Australia Day and Chinese New Year all wrapped up in one

Well I woke this morning and wished I had put some more thought into today. I don't know how often Australia Day and Chinese New Year are celebrated on the same day but I would guess it's not often.
Of course you can't buy anything here in Mt Beauty.
So - I had to make do.
I decided that Eb should wear a Cheongsam....with a little map of Australia tucked into her hair. She looked gorgeous.
The morning celebration was down in the Mt Beauty township and many, many people were there. This was where Ebony officially became an Aussie citizen last year. I tried to get her face painted - but that didn't work until the 3rd attempt! The first was painting on her legs - then just a few flowers on her face and then finally she allowed Kim to do a full butterfly on her face. yeah! She loved it. She also had a few Aussie tattoo's. We had a great fun morning and enjoyed a lovely BBQ breakfast.

Later that day we headed back over to Bright. There is a small town called Harrietville between Bright and Mt Hotham (closer to Bright) and it has what they call the 'Dredge Hole' which is a big hole in the earth caused by some type of mining I think. It has now been beautified and filled with water and is the local swimming hole. We had a great swim in there - it was another very hot day.

From there we went to Wandiligong which is just out of Bright. I found out there was a Chinese Bridge there - so we finally found it and took some beautiful photo's. Dwayne, Susan and Sarah joined us again so the photo's are of Ebony and Sarah. We leant Sarah a Cheongsam. The bridge was very interesting and I'm glad we know about it now.

Next we headed off to the Bright Chinese restaurant for dinner. Sadly they didn't actually celebrate CNY - but they treated Ebony like royality - it was a really, really lovely evening.

Finally we headed to the park (in the dark) for a walk and a short play because the night was so beautiful. What a special day it was. We really enjoyed it.

Celebrations at Mt Beauty


Checking out the face painting at home


The three of us on the Chinese Bridge at Wandiligong




Eb and Sarah enjoying it too...


It's such a beautiful bridge!


On the way back from walking to the bridge we stopped at a fallen tree for some photo's


Then it was out to Bright Chinese for dinner


...and a swing in the dark


and a last photo on a log before we headed home...