Had a fantastic day yesterday in sunny Mildura.
Started the day off with a swim in the Caravan Park pool after breakfast. Was already well into the 30’s and we all needed a refreshing swim after such a hot night.
The girls took their masks and snorkels into the pool and did an awesome job of swimming right out across the deep end by themselves!! They really have come a long way on this holiday.
After our swim, it was off to Coles to restock the fridge. For some reason the shop was full of Christmas stuff… is it that time already?? We had planned to have a look around the town and maybe stop into one or two more shops, but our outing was cut short by the most common chant we have heard on this trip… “Need to go to the toilet!!!”. Weak bladder’d kids… surely they could have gone before we got in the car!!!
Oh well, we raced back to the van, then had a great lunch of fresh rolls, chicken, ham, strass, cheese, avocado, capsicum and cucumber. (see… we do eat properly sometimes!!)
The afternoon was spent visiting a gem stone shop. Now when Fi told me she wanted to visit a gem stone shop, I expected it would fill no more than 30 minutes (and that includes dragging Fi out kicking and screaming as she tries to buy too much jewelry…. a joke Fi… no really… was only being serious….) but not so at Woodsie’s Gem Stone shop….
We spent about 4 hours there!!
Was a great place with a huge collection of gem stones that they had made into various things, from jewelry to ornaments. Even the kids spent ages looking around the shop in awe. We then entered The Cave… a closed off section that had rocks and minerals from all over the globe. Was a great collection that even Grandfather would have been envious of. My favorites were the minerals that glowed under the fluro lights. Of course I also have fun scaring the kids by making my teeth glow!!
After the cave, we entered The Maze. Now I have done mazes before, but nothing like this one… This was a true maze… over grown with twists and turns, and one way doors that you had to go through. We well and truly lost ourselves in the maze for a good hour before giving up and taking the bail out gate. Zac and I went back in for one last go, but again found ourselves at the bail out gate. I think if we had gone one more time we would have made it, but it was very hot and we were very thirsty and it was a long way through from end to end. It was also getting late and the shop was going to close soon. There was a sign halfway through the maze that requested that you remove all watches and jewelry after 5:30pm, as the guard dogs choke on them!!!
Was a great maze, but then we had to get down to why Fi really wanted to come here… shopping!!
Zac chose a set of Ying-Yang balls (not sure why a 9 year old is so stressed he needs them…), Tara selected a fairy on a unicorn, Jess selected a black sheep (isn’t there a saying about that??), Fi selected a pair of earrings and I got a tribal necklace. What was surprising was that everything was very reasonably priced. I expected that in a shop like that everything would be expensive trying to catch the tourist dollars, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Woodsie’s was a great place and I can highly recommend it to anyone who may come up the is way.
On the way back to the van, we stopped by a huge playground called The Peoples Park for Play. This is one of the best parks i’ve seen, and the kids had a ball. I think we could have spent half a day just playing there…. if the kids had their way anyway!!
Ended the day with a huge cook up on the BBQ (yes Fi even made a salad!!) before Tara and Jess deceided they would camp out for the night…
Unfortunately for them, we had different ideas and it was kids to bed so we could relax and our night could begin. We were sitting outside doing the geeky iPad thing when the park owners wandered by walking the dog. They were very friendly and stopped for a chat, talking about all the trials and tribulations of running a caravan park. Was very interesting to listen to what they had to say.
All in all a great day in Mildura… let’s hope that Swan Hill is just as good today!
