Thursday 7 January

This morning we all rode over to Nan and Pop's to have a swim with my cousins. We didnt swim for long because it was pretty cold. We rode back to the caravan because Dad had an eye appointment at specsavers today. The guy that served him talked and talked. I stopped listening after about two seconds and I was bored after two more seconds. I went and started trying on glasses and I found some cool red PUMA ones (i want an eye test). After like two more hours of mind numbing talking and watching dad try on glasses we finally left and as I did I checked my ears for blood! Then we went to woolworths for like an hour checking for all the mark downs and specials, but we spent most of the time standing at the ruduced trollys!! After shopping we rode back over to Nan and Pops for happy hour  (again!!). 

Saturday 9 January 

Today I went crabbing with uncle Garry at 6:00 am. It was a nice morning until we got to the bait shop! it smelt like fish frames and seaweed. After Uncle Gary got a bucket of fish frames, heads too, we headed for the river. We were on the water for ages (not complaining!) By the end of the day we ended up with 25 massive crabs and some bream which were in in the traps too. We took them back to the river bank and cleaned them. Mum, dad, Samantha and Mitchell were also out on the river. They got some crabs too. We all ended up back at Pops.  I did some wood work for the first time. Pop set me up with some bits of wood and I made a cool dagger, an axe and a machine gun. I'm not bragging or anything but I'm damn good at using a bench grinder! It was Gary's birthday today so everyone got together to celebrate with a bbq dinner and of course crab. I slept at Nan and pops.

Sunday 10 January

I got to sleep in at Nan and Pops. After I got up we went to IGA and Nan got some specials. Again! We went out to my Great Nanna's birthday in the afternoon. She is 91 years old. I saw Grandma and lots of other relations. There were so many sloppy kisses I should have taken a snorkel and towel.

Monday 11 January 

Today we all went out crabbing again. Pop had a bucket of fish heads and frames that had gone off. He wanted us to throw it in the river. As we lifted it out of the truck the stink flooded my nostrils. It was horribly vile. I was going to gag but if I opened my mouth the stink would have gone in and I would be tasting it too!! It was ok while we were on the river until dad had to open it up to get rid of it. It was in a plastic bag and it had a sweaty cheese look. I wish I wasn't sitting next to dad when he opened it. While we were up the river we saw a dolphin and her baby calf swimming. I also saw a big eagle flying around in circles.  We caught some massive crabs.

Tuesday 12 January  

Pancake Tuesday today. Dad cooked up a massive stack of pancakes and we had them with maple syrup and caramel icecream. While dad was cooking them Nan and mum went down to meet the trawlers. They came home with prawns, flathead and whiting. It was $4 a kilo for flathead and $3.50 for whiting. The prawns cost $25 per kilo. Dad and Pop went out and got the crab traps that were left in over night and they got even more crabs.

Wednesday 13 January 

It was stinking hot today but it didn't stop us from riding our bikes around the caravan park. We were going to go on a picnic but it was too hot. So we went shopping instead. I needed new thongs and dad and me found some battleships that fit me. They're really big and dad swears by them. Mum hates them. She reckons they look stupid. Dad told me to wear them on the wrong feet and that way they will wear more evenly. He also told me not to let mum catch me doing it coz she would think it was more stupid. She did.
                     

"Are we there yet?" "No two years off!!!"

My name is Harrison, I am a 10 year old and I am traveling Australia for two years. We bought a new KOKODA caravan. Mum, Dad, me, my annoying eight year old sister Samantha, and my five year old brother Mitchell. It is school holidays and when school starts we will be doing distance education. Me and my family are all excited. We will be seeing landmarks and other cool stuff. We are not doing the normal 'Big Lap', we are zig zaging the country.

We left boxing day and the weather looked fine. Going up the Clyde mountain between Batemans Bay and Braidwood the weather started to change, by Goulburn is was cold and raining. At Goulburn we saw the Big Ram but we didn't stay long because of the weather. Our first free camp was on Balangalo Road (close to Balangalo State Forrest) near Berrima. It's called Gordon VC rest area. It had long drop dunnys - yuk! I played cricket all afternoon with two boys I met at the free camp. We went to bed really late and in the morning we had breakfast then started driving to North.

A few hours later we pulled up at the free camp we were going to stay at. It was Barwan rest area near Kew but it was dirty, noisy and had rubbish everywhere so we drove on and stopped at Macksville for the night. This was another free camp. It was heaps better, it had water and best of all proper toilets - yay!  The next day we went to see some friends in Macksville then drove straight to Ballina after thst. It was soooo boring. Finally got to Ballina.

At Ballina we went to Nan and Pops first to show them the van. My oldest sister Courtney came from Lismore with my two niece's to see allof us and look at the van. We went to the Hibiscus Gardens Caravan Park to set up and settle in. It's an old park but nice. It has lots of people living there permanently, heaps of places to ride our bikes and a swimming pool. Across the road is some shops and down the road is Nan and Pops house. We can see the Big Prawn from the front door. The next day we went to nan and pops for a late Christmas Day. There was lots of food and presents.

On New Years Eve we went to Nan and Pops to celebrate. We all stayed up till midnight. On new years day I slept in and Pop had to wake me up so we could go crabbing. We picked up dad back at the van and went up the river in Pops boat. I got to drive and I also got to pull in the traps, we got 6 big mudcrabs and a nice bream. It was lots of fun.

12 days in and we are still in Ballina, we have just had five days of rain and mum said I was getting cabin fever (or turning into a brat from being inside too long). Pop took me to the movies to see Star Wars The Force Awakens, it was AWESOME. All good today because the sun is out now and it's back to the stinking hot humid days. We went for a walk along the break wall at the Ballina bar. Mum showed us the beach where somebody got attacked by a shark last year. When we got back to the van we went for a ride to Nan and Pops so mum and dad could have happy hour. We saw Courtney and  her girls too.