Week thirteen is officially our half way mark. I think I’m really appreciating having my own room and an inside bathroom now more than ever! These last three months have been so much fun but on the flipside they have been rather exhausting. We have been doing so much touristy stuff and have just crammed it in, in such a short time. Yet I don’t think I would want to change it for the world. I have just learned so much and have heaps more to learn in the next three months to come.

I was also really relieved when we stopped at our next camping spot because, right then and there when I was eating my sausages after an awesome game of cricket, I realised this is something that many people would never get to do. I thought I was so lucky to be here with my family having the time of my life even though sometimes I do miss my friends occasionally. After the moon had finally fell over the horizon I started getting really bugged by all the mozzies so I just decided to head off to bed and see what awesome adventures would arise tomorrow when we set of to explore the Hunter Valley Region.

The next morning, shortly after the sun broke over the tree tops on the eastern side of our camp site, I was woken from a small hot sensation slowly rising from the tips of my toes right up to my head. I hopped out from under the cocoon-like covers and slowly walked to the door where as soon as I opened it I could start to feel the stinging hotness on my face and shoulders. I realised today was going to be a sunny day. Off course Miriam, Levi and Jordan were already awake so I set about making myself breakfast.

At about 10am we left to go and explore the tranquillity of good tasting wine, well Mum and Dad did any way, but as usual we had to tag along. After the first few wineries I generously offered to drive for Dad unsure of where he stood on the alcohol consumption ladder. Unfortunately though, Mum and Dad reassured me that you only TASTE the wines not drink them. I was a bit bummed I wouldn’t learn to drive early.

After a couple more wineries, where Mum and Dad only TASTED the wine, we thought we might do something the whole family would enjoy so we drove over to the Smelly Cheese Shop. Nothing there caught our attention so we went back to another winery were I swear Mum and Dad spent about half an hour TASTING wine and were undecided whether to buy any or not. To our complete amazement they did buy a couple of bottles and we found that another cheese shop was just across the road so we, of course, had to go there. At the cheese shop everything was pretty pricy but we still enjoyed the free tastings and walked away with 1 or 2 cheeses to eat. When we had finally visited about ¼ of the wineries in the Hunter Valley we decided that would do us the day and we went home to play another fun-filled game of Aussie cricket.

Once again we were on the road and ready to go get personal with country styled music, and where better place to go than Tamworth. When we arrived at Tamworth though I think we were all a bit devastated, especially Mum since she was looking forward to this place the most. Tamworth wasn’t really like what we had expected at all and even when we asked about the prices of a caravan park nearby they were way too pricey. Instead we decided to go out of civilisation a bit and decided to stay at Chaffey Dam. Chaffey Dam is a beautiful dam with an exotic old brick wall to stop and hold all the water in this catchment area. The place was so serene and beautiful that we decided we would stay and maybe even try our luck with some fishing.

Our time at Chaffey Dam was amazing and I loved everything about it. I had fun trying to catch a fish and I even managed to get my lure stuck in a tree. I am so totally glad I can be on this Great Aussie Road Trip and If anyone ever asked me what was my biggest regret I would have to say that it was when we were getting ready for the trip and I was all negative about going and now I realize I would have missed out on the best thing in my whole entire life, and that’s having fun with your family.