31 March - Leaving Marvellous Merimbula

So our time at Merimbula has come to an end – we finished off with a day in Ben Boyd National Park and had lunch in Eden and checking out David’s parent old houses.  We leave Merimbula with absolute certainty that we will return.  The boys are determined to do the tree climb at Magic Mountain but as you need to be 10 which is that is 3 years away.  David and I are planning to come back much before then and keep exploring this lovely region.  Here are some of our photos from the pinnacles in Ben Boyd National Park.

One thing that has happened even in just one week.  We seem to be turning our boys into avid photographers.  Which is fantastic, however they have been wanting to get up every morning to photograph the sunrises.  We have struck a deal with them however, no more sunrises after daylight savings ends.  We had a discussion and came to an agreement – we will concentrate on sunsets after then.

27 March - More of Marvellous Merimbula

So other than our lovely day at Magic Mountain we spent the rest of our time in Merimbula exploring, hanging out at the beach , playing with our kids in the pool, seeing some of the attractions such as Potoroo Palace.  We also learnt how to run the essentials in the van, connect water, gas, and more reorganising.  No matter that I thought we had logical places for our things on a day to day we have discovered they weren’t the right places.  So here is a quick run down of out time in Merimbula:
 

Cruising the Merimbula Boardwalk.  Merimbula has a lovely boardwalk which is an easy couple of kms with great views over the lake and of the local environment.  It has good educational signs along the way.  It was a perfect place to spend some time especially as it was blowing a gale and the beach was not the place to be.

Hanging out in Bournda National Park.  I went to Bournda Lagoon decades ago and remember it being gorgeous.  It lived up to my memories.  We were there on a perfect day, sunny and without the gale force winds.  We kayaked, swam in the sea and the lagoon, walked the beach and to the other lakes.

Taking in Potoroo Palace.  The forecast said showers, it was grey, overcast and cool.  So we decided to try out the Potoroo Palace which is a native animal educational sanctuary.  I wouldn’t describe it as an A grade zoo, but we had a really pleasant time there.  The boys loved the animals, especially feeding the kangaroos. The games they had around the grounds were a great hit with our family.  The educational talks were interesting if a little too preachy at times.  There is also a little train ride through the grounds.  The best thing was the ability to shoot some animals really close especially the tawny frog mouths,  I was never going to get shots like these in the wild.

24 March 2015 Marvellous Merimbula

Having left the sanctuary of my Mum's house we chose Merimbula as our first destination for a number of reasons.  First we had both spent time near here (mostly around Eden) and love this part of the coast.  We also thought this would be a great kid friendly place, a place where after all the recent chaos we could relax with our boys a bit.  There had been many times recently when we had both been very busy organising and packing, our boys were mostly wonderfully helpful so we thought they had earned a really fun time somewhere.  We hoped the combination of a Merimbula beach resort caravan park and a visit to Magic Mountain would fit the bill.  I can say our stay in Merimbula did not disappoint.

We drove to Merimbula through driving rain which stopped just before we arrived there.  We cruised through and ended up booking 4 nights in the NRMA Merimbula Beach Holiday Park.  We chose this park because it offered all the bells and whistles so we could take our time working the van out without running out of water or starving because we couldn't get the gas flowing.  It also had bouncy pillow, heated resort pool, kids club (and not just school holidays :) ) and was very reasonably priced.  In fact we ended up loving our stay so much we added 3 more nights.  So to the key question (well the one that was in my mind if not yours) yes YAY we managed to park our van in the right spot without embarrassing ourselves!!!!!  It probably helped that there were no neighbours and no one was watching us, oh we also didn't have a slab so the fact that we were at a slight angle (well slightish) didn't matter. 

Magic Mountain

If you are looking for thrills and spills, adrenaline pumping rides, if you are looking for Wet and Wild - well I'd suggest go to Wet and Wild.  However, Magic Mountain was perfect for us.  Firstly we had amazing weather (mid 20s and sunny).  Second the rides were perfect for our 7 year boys.  We were there out of school and summer holidays - ZERO QUEUES.  In fact there were a couple of times when our kids were the only ones on the ride.  Finally, adults don't have to pay (which works when you don't really want to do the rides).  We had the best day watching and helping our kids have total fun.  They did their first toboggan ride, first roller coaster, and first grand prix car racing and because these were aimed at kids they were really safe and non-threatening.

I think these photos sum up the feeling for the day: