Our holiday - getting there
The Q family have just returned from heading south to the Blue Mountains for their holidays and now that the laundry is tamed it's time to blog (in stages) to answer everyone's questions about how the holiday went so here goes for days 1 and 2.
We set off on Sunday 7 December and started nice and early. New South Wales has daylight saving time so we had to get up nice and early to get going in time to get a bit further south to join in worship with some fellow Presbyterians at 10 am. Anika was our researcher and quickly worked out which churches we would attend in our holidays. We printed out Google directions and all went smoothly getting there except that a learner driver almost took us out at a roundabout. Very quickly we noticed an incredible amount of P and L plate drivers in NSW so Lloyd and Matt started doing a tally.
After worship we were on our way again and stopped near Grafton for lunch. I had everything planned out. On the Saturday I had cooked and sliced a nice piece of corned meat and had picked up one of those prepared salads at the shop. I had also noticed a packet of baby potatoes and picked those up too thinking that it was going to be nice and easy doing lunch without having to stop and waste time finding something suitable to eat:
I had a tablecloth, disposable plates and cutlery and some peaches for dessert. When we pulled up at the rest area picnic table a couple who had just purchased a snack from the nearby petrol station commented on how incredibly organised we were. I felt a bit clever with myself as I served out lunch. At least, until we started eating. Matt commented, "Mum, can you cut my potatoes please?" I wondered at his lack of strength until I realised the problem - the potatoes weren't cooked! Silly me thought that a packet of something picked up in the salad section of the supermarket would include something prepared ready to eat. We made do with the rest of the lunch and cooked them later at our motel. They were quite nice but next time I'll cook them first.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we stopped at Port Macquarie for the night at a lovely motel that had views of the Hastings River behind us:
It was so nice there that we wondered why we had bothered to go so far as the Blue Mountains but our holiday was booked so off we went the next day. Some 18 and a half years ago we drove to the Blue Mountains on our honeymoon so we had a feeling of deja vu. Last time we got terribly lost bypassing Sydney on our way west. This time though, armed with Google directions, we thought we'd be fine. After all, we had got to Port Macquarie in good time. We were making good time and Hubby had driven 2/3 of the way so it was my turn at the wheel. The problem is that Hubby had left his glasses in the boot of the car. Google's directions told us to go on the M7 heading west but all we could see was a sign to the M2. We drove a little further and realised we were lost so stopped at a service station for directions. The directions we were given reminded us that the residents of Sydney must be impressed with us because the directions they always give us guarantee that we'll never get out of the place.
Eventually we figured the M2 and the M7 must be the same thing so off we went, paid our toll at the gate to a nice man and kept going. Anika was reading the Google directions and said slight left after 0.6 km. All we could see was an exit after driving this far so we thought that's where we were meant to go. As soon as we got off we realised we'd made a mistake. We then figured we'd better get on the M2 again and got back going east (paying another $2.20 toll) then got back on going west again and came to the same toll man. "You back!" was his comment as he took another $2.20. We confessed we were lost and asked the way to the Blue Mountains. He said to take the Blacktown exit. We got off at the Blacktown exit and had no idea where we were to go (logically speaking you would think there would be some indication of the way to the Blue Mountains seeing as it is a major tourist spot but there were no road signs). Somehow we ended up on a cashless toll road and we saw signs saying if we didn't have an e-tag we had 48 hours to make amends. Anika quickly jotted down the website and phone number. Soon after this a huge thunderstorm dumped a heap of rain and I couldn't see a thing.
We were getting a bit desperate at this point, just following any road and then I saw a sign for the Woolworths headquarters. There was a scramble in the back seat by Anika and Matt for the Woollies Homebrand choc-chip bickie packet to see where Woollies headquarters are - Bella Vista. At this point I pulled over and Hubby took the wheel and I took the map. Bella Vista wasn't on the map. (By this stage you can guess that Google directions were abandoned and the map was brought out). We found out later that if we had turned the map over we would have found a more detailed map with Bella Vista on there. I think it was at this point that I commented that Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth probably made better time than us at their first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 (Australia's indigenous peoples had it worked out well before that). Well, we decided to do what the nice man said and follow the signs to Blacktown and sure enough there were signs to the Blue Mountains (finally). A bit of time lost but we were there. Never was a cup of tea more appreciated than the one I had when we got there.
