Hiya Everyone! I'm in a bit of a post-weekend away slump. Every year, my dad's side of the family get together for a family reunion over a weekend in March. It's always a super fun weekend and I'm always left in a slump as we all return to the real world. So, in order to try and make the weekend last even longer, I wanted to do a little blog post today about the weekend and the shenanigans we got up to. If you've followed this blog since the beginning, you may remember the first post I ever did - Bushrangers, History & Family | Forbes 2017 - which focused mainly on our Ben Hall sight-seeing in Forbes back in March 2017, but I did mention our family reunion since that was the reason we were in Forbes to begin with. This year, we actually traveled to Albury for our family reunion, staying at the Great Aussie Holiday Park, located on the backwaters of Lake Hume about 25 minutes north-east of Albury. We actually had our family reunion there last year on the recommendation of one of my cousins and decided we just had to come back again this year. It was the perfect relaxed setting for us all to just sit around talking, while the fishermen among us went out on the Lake and the kids were occupied with various activities. This year, we decided to arrive on Thursday afternoon to make the most of the weekend. Every year we always say the weekend is never long enough when everyone arrives Friday afternoon and checks out before 10am on Sunday morning. In the end, my parents and I were the only ones to be there that early, but it did give us a chance to relax for an extra day. On Friday morning, along with my brother who arrived first-thing that morning, we actually took a little journey 20km down the road to Wymah. Today, there isn't really much to see in Wymah - a school-turned-museum and tennis courts, as well as a ferry crossing. Back in the day, Wymah was a small town that serviced the rural area, but is now just a locality with a population of 37, according to the 2016 census. What we wanted to see was the Wymah Ferry, a cable ferry that crosses the Murray River. It's one of two ferries that cross the Murray and boarder between NSW and Victoria, with the other located 500km downstream near Swan Hill. However, there are 11 ferries located along the Murray in South Australia. While we didn't actually cross the river on the ferry - we had no need to cross and didn't want to be one of those annoying tourists that get on and cross, then get off and turn around to get back on - we did enjoy the view of the Murray from the Wymah side of the crossing. The river is quiet low at the moment, and that was really evident as we looked upstream, especially when you can see the intended tide-line on the submerged trees. It would be interesting to see what the area and the ferry look like when the Hume is near full capacity. Once the family started arriving, the fun really began. Of course, there was plenty of talking, laughing, drinking, eating and craziness. My dad's side of the family is lowkey crazy and we love having a great time. We aren't afraid to have a joke, and be loud to the point where we are told be keep it down. I LOVE catching up with everyone and just hanging out. Saturday is obviously our main day, and Saturday night to main dinner night. We have a big BBQ cook-up of way too much delicious food. And, for the second year in a row, the rains came down during dinner, causing us to move everything undercover. Lucky, we got everything moved before the sky really opened up. Great Aussie Holiday Park markets itself as a family holiday park that also holds school camps. Because of this, it has a lot of daily and weekend activities to keep everyone entertained. There's a splashpark and jumping pillow, the latter of which was essentially our morning alarm as the kids were bouncing at like 7am. I kinda wish I had walked through the splashpark on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning when there weren't many kids at the park - come the weekend it was trawling with children. Saturday was when most of the activities were on, with my younger cousins taking a turn on the flying fox. We finished off both Friday and Saturday by going to feed the animals. The park has a little animal farm with a nice array of animals - ostrich, alpaca, sheep, goat, geese, ducks, and a deer - that you get to feed daily in the afternoon. Friday was good as not many people were staying in the park, so my mum and I were not inundated with with children. On Saturday, we were joined by my younger cousins, who were excited to feed the animals. And yes, we were a little scared of the ostrich as it made its rounds looking for food - those things are lowkey scary. Sunday morning was a little bit of a downer as we all packed up and sad our goodbyes. The weekend really did go by a bit too quickly, but it was super enjoyable and I loved catching up with everyone. I'm already super excited for next year's reunion and catching up with everyone again, especially those who were unable to come this year.
I would also highly recommend checking out Great Aussie Holiday Park if you're looking for someone to stay in the Albury area but don't want to actually stay in town. While we aren't heading back there next yet, I reckon we will be back at some point. Also, if you're family doesn't have an annual family reunion, definitely consider it. I always look forward to this time of year and cherish the moments we get to spend together. We all live in different areas and have our own lives so it's not easy to catch up often (thank god for social media). When my Nan died 9 years ago, she bought us all together and we realised we all had to continue getting together each year, and we've done so ever since. See You Soon! Victoria :) |
Categories
All
Affiliates
See DISCLAIMER.
|