Christmas forced us to take a break in our building project and not a moment too soon as the builder mentality was rubbing off on us. Ian had started whistling and calling me Mate and we have begun to refer to every break as a Smoko even though neither of us smoke!
We had been invited to Zoe and Shaun's new house for Christmas and decided we could spare about ten days and make a little holiday of it. 
First stop was Lake Illawara to visit our friends Tim and Virginia who took us to Shellharbour Village for a curry. One thing I really miss about England is the easy availability of an Indian meal, I don't care if it is in an Indian restaurant or just a curry in a box from Tesco's it is always the thing I ask my sister Gill for first when I visit. We don't have them around where we live so it was a real treat and Shellharbour Village was a splendid, busy little place full of restaurants, cafes and shops on a beautiful stretch of coastline. 

The next day was the 23rd December and we were due to arrive at Zoe's on Christmas Eve so needed to do some serious mileage and get ourselves well into Victoria for our next stop so we aimed for Benalla, taking the direct (if a bit boring) route straight down the Hume Highway for about 8 hours.

 Our rig rolled into Benalla at around 6pm and headed for the showground as it was easy and a bit late to mess around looking for somewhere to stop. The showground was a bit of a disappointment as it was $12 to stay there for no power or water and only the mens' toilets were open. It was very near a fish and chip shop though and, as we wandered over to get our chips we started to realise that Benalla was a very interesting town. There is a Ned Kelly trail through the town which takes in a shop where Ned hid after giving his guards the slip when appearing in court. The courthouse itself is a beautiful building with the cell on the outside where Kelly was held, this and the neighbouring houses have all been carefully restored. There was so much to see we resolved to stop on our way back.
The showground backed on to the church and we woke on Christmas Eve to the sound of carols, a very pleasant way to get into the Christmas spirit as we set off for Berwick.
After a great Christmas with Zoe, Shaun and his family, we trundled back to Benalla for another look. We had done a bit of research this time and discovered there was a free camp for self contained vehicles at the recreation ground on the banks of Benalla Lake.

 It was a fabulous spot with King Parrots, frogs, bats and countless water birds within a few minutes walk of the town centre. There was an art gallery and the town had definite artistic leanings, with interesting sculptures including a terrific sort of folly for children to play in and an annual mural painting competition for local artists, some of the murals were outstanding, we were very glad we made time to explore Benalla further.
Our journey had to be inland because Christmas is the big holiday season in Australia and everyone heads for the coast so it would have been virtually impossible to find any spots to stop along the coast road, so we headed to the Victoria/New South Wales border where the twin towns of Yarrawonga and Mulwalla sit opposite each other on either side of the Murray River.

 Wikicamps had told us there were several free camps on both sides along this stretch and, although they were busy, we managed to find a spot where we set up, kicked off our shoes and watched holidaymakers playing with their jet skis and inflatable toys in the river.
Although it was great to chill we thought we should get going again the following morning and headed further north past towns with amusing names like Howlong and Burrumbuttock (I really must try to grow up) to a town called The Rock.
Basically, The Rock was shut, we checked again the next morning and, apart from one supermarket, it still appeared pretty closed. It did have a fantastic free camp at the recreation ground, immaculate facilities, hot showers for a gold coin donation so we stayed one night but there was nothing to keep us after that so we hit the road again. 
This time our journey took us through Cootamundra, the birthplace of one of Ian's (and all of Australia's) heroes, Sir Don Bradman. Considering Sir Don only lived in Cootamundra until he was 3 years old they had made a pretty good job of turning his house into a fascinating little museum where Ian was in hog heaven as I am sure you can imagine.