We decided it was time to move on from Gladstone after stopping for a few months to make some money. Our choices came down to two, head North to Cairns or South to Tasmania, we decided North would still be far to wet so it was south to Tassie for us also the timing was perfect for us to attend our friends wedding before we loaded the Prado on the boat and steamed south to the apple isle.
We checked out of the Reef Hotel and headed for Melbourne before making another late call to change direction, this time in the middle of the night we decided we would head for the coast and our old hometown of Tathra to catch up with Shells sister and Dad who was in town, this meant driving through the capital in the middle of the night before pulling over and setting up the penthouse just out of Cooma in the dark and a crisp temperature of 4c.
We spent a great few days in Tathra, even the weather turned it on enough for me to have a swim in the clear southern NSW waters in the shadow of the best looking old wharf in Australia. Sadly a few weeks later a local lady was taken by a shark swimming from the wharf to the surf club.
Cloe & Howies wedding was a great night at a great venue in Sorento and it was great to catch up with some friends we hadn’t seen in some time.
Ash’s 25th Birthday passed by as quick as all the years we have been fortunate enough to have her with us and before we knew it we were on the floating sickness machine and heading south for our first look at the island that doesn’t make every map when it comes to Australia. The trip over wasn’t so bad with not many times where I looked to make sure the vomit bag was close by, we arrived at Devonport booked into a really crap caravan park for a cold nights sleep in the penthouse before setting off on our Tassie adventure.
The drive south to Hobart was surprisingly short but what stood out was the landscape, we both pictured Tasmania with green rolling hills but all we could see out our window was a dry almost baron landscape. Our first impression of Hobarts outer suburbs wasn’t great but things improved as we got closer to the city centre. Hobart reminded me of Christchurch in some ways but old school Australia in others, a cross between Melbourne and the Rocks in Sydney.
We had come to Tasmania to complete our round Australia trip and to catch up with Jim & Maxine our friends we had met in Kunanara and traveled the Gibb River Road with last year who lived in Bellerive just near the cricket ground with a great view of the city of Hobart.
After a couple of days of sightseeing around the city we headed south to the Huon Valley looking for the some locally grown food, Cygnet didn’t disappoint where we purchased some local potatoes, bacon and veggies that we cooked up by the water at the Port of Cygnet under a shining southern sun. It was a great feed grown, cooked and eaten where it was grown.
Jim & Maxine have what it seems many people have in Tassie have “A Shack” it’s a term that is used a lot down there. This Shack was 40 minutes south of Hobart at Connellys Marsh. I guess they were lucky (or not) to still have a shack after a huge fire stormed through the area 14 months ago that claimed many other shacks, their caravan and this a kids play car that Jim is holding. If you look close enough you can see part of sailing jacket, some electrical wire and some other all melted together. The fire made it to the house, claimed the water tanks and the house only meters away before going out and sparing the shack from devastation.
We spent the afternoon on the water in a tinny enjoying a few beers and good company as we hauled in enough flathead for keep us in food for a few days. With the girls in the kitchen preparing the salad I kept an eye on Jim to make sure he put enough beer in his famous beer batter. The outdoor cook up of flathead tail was enjoyable but eating the fresh fish was a real highlight of our trip.
After a few days of relaxing by the beach down at the shack we headed back into the city to check it out and the famous Salamanca markets, they are huge each Saturday morning and attract far to many people compared to the narrow gaps between stall holders. The market was good but we had hoped for more local food being cooked in front of us, we purchased a small piece of Bruny Island cheese from one of the guys on the Gourmet Farmer show @ $100 per kg and some Fat Pig Farm bacon by The Gourmet Farmer Matthew Evans @ $45 per kg.
A Taste of the Huon is a food fair in the Huon Valley showcasing the fine local food with loads of people flooding through the gates to eat and drink from the hundred or so food stalls. I had the finest pork ribs I have ever tasted at this event, perfectly cooked so the meat fell from the bone with a great rocket and wallnut salad on the side that I washed down with “a little cascade”.
After a few mores days down at the shack we decided to head south to Port Arthur for the day, its an historical site but it didn’t do much to keep me interested long. I found the monument to the people who were shot at Port Arthur and looked for a few names in particular, I had read the book by Walter Mikac a long time ago about when he lost his wife and two young daughters, I looked for these names also because Ashleigh is now employed by the Alana & Madaline Foundation in Melbourne.
A boat trip, a boring walking tour of the site and a bad lunch had me ready to leave but not before Shelly made me film a couple of videos to send up to Queensland for Brodens birthday.
Next we headed up the East Coast to a place called Coles Bay in the Frycenet NP, the weather was great and the locals tell anyone who will listen that its the best climate in Tassie. A walk of two ks up a rock lands you at the lookout to Wineglass Bay we hadn’t done much exercise of late so the walk wasn’t as easy as it should have been but it was worth it with a great view out to crystal clear bay of water in the shape of a wineglass.
