Odds & Ends

Now that life is sort of back to normal, it’s time for a few quick updates.

Work has been going well, but incredibly busy. I was unfortunate enough to get another flat tire on Tuesday morning which meant that I finally had an excuse to take some time off work and bring the truck into the shop in Forbes to get our new tires put on. I’m getting to be an expert at changing tires. The truck also went to a shop in Orange on Thursday to have the LPG system looked at. Because its an older vehicle, the spark plugs and a few other bits need to be changed out in order to run the LPG. That’s going to happen some time next week hopefully.

It’s Easter weekend so I have four days off. Yesterday Phil and I took in the hilarity of the Forbes Camel Races just down the road from our place. Camels are not meant to race. Australians will race anything if it means they can bet on it. Pretty funny.

Our canoe is still in limbo as it was supposed to be delivered on Thursday but only made it to Orange. Fortunately Phil was able to pick up his soccer shoes while in Orange since he played his first rugby game in Condobolin on Thursday night. The canoe, however, is delayed until a shipping company can bring it next week. The drama continues.

We watched ‘Across the Universe’ last night and I totally love it. Artsy, creative movies set to Beatles songs are awesome.

Other than that, this weekend will be one of relaxation and saving money. I can’t wait.

A Week in Tassie: Part 5

Our final day in Tassie was relatively quiet. We visited the Salamenca market early in the morning, had some breakfast and then headed out to Richmond on the outskirts of the city to try find a Tasmanian Devil. Phil and I are both quite anti-zoo, but we were told that Tasmania doesn’t believe in zoos and were pleased to see many animal sanctuaries along out journey. So we went to Zoodoo with the hope that we’d see some rescued local animals and nothing more. It didn’t quite turn out that way. Though it was pleasing to feed the wallabies and see wombats, koalas and tasmanian devils, we weren’t very happy to see that the zoo also had tigers, water buffalo, ostriches and more. We took some pictures, chased the devils around for a while and were happy to leave the zoo without spending too much time there.

Albino Wallaby

Tasmanian Devil

On our way back to Hobart we decided to stop at Seven Mile Beach and get our toes wet. The beach is huge and, despite the cool weather, we were wishing we had our bathing suits.

Back in Hobart we enjoyed a delicious Indian meal and then headed back to the hostel to pack and get some rest before our early morning flight the next day.

We were up at 4am and on our way to the airport by shortly after 5am to catch our flight. Everything went well and we managed to pick up our newly converted truck in Sydney by 8:30. We made a quick visit to Ikea on our way out of the city and were disappointed to discover that the LPG conversion didn’t go as well as planned. The truck kept backfiring and stalling when we tried to use it. We switched back to petrol for the drive back to Forbes and kept our fingers crossed that we’d make it home without incident. And we did.

End vacation.

A Week in Tassie: Part 4

We bid Queenstown farewell on the morning of March 13th. Heading back the way we came and then navigating our way through the hills toward the east, we saw some spectacular sights and put a lot of kilometres on. Our first major stop of the day was Freycinet National Park on the eastern coast. Home to the famous Wineglass Bay (supposedly one of the Top 10 beaches in the world) the park is a haven for hikers and campers. We only had a few hours to spend there but it was spectacular. We made the 30 minute hike straight up to the Wineglass Bay lookout and then did another 30 minutes down to the beach itself. We swam for a while (Phil much longer than I) and enjoyed the soft white sand and sea shells.

After completing our workout for the day, we hit the road again and headed to Hobart. Driving was slow once again due to the winding roads. We made it into Hobart before sunset and checked into a hostel for the evening. It was late by the time we went out to find dinner, and many of the restaurants were closed. We enjoyed some Thai food and promptly returned to our room for some shut-eye after a very tiring day.

The next morning we were up early again as we had booked a bike trip from the top of Mount Wellington into Hobart. The bike crew picked us up at 9:30 and hauled us to to the top of the 1200m high mountain where we had a chance to check out the view and fight with the wild winds.

It was a hot, hazy day with a complete fire ban in place. The winds were so strong that we had to start our bike descent partway down the mountain to avoid being blown overboard. The ride was great fun with some nice scenery and good speeds. We had a few stops along the way to discuss the history of the mountain and the city. It took a total of three hours to complete the descent and when we arrived back at the hostel we were hot, tired and very thirsty.

But there was not time to rest as we had a brewery tour booked for the afternoon.

We spent a few hours in the afternoon at the Cascade Brewery at the base of Mount Wellington. Cascade prides itself on being the oldest brewery in Australia and uses all fresh ingredients, including spring water from the mountain. The tour was extremely tiring as it was very hot inside and out. The beer sampling at the end made it all worthwhile.

We had an enjoyable evening on Salamenca Street in Hobart where we enjoyed some incredible Italian food and local Tassie wine.

Our final days in Tassie in Part 5…