Mt Field National Park - Waterfall

A few weeks ago we took the boys to Mt Field National Park, to have some snow fun. After the snow we decided to do the short Russell Falls walk, which is only a 20 minute return trip.  Yes, 20 minutes, well that was a fair exaggeration for our circumstances. Not only did we have a stubborn toddler who randomnly refused to walk, or then ran ahead when you least expect it, and whilst I am juggling camera bag plus tripod I try and wrangle him under my 3rd arm.  Lucky I had a super helpful 7 year old who offered to carry the tripod because the 9 year old was certainly not in a cooperative mood.  

Where was Coder? Oh yes.. well we also had a toilet emergency, Oshawott naturally needed to use some kind of plumbed facility, and there was a mad "10 minute" dash back to civilisation.  Funnily enough the need soon departed and that was a failed trip anyway!

Legoman was in a sulky mood, and when I failed to apparently 'care' that he had gone ahead (as I  obviously did when the 2 year old did the same thing) that mood just became unbearable.

I tried, seemingly in vein to practice with my new flash taking portraits of them.  Pichu just wasn't having a bar of it, Legoman was ok until the -you don't love me- walking ahead incident. 

 Before most of this chaos I had spent a few minutes taking varying shutter speed photos of the waterfall.

Such a trooper.

 Happy hiker.

 Legoman found a weapon, he was temporarily happy.

Hiding from the camera.

Checking to see if I was still there.  Who is more stubborn?

This one has cheeky monkey written all over his face.

Superstar helper!

 Out of focus sulky photo.

I am linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT (I blog on Tuesdays).

Snowy Sunday. - Mount Field National Park

Sunday we decided to go on a snowy adventure.  Rather then join the hundreds of other people doing just that on Mt Wellington we thought something a little more remote would do the trick.  

One of our favourite day trips, just an hour and a half away, (or more like 2 when you factor in the obligatory stop at McDonalds) is Mt Field National Park.

After dressing the boys in all of their layers, and packing the entire rear of the Tarago with snow suits, snow boots, hats, gloves, food and of course the camera equipment, we managed to get away by 10am.  

It wasn't long before the "are we there yet?"'s started, actually it was all of 5 minutes after we left home (when we stopped for petrol in Richmond).   And again 30 minutes later when we stopped at McDonalds, and then every 10 or so minutes after that.

We let out a collective parental sigh of relief when we came across those first few patches of snow along the side of the road.   We had promised snow, and were just slightly worried there just might now be any! 

It was pretty perfect to be honest.  It was a warmish winter day, the sun poked through the clouds here and there and the snow was a plenty. 

The big complication of the day was getting everyone into their snow gear in the protection of the car, but most of all, getting gloves on the boys!  What an ordeal that turned out to be, who would have thought getting 10 gloves on 8 hands would be so difficult! (Pichu had 2 pairs)

It has been almost a year since Pichu had a brief encounter with snow, and that was before he turned 2.  So this was pretty amazing for him!

 Snowball? For me Daddy?

As you will see, this is a pretty constant theme for Oshawott.

It was a bit slushy near the carpark, so we ventured up further a little

 bit after this.  Voltorb had discarded his snow gloves and was now wearing my leather gloves.  I was taking photos so I couldn't wear my proper snow gloves, so as you can imagine my hands were pretty cold!

The recurring glove problem strikes again.

Mmm hmm.

Arming the toddler was possibly not the best idea.

But still friends.

Uhh huh.

Duck!

Loving it!

Revenge is sweet!

But really, this looks so much worse then it really was.  Coder was actually aiming at Legoman, who was just out of the photo.

Watch your back Oshawott!  

He is still too busy eating snow to notice he is a target.

Ok Mummy, snow is great and all, but my hands are COLD!

The beginnings of a very inferior snowman.

Yep, still eating snow!

Still...

Pikachu snowman.

 What ya got there Oshawott?  Ah.. snow..

Headed back to the car, smuggling contraband.

I am linking up with Essentially Jess for IBOT (I blog on Tuesdays).

Mt Field photos (Father's Day)

On Sunday, Father's Day, we set off early with spirits high as the sun was shinning and the wind was calm.  Spring has sprung here in Hobart, if not only for a few days at first, because another cold snap is forecast.  

