Oh the places we will go!

Having just moved to a whole new area where everything is new and yet to be explored. We’ve been spending our spare time checking out new places to eat, see and new things to do. My waistline is screaming, “Behave young lady!” Thankfully I’ve been exploring walking paths, and we’ll be cracking out the bikes soon, as well as our cossies when the weather warms up a little more.

Recently KIA loaned us a car, which we kindly dubbed the soccer mum car, because it had about as many seats as a small bus {we felt like we should start procreating just to fill it}. KIA also gave us $150 cash to spend on some adventures. So adventure we did.

One day we ate Yum Cha for lunch at Robina. I’ve since learned {thank to Instagram smarties} that Yum Cha means dim sum and Chinese tea. Next time I’ll try some tea. This time we just had some dim sum. Yum.

And then the weekend rolled around and it was time for serious fun. Lacey took a lesson and I held her hands for the whole session. My feet copped a few wheels over the toes, but totally worth it. She’s a natural. We’ll be going back again next weekend.

We then grabbed some Japanese for lunch. It was seriously the best thing I’ve tasted since moving up this way, and I’ve tasted some yummy things. I had Teppan Chicken and I’ve been dreaming about it since. You know something is good when you can’t wait to go back. And then it was time for some bowling, after buying some new socks. It was Lacey’s first ever try at bowling too, and she won. The girl was on FIRE.

On Sunday after heading down to buy the papers Lacey asked if I could take her on a ‘holiday hunt’. I had no idea what that meant, but after about 10 minutes of negotiations it turned out she wanted to go on a Sunday drive to explore. Hubby was at work, so we grabbed Bronte, a croissant each {again, sorry waistline}, a drink in the drink-holder each and hit the road in the KIA Grand Carnival. The car has a few funky features, including an automatic door opener, that enables you to open the doors with a touch of the button {a SLi/Platinum feature}, which Lacey found entertaining. We also loved the MP3 music player that plays music from your iPhone without messy wires everywhere and the ample amount of drink holders {more than you can poke a stick at}.

We cranked some music, blasted the air-con and cruised along. I have to fess up here. We got TOTALLY lost. I got totally lost. We ended up on this teeny road in the middle of a rainforest. Lacey screamed from the back, “We’re going into the forest!” In my head I was just thinking, ‘I hope we can get home!’ The roads were narrow and windy, and the speed limit was 100. I went 40. I was a total Sunday driver, I just forgot to wear my hat. Eventually we made it out and we went farm-gating for some fresh veges. At one stall Lacey kindly told the farmer lady, “We just got lost.” Thank you Lacey.

Thankfully the car made it through our adventures, rainforests, farms and busy highways too. My personal opinion {for those interested}: It is a really spacious car that would have been perfect when we were kids {as a family of 6}, drives beautifully, is really spacious and had a little reverse camera so you can see what’s behind you {another SLi/Platinum feature – I always get scared in big cars about what’s behind me}. The boot space is great {it’s like a big tub, so no groceries rolling around} and it fit Bronte in there comfortably {well, she didn’t complain!}. The starting price for the Grand Carnival S model is $38,990.

For more information on this 8-seater family car just visit the KIA website or pop into your local dealer.

Do you ever explore in your home town? Or close to home? What’s your favourite thing to do?

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