Christmas in Launceston

We drove from Bicheno to Launceston on Sunday 23^rd December.  We had booked a Cabin in a caravan park in Hadspen (just outside of Launceston) so that we would have a cabin on Christmas day – just in case it was wet, and also to have somewhere to stack our presents under our ‘tree’ because there isn’t much room in our tent!  We also wanted to cook our own Christmas Lunch this year, and we could only do that with a cabin.

The cabin wasn’t going to be available until 2pm, so when we got to Launceston, we headed to Kmart to finish our Christmas Shopping.  Thankfully, we managed to battle the crowds and complete all our shopping for Christmas.

Later that afternoon, we booked into our cabin and unloaded everything from the car for our 3 night stay.  After a look around the caravan park, and around Hadspen, we all watched a movie before dinner.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and we had a nice slow start.  We had spotted a skate park near the caravan park, so the boys went for a skate on Sam’s scooter (which was a present from his birthday the week before).  We then headed into Launceston to do some food shopping and look around Launceston.

After a drive around Launceston, we drove out to Cataract gorge where we had lunch overlooking ‘First Basin’.  We watched the chairlifts heading over the gorge, but we decided to do the short walk across to the other side and over the suspension bridge via a nice lookout over the gorge.  When we’d had enough, we caught the inclinator back to the top of the hill and then drove to ‘City Park’ where there are some Japanese monkeys.  We watched the monkeys for a little while and saw two tiny babies with their mothers – the babies were very cute.

The "Christmas tree" in our cabin took pride of place!

Mike and the Kids in Cataract Gorge

Overlooking Cataract Gorge, Launceston

Walking across Alexandra's Bridge

A mother Monkey and her Baby

Later that afternoon, there was a Christmas eve BBQ being held at the IGA next to the caravan park, so we headed over for some food and drink.  Santa was also driving around Hadspen in a Fire truck, and he drove right into the Caravan park and handed out lots of lollies, which the kids loved!

Santa arriving at our caravan park in the fire truck

Santa handing out lollies

The kids were all very excited that night about Santa coming and leaving some presents for them the next morning, that they all found it pretty hard to get to sleep, but they finally succumbed to their tiredness and Santa came to the cabin that night.

Christmas day was a pretty early start.  Josh was the first up, and got into his Santa bag very quickly,  he was soon followed by Natalie and Sam.  When everyone was up, we did some presents followed by a yummy breakfast and some more presents.  Sam was thrilled with the Ukulele that he got.  Josh loved the two Bionicle (Hero factory) toys that he loves so much at the moment, and Natalie was very excited with her Barbie doll and some ‘girl’ lego.

Excitement on Christmas morning

Sam and his Ukulele

Josh was very happy with his Hero Factory

Soon enough it was time for us to head into the city to go to the church that we’d seen the day before.  St John’s Anglican Church in Launceston was a beautiful old church building.  There were plenty of people at the service, and it was a nice service with carols and a brief message.  The kids sat through it pretty well. After church we headed back to the cabin to enjoy a nice big Christmas Lunch followed by the last lot of presents for the day, lots of playing with the new toys and watching a DVD that Josh had received.  Just like normal, we all ate too much yummy food, and ate too much sugary chocolate, but had a great day as a family in Launceston – our second Christmas on our trip around this wonderful country.

The kids proudly showing off Presents from Aunty Lyn - Thanks Lyn

Our Christmas Lunch

Late in the afternoon, we went for a little walk down to the river to walk off some of the Christmas Lunch we’d eaten!  That night, with tired eyes, full bellies, and nothing as exciting as Santa to wake up for the next morning, we all slept well in our cabin.

Down at the river in Hadspen