Life on the road has been busy. It’s been hard to keep up with the blog, with very few down days, and editing videos and photos is very time-consuming! But, I did want to wrap things up, seeing that yesterday was our last day in Tassie. Here’s what we’ve been up to, in a nutshell.
Night out in Queenstown. Grandparents with the kids. Might have got Queenstown, New Zealand mixed up with here. Non-existent nightlife – home by 7:30pm. Winding roads with slippery shoulders. Crazy Cat car sick. West Coast Wilderness Railway. Panning for gold. No treasure found. Hands frozen.
Staying at hydro-electric plant workers town in Tarraleah. Bit weird. Kind of too perfect. Like the Truman Show. Pub lady, Mary, was lovely. Frozen ice puddles in the morning with minus 4 overnight. Goats – Nibbly, Horn and David. Ducks – Bruce Lee and Priscilla. Nelson Falls – prettiest waterfall I’ve ever seen. Horsetail Falls walk. Epic. Glad we did it without kids. Way too many cliffs. So many cool rocks. Quartz and conglomerate. Started getting interested in geology. Saw “The Wall” and incredible legacy of one man’s wood carving and storytelling.
Snug Beach – sad history of fires here. So many swans. Didn’t realise they lived on the ocean, but apparently they do. Boys and I, did a bit of fishing. No fish. A bit cold for the in-laws, with an artic wind blowing in and drizzly rain. Meema starting to get a cold. Thankfully, there was a lovely camp kitchen with indoor fireplace. Hubby fell asleep there, regardless of the signs saying it wasn’t allowed. What a rebel!
Bruny Island exploring. House of Whisky. Ate an olive straight from the tree. Would NOT recommend. Drove to the lighthouse. Fucking cold! So many rainbows. We were pretty much seeing rainbows every day. Crazy Cat said “I’m getting bored of seeing rainbows now”. Big Boy rode a pademelon. Ok, that didn’t happen. Got some local Oysters. Yummm. Barge back home.
Manky Sally’s (bar) – night out in Hobart. Apparently the food didn’t need to be cooked. Raw prawns and venison. Nearly glutened myself, eating crackers that weren’t for me. Went to the Wrest Point Casino. $250 poorer. Had fun on the Blackjack tables. Nicest taxi drivers. Richmond – beautiful shops and ducks. Love this town.
Swansea – first walk from “60 Great Short Walks of Tasmania” book – rolled ankle. Ouch! Far… out. Here’s the story… Walking along the beach, stepped into some seaweed. Low and behold, there was Neil the Seal, under the seaweed. He stands up, knocks me off my feet. I roll my ankle. But survive to live the tale. Doesn’t matter what any video shows, that’s the story I’m going with. Far more interesting than… “I was mucking around, jumping in the seaweed and rolled my ankle”
Decided at St Helens to visit the hospital. Amazing service. In and out in less than two hours, with a moonboot. Only cost $40! No broken bones is always a win. Would totally recommend. Art exhibition and markets. A bit of controversy over the winner of the local art competition. Lots of incredible local talent! Fishing at the Wharf. Crazy Cat caught a flathead. The rest of us caught… squat. Local fisherman, returning from 7 days at sea, let the boys hold fresh caught lobsters. Day trip to Binalong Bay. Lunch at The Hub. The most amazing pizza ever! Watching the Pizza Chef spinning dough was so impressive. The boys loved it. Later on, fishing at the jetty. Crazy Cat caught a trevally. The rest of us caught squat.
Big 4 Launceston – oak trees and acorns. Super awesome playground, and jumping pillow! Bunnies in the pet shop. Ben Lomond snow day. First snow day for Peepa and Crazy Cat. Tobogonning and making a ‘snow duck’. It even snowed while we were there. So magical.
Cataract Gorge chairlift for Hubby and Big Boy. Hill hobble for Mum in a moonboot and Peepa with a sore back. Heaps of fabulous wild peacocks. Meema and Peepa went home. It was amazing having them here for 3 weeks!
Headed to Oatlands. Incredible playground. Heated pool at Oatlands. Hooray for indoor swimming pool. Hubby enjoyed whisky blending at Cannington Mill Distillery, creating a one-of-a-kind bottle for Crazy Cat for his 18th birthday. Overnight, freezing temperatures. Thank goodness for diesel heater! Edges of the lake are frozen. Seagulls and ducks sliding on the ice! Boys throwing rocks to crack the ice. Very cool!
Heimat Farmstay (pronounced “Hi Mat” meaning “Home Land”) at Black Hills. Stayed a week. Best hosts ever – Ben and Gemma. Pygmy Norwegian Goats, Highland Coos, and lots of friendly Chooks. Up on the mountain above the fog.
Day trip to Salamanca Markets – 3 degrees! Hobart bookstore. Amazing. Everyone got a book. Richmond. Again. To see ducks at the park. Dark Mofo Festival. Ghoulish street parade, food and drinks. Overnight stay in a “Ho-tail” (how Crazy Cat says ‘hotel’). Karaoke Room at Irish Murphy’s. Crazy Cat singing “Steve’s Lava Chicken”. Big Boy singing “Astronaut in the Ocean”. Middle Man singing “Shut Up and Dance”. Such a supportive, family crowd. Boys loved it!
