For "holidays", we took a road trip. While Zac headed to Planet Shakers, a concert and youth event over five days in Sydney, the rest of us loaded into a Kia rent-a-van and headed southwest to the state of Victoria. The trip involved a trek south from Wollongong, west through the McCuarry pass (the original pass and first pass found through the mountains in 1830), then southwest toward Melbourne, Victoria. We stayed overnight halfway from Melbourne in Holbrook, a town know for having a submarine just off their main street. The next day, we continued toward our target destination, Benloch to visit with Kevin and Val Smith. Benloch is about an hour north of Melbourne, near Lancefield, a lovely country town. Benloch is up in the mountains and the Smith home was found after about 2Ks on a dirt road, just like a couple of Mainers like it. We stayed three nights in Benloch, then headed over the Snowy Mountains southeast toward the coast. We stayed in Marlo on the south coast of Victoria and the next day in Narooma up the east coast of New South Wales. The following set of photos follow our road trip.

Ahh, the first day of traveling (about 5 hours) finds us in Holbrook.	The boys enjoy the pool.
Catching air.	And more air.
Touchdown, mate.	Rub a dub dub, four men in the tub. And who do you think they be?
Must be the beans.	We rescued a lil froggy who was drowning in the pool. "Can't handle that salt water pool, mate, CROAK."
Kevin and Val take us to Melbourne for the day. Notice the winter clothes! It was 4C that morning on the mountain in Benloch but still chilly in Melbourne. This was taken just outside the Queen Victoria Market where we stocked up on fruits and veggies.	Mama and David chipped in and cleaned some windows.
We walked through the 29 acres of forest at the Smith's. The forest, filled with gum trees of various varieties, has a large overhead canopy but is very open on the ground. Unlike the forests of New England back home, you can see for a long ways through the trees with green grass covering the forest floor.	Notice the rugged hills in the background.
Jon enjoying the forest.	We met an old man struggling by ....
Nathan the explorer.	Mark loved this big old tree.
Jonnie took this picture of a lovely forest flower.	Oh, a rare treat. We came across a short-beaked Echnida who had come down to a water hole for a drink.