Australia - Part Six - Tasmania

Up at 5:30, I made myself some coffee and sat and relaxed for a short while before Damian woke up. It was nice just to rest, relax and read a little bit before starting the chaos of the day. I’d done laundry the night before, but the dryer in our room didn’t work – so the clothes that were strung about EVERYWHERE were still damp. Once Damian woke up we both showered and packed before our Uber to the airport came at 7:45. Fortunately, the ride to the airport was easy and we were soon at the terminal.

Even though I’d asked Damian to carry several things in his suitcase, mine was still significantly overweight, which caused a bit of drama. We couldn’t do automatic bag drop because my bag was too heavy – so I went to the customer service desk, and he was able to check my bag in but he couldn’t take the excess bag fee payment, so we had to go wait in a third line to pay – and the Qantas rep behind the counter said, ‘His bag weighs 19, yours weighs 26 – how about if they both just weight 23? Go get yourself a coffee.” Then she winked, indicating I wasn’t going to be charged $50. SWEET! So we went through security and literally did as instructed – getting a coffee and a croissant as we waited for boarding time.

The flight to Tasmania (Hobart) was fairly short - and Chris and Catherine were waiting at the airport to pick us up.  Damian grabbed his suitcase and walked over to where I was greeting Chris with a HUGE grin on his face.   "The customs dog just flagged your suitcase."  

Sure enough - I look over and customs is casually opening up my suitcase, so I wandered over to find out why.  Turns out you're not allowed to bring meat, fruit or plants into Tasmania - and I had kangaroo jerky and dried bananas and all sorts of stuff in there to bring home.  Because it was processed and not fresh, it was okay - but the customs agents got quite a good laugh over some of my presents.   “Koala poo chocolates" &  "Croc piss rum” – they are obviously ONLY tourist fare as none of them had heard of it. 

Chris drove us first over ot the Air B&B which is breathtaking. It’s called the Oysterhouse (because it used to be an oyster farm) and is right on the water with plenty of shoreline and a beautiful back deck to sit and watch the water. We relaxed for a bit and caught up, talking about everything from emigrating to Australia if Trump wins the next election to the upcoming Australian referendum on Aboriginal voices. Nothing contentious – just intelligent conversations about work, life, and politics.

Catherine made a GORGEOUS charcuterie board in about five minutes with all sorts of cheeses, meats, fruits, olives, etc. so we had a nice snack while waiting for dinnertime. I don’t much care for olives, but just like in Morocco - these were absolutely amazing. I wish I could figure out what they do to them.

For dinner we drove into Hobart city and had dinner at the wharf at a restaurant called Mures Upper Deck – Damian and I split an order of fish & chips made from blue eyed trevalli, which is a whitefish covered in almond crumbs and panko – absolutely lovely. Chris also had the fish, and Catherine enjoyed a seafood laksa – a medium spicy soup with assorted shellfish. After dinner, as much as I wanted to sit around the wood stove drinking hot chocolate and reminiscing about our trip to New Zealand thirty years ago, I was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately.

WEDNESDAY

We woke up and enjoyed homemade lattes (I want one of these espresso machines, hint hint) and Catherine made bacon, eggs and toast as we casually prepared for the day.

We left about 10:00 and went to a small town called Richmond, which was very quaint – it reminds me a 

lot of Old Town in Alexandria. Very cute artist driven shops, coffee bars, and walking paths. It’s also right in the center of the Coal Valley winery region. Tasmania is quite colder than the rest of Australia, so they make different wines – none of which are sweet, and all of which are quite dry. Damian and Chris tried a whisky flight of local spirits (Beer whiskey, honey gin and some kind of flowery brandy)

We stopped into some local artist studios – my favorite one included some absolutely beautiful lampworking bead jewelry – and it was completely reasonably priced. (A gorgeous necklace, for example, was $100 AUD, or about $60-US – much different from the $280 price tags we see at the workhouse studio)

We walked down to a lovely bridge and saw a dozen people feeding ducks – and by ducks, I mean about 30 different breeds and varieties of ducks. They were everywhere and SO varied. 

