Hunter Valley July 2014

**** old post, found in draft mode dated 16-07-14 ******

We went to Hunter Valley again! This time we stayed at Cypress Lakes for 3 nights (one of those mystery hotel deals). Kids loved the fact that the villa we stayed in was two-story high and the bedrooms were upstairs. "Upstairs" is a very big thing with our kids.

The main attraction this time was not the wineries. It was the Snow time in Hunter Valley Gardens. Kids played with 'fake' snow, saw an ice-sculpture, did ice-skating and loved the toboggan rides especially. I lost count of many times they/we did it!! The whole Snow time set up was not huge, but it attracted a huge crowd.

The other (food) highlights included lunch at Mojo's (Lara learned how to play chess with Daddy here), desserts at 'Sabor in Hunter'(divine coffee and desserts, lots of gluten free options!) and dinner at Harrigan's with friends (yummy!).
We visited only 3 wineries (Gundog, Mistletoe and Pig's Peak) but still bought over 2 cases of wines. It was a lovely short break!

Outdoor chess:


More chess at Cypress Lakes lobby:


Caught up with an old friend, the 3-legged dog we saw at Pukara Estate last year.


Still our favourite:

Taiwan 2014 - temples

We spent 2 and a half weeks in Taiwan this April. It was a much anticipated trip, Lara's first Taiwan trip and my first in 14 years! For various reasons, it was decided the girls went with Weipo and the boys stayed back, a decision I was unsure to start with and Simon regretted it later, but we had a fabulous girls' time!

There are so many memories to write down. I might start with one of Lara's favorite places, the Buddhist temples. They are in every corners of Taiwan but you don't see many of them here.

The LongShan temple


On our second day in Taiwan, we ventured out to one of the oldest temples in Taipei, the LongShan temple, only two MRT stops away from where we stayed. Lara's face lit up when we got there. As temples go, LongShan is big and very famous with a fake rocky mountain on one side, a man-made pond with fish next to it, big courtyards, rustic and majestic front, colourful carvings and dragons sitting on rooftops (as with most temples).

We got there in the mid afternoon during a worship session, in the middle of a long chant. We were greeted by the smell of the incense burning and the many locals and tourists who were there first. Lara was mesmerised by the song-like chanting and said to me excitedly "Mum can you teach me to sing this song?"!!
We walked around the different rooms but didn't stay for too long because Weipo sat outside waiting for us. Weipo is a Christian and didn't want to set foot in temples! (she did break this self-imposed rule later on:)



We would encounter many temples, big and small during our trip. Some we went in, some we walked past and some we caught glimpses of through moving vehicles. We took a couple of 'long' (note 1) train journeys and counting the number of temples we saw along the way became a popular game.

We learned to enter the temples on the right door and exit through the left. Lara became an old hand at kneeling down on stools (to prey) and lighting up the incense. We studied the faces of the various gods (even if we don't know their names) and enjoyed the nice serene feel when we were inside the temples, away from the noisy world.



Travel is great. It is through travel that we remember that we sometimes forget how big the world is, how small our thoughts get and how narrow our hearts become. we live in our own worlds, worry about our little problems and forget about the bigger pictures. It is a pity that the trip was too short and we all caught Sam's daycare tummy bug when we arrived home....

Note 1 : With the high speed rail (up to 300km/hr), what used to take 8 hours when I was young(from Taipei to Kaohsuing), now took 1.5 hours! No train rides are that long any more!

Gold Coast October 2013

We had a short break in Golad Coast in October. Work was extremely busy before the holiday (I was even working away on the Sat night before we got on the plane). At around the same time, Dad decided to pop in from overseas for a short stay and only left the night before our departure. I hardly had any time to pack let alone being excited about going away.

From our aparatment -

We stayed at a 2-bed serviced apartment on the 23rd floor at Broadbeach. I had this picture of us sitting on the balcony and enjoying the view in my head before we left but only realised how windy it was up there once we set foot on that balcony! I had to hold on to the rail in fear of beling blown away from the 23rd floor! The views were pretty good though(espeially at night).

Life in Gold coast was easy and relaxing. It involved coffee and park play early in the morning, followed by beach and lunch. Afternon was usually spent at the pool or back at the apartment to read or nap. There were many restaurants to choose from for dinner in walking distance and yummy gelato after (nearly) every dinner.

