Australia
Clarence

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    • Day 1

      The Longest Day

      March 5 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

      We arrived in Tasmania just before 11:00 local time and we were feeling very tired - not much sleep at Nick's, the usual excitement I suppose - had to be at the airport by 4:30. We were late leaving Auckland as the flight before us out of the same gate, was going to Rarotonga and a number of passengers were late. And had to wait on our plane on arrival at Hobart because a flight from Melbourne arrived shortly before us and they didn't want to mix international passengers with common old Aussies. And then the car rental place was verrrrry slow at processing and we were the last.
      So not really moaning, they just made the day feel long.
      We chanced finding a place for food and coffee in an outlet area nearby and had a very welcome toasted sandwich each with an average, but welcome coffee. We bought some supplies there and set out to find our homestay. We got a little lost and arrived at seven mile bay so got out for a walk along the beach - we both agreed the sea air just removed the stress and tiredness we were feeling. We weren't far from our house and soon arrived.
      Essentially we are in a new area for new rural properties - our place is set in a typical aussie rural scene.
      We were told about and earlier met a bandicoot called Gavin, see photo, and has just come up to our window as I write this. We sat outside while the sun went down and watched/listened to all the birds settling in for the night.
      As I ready to post this there are rabbits on the lawn!
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    • Day 7

      And relax…

      February 19 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

      The last few days have been full on with flights, jet lag and seeing as much as we could squeeze in, in Tokyo. I really enjoyed the vibe, we did a lot in our limited time, but I was ready to leave too. Tokyo is defo an assault on all the senses 😵‍💫

      Hopefully a more relaxing time ahead, in the three weeks we’re here. We have 3 days in Hobart, which is a complete opposite to Tokyo! Tokyo was loud, larger than life and fast. Hobart is compact, chilled and peaceful.

      Had a slow motion meander around this afternoon, did a load of washing and settled into our accommodation. Looking forward to the next few days…. Just need to catch up on some 💤💤💤💤 now….
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    • Day 9

      Evening cruise

      February 21 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

      Booked ourselves on an evening cruise with dinner!

      Sounded a bit grown up for us, but thankfully it was very casual, nice food and gorgeous views of the harbour and the River Derwent.

      It’s been a scorching day, so being on the water with a lovely cooling breeze was a fab to end the day.Read more

    • Day 68

      Zu den Tassies

      January 19 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      Der Flug von Melbourne nach Hobart dauert nur 1 1/4 Stunden. Der Pilot muss die 737 bei starken Windböen von der Seite ziemlich hart auf der sehr kurzen Landebahn aufsetzen. Das Bremsmanöver treibt uns in die Gurte. Aussteigen tut man über die Treppen und dann überquert man zu Fuß das Vorfeld. Alles so wie früher.
      Eine angenehme Temperatur und eine auffallend frische Luft (angeblich die sauberste Luft der Welt) empfängt uns.
      Zur Übernahme unseres Campers sind es vom Terminal aus nur wenige Meter, die wir zu Fuß gehen können. So sind wir recht schnell wieder mit einem mobilen Heim ausgestattet, das diesmal schon einige Jahre und Kilometer auf dem Buckel hat. Bevor wir den vorgebuchten Campingplatz bei Hobart ansteuern versorgen wir uns beim Cooles mit Lebensmitteln und allen anderen fürs Campen nötigen Dingen.
      Der Campingplatz ist dann etwas ernüchternd. Er ist gerammelt voll - es ist immer noch Ferienzeit - und es ist ein einfacher Schotterplatz der gerade renoviert wird. Toiletten und Duschen gibt es nur in Containern und davon nicht allzu viele.
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    • Day 9

      Seaplane

      February 21 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

      So the seaplane plan worked out! Had a fab 30 min flight over the bay this morning.

      The waters were crystal, the weather perfect, and the coastline just beautiful.

      The pilot works in Tassie in the summer and Alaska in the summer - the best of both worlds!Read more

    • Day 8

      Hobart

      February 20 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

      So we’re now in the southern hemisphere which means SUMMER ☀️☀️☀️

      A chilled day which was much needed. After brekkie and some general sorting of stuff (which, now set free from their confines, has quadrupled in mass), our first job was to get our phones sorted with Telstra.

      We’d bought SIMs the day before, then spent the evening trying to get them to work. We became well acquainted with the massively helpful message ‘something’s not right’. We were frustrated (to say the least) and had to concede a win to the SIM cards.

