Day 7 - Rockhampton

We packed up our stuff and hit the road for a big travel day today. We had almost 500 km to cover to get from Hervey Bay to Rockhampton. The highway runs through the country side and not along the coast but was still very scenic. Lots of hills and mountains, plains, forests, rivers, lakes...just about everything. The day was pretty cloudy but was clearing up as the day when by.

We ended up stopping in a tiny little town for lunch and to let the kids play in a fairly new park for an hour or so. We then hit the road again and made it to Rockhampton by around 2:30 or so. Our plan was to go straight to the local water park and Wyatt was quite hyped up for it...sadly it was closed for the winter. Hmm, 25 degrees....guess we should shut the water park down..way too cold to swim ! Wyatt was not impressed.

Instead we checked in to our hotel ( just a run of the mill travel lodge overlooking a big river ) . The poeple at the desk gave us directions to a nearby park and we hoped it would fill in for the water park and keep the kids happy. Well, it turned out the be one of the best parks we have seen...here or in Melbourne ! All sorts of new things that we had not seen before ! and full of kids !! It kept the kids and adults entertained for a few hours.

Mel talked to one of the locals and got directions to a restaurant called Sizzlers. We debated just walking and finding something on our own instead of getting back in the van, but decided to try Sizzlers instead.

It was the right choice. Sizzlers is basically an Australian version of ponderossa. All you can eat salad bar and desert bar plus steack or sea food main course. Plus kids under 4 eat free. Why didn't we think of this before ? The kids actually ate the food we served them for a change ! Wyatt was thrilled by the chance to pick his own dinner from the salad bar ! Once we finished our dinner it was time for the desert bar ! I'm not sure who was more into it..the kids or Julia. Afterwards Julia declared that it was something that she would see if and when her life every flashed before her eyes.

Tomorrow we have another big drive from here to Airlie beach. It's funny how we can plan and plan and have the actual outcome not quite measure up to the expectations you have for it...and then you can have a day liek this where we really just plan to drive and sleep and have it turn out to be one of the best days on the trip so far ! Hopefully tomorrow can work out just as well.