Birthday Boy's Day

For Ollie's birthday, we had a food based adventure day. I enlisted our friend Ruth to help me out and provide us with her company for the day.

In a style typical to me, Ollie was given few details - just being told that he needed to be ready to leave the house by 10am and that he didn't need to have breakfast first. About 10ish Ruth arrived and whisked us away in her car.....to the Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm....one of our favourite cafes. We got to sit in front of the open fire, while eating a very decadant brunch.

From here we headed out to Penguin - a cute little seaside village...full of penguins (not real ones though). We had a look round the town, and the village market.

Next up was time for more food.....off to the House of Anvers Chocolate Factory for some tasting.

And as if that wasn't enough food for the day....our next stop was the Cherry Shed, for a shared platter of nibbles (including Cherry Relish & Cherry/Chilli Jam) as well as sampling some Cherry Wine, Cherry Liquer and Cherry port...finished off by a Cherry Real Fruit Ice Cream.

But still there was more! A Birthday cake was waiting at home for Ollie - however I let my reputation slip a little and it wasn't even decorated (it was all about the taste this year!) and no photo of it either!

The day was going to be finished with dinner at a fancy restaurant, but being Sunday the place I had chosen wasn't open! So we just had takeaways....got to keep the food levels up!!!!

Thanks to Ruth for aiding and abetting me with my plans, and joining us for the day :)

Exams are over Expedition.

After a week of exams (one from 9-12 every morning) Ollie was ready for a break, and so was I! Luckily we still had Ruth's car, so we made a plan to get out of town. Starting off with brunch at Campbell town we headed over to the East coast. We'd had a week of mostly sunny weather in Launceston with only one day of rain, and had obviously been living in our own little world as we hadn't realised how much rain they had been having on the East coast. Turned out we were lucky to get through as the road had been closed for a while....we could see why!

We had a look round Coles Bay, and Bicheno. It was a pretty wet day, though despite the crashing waves on the beach it wasn't so windy.

From there we headed up to St Mary's where we braved getting out of the care - to run into a cafe for lunch! We then followed the coast up to St Helen's and then as far along the Bay of Fires as we could go - including Binalong Bay.

The East Coast is supposed to be one of the most stunning parts of Tasmania....shame about the torrential rain when we visited - I bet with the sun shining on the water it would have definitely had the Wow factor. Hopefully we will get a chance to explore this part of Tassie again - in the sunshine preferably so we can get out and walk along the beaches. Was just what we needed though - to get out of town, and have a change of scenery!!

Our next adventure is a trip to NZ to visit friends and family, and for Ollie to say hi to his Boat!

A few wee adventures.

Been a bit quiet on the blog front - I was away in Taiwan for 10days (for my brothers wedding, but thats a whole other story!), and since then the past month has been pretty quite. Ollie had his Part A exams last week - five 3hr exams (one a day) so he has been very busy studying.

One weekend, when the sun was shining and Ollie's brain reached saturation point, we went for a little drive down the river to Beauty Point.

We sat in a little cafe watching the boats sail on the river. (Made Ollie miss his yacht even more!)

On the way back we drove (and then walked on) the Batman Bridge (which we had been under on our River Cruise).

And watched the sunset over the river

We've had some pretty chilly weather over here, one morning at 9am it was 0.3 degrees!!! Some misty mornings too - I babysat over night a while ago, and the house I was in was on the hill so I could see over the top of the mist that we have in town.

We had a fundraising morning tea at the cafe last week - raising money for the Cancer Council. To add some fun to it we made it a cupcake bake off - these were my creations.

Cruising on the River

It pays to look at the vouchers on the back of your supermarket docket...you never know when one of them will be handy! We got a voucher for the Tamar River Cruise - buy one get one free, which meant we could treat ourselves to a trip.

So Saturday 17th (April) saw us joining a group of other tourists (most of them from a tour bus and predominantly in their 70s!) on the MV Tamar Odessy for a 4hour river cruise. The cruise takes you down the Tamar river as it meanders its way down the Tamar Valley for about 20miles to the Batman Bridge.

Along the way there were lots of impressive homesteads to look at along the way. As Launceston is one of the 3 oldest cities in Australia there is a lot of history around - the skipper seemed to know most of the history, pointing out things like the oldest church, the first vineyard, a little town created by one of the first Dutch settlers - to mention a few.

The river has a big silt problem - with the topsoil from the surrounding farm land washing off into the river. As the river is tidal, the silt just gets washed up and down the river. We left on our cruise at low tide - when most of the river is mud, but when we came back the river was full of water.

We also saw a sea eagles nest - apparently there are lots of them along the Tamar river, unfortunately we didn't see any!

We got great refreshments on board - including tasting local wines & beer, and some of the great locally made cheeses.

Both of us loved being back on the water - even if it was only a river, and the boat had no sails!

Easter Adventures - Day 3

Despite waking up to find I'd caught Ollie's flu bug, we were in the car early (the change of daylight savings helped here!) and on the road again. The first stop was Christmas Hill's Raspberry Farm for breakfast. I already knew this was a favourite of mine (having experienced their cheese cake at Festivale, and going there for coffee with Janie on the way back from the yoga retreat) but it was time to introduce Ollie to it.

We had great breakfasts - focussing around raspberries of course. I had the best french toast ever, and a raspberry latte, and Ollie had the big breakfast - including raspberry infused sausages. Was hoping the Vitamin C count in the raspberries would help get rid of the bug! The cafe is in a lovely setting, by a little lake that you can walk around, with the raspberry canes up the hills around it. So after breakfast we had a wander round the lake, before climbing back into the car. Saw a bird that looked quite like a weka...but I don't think it was!

We were heading to Cradle Mountain - one Tasmania's tourist spots, and natural wonders. Along the way though we ducked off the main highway and drove through the little villages - they have some great old buildings in them. We also went via a look out point up on one hill - unfortunately the trees blocked a lot of the view to be had.

Lots of interesting sights along the way as well - including a beautifully clear river with great reflections (and a dam further up the river), interesting road signs, and the change in landscapes.

Cradle Mountain is in one of Tasmania's largest national parks. They have now stopped you from driving into the park to help prevent damage to the place. You must park at the visitor centre carpark, buy a park pass, and then catch the park bus into the park - there are various stops along the 20min drive, depending on where you want to walk. It is also the start of one of the main tramps in Tassie - The Overland Track, a 65km track that most people walk in about 5 - 6 days (a bit like doing the St James Walkway for those of you who like tramping) and also like the St James, some people do this track much faster - in about 7hrs, as part of an adventure race!!!! Both of us being a bit under the weather, we took it easy with a short walk around part of Dove Lake (which was formed by a glacier many many years ago), taking in the view of Cradle Mountain. We also got to see some local flora and fauna, including a wombat!

There was still daylight left (and the last day of having the car) so after a quick bite, we decided to cram in a few more sites. We headed over to the west coast, driving down through the sand dunes til we reached Strahan (pronounces Strawn). Another lovely place by the sea :)

A nice dinner before a drive in the dark home. Ollie managed to squeeze in a trip to the supermarket the next morning to make the shopping easier before he returned the car, and then it was time for Ollie to start studying again, and both of us to rest a bit and get rid of our bugs!!!