5 minutes away

5 minutes away from my house can take you pretty much anywhere on a small 5km x 8 km island.

 

I heard of a photography challenge once that asked people to walk or drive exactly 5 minutes away from their house then when the timer went off, stop and take a photo of what you see.

Here is a Sunday in our lives (not a typical one as there is no such thing, each week is completely different)

 Lets start with bacon and egg wraps for brunch 5 minutes away down the hill at Ball bay.

Even though we can hear the waves crashing from our place, the kids mentioned that we hadn't been there for a while to play.

 Lots of cows at Ball bay today checking us out.



♪Kids to the left of me, cows to the right. Here I am stuck in the middle ♪

We only got a quick play there when we got a phone call to say Brandt was coming back to the Kingston pier. He has worked out at Philip Island for the past 3 days and nights building things for the National Park.

So another 5 minutes away gets us down to Kingston.

 



 

 
Welcome to the new arrivals coming for a holiday, welcome back to any locals on the plane.
What a scenic view they have flying in.

Our friend Mark surfing

There was plenty of fishing activity on the pier today.

A perfect day out on the water.

 one of the prettiest fish I have ever seen.

Darren from Advance takes some of the kids friends out to Philip Island for a few hours.

 My kids spot a shark or two cleaning up the fish waste thrown off the pier. Good recycling.

 My little buddy Zephyr with some of the catch from his uncles boat

 It is such a nice day, we decide to go for a swim at the beach. We forgot to bring swimmers, but its no problem to pop home and get them as we are only 5 minutes away.


This is why they call it stockyard road ☺The stock really do rule the roads, they have right of way.

 

The clearest waters at Emily bay

 Miss 11 looking so grown up now next to her dad.

That's a lot of toes out on the raft



Time for the plane to leave back to Sydney. We hope you had a great time here on Norfolk Island



Dad gets pushed off the raft

A beautiful brother sister moment

 And then the competitive games begin

 Sometimes you do a double take and wonder how they are growing up so quickly.
Both are gorgeous inside (most of the time) and out.



And then the day ends with an awesome view like this... all 5 minutes away

what to do after school?

After school is out here on Norfolk Island, we have over 4 hours of warm sunshine to enjoy.

These afternoons are our favourites, so instead of rushing home to do homework, our kids come down to the beach and can swim, surf, snorkel, fish, ride their bikes and just play on the sand for many hours to unwind from a day in the classroom.

After Sienna's first day at Kindergarten, we came down to Emily bay for a walk and a swim before heading home.
 

Teddy and Sienna decided to go for a walk across the headland that looks out to Phillip and Nepean Islands, I asked if they wanted me to come with them, Teddy replied " we're o.k Mum, we are just going to have a little brother/sister time" he held his sisters hand and looked after her on the rocky walk. I think he is very proud of her starting school, it was very sweet.

We walked back around to Emily bay where we played on the sand, Brandt joined us there for a swim.

 

 The next day, we took our bikes down after school and rode to the Kingston pier. Some fishing boats had come in and were filleting the fish.

The fishermen throw the fish skins and carcasses back into the water for the food chain cycle.

It is usually at this time that we see a whole lot of sharks (bull or bronze whalers, not sure which) and maybe a turtle coming in close for a feed. Today though the tide was so low that the sharks couldn't get through the reef (niggerhead) so we were treated to a show of all the tropical reef fish coming to the surface for a fish feed.

There were these amazing long trumpet nosed fish, they seemed to change colour from soft blue and grey to deep purple and blue.

There was another family there waiting for their charter boat, they were taking their son and his friends out to the Phillip Island fishing hut for the weekend as it was his 12th Birthday, what an amazing party idea!

We enjoy our life here on the island so much, we are so grateful to have the opportunity to live here where fun isn't always expensive like going to theme parks and malls and electronic gaming arcades, instead it is about the simple pleasures and discoveries and natural wonders and healthy activity choices all only 5 minutes from home.

It won't be long before afternoons start filling up with all those extra curricular activities like horse riding and my dance class for littlies and Tahitian dancing and ukulele lessons, but in the meantime............

We still have another 2 or so months to enjoy this warm weather by coming to the beach after school or in the early evenings, quite often we will stay for some alfresco dining, by ourselves or with friends. Either way it is always pleasant.