Echuca is now the Poole-Wain family destination for the ‘Australia Day’ public holiday and the last week before school goes back.

In true Poole-Wain family fashion getting out the door to go on a holiday is like pulling teeth. Kelsie and Ethan were excited to do everything except be helpful and get items they don’t want to forget like water bottles or thongs.

Don’t let VicRoads fool you, there is still work going on impacting getting over the Westgate and the Bolte bridge. And just when we think we’ve gotten through that, as soon as we get on the Hume we have a 15min delay because there’s one guy working on the speed cameras, behind two barriers.

Despite trying to make up time we had to stop at Heathcote so Ethan could walk out some iPad induced travel sickness and Kelsie could get a thong shaped cookie.

On arrival we were greeted by our hosts who remembered Kim’s dodgy foot from last time. Their dog Trevor was keen to play fetch with Kelsie and Ethan, but Ethan was too busy playing on his iPad. We were amazed to hear and see how intact everything is despite the extensive flooding. The local word is that the main street (and town) was untouched so most business have survived but business is the slowest it’s ever been as word has not got back that the flooding is over. Hear that Melbourne? Echuca is open for business!

Before dinner we had to stop for some supplies for the week. There’s no buffet breakfast here, so we need bread and peanut butter as a minimum. Ethan nearly had a meltdown at Coles because we didn’t buy hotdogs! These were something he’s wanted for ages. He’s had them in the last few months, and they were just basic Dons’ hot dogs. But you wouldn’t know that from his reaction.

Ethan finished hist first whole plate of food (at least for us) Fish and chips at the Echuca Hotel is a winner. It might have been that he hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Move over Pete Evans, Paleo is out. Intermittent fasting is in, and Ethan is the Redheaded poster child.

After dinner it was Ice-creams from the local! Kelsie has been talking about getting watermelon ice-cream for a year, but decided not to get it, she had rocky road instead, something she hadn’t tried so Daddy is very pleased with that decision.

Ethan still managed to leave his water bottle behind at dinner, despite weeks of frustrated reminders from Mummy and Daddy that both Kelise and Ethan need to take responsibility for their own things. Thankfully the staff at the Echuca Hotel are very family aware and knew the crisis that a lost waterbottle might cause and had kept it safe. I wish I could say this will be the last, lost item crisis for Kelsie and Ethan, but I have a better chance of winning the lottery.

Kelsie and Ethan have been fighting and complaining about lack of personal space but buzzing around Dad’s feet like the world’s largest blowflies.

We’ve not done a lot of exploring yet. The pool was top of the list, but we’ve seen some clues to the height of the floodwaters from last year. The water levels reached the garden beds of the hotel we were staying at but luckily didn’t breach the properties sandbagging.