Christmas in Armidale

One of the problems with living in the caravan is finding somewhere to spend school holidays. Anywhere on the coast tends to be a family holiday destination, and not only escalates in price but fills up with kids. This year we've decided to spend the Christmas period in Armidale, on the New England Tablelands in central NSW. Like most of the east coast, the summer is struggling to get started in Armidale. Most days we've been here have been fairly cool - we've even got out the winter doona again.


The first day we were here we did the half day heritage bus tour, provided free from the visitor information centre. Armidale has a lot of lovely old buildings, with lots of verandahs and iron lace work. After the bus tour we did the heritage walk around town, getting a closer up view of the architecture.


On another day we drove 200km northwards to Tenterfield, made famous in the Peter Allen song 'Tenterfield Saddler'. The saddler's building is still there, with no resident saddler but still selling leather goods. Apart from the local heritage walk we also did an interesting drive around various granite outcrops and to the local lookout.

Not yet sated with local heritage, we did a scenic drive down to Uralla, about 20km south, where we once again did the heritage walk around town. The New England area is all Captain Thunderbolt country, and there are numerous sites scattered throughout the tablelands supposedly used by the 1860s bushranger. Captain Thunderbolt was shot and killed just near Uralla, and they are as proud of him as if he had discovered a cure for cancer.


Christmas Day was cool and cloudy, ideal weather to indulge in a Christmas dinner of duck and ham with roasted veg, along with some delicious sparkling. Once again John excelled himself, with Wendy taking advantage of it being her birthday to relax and be indulged.

Coffs Harbour

We've had 3 weeks at Coffs Harbour, on the NSW mid-north coast. We spent 5 weeks here a little over 3 years ago, when we did our 3 month 'shake-down' trip of the caravan, and at that time we did most of the tourist sights in the area (the most famous of which is the 'Big Banana'). So we've spent most of our time here this time relaxing, playing golf and contemplating our future. After almost 3 years on the road we feel we've covered most of Australia, and we're getting close to being ready to settle down again. With reportedly just about the best temperate climate in the world Coffs is an attractive place to make a home base, and we have decided to take the plunge, purchasing a block of land here. Now all we have to do is engage a builder, design a house and have it built - simple really! Luckily we don't have to actually be present for most of this process, so we will still spend most of 2012 travelling, but hope to be in our new house by Christmas next year. Exciting times!