Frankston

It was another semi-long drive from Lakes Entrance to Frankston ( just south of Melbourne).  We knew that we weren’t taking the caravan across to Tasmania and the Big 4 in Frankston would store the caravan for us, so we booked in for 4 nights to prepare for our trip to Tasmania.  On our first afternoon in Frankston, it was very hot so we decided to have a swim in the pool at the caravan park.

Walking along the beach at Frankston on a cold, windy and wet day!

On Sunday we went into Frankston to have a look around.  The weather had really blown in overnight and it was cold and wet!  We hadn’t really felt cold since Alice Springs in July, so it was a bit of a shock to the system! We stopped at the beach and then went to the visitors information centre.  At the info centre, Liz spotted an ad informing us there were some free activities (as well as meeting Santa) on in town, so we went to have a look.  The kids said hello to Santa and we got some free tickets to a ‘My Little Pony’ movie at Hoyts.  We also got vouchers for the kids to get a free cupcake at the local Cake Shop.  After enjoying their free cupcake, we went to the cinemas and sat down for about an hour to watch the My Little Pony Movie.  It was a bit of fun for us all as we hadn’t watched a movie all together on our trip until then.  When the movie was done, we went back to the cake shop because they were running a ‘kids cake decorating workshop’.  The kids got to decorate (and then eat) their own cupcake – which they all loved.

Meeting 'Pinky Pie' the 'My Little Pony' in Frankston

The kids met Santa and all told him what they wanted for Christmas

The free Cupcake that the kids got

The kids got to decorate their own cupcake too!

After lunch, we went to the Frankston Pier and then went to the playground nearby.  When we got back to the caravan, the kids met some of the other kids staying in the park and spent the rest of the day scooting, riding their bikes and playing with their new friends.

A playground near the beach in Frankston

The rest of our time in Frankston was spent shopping and preparing for our trip to Tassie.  We spent a bit of time inside the van trying to keep warm (as it was bitterly cold – it even hailed on us once).  We were all really looking forward to our trip to Tasmania (but we were hoping that the weather would be kind to us, as we would be in a tent for most of our time there).

A beautiful rainbow on our last day in Frankston

On Wednesday 5th December, we spent the morning packing all our gear from the caravan into the car so that we could put the van in storage for a few weeks.  The caravan park we were staying at had a place where you could store a van for $25 per week, so we parked it in the 'paddock' at about midday and then headed toward Melbourne so we could catch the boat to Tasmania.  Along the way we stopped at St Kilda and went to look at Luna Park (which we had been to a year ago) but it was closed.  So we went for a walk along to a wharf where we saw a little Penguin hiding in it's burrow between the rocks.  After St Kilda we drove into Melbourne city to have a quick look around before heading out to the Pier to wait so that we could board the boat to cross Bass Straight.

Waiting to sail on the Spirit of Tasmania