Blogs from Tasmania, Australia, Oceania - page 3

From Cradle Mountain we set out about 9am and headed north.We were ultimately heading for Launceston, but decided to check out the north coast on the way. Our first destination was Burnie which only took us about an hour or so to get there. We drove into the city and headed towards the Harbour, however, nothing extraordinary struck us so we drove past the port and headed east. Fletcher had a great desire to visit Penguin, one, because he was intrigued by the name, but two, because there was an athletics track there. We drove along the coast road which was very scenic. Penguin was a great little town. We parked on the foreshore opposite a very attractive old wooden church. As we walked along the edge of a grassed area we soon saw how the ... read more

Another early morning, as we had to drive into Queenstown to board the West Coast Wilderness Railway, which was scheduled to leave at 9am. We headed out on the road at 7-15am. The sun was just coming up and we had to drive straight into it, but the trip was uneventful and took about 40 minutes. We found a park and walked across to the station where we quickly were given our tickets and then made our way to Tracks Café for a coffee. We were told we were in the Heritage carriage, which was the premium one, so we looked forward to a great trip. We boarded at 8-45am and were greeted with a glass of bubbly from our hostess, Brooke. The carriage soon filled up with 16 of us altogether. There was also several ... read more

After our trip to Darwin last year, we have been confined to Adelaide and with no good news on the horizon about overseas trips we decided to go "overseas" in Australia. Thus a holiday in Tasmania seemed attractive. I had driven around the island in 1965 during May school holidays with my parents and had only been back to Hobart for a weekend since. Fletcher has visited many times but mainly for Athletics meets in Hobart and Launceston, so a thorough exploration seemed necessary. We have planned two weeks, hiring a car but booking ahead for accommodation and some special sightseeing trips. Thanks to Claire at Top Deck Travel, this was organised superbly. Fortunately, Jetstar has a direct Adelaide-Hobart flight so no transitioning through Tullamarine. We left Adelaide airport at 5-30pm on the 15th. The only ... read more

So, during this "shelter in place" or quarantine period, many friends have asked me this question. My short answer is: I would go anywhere it is safe, and happy. Narrowing it down, I would say New Zealand, Thailand, and Cape Town. Why? If things were safe everywhere, where would I go? How about the Uyuni Salt Flats in Bolivia, Tasmania, and Yerevan, Armenia. But reality speaks loud and clear! New Zealand is clean, not heavily populated, and loves the outdoors. It feels safe there, yet far enough off the beaten path to avoid pandemic issues. Thailand, simply has the number one rated hospital in the world. Add to that, great food, nice people, world class shopping, and a very interesting cultural explosion. Cape Town, home to Barry the V, means I would be treated like a ... read more

It was sad to leave Helen behind in Sydney but we had had a lovely holiday with her and a lovely last night in Sydney with her and Wildy in Mr Wong's. It was also a relief to be able to board the ship, the Silver Muse, but it took a long time as everyone had to fill in long questionnaire and be temperature checked. As we had been through Singapore we had to have ours checked every day for 14 days after leaving Singapore. We have got through that and passed the test- we are normal! The first stop was 2 days in Melbourne. On the first we met two friends who were on our Trivia team on the last cruise. They took us to the Stokehouse in St.Kilda's and we had a lovely afternoon ... read more