A Winter Down Under (NOT for low bandwidth connection, MANY pics!)

[AndieMac]

.....and yes, those green lipped mussels :encouragement: you two did a sensational job preparing them for us in Russell. Weren't they a great value dish as well?!

 

[AndieMac]

Terrific pics! We spend every other winter there and really looking forward to going this year - We are out of sync with the Wooden Boat Festival though so never get a chance to see it.
Loved to see the alpaca guy at Sheffield is still there - We had quite a conversation with him as my daughter keeps a few alpacas up in the Huon Valley

I remember a few years ago when you posted a query about sending money to Oz for your daughter, didn't realise she moved to Tas.

The Huon Valley is gaining a bit of celebrity status recently from a TV show called Gourmet Farmer, the chef/host moved from Sydney to Tas to live in the Huon. Recently ran a six show series called "Gourmet Farmer Afloat", circumnavigating the state in a yacht with a couple of other chefs sourcing local produce, lots of colonial history and plenty of fun banter, well worth a look.

When you come over this summer, if you want to catch up for a boat cruise or whatever, don't hesitate to drop me a message, cheers.

 

[RIN]

I remember a few years ago when you posted a query about sending money to Oz for your daughter, didn't realise she moved to Tas.

The Huon Valley is gaining a bit of celebrity status recently from a TV show called Gourmet Farmer, the chef/host moved from Sydney to Tas to live in the Huon. Recently ran a six show series called "Gourmet Farmer Afloat", circumnavigating the state in a yacht with a couple of other chefs sourcing local produce, lots of colonial history and plenty of fun banter, well worth a look.

When you come over this summer, if you want to catch up for a boat cruise or whatever, don't hesitate to drop me a message, cheers.

Thank you AndieMac. Our daughter will be having a baby in October so we will certainly be over.

We think Tasmania is the best part of Oz and we have seen quite a lot of Oz now. Its certainly one of the most laid back parts of Australia, but very self reliant and with a healthy disregard for read tape and the excesses of the Health and Safety brigade.

We will also look out for Gourmet Farmer Afloat over here. There are so many foody programs on UK TV its bound to be on somewhere.

Not to try and reach the quality of Mapism but here are a few other pics of areas in Tassie that we really liked

The Bicheno blow hole north of Swansea. We caught it with a heavy swell after a two day blow

The Bay of Fires just north of St. Helens

The maze and village of Upper Crackpot

And of course our daughter's Alpacas

 

[MapisM]

Not to try and reach the quality of Mapism

You must be joking, your pics are a great contribution to this thread, thanks for posting them!

Re. your daughter, it's a small world indeed.
We might have passed not far from her, because during one of our home exchanges (in Sandy Bay, in the S side of Hobart), one day we drove South along the coast, up to the Mountain Creek peninsula, coming back along the E side of the Huon Bay (Cygnet, Cradoc, Huonville...).
Is she anywhere along that road, by chance? We did spot several alpaca farms while driving aroud Tas, but now I can't for the life of me remember if one of them was in that area.
And btw, the beautiful steam launch whose very kind owner invited us to cruise Hobart harbour during the AWBF is called Huon - this is the video I already posted in the AWBF thread:

We also saw a bit of the E coast, but only up to Swansea, the Freycenet and the Friendly Beaches.
It seems that we missed something, by not going just a bit further N to Bicheno!
Though there wasn't much swell while we were there, so probably that blowhole wouldn't have been as impressive as in your pic...

That maze and village also looks pretty, we were completely unaware of it.
Which is strange, because another of our home exchanges was in Devonport, and during our stay up there we googled for all the interesting places in that area, but never found it mentioned anywhere.
Besides, I just checked the location on the map, and I think it's along (or very close to) the road we made to reach the Cradle Mountains from Devonport.