We explored the area before heading further north to find a camping spot at Friendly Beaches a great spot on the beach that offered free camping with a great view of the calm water, we spent the night in the Penthouse after sharing burgers and few beers with the local kangaroos.
A few more days in Hobart and we headed to the north west coast and the towns of Burnie and Stanley, Burnie is a large town for tasmania on the water looking directly North to Melbourne, we spent the night in the only caravan park in town with a view to taking the managers job of the park but it wasn’t right for us so we moved the next day to check out Stanley.
We went through a town called Irish and figured we must have a beer at the local pub being St Patricks Day but he town of Irish didn’t have a pub, no St Patricks Day celebrations for us.
Stanley isn’t a huge place but it lays under a huge rock know as The Nut and under the nut is a very old cemetery where we found the graves of Rockets father and grand father and no doubt many other family members. Stanley is a very old place and they have done a great job keeping it that way with most of the building in the area looking more like they belong in a small english village. We checked out the local pub that opened in 1847 (featured in MasterChef last year) and sampled a beer or two with locals.
After a cold and wet night in the North West corner we headed down the West coast through Smithtown and Strahan to Queenstown. It was cold and very wet in Queenstown that is surrounded by mountains that drifted in and out of our view as the dark storm clouds rolled through the area know for its mining and its footy ground. We went for a walk up the main street in the rain and it had a feeling that we were on a movie set, it had an eery feeling looking up the main street with many old buildings lining it towards the storm clouds rolling east towards Hobart.
At the bottom of the main street is the old Empire Hotel, we had a chat to a local guy at the pub who told us about a couple of guys who had died in a mining accident late last year then another more recently “the towns doing it a bit tough right now” he told us.
The local guy told us his son worked in the mine and was the ruckman for the local footy club The Queenstown Crows. This was no ordinary footy club, these guys played footy on a gravel forty ground, the annual rainfall in Queenstown is so high that when they built the ground in 1880 it had to be gravel in place of the soft grass we are used to. The Gravel as the ground is known was home to nine football teams at its peak was replaced in 1969 by a softer silica sand surface.
We tried to book our car and selves on the boat to head back to Queensland when we got a shock response “you can’t get on for two and a half weeks” this wasn’t what we wanted to hear but we did have a chance of getting out in a week when they offered us the only waiting list position.
Back in Hobart gave us a chance to explore the places we hadn’t seen, one was the Cascade Brewery built in 1824 directly under Mount Wellington to haves the pure water runoff for the famous beer. The brewery tour was good especially the samples that came with the tour ticket, it didn’t take Shelly long to jump behind the bar, pour a beer and have yet another photo taken for her growing collection.
One great story from the brewery tour told of how the workers up until the mid 1990s were allowed to sample the product to ensure its quality two times a day the whistle would blow and employees would gather around a single beer tap with 7oz glass in hand and down as many as 20 glasses in ten minutes before commencing work this took place twice a day. due to work health and safety employees are now given a carton of beer each fortnight to take home for the purpose of quality control.
Jim was asked to sail the maxi yacht Wild Thing back to Sydney that had been docked in Hobart since the Sydney to Hobart race, we got to have a good look at the large boat on the morning they left Hobart, they covered the journey in around four days before Jim flew home to skipper his own boat.
Shelly joined Jim, Maxine and the crew for the final wednesday night sail out of the Bellerive Yacht Club where they finished second and secured the 2014 Bellerive pennant and second in the Hobart pennant.
In anticipation on getting a call for an early release from Tasmania we headed North to Launceston only 100ks from Devonport the home of the Spirit of Tasmania. After some very cold days in the south of the state we enjoyed the heat of the north the locals told us “its always cold down there and always hot up here in the best part of the state” Launceston was a nice city so we decided to wander the streets on a balmy sunday afternoon and do some much needed research into the local hotel scene.
We stopped in at about five or six establishments before making our final stop at the Royal Oak close to our accommodation. This old pub had a couple of guys in the corner playing a guitar and singing some irish song before the barman grabbed his guitar and joined in, the sound was great for two drunk guys a barman and another local drinking tea playing his harmonica.
We got the early morning call to tell us our papers had been stamped for release from the convict island, we had around seven hours of our sentence to serve. This gave us time head north and check out Beaconsfield the home of the now closed mine that became famous when it collapsed killing one guy and trapped two others for two long weeks a couple of ks underground.
The ride back to the mainland went quick this trip done overnight, we had a morning breakfast with Ashleigh in South Melbourne before heading north and arriving back in Queensland 20 odd hours later.
Thanks to Jim & Max for being such great friends and hosts, we are looking forward to returning the hospitality in Cooktown.
CameronCorner 