Tuesday 18 – Wednesday 19 April ~ Auckland
Yes, apologies, I’m aware Auckland isn’t in Tasmania but we were here for less than 24 hours so it doesn’t qualify for a page of its own.
I ate properly three times before 2pm! It started with a great brekkie at the Garden Cottage before we drove 15 minutes to the airport and returned the car.
We bade farewell to amazing Taz then both ate a full meal in the lounge before I had lunch on the plane back to Auckland. Craig didn’t eat, he slept for most of the journey. Oh, by the way I think I called Roy a sugar slider, whoops, apologies, he’s a sugar glider. Craig’s named him Roy Schleider in honour of Mr “we’re going to need a bigger boat” 🦈 whilst acknowledging the fact I keep calling him a slider not a glider. Roy was a bit sad to say farewell to his homeland but he’s looking forward to new adventures!
We arrived in Auckland, took a taxi to our city centre hotel which I can highly recommend as it’s great value, the room is pretty big for the location and it’s really nicely done with lovely staff – Imagine Beach Road.
We of course went off to explore and eat again! It was almost 8pm by the time we left the hotel. Craig found a good road about 20 minutes walk away with loads of pubs. We went into The Occidental, a Belgian beer specialist. The cool dude boss man (who was about 30) was hilarious. Two girls came in and asked if they did cocktails. “Yes, 💩 ones. We’re a Belgian beer pub. Just telling you the truth man.” They left 😆. Craig had a massive meal, I was stuffed from my three full meals in six hours marathon so just had a starter which was still pretty big! Craig tried a few Belgian beers and I stuck with local wines.
Went back, slept well, got up, put our stuff into storage in their back room and went off for a treat that Craig had found…
So… the only reason I’d regretted not going to Wellington was because WETA were based there. They’ve not only done the digital special effects for The Lord of the Rings / Hobbit movies but also loads of films including Avatar, King Kong, X Men, Black Panther, Dr Strange, etc…Craig had found WETA Unleashed in Auckland so that’s where we spent every minute until we had to return for our taxi to the airport. Brilliant. 90 minute tour looking behind the scenes of how they make the stuff from concept to delivery – much of it interactive so you could play around with stuff – a look at three films they’ve currently working on and a great shop / exhibition. By the way, it looks like Avatar 3-5 are already underway… not seen number two yet! I took loads of pictures. Here’s just a few.
Fab-u-lous.
Rushed back, taxi turned up with a completely flat tyre which Craig – my hero – spent over 20 minutes helping the guy replace and Craig did about 90% of it as the cabbie didn’t seem to have a clue! Checked in, into the lounge (I’m 95% certain I passed and smiled at Martin Compston but he disappeared sharpish so I couldn’t be sure), ate, got on the plane, said farewell to Auckland for now!
Monday 17 April ~ Coles Bay – Richmond
Our last day in terrific Tasmania…
What a difference a day makes! It’s our last day in Tasmania and the sun shot up from the horizon blazing and it stayed hot all day, in fact it was the hottest day we’d had in Taz.
We left early – hoorah – to visit Honeymoon Bay which was both lovely and devoid of humans. That’s Craig below, he doesn’t count 😆.
We knew we didn’t have enough time to get to Wineglass Bay, the most iconic and most photographed part of Tasmania as it was over an hour’s uphill trek to the lookout point and then a further hour to get to the bay itself. We simply and sadly didn’t have four hours available (and that’s without even a pause at the bay). We decided to go partway up to get a higher view of Coles Bay and Honeymoon Bay and we had a full hour’s trek up and down with a few good photo opportunities. The ground was still quite wet and slippy in places so we had to watch our step.
Then it was on the road for two and a half hours with a drive through Glamorgan (a quite attractive Swansea included!) then a quick stop for loo / coffee / photo at the picturesque Orford. There’s a lovely Orford in Suffolk too. I took this over the fence of the cafe we stopped at.
We arrived in Richmond at the time we’d originally planned even without the additional Bay and trek stops so we were back on track. We didn’t check in, we went straight to the Puddleduck Winery. I’d only planned on visiting one whilst we were here and after extensive research I chose this one as it seemed like fun! The flight of wine was a decent price (and delicious) as was the food we ate. Properly duck themed! That’s a real one gazing out from the top of Mr Puddleduck!
We spent a decent amount of time relaxing before our last planned stop at Sullivans Cove Distillery. I would say the world famous distillery but that wouldn’t be true. Despite winning every possible award you can for whisky (I know, Tasmania, who knew, right?!) they are not interested in being a big business. They produce under 1,800 bottles a year and sell most of those bottles from their tiny understated operation on an industrial estate in Cambridge (don’t get excited, this Cambridge is not attractive). I thought hey, I’m here once keys so go for the Rare & Vintage tasting. Craig didn’t partake, he’s not particularly bothered about whisky (yes, he is half Scottish so that’s probably illegal) and he was driving. I had a one to one guide talk me through my three tiny samples – one of which is so rare you can’t buy it any more (the one on the left). I’m a novice. I liked all three (my favourite was the one on the right) but I couldn’t tell you why this whisky is the price it is. I asked. $800. $800!!!! That’s over £430… I didn’t buy a bottle! I really enjoyed the experience but I still don’t get why you’d pay that for a drink. Even a global multi award winning one.
