard. And they flopped but bounced back up again.

Thanks Kumi et al, See you soon.

Easter 2023

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 11 Apr 2023 10:39:00 +0000

Easter Hills 2023

Merrijig for another Easter. Friday 7 April - Tuesday 11 Apr

- Board games: Cascadia

- Playing in the creek

- Kangaroo Hunting

- Giant Easter Egg

- MTB/Run/Hike/Walk

- Sat: Creekside x 2

- Sun: Horsing Around Misadventure. Just before TBJ adventure down an old horse track.... Thankfully following LK bashing his way down. https://www.strava.com/activities/8857684845

- Mon: Creekside x 1 & Alpine Ridge Pram sunrise morning

- Tues: Plain Creek Lower Epic Loop

Winter 2022

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Fri, 30 Sep 2022 10:44:00 +0000

First year with a Buller season pass. First year of kids seeing snow. First year back after covid? ... got covid first trip to the snow. Massive amounts of snow in June and progressively less as the season went on. Failed to meet up with family continuously due to sicknesses/other. Ourselves got sick late August and wasn't able to finish up the season strong.

Luke -- "I just realised in the last two weeks you have skiied more than I have in the last eight years... and I have a flaming season pass!"

MO. Leave 730/745. Arrive 810. Bus to BB1. Wait for opening lifts. Leave at 1015. Head to stirling for the whole afternoon.

Crazy amount of early snow

First tracks all to myself. Where is everybody?

Oh. Found them all as I was leaving at 1030.

If nothing else, first lifts gifts you golden cookies!

Prepped

Joy

Soon.

First time back on skiis in almost 2 decades.

Another trip to Stirling

The bird house.

Sadly covid / sickness meant we never got back in September -- the best month to ski (most years).

Total Days? 16

Days Skiing? 11

Total Distance Skiied? 210.3km

Total Vertical? 35,696m

Fastest Speed? 84.4 km/h

Shortest Day? 1426m 4hr1min or 1798m 1hr45min

Longest Day? 3035m 5hr19min or 4005m 3hr43min

Easter 2022

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 11:31:00 +0000

Easter Hills 2022

Merrijig for another Easter.

Friday 15 April - Tuesday 19 Apr

- Tessa's First Easter - 5 weeks old.

- Zoe's first real Easter hunting

- Early morning walks with Zoe

- Board games: Flamme Rouge & cash 'n' guns.

- Ring a ring a rosy

- Painting Easter bunny canvas'

- Encanto watching in the rain

- Riding in the rain with leaches

- Visit to Mansfield ER with Zoe - Forgot the kids medicine

- Creekside work through the magic forest

- MTB/Run/Hike/Walk

- Sun: Short creekside walk with Zoe. Ride creekside x1

- Mon: Creekside x 1 in the pouring rain with multiple leaches

TEK

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 20:58:00 +0000

🦖

[see https://dkczyk.blogspot.com/2019/11/zjk.html]

Labour Day 2021 (Covid)

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 08:19:00 +0000

Labour Day 2021 w/ Jammos

Mar 6 - Mar 8 2021

Summit Loop, Mansfield Zoo, Dancing

Straddie 2021

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 03:15:00 +0000

Stradbroke Island (North) Feb 6-15

With the extended family, a delayed trip in lieu of a 2020 trip to see family was cancelled.

Great weather (although got a bit windy), great company. Cylinder beach the place to be.

Stuck around in Brisbane a bit longer than planned to skip another lockdown in Vic.

Nightly sunsets

Ferry

Appartment view

Walking along main beach

Thanks for the backpack

Beach

Beach walks

Kangaroo or as Zo used to call them..... "roo" "loo" "toilet" something funny, can't remember.

Breakfast reading.

Zo Dad walks

Middle Stradbroke

Brissy with home made pizza

Climbing up and about Mt Coot-tha

Brisbane is small. We should move here.

Cheeky

Enjoying brisbane freedom

Sad on the train

Plane

Empty airport

Back home.

Queens Birthday 2020 (covid)

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 03:33:00 +0000

6-10 June 2020. Bird House begins. COVID is just beginning

Lonely Slow Double Loop

Summer Family Holiday 2020

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 17 Feb 2020 00:30:00 +0000

~~Merembula~~ - Fire
~~Gold coast~~ - Flood
Mt Martha - Perfect

11-16th February 2020

3 kayaks, 2 paddleboards, 4 kids
Enchanted adventure garden
Vanentines day surprise dinner
Green olive at red hill

Busy when it rains

100th birthday
Dolphins
Cash and guns says welcome to 7 wonders of kingdomino

Is it bad that I am just as excited doing this as Ez? - Luke

Isa QLD 2020

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 02:35:00 +0000

Mt Isa. Jan 10 - Jan 13 2020

Zoe's first trip. Meet the cousin.

