Ambitiously, Amanda and I agreed to spend Christmas with Amanda's family at Amanda's Dad's place in Merriwagga, New South Wales. Never heard of it? I'm not surprised. It's a town so small there isn't even a general store, post office or even a petrol station. Pretty much the only thing there is a pub (more on that later)!

To get to Merriwagga, we'd have to first fly Perth to Sydney, then swap planes onto a Regional Express (REX) flight on a small 20 row prop plane and fly to Griffith (with a brief hop via Narranderra), where we'd then have to get a car and drive an hour (~70kms) out to Merriwagga. This would also be Imogen's first plane ride at the tender age of 8 months. 

As luck would have it, I was able to use some frequent flyer points to upgrade our Perth to Sydney leg to business class. Given Josh was over 2 years old, he required his own seat. So there he was, 2.5 years old sitting in his own skybed business class seat while full grown adults walked past him on their way to the back of the plane. Having the extra space was a God send as it meant the kids, and Imogen in particular, could move around without bothering others. 

Of course, what goes up, must come down, and after leaving the luxury of business, we were quickly brought back down to Earth for our REX flight, where the aircon couldn't run unless the plane was plugged into ground power or the propellers spinning. Needless to say, it was hot on board and during the brief stop over, we spent most of the time using the onboard safety cards to keep ourselves cool.

Finally we arrived. The kids were, on the whole, great. Straight to the pub then! Given you've probably never heard of Merriwagga, you'll also not be aware that Merriwagga claims to have the tallest bar in the Southern Hemisphere. You've gotta see this thing to believe it. You need to climb your bar stool to sit at the bar and the you can barely see the publican behind the bar. You can see in the pic to the left it comes up to my armpit and I'm 6' tall. It certainly is unique. Naturally, being a small country town, everyone knew we were coming and we pretty much met everyone that afternoon.

We arrived a few days before Christmas and used that time to catch up with Amanda's Dad, go to a zoo out that direction (Altina Wildlife Park - it's really really good!), visit the closest main township for supplies (Hillston) and of course, at the pub. It was pretty bloody hot in Merriwagga so the rest of the time we simply tried to keep cool. 

The rest of Amanda's family eventually arrived. We all stayed at the "Old School Caravan Park", which is owned by Amanda's Dad in onsite vans. Mercifully, they were also air conditioned. At one stage, Amanda's Dad brought around the town's fire engine which the kids loved. They all went for a drive around town (doesn't take long) and played with the fire hose. Great way to stay cool.

Christmas Day itself was a great day with lots of great food and family. The kids, as usual, got spoilt with presents. We departed faily promptly on Boxing Day, returning to Perth to see my family for Christmas and get ready for 2019. No business class on the way back but the kids were largely well behaved for the flights home thankfully.