Oh, well. some other reasons to come back, one day.
On top of another area that we skipped completely: the W coast around Strahan, with the huge Macquarie Harbour.
A bit far from anywhere (which is the only reason why we gave it a miss), but a very wild and immaculate area according to AndieMac, well worth seeing and cruising.
Just in case you haven't been there yet!

As an aside, I only just noticed your motto: you served in the RAF and got enough of it, I suppose?
But FYI, the correct latin wording is "ad nauseam", not nauseum.
Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity to correct the spelling in an EN forum, for a change....

PS: fwiw, also myself and swmbo agree with you that Tas is the best part of Oz, in more ways than one.
The GBR probably being the most noticeable thing that you can't obviously find in Tas.
Together with the Sydney fish market, coming to think of it. For fish lovers as we are, that's indeed a treat.
Actually, the Tas salmon is second to none, but the variety of SFM is quite remarkable also by Med standards!

 

[MapisM]

Well if you want to get that specific.......did you mean Walter the wombat from the enclosure, the one who was playing hard to get with photo opportunities?

Must admit the purge towers from Tarraleah had me wondering though, I could see the beginnings of the penstock pipes heading downhill but couldn't associate the vertical towers.
It's an interesting part of the drive between Hobart and Strahan on the West Coast though, a long day for you folks from memory.

Yep, a long driving day indeed. We were coming from Devonport btw, not from Strahan, that as I said before we actually missed.
But we enjoyed every bit of that road!

LOL, yeah, I've got some pics of the funny Walter too, but actually the wombat in the above pic was spotted in the wilderness, along a trekking path that we made in the Cradle Mountains area.
No idea of its name of course - I think it's safe to guess that it doesn't have any!

.....and yes, those green lipped mussels :encouragement: you two did a sensational job preparing them for us in Russell. Weren't they a great value dish as well?!

Indeed. Somewhere between 3 and 4 NZD/Kg, IIRC. Probably the only food we ever found in NZ that was actually cheaper and tastier than around here, yum!

 

[pks1702]

Wow!

Truly great images. :encouragement:

 

[RIN]

You must be joking, your pics are a great contribution to this thread, thanks for posting them!

Re. your daughter, it's a small world indeed.
We might have passed not far from her, because during one of our home exchanges (in Sandy Bay, in the S side of Hobart), one day we drove South along the coast, up to the Mountain Creek peninsula, coming back along the E side of the Huon Bay (Cygnet, Cradoc, Huonville...).
Is she anywhere along that road, by chance? We did spot several alpaca farms while driving aroud Tas, but now I can't for the life of me remember if one of them was in that area.
And btw, the beautiful steam launch whose very kind owner invited us to cruise Hobart harbour during the AWBF is called Huon - this is the video I already posted in the AWBF thread:

We also saw a bit of the E coast, but only up to Swansea, the Freycenet and the Friendly Beaches.
It seems that we missed something, by not going just a bit further N to Bicheno!
Though there wasn't much swell while we were there, so probably that blowhole wouldn't have been as impressive as in your pic...

That maze and village also looks pretty, we were completely unaware of it.
Which is strange, because another of our home exchanges was in Devonport, and during our stay up there we googled for all the interesting places in that area, but never found it mentioned anywhere.
Besides, I just checked the location on the map, and I think it's along (or very close to) the road we made to reach the Cradle Mountains from Devonport.

Oh, well. some other reasons to come back, one day.
On top of another area that we skipped completely: the W coast around Strahan, with the huge Macquarie Harbour.
A bit far from anywhere (which is the only reason why we gave it a miss), but a very wild and immaculate area according to AndieMac, well worth seeing and cruising.
Just in case you haven't been there yet!

As an aside, I only just noticed your motto: you served in the RAF and got enough of it, I suppose?
But FYI, the correct latin wording is "ad nauseam", not nauseum.
Sorry, couldn't resist the opportunity to correct the spelling in an EN forum, for a change....