Smooth sailing. We are going to go to so many places while Paulette has maternity leave and Dane has lots of QFF points to burn up. Zo's definitely not going to stop us travelling this year! ...

Oh I thought you just had an amazing beard! Double take --- Baby!

😦

😀

Awww

Did you enjoy it?

Photo shoot #2 - fail

42c golfing

ZJK

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Wed, 06 Nov 2019 00:06:00 +0000

💃

[see https://dkczyk.blogspot.com/2022/03/tek.html]

New York Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 06:27:00 +0000

New York 22-30 June 2019

- ARMA 2019
- Brooklyn
- 1WTC
- 90km on 19 citibikes
- DeKalb ave marketplace
- Brighton Beach
- Coney Island
- Vessel
- Governors Island Tour
- 3024 to 11217 = 26 hour 20 min
- 11217 to 3024 = 28 hour 39 min

We missed out being visitor #1 and #2 in 2014, Visitor #9,130,890.

Waiting for a clean window...

"Dane flew a drone where he wasn't meant to?"

Better in winter

Free Brooklyn/Governors Island Ferry. Manhattan skyline and sweet Brooklyn pier parks

Governors Island Cycling/Picnic tour definitely a highlight

Citibike tour

Brooklyn's changing seasons

Queens Birthday Hills

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 12:01:00 +0000

Queensbirthday weekend getaway

8-10 June 2019

Surprising amount of snow.

- Powergrid
- Bushwalk
- Snowshoe
- Bridge (rubber contract)
- Splendor
- Sweets
- Week 16

Fair bit of snow for early June. Our bets it would all disappear were true.

Snowshoe from 200m from TBJ to machinery hut and back

Contract rubber bridge played and learnt - JJs win the game

13cm 9th June 2019 - 0cm 12th June 2019. Come back in August.

Kaputar National Park | 6 years later

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Thu, 25 Apr 2019 07:39:00 +0000

A revisit to Kaputar National Park! How much has changed 6 years later, or how much has not? (original post: http://dkczyk.blogspot.com/2013/09/mount-kaputar-national-park.html)

Drove to Sawn Rocks to revisit, and then went to Waa Gorge on a whim with time to kill. More than glad I did, as it was unexpectedly epic! (see below video).

Australia is a big place.

Sawn Rocks

Wow wee, what a Waa Gorge!

The fallen rocks after sawing

Am I lost? I guess I've opened 2 gates I should keep going. 5 gates later...

Not sure where the path is, but keep following the cairns

Deceptively long and steep

'bri sunsets.

Japan 2019 | Destination Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 03:33:00 +0000

16 Feb - 5 March 2019

Tokyo - Hata Wedding 23 February 2018

8 nights in Tokyo for the Imperial Wedding of the Year! Asakusa for 2 nights and 6 nights in Akihabara with Sase. 10 Packages arrived safely, and all was merry and well until Kat set off an alarm pre sake party.

7 nights in Shiga Kogen, Nagano. Thankfully picked the best resort to be in the whole of Japan for this period. Horizontally expansive and didn't even get a day or two to do Yokoteyama or Shibutoge. Pitch might be a little shallow for full on powder, but, altitude was key. Shiga Kogen probably my favorite resort on Honshu so far. Quick snowboard in the morning of the last day and straight to Haneda.

Package number 6

Got in late for some Asakusa Gyoza

Hunt around to find the Daimyo clock museum

Tokyo Museum for a day

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Found package number 5 and 7.

Success? Asakusa okonomiyaki

Ginza for hashi (and ties?)

Where do you go with 20 people for sushi? Answer: Sushi-ro. Stretch goal achieved.

Meet up #1

Birthday thunder-dolphin. 22/2, 'better than expected', 'good views', 'I'd do it it again', 'thunder dolphin, thunder dolphin, thunder dolphin'

Fish market may have moved, but still recommended to visit the outer market

100 yen Japanese omelettes

The less good to visit new fish market

D--annne

Spotted the bride

Wedding extravaganza!

With simultaneous champagne popping.

Kēki

Sake ranking

Shinjuku

Probably should visit Tokyo outside of winter one year

Delicious Japanese cuisine (at the sutamashi don don in Shinjuku)

Royal sake - until Emperor Meiji got a tasting for french wine

Meiji Jingu - contains no chocolate

Meet up #2 and farewell.