We walked over to the Richmond Gaol – one of the earliest jails that housed both male and female convicts. It was actually really interesting – they had separate solitary confinement for men and women, and the cells had true stories of inmates who had been kept in them and why. insert something interesting about the jail here.   "Lizzie Smyth sentenced to seven days in solitary for being disrespectful to the warden"

From there, Chris wanted to see a miniature village that was set up in the town. Gotta be frank – not my 

thing – but he really enjoyed it, and you can tell that they spent a great deal of time on the details.  At the onset of the walkthrough, they give you a set of challenges of things to look for - which I did, and did not manage to find a single one of them.

From there, lunch at a local pub before we headed onward towards the penguins. We stopped on the way at a winery to taste the local fare – it was just this little tiny house in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I think the man behind the bar was relieved to see us just to stave off the boredom. Had the weather been better, I’m sure there would have been more people, but it’s been cold and rainy and gray all day. I bought some fudge for my mom and we sampled the locally made brie and PICKLED WALNUT IN THE SHELL.  Never heard of such a thing - and honestly, I don't recommend them.  It was bizarre.   

Since we arrived in PENGUIN CITY (Bicheno) really early, we stopped for a light dinner and waited for it to open. Then we were loaded onto a mini van and driven a few kilometers to the beach. The penguin experience was beyond disappointing. I mean, we got to see the penguins come in from the ocean and head up to their nightly nesting points – but we were acres away from them, and they were lit only in red light so as not to blind the penguins. Meaning, you couldn’t really see anything but tiny specks on the beach – and there was no chance of decent photos. I left the group and headed back towards the minibus and managed to catch more than the rest of the folks, as I caught a penguin standing outside its little hut singing and calling for its mate. I got to see the stragglers who went up the other side of the beach head up to their nests. Still too dark for photos and too far away to get a good look – but it was neat to experience the nature bit of it. Would definitely not recommend to anyone to drive that freaking far for this, though. Hard pass. 

We drove home – everyone was absolutely exhausted but we had some great conversations in the car and got back to the Oysterhouse about 11.  Also saw kangaroo roadkill, and live echidnas.

THURSDAY

Had a nice leisurely breakfast. I made candied bacon and Catherine made toast and eggs. Got a quick shower in and sat enjoying coffee and water with Chris waiting for everyone to get ready. It’s nice not to be rushing around like maniacs, as I’m wonderfully sore and exhausted in the best of ways.

We headed out just before lunchtime to Port Arthur – a historic penal colony. 

We first went on a harbour cruise out to the Isle of the Dead, then to Pure Point where the first British boys penitentiary was set up – kids as young as 9 were sent there, though most were 13-15. The age of reason in England for kids was 7 at the time – so that’s when you could be sentenced. We then had lunch at the cafeteria because it was the only thing open.

After lunch we walked around the site to the penitentiary, the church, the officers quarters, the asylum – it was really interesting. We also visited the Port Arthur massacre memorial garden, which was beautiful.  It was a memorial garden for the worst mass murder in Australian history, i believe, which happened in 1996 when a man killed 35 people on a rampage.   Chris got really emotional over it - the event led to sweeping changes in Australian gun laws.  I told him we've had almost 300 mass shootings in the U.S. this year alone - and this was another reason we'd honestly consider repatriating.

When we’d worn ourselves out, it began to rain – we stopped at the Tasmanian Chocolate Foundry just down the road and grabbed some ice cream, some more fancy fudge, and an apron for my friend Donna.  Took a detour to KMart to replace Damian's broken bag and purchase a carry on for my heavy items, then back to the Oysterhouse for another AMAZING charcuterie spread.  More good food, good conversation, way too much wine.

Trying so hard not to feel sad because my trip is more than half over and I DON’T WANT TO LEAVE!

FRIDAY

Woke up and had some croissants and coffee for breakfast, packed up, cleaned up and headed to the airport for our flight to Melbourne. Chris and Catherine were flying out within 30 minutes of our flight, so it was very convenient.

Got to the airport – showed my boarding pass but no identification – weird. Also, anyone can go through security so you can meet people at their gates rather than at the baggage collection.  AND you can bring liquids   AND you don’t have to take off your shoes.