PS: fwiw, also myself and swmbo agree with you that Tas is the best part of Oz, in more ways than one.
The GBR probably being the most noticeable thing that you can't obviously find in Tas.
Together with the Sydney fish market, coming to think of it. For fish lovers as we are, that's indeed a treat.
Actually, the Tas salmon is second to none, but the variety of SFM is quite remarkable also by Med standards!

No I wasn't in the RAF. My Father was so I was familiar with the motto which I translated (probably wrongly ) as "Through hard work/adversity to the stars". Having worked ridiculous hours for years looking after customers in the IT industry, it suddenly dawned on me that If I kept it up, I wouldn't make it to retirement age. So I retired very early and "Per Ardua ad Nauseam" became my advice to everyone. "Through hard work to Sickness". That's probably wrong too but I like it.

You wouldn't have gone past our daughter's property as she is just off the Huon Highway halfway between Hobart and Huonville. She just keeps alpacas to save mowing the paddock and goats to try and keep the forest (bush) clear.

We haven't been to Strahan either but hope to get there this winter. Daughter's baby permitting.

You like seafood - did you try Mures or Fish Frenzy when you were in Hobart?

 

[AndieMac]

Rin: It's sounds like October will be a proud time for the new Grandparents then :encouragement: Tas will be very pretty by Spring time, still a little cool though, but of course your focus will be on the new babe. I'll send you my contact details by PM, hope we can meet!
Nice photos btw, it's strange you picked the Tasmazia maze, not many bother to drive in to see it, although two kilometres directly down the hill alongside is the beautiful Lake Barrington International Rowing course, with vista's very much like that of the iconic Gordon River.

MapisM: Fairly positive that looks like Harry the hairy-nosed wombat

We'll definitely save the Gordon River for next time, it's a weather thing to get the best out of the West Coast, with nearly five times the average annual rainfall of the rest of the state. That's why the Hydro Electric dams and power stations are located there, and not many humans live there

Your video makes the Tasmaniacs look slightly eccentric....haha!

 

[MapisM]

No I wasn't in the RAF. My Father was so I was familiar with the motto which I translated (probably wrongly ) as "Through hard work/adversity to the stars".

Your translation of the original RAF motto is actually spot on.
Not much different from the IT Air Force one really, which sounds completely different in Latin (virtute siderum tenus) but actually means with valor to the stars.
The reason why I'm familiar with this stuff is that I spent a couple of weeks at the Pozzuoli AF Academy, more years ago than I care to admit, while applying for the fighter pilot course.
My dream being, back in those days, to join the PAN (aka Frecce Tricolori).
Not sure if I should say luckily or unluckily, but eventually I wasn't admitted, and did something completely different for a living.
No big deal anyway, I can't complain with what I did in the rest of my life. And I can always give it another shot in the next, I reckon...

Re. the fish places you mention, they are both in the docks area, right?
I sort of remember the names, and we did try some fish an chips around there, but can't remember where exactly.
TBH, since we are using home exchange for travelling, we are getting much more familiar with fresh food shops, rather than restaurants.
With the occasional BBQs invitations from locals in between!
We are really enjoying the opportunity to get in touch with the local lifestyle offered by this way of travelling - no hotel/restaurant on earth can come close!

PS: talking of AF mottos, doesn't "Wir. Dienen. Deutschland." (="We. Serve. Germany.", and the periods are not typos) sound mental, in comparison to the above?

 

[AndieMac]

...Re. the fish places you mention, they are both in the docks area, right?
I sort of remember the names, and we did try some fish an chips around there, but can't remember where exactly.
TBH, since we are using home exchange for travelling, we are getting much more familiar with fresh food shops, rather than restaurants.....

It was the popular "Flippers" fish punt in Constitution Dock, with the product lifted off a trawler next door. I think we both were feeling a little guilty at the time worrying about the potential waste-line expansion......or maybe it was from the ice-cream for dessert?
You particularly, as it was your second visit!