And now that Kuko is out of the country we made our way to Nagano. Oh? She's changed her plans and sticking around in Tokyo? Damn.

Room with a view

Looking over to Myoko / Madarao / Tanfram and Korea (nagano-niigata-kanto-japan-2015)

Typical breakfast

Second day snow

Giant (left), Sun Valley/ Hasuike(middle) from Nishitateyama

Hoppo Bunadaira

Skiing alone with the snowmonkeys on Higashitateyama, definitely worth doing. More spotted Ichinose Yamanokami until the loud "so, where are all the monkeys?" snowboarder arrived

Wombat - check. Snowmonkey - check.

All you can eat Nepalese? Ne-pa-lease!

Quad looking west

Pat, Jake, Paulette, Matt ripping it

Don't ski on weekends. While the bees weren't that bad weekends do get busy....

Ski on weekdays, when there is nobody about!

Skier with poles

Skier without poles

Run away with poles

P, Matt and Jake

Giant was bigger than expected, looking towards Nishitateyama (left) and Higashitateyama (right)

Monkeys attacking the hotel

Snow

Fresh snow in the terakoya area has opened, the terakoya area has opened. Memories of Nozawa four years earlier. Do not get on a lift that travels 2km/h.

Last morning first runs. 7000 VM and 135 lift points used in 4 hours.

Okushiga looking back to accommodation on the last morning

Okushiga endless free trees. A far cry from 5 years ago when the resort was skiers only!

Free credit card points business upgrade ;)

SHIGA KOGEN

Favourite Run? Black (P- Red) off the Ichinose Quad, Terakoya trees for the packed powder and Okushiga Gondala when the going was good.

Longest Run? 5.3 km (727m) Terakoya through to Giant

Fastest Speed? 80 km/h

Total Distance Skiied? 287km

Total Vertical? 49,000m

Average Rating? 4.4/5.0

Snowfall? 10 cm + 3 cm + 10 cm + 20 cm + 10 cm (ShigaKogenNow 13cm)

other snow

Big Bash 2019

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 07:51:00 +0000

BBL Final 2019

Follow up on BBL Final 2018 - http://dkczyk.blogspot.com/2018/02/adelaide.html

Stars lose the final to renegades gain. Two years in a row going to semi final and final of the BBL. Is it a new tradition? How far are we willing to travel to continue?

Game 1 - Jan warm up

Game 2 - barracking for a Renegades win. We have red hats.

Who would've thought they'd win? And the stars too!

Game 3 - Final - not so closeted stars fan barracking for a win, but, they went the opposite way. 74 off 60 required and lost by 14. cricinfo

Singapore 2018

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Wed, 17 Oct 2018 05:55:00 +0000

Singapore

11-16th October to catch up with Kuko in Singapore and check out the sights. Thanks Ku for the concentration, food and fun.

P didn't quite enjoy the climate, Dane thought it was great, in the top 10 cities visited. If one was to stay downtown, not even in Marina Bay Sands, the city would have had a very different experience.

There was definitely enough to keep busy for 5 days, could have done with another 3 days to explore Chinatown, gardens by the bay properly, sentosa, night safari, perankan museum, asian civilisation museum, marina bay sands and other tall buildings. Strategically left panoramas from the tops of buildings for the next stopover. Also next time; put Paulette closer to a pool, sign up to the $1 motorised scooters, finish the final three local favourites foods not sampled (fish head curry, laksa and rojak)

Map of activities and food.

Had to follow a 3.5 minute Airbnb find and seek youtube video to find our digs in Farrer Park.

Tropical Green through Fort Canning Park

National Museum of Singapore. Knowledge of Singapore before entry.. about a 4? after at least 30! Free entry too! Not sure why?

Ice-cream sandwich man. Local foods to try in Singapore 1/10 ticked off.

Chilli Crab (2/10) at hawker centre. Make sure you carry around a pack of tissues, it is all you will need to reserve a table indefinitely (?) at a hawker centre.

Iced coconut? Lychee and Mango in Chinatown

MacRitchie Trail to Chicken House (Hainanese Chicken 3/10). Both highly recommended. Walked during a bit of a thunderstorm but cleared up by the end of the walk.

Looking over the reservoir

Up the Jelutong Tower after the thunderstorm passed by.

Tree top walk. Lots of monkeys in the popular entrance.

After a 3 hour hot walk in the jungle a quick shower and then to a very different side of Singapore for dinner.

View from the helix bridge of Marina Bay, Marina Bay Sands, ArtScience Museum and downtown.

Helix Bridge and Flyer

After satay by the bay (Roti Prata 4/10) went a checked out the supertree lit up.

