New Year Road Trip to Ballarat

They often say it takes a village to raise a child but with the many Covid restrictions that Victoria faced during 2020, the children born in 2020 never truly experienced a village outside of their parents. With regional restrictions finally easing but international borders still very much closed to the rest of the world, we gathered some friends and family and headed up to Ballarat to celebrate the post Christmas New Year holiday season.

The group is made up of 3 babies born in 2020, a 3 year old, a dog and 9 adults. The most important fact being that there are more adults than children - a key part of the recipe for any parent to actually to have a semblance of a holiday being the ability to divide and conquer.

We celebrate New Year’s Eve with homemade rare beef tonkatsu, followed by lazy days relaxing and exploring the town. Being the holiday season, some restaurants are closed but luckily enough we still manage to dine at Hydrant Food Hall, Fika, Forge Pizzeria & Johnny Allo. Rides at Ballarat Tram Museum, picnic at Ballarat Botanic Gardens, a walk around Lake Wendouree and of course trips to multiple playgrounds complete a child friendly itinerary.

As we head into 2022, who would have guessed that 2021 would have been similar to 2020, with Melbourne even going as far as to claim the title of having the world’s longest lockdown. The same crew are heading up to Kyneton celebrate the transition to 2022 together, crossing our fingers & toes that the new South African coronavirus variant Omicron doesn’t ruin our plans to continue this summer road trip tradition.