He wasn’t deterred by the fact I wasn’t buying, I was his last tasting customer of the day so he showed us the distillery / storage / dispatch – all in one room!
Afterwards we returned to Richmond to check in to The Garden Cottage, a separate (yep you guessed it) cottage in the garden of Mulberry Cottage. What a place. Craig immediately declared it the best B&B he’d ever stayed in and we’ve stayed in some lovely places in the past.
Despite its loveliness we headed out pretty much immediately to explore lovely Richmond. The two other Richmonds in England I’m aware of (Yorkshire and west London) are both quite posh, well the northern one has some great Georgian architecture and was once pretty posh but I’m not so sure anymore… This one is extremely well preserved and what some might call quaint as well as a bit grand.
Even the pub – the Richmond Arms – was good looking! It was also the only place open for dinner and it was yummy. We had an early start so didn’t outstay our welcome but stayed long enough to try a few local beers and wines.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Despite the difference in spelling (this is of course Irish 🥃 as this group is Irish) to mark today’s proper posh tasting it has to be Thin Lizzy with Whiskey in the Jar (1972) which we heard a couple of times on the radio in NZ. It’s not my favourite – that’s ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ but it has a good guitar riff so I hope you enjoy it.
Sunday 16 April ~ Coles Bay
Happy birthday Aunty Mary on the Isle of Lewis! Hope you’re having a lovely day. 🎂🎈🎉 Apologies for not dedicating a birthday song to you but I’d committed to playing Lucy’s delayed birthday track today but it’s a great one so I hope you enjoy it!
Sadly, there’s not much to report so far (apart from a tripped switch and an hour without power) as it’s been chucking it down for well over 16 hours which makes it too wet and dangerous to do the trek to Wineglass Bay and the stunning Freycinet National Park which was on the agenda for today 😞. We’ve been unbelievably lucky with the weather up to now but that doesn’t make it any less disappointing. Hopefully I’ll have something interesting to report later but at least I’m now completely up to date with the blog.
Nope, nothing, nada! I took this nice picture of sunset from the balcony but that’s it, that’s the highlight of the day!
I was completely fine with having a day doing very little as it’s exhausting being on the go and doing stuff all the time. I cooked dinner trying to use up as much food as possible – and finished off half a bottle of very good Tassie Pinot Noir – as it’s our last night in Tasmania tomorrow 😞 and we’re staying in a B&B so I won’t be cooking. We’ve got a full day planned as we’re trying to squeeze in some of the National Park as well as travelling down to Richmond and doing all the stuff we’d already planned so it’ll be a fairly early night. If I don’t get the chance to update tomorrow we’re off to Auckland for an 18 hour overnight stay on Tuesday morning before our flight to Tahiti on Wednesday so if I don’t update from Auckland then I’ll see you in French Polynesia! 🏝️🇵🇫🪷
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
She’s fabulous, she’s gorgeous, she’s talented and she’s an icon. Therefore she is a perfect choice for both lovely Lucy and lovely Aunty Mary. More importantly she is NOT Mariah Carey whom Lucy adores and has seen in concert and whom I was almost certain she’d ask me to play for her birthday – that’s just one step too far for me Lucy, even for a love like ours! 😆 This, however, Lucy is an outstanding choice. 👏🙇♀️
It’s the 16th of the month, therefore we’re on the ‘Edge Of Seventeen’… yes, it’s the sensational Stevie Nicks with another amazing track from the outstanding Bella Donna album (1981) – played live here in 1986 at Red Rocks. Sampled by many, rivalled by none. 💜 Stevie.
Saturday 15 April
Happy birthday lovely Phil – there are two songs for you later in the morning disco, both from yet another of my favourite ever days of music… 🥂🎁
We had a great animal day planned. I knew before we left the UK it would be doubtful if we saw any Tasmanian wildlife on our travels (not accounting for all the squashed stuff on the roads 😞) so I had found the East Coast Natureworld which was just over an hour’s drive south of St Helens, on the way to Coles Bay. We booked an animal encounter too. On the way we passed this field where the vine leaves had turned an amazing colour.
The second we arrived at Natureworld we were greeted by Forester Kangaroos so there was really no need for me to download a picture yesterday!
We headed off to the Tasmanian Devil feeding. They are well looked after, they have 44 of them and are part of a Tassie-wide controlled breeding programme as many of the wild ones were wiped out by a hideous facial tumour that stops them from eating.
We then had our private Tasmanian short-beaked echidna encounter. Oh my, was Spike totally gorgeous! He has another echidna friend who doesn’t like humans very much so he ate later. We got to feed Spike an insect ‘mush’ which he scoffed.