We set off on Sunday 7 December and started nice and early. New South Wales has daylight saving time so we had to get up nice and early to get going in time to get a bit further south to join in worship with some fellow Presbyterians at 10 am. Anika was our researcher and quickly worked out which churches we would attend in our holidays. We printed out Google directions and all went smoothly getting there except that a learner driver almost took us out at a roundabout. Very quickly we noticed an incredible amount of P and L plate drivers in NSW so Lloyd and Matt started doing a tally.
After worship we were on our way again and stopped near Grafton for lunch. I had everything planned out. On the Saturday I had cooked and sliced a nice piece of corned meat and had picked up one of those prepared salads at the shop. I had also noticed a packet of baby potatoes and picked those up too thinking that it was going to be nice and easy doing lunch without having to stop and waste time finding something suitable to eat:
I had a tablecloth, disposable plates and cutlery and some peaches for dessert. When we pulled up at the rest area picnic table a couple who had just purchased a snack from the nearby petrol station commented on how incredibly organised we were. I felt a bit clever with myself as I served out lunch. At least, until we started eating. Matt commented, "Mum, can you cut my potatoes please?" I wondered at his lack of strength until I realised the problem - the potatoes weren't cooked! Silly me thought that a packet of something picked up in the salad section of the supermarket would include something prepared ready to eat. We made do with the rest of the lunch and cooked them later at our motel. They were quite nice but next time I'll cook them first.
The rest of the trip was uneventful and we stopped at Port Macquarie for the night at a lovely motel that had views of the Hastings River behind us:
It was so nice there that we wondered why we had bothered to go so far as the Blue Mountains but our holiday was booked so off we went the next day. Some 18 and a half years ago we drove to the Blue Mountains on our honeymoon so we had a feeling of deja vu. Last time we got terribly lost bypassing Sydney on our way west. This time though, armed with Google directions, we thought we'd be fine. After all, we had got to Port Macquarie in good time. We were making good time and Hubby had driven 2/3 of the way so it was my turn at the wheel. The problem is that Hubby had left his glasses in the boot of the car. Google's directions told us to go on the M7 heading west but all we could see was a sign to the M2. We drove a little further and realised we were lost so stopped at a service station for directions. The directions we were given reminded us that the residents of Sydney must be impressed with us because the directions they always give us guarantee that we'll never get out of the place.
Eventually we figured the M2 and the M7 must be the same thing so off we went, paid our toll at the gate to a nice man and kept going. Anika was reading the Google directions and said slight left after 0.6 km. All we could see was an exit after driving this far so we thought that's where we were meant to go. As soon as we got off we realised we'd made a mistake. We then figured we'd better get on the M2 again and got back going east (paying another $2.20 toll) then got back on going west again and came to the same toll man. "You back!" was his comment as he took another $2.20. We confessed we were lost and asked the way to the Blue Mountains. He said to take the Blacktown exit. We got off at the Blacktown exit and had no idea where we were to go (logically speaking you would think there would be some indication of the way to the Blue Mountains seeing as it is a major tourist spot but there were no road signs). Somehow we ended up on a cashless toll road and we saw signs saying if we didn't have an e-tag we had 48 hours to make amends. Anika quickly jotted down the website and phone number. Soon after this a huge thunderstorm dumped a heap of rain and I couldn't see a thing.
We were getting a bit desperate at this point, just following any road and then I saw a sign for the Woolworths headquarters. There was a scramble in the back seat by Anika and Matt for the Woollies Homebrand choc-chip bickie packet to see where Woollies headquarters are - Bella Vista. At this point I pulled over and Hubby took the wheel and I took the map. Bella Vista wasn't on the map. (By this stage you can guess that Google directions were abandoned and the map was brought out). We found out later that if we had turned the map over we would have found a more detailed map with Bella Vista on there. I think it was at this point that I commented that Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth probably made better time than us at their first European crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813 (Australia's indigenous peoples had it worked out well before that). Well, we decided to do what the nice man said and follow the signs to Blacktown and sure enough there were signs to the Blue Mountains (finally). A bit of time lost but we were there. Never was a cup of tea more appreciated than the one I had when we got there.
Labels: holiday Blue Mountains
posted by Mrs Q @ 4:13 PM
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