Blogs from Burnie, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

On Thursday morning, 5th January, Steph and Gerry went through their regular early morning swimming routine which we could have joined, but we had a leisurely breakfast whilst admiring the views. We popped out to have a look around the town and were slightly disappointed to find that parking meters were everywhere so we drove back to the area where we saw the penguins and parked outside ‘The Makers’ Centre where there was free parking. It seemed an interesting place so I had a quick look in and discovered that conducted tours went round about every half an hour - we decided that we might go in later. I had offered to make a fruit salad for that night’s dinner so we walked into the centre of town, had a cup of coffee and then got ... read more

2/6/10 Keeping our Eyes Skinned in Tasmania These aussies really have a strange way of talking. They greet you with G’Day, tell you no worries mate, and now we have to keep our eyes skinned. This was all as we were traveling on our Taste of Tasmania Tour yesterday in Bunie. Our guide was a semi-retired govt worker/ business developer and apparently a volunteer for the guide job as were most we saw all day. We started out about 9 am with the skies slightly overcast but the sun came out later and it was a very nice day. We travelled first to the Chocolate Factory and our bus was first so we got to have Tea first. Tea meant very desserts like chocolate mint cheesecake and chocolate orange mousse cake for us. Plus a sampler ... read more

The animals. I can truthfully report that I have seen all the major Australian creatures. In Melbourne, the zoo is home to a nice collection, and the duck-billed platypus was very, very active. Much smaller than I expected, about 12” long”, he (or she) was swimming back and forth, nibbling on river grasses and making a real spectacle of itself. I would have loved a picture but they ask us not to use a flash and it didn’t come out without one. Again it was the aviary that blew me away. There were so many birds in this gigantic structure that is like playing that children’s game “How many birds can you find in this tree”. The answer is dozens. One parrot greeted us all with “hello”. Everywhere I looked there were wonderful colorful strange birds. ... read more

Not long to go now, today is officially the last day at work until my big trip away. Everything is organised now so i'm ready to roll, and I must say i'm a little excited, but still can't get my head around the enormity of the whole situation, the longest plane trip i have had hasn't been over 2 hours! That has nothing on the 14 hour trip that i'm about to take on!! As you can see in the pic, the first leg is from Devonport Melbourne Los Angeles. From there we will travel inland to Las Vegas for a look, then come back via the land of the long white cloud.... (hopefully it's not the long white rain cloud) Well that's it for now, i will hopefully have some time to ... read more

Well after sleeping on a ferry all night we have landed in Tasmania, with sun but fresh air,and 2 jumpers. We spent the day traveling the coast line heading north west.Our first stop was Burnie, here we decided to investigate The Creative Paper factory, this was really interesting, they recycle all kinds of things like cotton that is left over from the end of the reel, this also gives the colour to the paper. The most interesting thing that they recycle is Kanagroo poo, I found this really funny and the paper was still white but with brown flecks in it. Of course I bought some, I suppose recycling the poo is better than treading in it all the time. We headed north west today following the coast the drive was lovely but very hilly, we ... read more