      We marched into Telstra, took a deep breath, and recounted our woes. Turns out it’s a known issue, nothing to do with us 🫤The very helpful Luke set us up within 20 mins - happy days.

      We then pottered about for the rest of the day, getting our bearings (well, Col did, I’d still get lost in a blink) and getting tuned into Hobart’s chilled vibe.

      There were fishing vessels in the marina, selling their fresh catches of the day, most fish unknown to us.

      Our accom is next to the University of Tasmania, with marine and Antarctic studies the main focus. Didn’t know Hobart was a pushing off point for Antarctica. There’s also a recreated Antarctic expedition hut, for a chappie called Mawson, which we’ll visit tomorrow.

      Col flew the drone for some great aerial shots, then we spotted a scenic seaplane flight possibility so hoping we might get to see things from above for ourselves tomorrow……🤞🏻
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    • Day 57

      Hobart, Tasmania. AU

      February 28 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 82 °F

      For some reason I overlooked this port. Nothing was planned.
      All ship tours were sold out. I found short one tour online to go to Mt. Wellington. Great, we can spent the rest of the day in the town.
      When we came to meet our tour, I asked if they have any afternoon options. They had a tour to historic Richmond Village and Bonorong sanctuary. Great, we will have one hour break between tour to grab some lunch.
      When we got on the bus, the tour guide/driver told us we can stay with him all day long. Some people were taking all day tour.

      The morning drive to Mt. Wellington took 30 min.

      The views from Mount Wellington are amazing. We were fortunate to have a lovely clear day and were able to wander around and see the views in all directions. The road up is narrow, steep, winding and 2 way traffic, including buses, so it's a bit hairy.

      We came back around noon and our next stop was The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. Beautifully manicured grounds, unfortunately we had only 40 min to walk around. We rushed to see beautiful Japanese gardens and rushed back to our bus.

      Fifteen minutes later we arrived to Richmond Village.

      The intact colonial-era town has more than 50 Georgian buildings, many operating as cafes, restaurants, galleries and accommodation. Richmond Bridge (1825) is the oldest bridge in Australia.
      We settle in one of this restaurants and has a great lunch. Unfortunately, that did not leave us time to explore the village.

      Back on the bus we went to the sanctuary. Lots of animals. The only probe it was an afternoon and quite warm and animals were resting and hiding from the sun. I had a chance to walk among kangaroos and feed them. Also we saw Tasmanian devil.

      Overall it was a good stop.

      We came back on the ship at 5:30PM, took a shower and were planning to go back on the shore (the ship was in port till 5:00AM next day), for dinner, but then we felt so tired and not very hungry and decided to have a light dinner on the ship and go to sleep. It was a good decision as around 6;30 there was a pouring rain and lightning.
      Tomorrow we have another port day.
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    • Day 2

      Its easy to get lost in Tassie.....

      March 6 in Australia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

      We had a great day today! A beautiful day dawned and after breakfast and showers etc we hit the road, but first coffee at the Grocer near here. And the coffee wasn't bad either.
      Our plan was to head inland to the two historical towns of Richmond and Oatlands.
      There are so many roads - many main arterials and lots of link roads known as junctions. We made the early mistake of getting onto Highway 1 heading in the opposite direction to where we should be heading - on a busy highway in a new car with traffic travelling at over 110 it was a bit confronting.
      But we managed to find a special U Turn spot (just for us??) and got going and with the help of Google got to Richmond.
      This was a very busy town with lots of tourists - the cafes were buzzing and tour groups everywhere. The town had lots of restored houses from the mid 1800's - mostly stone. And a manificent stone bridge that was built by convicts. We walked the main street and visited the bridge and walked along the river.
      We decided we would lunch at Oatlands so headed in, what we thought was the right direction, but soon realised our mistake, so turned back and found the correct turnoff.
      The route to Oatlands was some 60 or 70 kms of rural farmland with very few animals. We have realised that Tassie is suffering from a severe drought. Everywhere is dry yellowy grass.
      Oatlands was not what I expected - it was a quiet town, no tourists and few cafes. But the buildings were magificent - probably 100's of Georgian style buildings from 1800's. We had lunch at a simple looking cafe, that was quite busy - I had a crepe - with bacon and mushrooms, salad, tomatoes, coleslaw - the crepe was swimming in a sauce. The whole thing was large, but very tasty. Gran had a hamburger which was quite large with the same salad and coleslaw as me. It was 26/28 degrees in town with no wind. We walked the main street and visited a magnificent windmill used to grind grain - I took some photos and then we decided to see if we could navigate our way home - and we did with the help of Google going cross country as we got near to the outskirts of "our area". We thought we'd get a coffee and check out some of the other beaches.
      We went to a cool beach - Clifton Beach, a surfing beach and there were swimmers and a surf school for young people that was getting set up - we watched them all run to the far end of the beach and back. The squad had to be 25 or 30 teens and boy did they get some exercise. We watched them paddle a long board out to a buoy about 500 to 600 metres out and back then up the beach around a marker then swim the same distance and back then repeat the about sequence again.
      The evening was just lovely - calm and warm. Then we drove out to Opposum Bay. This too was a lovely bay but it was lined with beach houses right to the shoreline. We walk from one end to the other were the beach ran out to rocks and then turned back. Back to our house as the sun was just setting.
      Yeah I think we had a great day - tomorrow we plan the first of two days at Port Arthur.
      I will post the beach photos on a separate post.
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    • Day 3