Definitely the best public light display, beats any fireworks display and they do it every night!

Marina bay light show, abjectly not as good as the Garden Rhapsody

Baby Bay Sands

Kaya Toast (5/10)

Botanical Gardens of Singapore and Orchid Garden, terrific!

If there weren't massive cod fish, large monitor lizards and nearby officials; one of us would have tried to run across these metre wide pads (waxed covered to remove water)

Walking through the golden arches. Does singapore even have seasons for blooming?

Haven’t seen some of these guys since Jan! Who would’ve thought we’d catch up in Singapore. (Nasi Lemak 6/10)

Wood carving in swan lake

Arab Street

View from the sports complex

East Gardens by the Bay

View from East Gardens by the Bay

End of a ride around East Coast Park and then back to Marina Bay at Sunset. NB make sure you check the bike for damage (and chain) before setting off on an ofo/obike/sg bike/etc

Looking back towards flyer, suntec centre and lavender

Not on the 10 to try but it should be. DIY Popiah. Restaurant is open on monday's, don't listen to Google, listen to the mind.

Just flap your arms up and down. It's doing something... yup keep that up. I'll be just over there. I'm still watching. Keeping doing it, it's very important.

The artscience museums saving exhibit. They were in between 2 major exhibits but it was exactly as expected.

Closest we got to 1 raffles and cityhall before we had to get the train to the airport late afternoon Tuesday.

View from the promenade; (L-R) downtown, with the lion thing we didn't see (obscured), that shopping sort of area, that other sort of shopping area, that fountain, the water stand stadium, the artscience museum, the flyer, more shopping, marina sands and stage right gardens by the bay. We didn't actually go to gardens by the bay during the day, or more than just to see the Supertree.

Stirling Spring 2018

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Fri, 05 Oct 2018 09:33:00 +0000

Spring XC Stirling
Merrijig GF Long Weekend

Up and back to Cricket Pitch Twice. 1 October still 80cm of snow underfoot above 1400m. Jake and Maria joined along for day 2 too. Note: Mt Stirling hire shuts end of regular season.

Back up

Picked up some gear on the way up at Narrbethong

Not as much hell as last time we went showshoeing (link, pic)

Looking back towards Mt Buller. Snow quickly disappearing now the start of October.

Tents for hire

Cricket Pitch Long on

Making the most of all the snow

Damage pre-bike launching off car en route home.

Mini-loop and mini-climb time set.

https://www.strava.com/activities/1876976573

Thredbo 2018

noreply@blogger.com (DK) — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 10:44:00 +0000

Thredbo P B-day trip
14 - 18 September 2018

Two nights in Towong and two nights in Thredbo. Driving into Thredbo for a snowboard at minus 8 degrees on Sunday morning over ice and snow. Great conditions for spring, wasn't able to capitalise on the little bit of fresh snow ⛄ due to having no idea where we were going! Thredbo does seem to be my sort of mountain - high vert, long runs, and fast.

We perhaps picked perfect time again to hit the snow 👍, day before we got in it was raining, busy and miserable. Snowed overnight for us to enjoy and the day we left kosci/cruiser on wind hold.

Also noteworth is Paulette was 100% 6/6 T-bars (next stop T-bars to the Plateau Rosa) - but - at one stage was running at 80% for chairlifts. The Karels t-bar didn't seem worth it which was a shame, maybe it was the conditions.

Burrowa - Pine Mountain National Park Cudgewa/Bluff Falls

Hapi viet dinner in Albury.

Main range covered in snow/rain cloud. Looking over Towong, Corryong. We were told Towongs do not make a Bright.

Working at heights tickets were not checked

Onto Thredbo

Heading up Kosi lift with supertrail.

From the top carpark

From the accommodation window over Monday breakfast

Dropping into cruisers ballroom

B... Boundary Ballroom?

There was very good intentions of avoiding a T-bar for P that ended... poorly for P. She's actually good enough to smash this hard and fast forced turns run but mentally sore.

Contemplating .... Why did I follow Dane?

LEEP waving back from Sydney Mara

Scammel's lookout

Level 4 blind! Cloud 9!

THREDBO

Favourite Run? Supertrail (Monday morning), High Noon (Sunday morning) Michaels Mistake, Bowl and Ballroom. So many not attempted though due to time/spring.

Longest Run? 3.8km - Cruiser Traverse to Kosci Express, and Eagles nest to Gunbarrel.

Fastest Speed? 85 km/h

Total Distance Skiied? 90.1 km

Total Vertical? 16,741m

Average Rating? 4.5/5

Snowfall? 5cm?

-- Other snow tracks --