We arrived at Mt Field by mid morning, resisting the urge for another coffee stop, we marched straight past the enticing cafe and led the boys up to our first stop, Russell Falls.  Led the boys? Ok, we didn't lead them anywhere, the older two were galloping ahead with giddy anticipation while we tried to reign them back a little.  Oshawott and Pichu were taking a more leisurely approach to the hike.

He had a habit of doubling back to run back to Mummy, increasing his walking distance quite considerably.

We had not even made it half way (of a 10 minute walk) when the first toilet emergency arrived.  Even though they had all just been to the toilet at the visitors centre!  Luckily the boys are experts at ducking off into the undergrowth to find the magic urinal that is in every forest.  

So the 10 minute walk, as stated on the sign, became a 20 minute walk.  And only that quick because Coder carried Pichu most of the way.  I had the job of encouraging a reluctant grumpy hiker to keep going (yes, it had been all of 5 minutes!).  Granted, he has just been unwell and is still getting over that.

Are we there yet? 

  Daddy trap!

At the Falls, some of the boys enjoyed their sandwiches.  The rest of us went without because the other food bag was hanging up safely at home on the coat rack so the dog wouldn't get into it the night before.  Luckily it was the 3 youngest that had food.  The oldest is a very picky eater anyway so he didn't care.  We had water at least!

 Nom nom!

We resisted the urge to turn back and retreat to the comfort of the coffee shop and pushed on to the top of the waterfall.  Yes, the top!  Another toilet stop, a little rest, an argument over a stick, having to carry 4 and 2 year olds, about a hundred stairs and we were there.  Easy.

I think they are natural posers, I didn't have to say a word to them about their body positioning.

From here we decided to continue the pain... I mean, education and exercise, and take the tall trees walk.  By this stage the boys were starting to not care so much about their surroundings and more about trying to make Mummy and Daddy regret taking the tall trees walk.  Legoman was sulking because of the previous stick incident, Oshawott point blank refused to walk anymore, Pichu was wanting to get up and down every other minute, and Voltorb was sick of being photographed so was either silly or refused to join in any more group shots.

Really really tall tree.  79 metres tall to be exact.  Quite a challenge to photograph.

Even through all the grizzly we managed to do the walk and take heaps of photos.  We took a shortcut back to the visitors centre by way of the rear road that goes up to the lake.  Another toilet stop..  more whinging about above mentioned stick, much more carrying of now a sleepy Pichu and stubborn Oshawott.  

Coder kept them going, telling them it was just around the next bend, until several bends later Legoman became disillusioned and started a mutiny.  This was quickly nipped in the butt and the walking continued without further incident, but much sooking.

We stopped at the visitors centre for some food, caffeine and a much needed rest.  The boys had some ice creams and lunch (yes in that order, but let's not forget they had just walked a marathon), then chose a toy from the gift store which was conveniently located within the same room as the cafe.  We hoped Pichu would nap in the pram, of course, he didn't.   So off to have the promised play in the playground.  There was a couple of things that kept them going on the walk, ice cream and the playground.

After a play we drove up to Lake Dobson, which was 16 kms further along the dirt track we had just made our way down on.  The road was a little bit muddy to say the least, I was worried we would get bogged and did not hold back letting my fears known to Coder, which he ignored!  (well, you did!) 

As if it wasn't enough that we had just ignored the sign that suggested not going up to the lake past 3pm (it was 2.50), we must remember we drive a 4 cylinder Tarago with tyres that needed replacing.  

After several gut wrenching moments, where I had to curl my toes and pull contorted facial expressions just to get us through, I successfully put doubt into Coder's mind (mission accomplished), but we kept going mainly due to the fact there was just no where to turn around.  Pichu had thankfully stopped screaming after the fist 5 harrowing minutes on the road and given in to sleep.   

I am glad we threw caution to the wind, the Lake was amazing, there was not a person in sight (just a couple of cars) and the boys got to play in the snow!

Come back next time for the next installment of photos.  Featuring the amazing snowball kick that splattered snow all over Legoman and an incredibly cute picture of Oshawott. 

You can see them here.