Tasmania is a beautiful country, a little less green than we had imagined, because of the drought, but notable for its empty roads, undulating landscapes and wonderful beaches. The villages often seem a little like English villages, with picturesque old buildings and colourful gardens.
We've been staying in a bed and breakfast above a beach on Great Oyster Bay, surrounded by sheoaks. On New Year's Eve we were relaxing on the terrace with some Aussies, fascinated by a long flashing lightning storm on the horizon, far more spectacular than the fireworks going off around us. The temperature actually increased in the evening to 31 degrees because of some warm winds. Curiously around 11 pm an ice cream van started chiming its way around the little roads at the top of the dunes near us. And then dawn this morning was heralded by the sound of bongo drums from the beach for an hour...
We arrived in Hobart on Tuesday, and enjoyed seeing some of the winning boats from the yacht race in the harbour. The Taste of Hobart Festival was on, a rather larger version of the York Food and Drink Festival. We had already eaten fish and chips in the harbour but we enjoyed sampling some of the wines and a great fruit pancake. Our bed for the night was at the Hobart Hostel, hopefully our last hostel, especially as this was notable for our bedroom window overlooking a pedestrian crossing which beeped continuously all night - aargh.
The next stop was Launceston (pronounced LonCesTon), which has the most beautiful Cataract Gorge, with a cable car and Victorian pleasure grounds. This reminds me that that people around Melbourne call themselves Victorians which sounds weird to us, I keep thinking they are referring to some long dead inhabitants.
Today we walked in the Freycinet National Park, crossing the peninsula to Wine Glass Bay, a gorgeous arc of turquoise water fringed by white sand, then crossed the isthmus again to Hazards Beach, to be picked up by a water taxi for our return home. Tomorrow we're off further north to St Helen's and then on Tuesday we fly to Perth for a few days.
We wish all our family and friends a happy New Year from Tasmania and hope that you too have had some good celebrations.
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Happy New Year to you both. I believe Perth is nice, Jacqui has a friend from her Edinburgh days who lives there. You are certainly in the right place, very cold and snowy here and more forecast on the way. Enjoy your adventures. Love Mo and Alan
ReplyDeleteThank you! Good to hear from you. I'm going to update the blog soon about Perth - we arrived here today and the temperature is 108 degrees so we can't imagine the freezing conditions in the UK. We're in Fremantle just now and we like it a lot xx love to all Sue and Ralph
ReplyDeleteWe spent New Year in Perth but it certainly wasn't 108 degrees!! 3 foot of snow up on Kinnoull Hill!! You certainly won't be missing all the chaos the snow has brought with it!!
ReplyDeleteHave fun
Margaret x
Hi Margaret
ReplyDeleteI took a picture today of some old lampposts that the Scottish Perth & Kinross had presented to the Australian Perth - will send you it!
xx Sue and Ralph
It all sounds wonderful, we are very glad you have been having such a great time for Christmas and New Year. I really envy the sunshine and the places must be beautiful. Hope all continues just as well as the last experiences.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year! love and all best wishes
Anne and John xx
Thanks Anne and John, and many thanks too for your help with Lex and Trav.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year and looking forward to meeting up when we get back
love
Sue and Ralph
xx