Glenorchy Mountain Bike Trails – Hubby and the boys. Old Kempton Distillery Whisky tasting. Meeting a lovely lady in the antique store. Buying homemade strawberry jam. She gave the boys so many chocolate eggs! Markets in New Norfolk. Russell Falls at Mt Field National Park. Return to hipcamp property at Clifton Beach. Met up with Aunty Shelley in her hire campervan. No Neil the Seal at the Surf Club this time. He’d moved on. Crazy Cat learned to ride his bike, pedalling on his own! Flying kites at the beach.
Moved to hip camp – Misty Mountain @ Gardner’s Bay. The lovely host sells fresh produce baskets, harvested from his own garden. Overnight rain. Campervan got bogged in the wet grass. Massive skid marks in old mates lawn! OMG, so sorry. He helped tow us out with a chain! Hartz View Vineyard. Warm spiced apple mead. Divine! Hastings Caves. Massive, awe inspiring dolerite caves. While in gift shop, mini hail/sleet storm shower. Boys ate all of the ice pellets. Lyre Birds spotted on the roads. Meeting the lovely publican, Phoebe who let Middle Man make and cook his own cheese pizza at Southport Pub, while we played pool.
Bruny Island – again! This time cruising on a boat, exploring the cliffs, seaside caves and blowholes with Pennicott Wilderness Journeys. Spotted fur seals, elephant seals and albatross. Didn’t get sea sick in 3m swell. One poor lady on-board was so ill! After a delicious pre-ordered lunch. Picked up two dozen fresh Bruny Island Oysters. Headed back to the ferry. Spotted an echidna (alive!) on side road. Kept him safe from traffic. He was so fluffy and gorgeous! Once back at camp, Hubby and Aunty Shelley went for a drive to Charlotte Bay to see Southern Lights. Here’s what they picked up on camera. Not visible with the naked eye, but beautiful nonetheless.
Huntington Distillery tasting. Boys pretending to be tall in Aunty Penny’s coat for the old local couple who lived on a houseboat. Drive back to north of Hobart. Overnight at Barilla Caravan Park. Fun with Mum and Crazy Cat playing mini golf. Mt Field (again) hiking, but this time by night – looking for mushrooms. Found plenty! Plus, spotted a Tawny Frogmouth in the forest and Tassie Devil (alive!) on the side road. Then, we had to say goodbye to Aunty Shelley. We had such an adventurous week!
Lake Leake Inn to meet Gus the St Bernard. We’re now officially on ‘The Wall of Gus”. Having hot chippies at the pub, playing soccer with some local kids, and driving Crazy Cat’s new remote control car on the grassy oval. Grateful for the diesel heater overnight with no power hook up, and a chilly zero degrees.
Hipcamp property stay for 5 nights, at Lilydale, with amazing host, Melinda. Incredible sunsets. Very relaxing, quiet countryside. Lovely elderly lady next door with a pet Peahen called “pud pud”, who would follow us around the property and hang out at the van. Day trip to George Town for fishing on the Tamar River. No fish. Turns out we’re terrible at fishing. Saw a water rat swimming. Huge container ship coming back out to sea. Amazing sunset.
Visit to Kimberly Thermal Springs. Definitely not ‘hot springs’. Slightly warm-ish. Family swim in our jocks on a 10 degree day. At least we can say that we all swam in Tassie in Winter! Western Tiers Distillery. Car service in Launceston. Dinner at Exeter Pub on the way home. We had an incredible time at Treetops Adventure Hollybank, for the high ropes course for ages 3-7 and Big Boy and Hubby did the 20m high ziplining. Originally, this was a planned date for Hubby and Mum, but the moonboot made this a bit of a challenge.
Planned to stay at Bridport for a few days. Trivia night at the Bridport Hotel. Really lovely locals. Trivia host was from Balmoral, Brissy. Small world. Came in 6th place. Caravan park site was right on the beach. Had the place pretty much to ourselves. Weather was so good we ended up staying for a week. Daily dog watching. Sunny glorious days. 16 degrees. Swimming for the boys. T-shirt and shorts weather. Sort of. Beautiful rock pools. Lots of anemones and crabs. Beach fishing. No fish. Skatepark and playground a small bike ride away. Jetty fishing. Crazy cat caught an ocean trout. He’s the only successful fisherman of our family!
Day trip to Derby. Mountain biking. Boys driving through 100m long tunnel. Visiting Little Blue Lake. Like standing on the edge of the sky. Turquoise coloured water due to old mining sediments (aluminium) in the water. A day at home on my own… bliss! All the boys went downhill mountain biking again at Derby. 15 kms of trails and tracks. Shuttle bus up the top of the hill and then it was on! No injuries and plenty of fun had by all!
First day of bad weather. Rainy and windy. Took a day trip to Narawntapu National Park. Windy and rainy. Lots of pademelons and wallabies. An excursion to Seahorse World. Seeing the rare Red and Spotted Hand Fish. Big Boy wrote a report on them for school. Working seahorse farm, selling to aquariums around the world. Such a fascinating place. Got to hold a seahorse and big hermit crab.
We’ve arrived back in Geelong, after a rough night on the Spirit of Tasmania, from Devonport. It’s hard to believe that 3 months have passed. After all that time, there was still so much more to see. Tasmania is such a magical place, full of wilderness, beauty and life. We will definitely be back again!