As part of Allergy Awareness Week, the local newspaper here in Warrnambool have written a story of Kaitlyn & her allergies to promote awareness in the community.

Check out the story - A day out for Kaitlyn can be deadly

The Standard newspaper article on the Brewery - ‘A taste of things to come’ (click to view article)
19 March 2008

Sometimes last minute plans always seem to be the best ones. The last week and a half has been pretty miserable weather wise in Warrnambool. We’ve had strong winds, rain and patches of sunshine but most of the time it has felt like winter in London – always grey and just too disappointing to look out the window in the morning as you know what awaits you.

We decided early Friday afternoon to get away for the weekend – we just didn’t know which way to head. We came up with Phillip Island or Mt Gambier in South Australia. In the end Phillip Island won and we quickly packed and were on the road.

There are two options from Warrnambool to get to Phillip Island. The long way is to drive to Melbourne and do the loop, head towards Frankston and then on to Phillip Island. Not a great choice on a Friday afternoon and as we have got the peak hour traffic out of our system, we opted against it. The more scenic route and definitely exciting for a 3 year old was to drive to Queenscliff (about 15 minutes from Geelong) and put the car on the ferry for a ride over to Sorrento. Kaitlyn was amazed the car she has nicknamed ‘Anthony’ could catch a ride with us. It was a 40 minute ferry ride and although it was getting dark by the time we got on our way, it was a very nice way to travel (I had my sea-sickness bands on just in case!). As the ferry got closer to Sorrento we were given an escort by a pod of dolphins.

We spent the night in Sorrento and had absolutely no idea what was around (due to not being prepared for this trip!) accommodation or food wise. It is not as simple as just popping into any restaurant when you have food allergies. A simple mistake can mean a trip to the hospital. We drove around for what seemed like ages – due to either our eyes needing to be tested or the lack of street lights (we are going with the later). We found a nice place to eat and sleep ready for our drive on Saturday to Phillip Island.

We opted for the scenic route again due to me wanting to see the colourful beach houses. A quick stop at Martha’s Beach to see what all the fuss was about and some photo’s got the job done. I’m still wondering why anyone would pay up to $100k for a colourful timber shed with no electricity or water.

By lunchtime we had arrived at Phillip Island. We enjoyed fish & chips on the beach and found accommodation at an eco-friendly resort. We had a laugh, as something that is being sold as eco-friendly didn’t have solar hot-water, the dishwashers and fridge had the lowest energy rating and recycling was not encouraged. Bit weird but it was comfortable.

We wandered over to Churchill Island which is an historic island farm with heritage buildings and gardens. Kaitlyn had a great time cuddling a guinea pig (hopefully the guinea pig has recovered!) and enjoyed feeding the sheep & cows.

No trip to Phillip Island would be complete without going to the Penguin Parade. The penguins expected arrival was 7:30pm and due to the large numbers of spectators each night, you need to get there early to get a good spot. We wandered through the displays before we headed down to the beach. It was busy but we were so lucky that a Ranger got us right down the front on the sand so we had a great view. Lucky there was sand to play with as trying to entertain a three year old waiting for penguins isn’t an easy task. Kaitlyn asked if the penguins will be doing tricks when they come out of the water and as soon as she found out that all they do is hang around the shore and then quickly waddle past us to their burrows, she was over it. We did manage to see a few groups swim in before it was time to call it a night.

We headed home on Sunday and decided to drive down the other side of the Mornington Peninsula & stopped off for lunch at Red Hill Brewery before catching the ferry`back to Queenscliff. The ferry ride in daylight was great fun. The helicopter rescue crews were training and there were some dolphins around as headed back across the bay. We have now found a short-cut that avoids Geelong and the Sunday afternoon football traffic, which left us with only a 2 hour drive home.

At last, time has been found to sit down and write some blogs with what we have been doing since leaving Sydney. It only took 8 1/2 hours for the removalists to pack our world into a large container. Anything that didn’t make it into the container went to Maurie’s (Gerard’s Dad) place. The timing of a council clean-up was a bit of a bonus. Over the following days Maurie would call with an update of what rubbish had been taken by scavengers, including an old washing machine that was returned a couple of days later!! We had a few days in Sydney after that and then headed down to Bateman’s Bay for our first week of holidays. My Brother Norman has a place there which he uses as a dive lodge. As it wasn’t being used during the week, we thought we’d take advantage of it.

The week was spent at the beach, relaxing and checking out Mogo and Mogo zoo. The zoo was great – a definite hit according to Kaitlyn. It is only small but very well set out. Kaitlyn was very excited about feeding the giraffe – a real bargain at only $5 & we got heaps of photos. Kaitlyn also got her first experience of a dodgy school holidays type carnival, complete with dodgem cars & a big slide that was a favourite of Kaitlyn & Gerard. We were both surprised that for the first time in several years, Gerard’s mobile phone did not ring non-stop. It was strange but really nice. We were both a little bit lost as it was the first week being non-business owners (the lost feeling has definitely past).

We had a few days back in Sydney tying up a few loose ends & then off to farewell drinks organized at the Nag’s Head Hotel. It was kind of surreal, as the Nag’s Head was my local when I first moved to Sydney in 2001. Many years later who would have thought that our farewell drinks would have been at the same hotel. It was great to see so many of our customers who have supported Gerard & ND Brewing Supplies over the past few years. Thanks for everyone’s well wishes and for coming along.

For our second week of holidays it was off too Noosa on the Sunshine Coast, which we had been were looking forward to for a while. We went with friends Tony, Ana and their two kids Vincent & Maria. Kaitlyn loved having kids to play with. Kaitlyn had an asthma attack due to an airborne exposure to nuts at an Indian restaurant while we were back in Sydney. She didn’t eat anything with nuts, there were no nuts in any of the dishes at our table, it was airborne and it set off her allergies. Come Tuesday she wasn’t a very well little girl and by Tuesday night, her asthma was pretty bad, so we ended up at the hospital. At 3:30am Wednesday, we arrived back at Maurie’s house and had to be up at 5:30am for a 7am airport pick-up. To put it nicely, we were stuffed and ready for a holiday. As soon as the plane took off we were all asleep. Our villa which we booked online was great; it is rare that the accommodation is better than the photos in the brochure. We had a pool and spa and there was enough room for everyone.

Australia Zoo was our first big outing and Kaitlyn was more than revved up for the visit. She is a huge Steve & Bindi fan. The zoo was unbelievable. We had a fantastic day, with the highlight being Janelle & Kaitlyn hand feeding the elephants (plenty of photos) and seeing the crocodile & snake shows. We couldn’t leave without buying Kaitlyn a khaki crocodile hunter shirt.

Later in the week it was off to Surfers Paradise & a day at Sea World. Kaitlyn hadn’t stopped talking about this for the last few months so it was something we couldn’t miss. The day was fantastic. I was hoping to swim with the seals but as I am pregnant, it wasn’t allowed. Oh well, something to be done next visit. The shows were great (really makes you wish you were a dolphin trainer!) and we enjoyed watching Kaitlyn on the rides (our fearless 3 year old). Gerard finally got to see the Polar Bears actually moving. The last time we went to Sea World the Polar Bears were sleeping whenever we went for a look. This time they were swimming laps & really putting on a show

The weather the whole week was beautiful. The day we left, the rain came and it looks like hasn’t left. It was back to Sydney for a night and then we said our goodbyes. We are now ready to start our venture down to Warrnambool.