      Port Arthur

      March 7 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 14 °C

      Today we drove the 80km to Port Arthur - we are not staying there, but a pass gets you 2 days visit.
      When we awoke and checked on the weather forcast it was for highs of 17 or 18 so we dressed for a cooler day. But it was quite warm at Port Arthur and the sun was full on - so really it was a nice day weather wise.
      The drive was threw typical aussie outback, lots of gums everywhere - the road was pretty good - great surface, and quite winding in places.
      Got to Port Arthur at around 11:30 and there was quite a crowd then.
      We started in the tour centre and learned about the site, British prisoners in Oz and the wider world. We all got a card that represented an actual prisoner and learned about his/her life at Port Arthur, why they were there and their life at PA.
      Standing at looking at the world map and all the convict sites around the globe (every continent and island groups everywhere) - established by the British I realised that these prisons were not just about punishment - but really a way to provide labour and manpower to assist the Brits colonise their way around the world. So many of the crimes were petty - "off you go and build roads, bridges, dig mines in Australia".
      And there was a prison for children there too on a smaller island - mostly teenage, but as low as 9. And of course they were all there to "better themselves" and this included religion. The church (which was burned down a century ago - but the stone and brick walls were faithfully restored) held church for 1,100 people.
      The prison was only functioning for just over 40 years, and as the convict shipments slowed and eventually stopped it closed.
      And so it all fell into rack and ruin. Now a lot of the area has been restored to what we see now - not completely restored but you get the idea what it was like.
      The main penitentiary building was orginally a mill and probably a grain store - it was converted to the main prison. We walked through it and it is mostly a shell - we could see the small cells, one prisoner per cell - they were probably 1.5 metres by 1 metre - so it was solitued. Kitchen, ablutions etc
      We had a quick bite for lunch - cost $20 for 2 sandwiches. Then we did the harbour tour - last about 45 minutes - we saw where the childrens prison was and also an island known as the "Island of the Dead" where apparently 1,100 prisoners and prison staff were buried - a tiny island - the prison staff got headstones.
      Back on land we then explored areas were staff and families lived - the hospital, asylum, Post Office, and a range of normal town facilities.
      By then our legs were telling us that they'd had enough and it was time to head home.
      Bought some groceries for tonights dinner and that's the day.
      A normal evening here - saw Gavin in the garden, the rabbits we see most nights and morning, the assortment of birds and a few wallabies.
      Tomorrow we will probably head in the same direction - there is quite a lot to explore off the beaten track.
      I just remembered that some of you would be old enough to remeber the massacre of 1996 when 35 people were killed by a madman. Such a sad event and we saw the memorial garden.
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    • Day 5

      A new day

      March 9 in Australia ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C

      We decided today to get out and do some stuff, even if it was just some quiet activity.
      We bought a takeaway coffee and drove to Seven Mile Beach to sit and enjoy. There was a large crowd on the beach and the sun was fierce, with an aftermoon promise of 35, the early birds trying to beat the heat.
      Then we drove over the Hobart bridge and went into the Botanical Gardens - it was lovely to just stroll and sit in the shade. We had lunch there and had a visit from a mother duck and 4 little ducklings.
      Then we came home and went to Roches Beach which is just down the road from our house - it was quite busy too, but extremely hot and decided that was enough exercise for the day.
      Tomorrow we get the campervan!
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