A great playground we only discovered the morning we left:(

The only (small) disappointment was the sea water was not as warm as we would like. The kids still ask when we will back so that is always a good sign that the week was well spent:)

Hunter Valley again

We have been to the Hunter Valley twice in the last 2 months. Everytime we go, we discover something new..

We stayed at the Littles winery last month. It was very interesting to actually sleep next to the tasting room inside the winery and the view from the dinning room table was beautiful and serene. The kids loved the winery manager's dog Gypsy and loved tasting the chutneys, olive oil and cheese. We also went to a nice little deli that served yummy hearty food on cushions under trees, the food I still crave when I think about it.

This was before Sam had his first haircut.


We stayed at a 4-bed house this time because we had the Grandparents with us. The house was quite basic but the setting was very relaxing and tranquil. We didn't get to visit many wineries as it was very hot while we were there (there was a heat wave). I counted us very lucky though because if I booked one week earlier, the kids would have been too sick to go. We all enjoyed the swimming, we had the whole pool to ourselves. We had barbecued steaks and sausages plus the yummy goods we collected along the way, including the smoked trout and octpotus legs from the Lovedale smoke house, a new-find this time.  We also went to the Hunter Valley barn and stocked up on sweets.



Kids were on a high singing just before a swim.


We will leave Hunter until the weather cools down but we will be back!

Siamanges and the goat rescue

Continuing on about our recent holiday...

The highlight in the zoo was the Siamanges. The siamanges have throat pouches that can inflate to make loud resonate sounds. Here is a short video we took while these apes howled. The mummy Siamanage carried a two-week baby on her tummy and the daddy Siamanage ran round showing his arm muscles to warn us off. The kids loved them!



The highlight in Mudgee was the goats. We spent some time in this place called 'Leaning Oak' patting goats (or more correctly, one goat in particular). This friendly goat followed us around like a dog. She had a collar on so I thought her was a family pet. We later found out that only the 'naughty' ones get to wear collars (so people can get hold of them easier). This friendly goat made an attempt of eating everything the kids thrusted into her mouth and seemed to enjoy the attention. She did some funny jumps away from Sam, other than that, she followed the kids around while they looked for 'food' for her to eat. 




After lots of patting and photos, we went inside to try the goat cheese. I bought a block of brie and some goat cheese in pesto (yummy!) and we chatted to the lady owner about her goats and sheeps (one of them had babies the night before). Just before we were about to leave, we heard strange high-pitched sound coming from the shed. The next minute, the owner lady ran out from the tasting room into the shed shouting after her that the goats are in disstress. Then she ran out and asked if Simon could go and help her. It turned out that two of the goats wandered into the shed and fell into the underground water tank. The cover to the tank broke and the male owner in fact left for town just after we arrived to get new covers for the tank. The water tank was very deep and luckily Simon was around to help the goats out. It was nice now back at home we talked about the goats while eating the lovely cheese (wish I have bought more!!).

July holiday

We just came back from a 5-day short break, a couple of days in Dubbo and a couple of days in Mudgee. It was not a great holiday because we all got Sam's cold. In fact we were all sick before we even left home. The first day driving to Orange was the worst day. When we stopped at a petrol station at 2pm there were snow pellets dropping from the sky. It was very very cold. Not a good weather for Lara who already had 39.5C fever the night before. In fact, her fever would last 5 days. Rather than going to the zoo, we took her to see a doctor the first morning we were in Dubbo.


The first night in Orange was not great. I was very tired from a day of driving with temperature and a very sore throat myself. Simon went out to get some food for us (in the freezing cold). Most of the restaurants didn't open on Sunday and the food he eventauly found was barely edible. While he was gone, I had my attention somewhere else for 5 mintues and Sam managed to get hold of a red crayon and drew all over the cream carpet in the hotel room. We spent the next half an hour trying to get the marks off.



Despite Lara not wanting to do much and threatened to throw up, we spent one afternoon and a half at the zoo. Dubbo zoo was big but there was minimum walking involved and it was very easy to get around in a car. It was very relaxing being with the animals. We got very close to the giraffes, heard the lion roar, witnessed the Siamanges and their baby in action. The view from the Savana viewing platform was amazing too. We were also lucky that the Mudgee wine-tasting part of the trip was at the end. We managed to taste and bought some wines and Simon managed to rescue a couple of goats on the way!

We are very glad to be home though.