Sovereign hill, a replication of the gold rush era of the mid 1800's, is 154km away according to the GPS, but it was a drive that would take two and a half hours to complete, taking in the sights of the Burnleigh Tunnel, and the Westgate Bridge as we passed through the centre of Melbourne. This part of the trip (51km) took an hour and a half on the tollways, and the other 104km took an hour.
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Into Sovereign Hill we went though, with our expectations high, and the sun shining. Our first stop was down in the river bed to do a bit of gold panning with the kids. Before too long we were all standing about with wet feet, and frozen fingers plucking fragments of gold out of the pans. The kids were having a ball, and they each got a small commemorative bottle to put their gold into.
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I would estimate that the smile on her face is priceless, but apparently I am mistaken. In the next room they had a scale that could tell you your value if you were made of gold, meaning that Emma is worth over one million dollars. In the interest of being fair, I am worth $3,157,459.63 at today's pricing, give or take a couple of grand after a big lunch.
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After much begging and eye batting from the middle child, we bought tickets for a trip around Sovereign Hill on the horse drawn carriage.
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Whilst we were travelling around the town site, it was easy to slip into that feeling of stepping back in time. There were lots and lots of pushy annoying tourists taking our photo as we were passing by.
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Conspicuously missing is Ashley whom today has decided that he is too cool to be in horsey photos.
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I had a go, and think that our version today with the self righting pins, self returning ball, and bar is a much better set up, but I can see how during the era this would have been a lot of fun.
I wasn't very successful with a best bowl of 7 pins out of 9. It was lots of fun until the pushy tourists piled in and started standing in the way and taking over without asking...*SIGH*
Poor Rowan wasn't strong enough to get the ball to the pins on the kids lane...He was a bit frustrated.
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There was a kind man there that showed everyone how to get the best results prior to starting, and then it was up to everyone to figure out their sequence to get their own pattern.
Lisa bought some lumpy candles which were a little bit phallic, but Emma and Rowan chose smooth candles which are just like every day ones.
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I think it is a bit weird that Ashley is too cool for a photograph with some working horses, but he was more than happy to have his picture taken with his rainbow candle.
Must be the artistic side of him coming out.
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They had come to brag about the Kings victory over the Russian oppression, and they did a firing of their muskets in appreciation. HUZZAH!
There is a great feeling around this place with all of the shop vendors, and people in the street not only in costume, but also in character for the era.
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After their pomp and ceremony, the guard broke formation to mingle with us commoners for photos. Ashley had remembered he was too cool again, and refused to have his picture taken.
I asked the guard if he would hold a rainbow candle instead of his musket, but he tried to swat me. So I'll have to just live with a photo without Ashley in it.
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The live firing of the muskets was extremely loud, and the kids were warned to insert their fingers into their auricular orifices.
From here, we went on our Mine Tour. This lasted for about 45 minutes, and involved travelling around 30m underground on a tram and trolling through some tunnels and looking at various pieces of infrastructure. Whilst it was a bit interesting, I think that the Hannans Mine Tour at the Goldfields Museum in Kalgoorlie is much more authentic and better value. Too dark for photos underground, so none here.
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This guy was great, and asked the kids which one was the smartest. Ashley took the bait, and then found himself trying to figure out the mirror image for his name on the individual "Type" blocks. We have the proof with his backward and upside down letters to giggle at.
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The floor was covered in sawdust which I have seen before, but never knew the use. The sawdust was used to mop up mud and water off the boots of the workers, and in the 1800's was soaked in kerosene to treat the wood floors. (No wonder buildings burnt so well if they had a match thrown through the door.) In modern times they use a much more civilised linseed oil on the sawdust to polish the floor when it is swept out of the building. Nice to know that they loved the smell of jet fuel before aeroplanes were invented.
Rowan couldn't resist getting a lollipop, and this little sucker actually lasted him through till the end of the day. He doesn't look pleased at all does he?
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During our shopping we also discovered chocolate coated candy raspberries which I was unable to resist. I am so disappointed that Lisa didn't like them, and I was forced to eat them by myself.
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Shortly after that the constabulary chased down a couple of thieves in the main street before retiring puffing and blowing to the brazier to keep warm.
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I keep telling Lisa that they don't make hats in extra large square head size. This one left permanent impressions down the temples.
And then it started raining...heavily.
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By the time we had finished, the rain had eased to a monsoonal downpour and we made our way back to the entry. We also had tickets to the Gold Museum which was quite interesting but the day had caught up with me and I think I was caught snoring during a 10 minute video.
154km back to Dandenong through peak hour traffic had us home in around two and a half hours driving time, but it was worth it because it was lamb rib night. Mmmmmm!
Way too exhausted to stay up and blog so that had to wait until Wednesday.
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