His friend Bob the Bandicoot turned up. I thought my heart might break from cuteness overload!
We’d had to make the hard choice between an encounter with Spike and with sugar sliders. I bought Craig his own sugar slider to compensate. It looks pretty real and a few people were fooled 😆.
We spent quite a while in the park enjoying seeing more un-squashed Aussie animals.
This one looks properly grumpy! I found this iridescent feather.
A walk around the lake to see some birds and a very happy three hours after arriving we left.
We set off to National Park number five – Douglas-Apsley which was a 15 minute drive down mostly paved roads for a change. We had a chilled walk through the woods to a water hole. I thought of the wonderful Bob Ross (much loved and dearly missed by many) whilst I sat looking at this (Craig was off on the boulders exploring) as it looked like a typical landscape he’d have loved to show us how to paint.
Back in the car for our final push to Coles Bay.
We checked into our fabulous cabin with a great view from our balcony.
It was pushing 5 pm and bad weather was forecast so we explored the centre (one short street!), walked along the coast to discover we had our own fire stones and then set off for a fairly lengthy walk to the only pub – the Iluka Tavern. Coles Bay is tiny, lovely and understated. On the map it’s in the SE, just at the beginning of the peninsula with no 2 on it.
The pub didn’t look very promising but turned out to serve great food and I discovered that someone would be playing live music so we headed outside after eating. We hadn’t seen live music for a while so were quite prepared to put up with anything…
This beautiful man (this is not a flattering photo but it’s the only one I took) was an extremely talented rock musician. He worked three pedals for drums and four different guitars (although he didn’t play the guitars simultaneously, that would have been something!).
He played some rock classics by Black Sabbath, Rage Against the Machine, ZZ Top, The Ramones, AC/DC, etc. and then played a crazy medley of songs he “heavied up” including Lose Yourself by Eminem, Ram Jam’s Black Betty and the Kinks’ All Day and All of the Night; just imagine Metallica playing their version of these classics and you’re probably not too far off! Brilliant. We were not the last to leave on this great Saturday night – at last, hurrah! It’s always the quiet little towns that have a proper community based around the pub, much like Castlebay on Barra in the Outer Hebrides where we spent an equally excellent unexpected musical Saturday night (with one of the Vatersay Boys no less!) in May last year. A 20 minute walk home in the dark, watched a film and then the rain began about 9.30 pm. Full on. All night. Very loudly. It hasn’t stopped yet and it’s 3.30 pm on Sunday 😞. We had a really great Saturday though!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
It’s Phil’s birthday song session. Hope you had a lovely lunch and evening out Phil!
For one of her ‘big’ birthdays I’d wanted to take her to see Jason Donovan who she loved. There are many many stories of Phil / Jason encounters (not all ending in court orders against her 😆😆😆!) but those are her stories to tell. I couldn’t get tickets anywhere in the country for love nor money – it seemed she wasn’t alone in her obsession. Then I heard from Sarah Bacon about these amazing one day events called Let’s Rock. To this day I’ve no idea why they’re called that as there’s very little ‘rock’ to them; they’re absolutely unashamedly brilliantly pop. Anyway, they’re all over the country with mainly old 80’s and 90’s acts. There was one called ‘Rock the Moor’ in Cookham, Berks which wasn’t the easiest to get to (we took a bus, couple of tubes, train and taxi the night before then had to get a taxi then walk for 45 minutes across fields the next morning) but Jason was playing! Tickets booked. Full fantastic lineup announced (fantastic if you like this sort of thing and boy do I!) with headliners The Human League (loved them) plus others including Belinda Carlisle, Jimmy Somerville (he was outstanding), Chesney Hawkes, Sinitta (😆, loads of fun and very high energy), Aswad and Black Box (yes you Ride on Time, ride ride ride on time!). Despite Phil nearly breaking her leg in a ditch during the pitch black walk back across the fields we both absolutely loved the ten hours + experience and it lead to many many more Let’s Rock outings over the years before Covid, some with HFB, some with both Phil and HFB (Clapham Common) and one with Lizzie in Southampton. Ah, happy happy times.
So, there’s no choice. He’s an Aussie, I’m in Tasmania and Phil loves him. Give me ‘ten good reasons’ to not play Jason! Also, Phil fell for The Human League that night too so I’m playing two songs. Although this track is not actually a HL song it’s the last one they played at Rock the Moor and it’s a proper singalong feel great song and Phil loves it. So it’s a gift from one Phil (Oakey) to another Phil…
Here’s Jason with an eight minute medley of hits (live here in 2021) and ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ (1984) by Phil Oakey and Italian composer Giorgio Moroder.
Friday 14 April ~ Launceston to St Helens
We’ve been away 12 weeks. We’ve got another seven left which means I mis-counted as that adds up to 19 weeks and I’m sure I told everyone we were away for 18 😆. Bonus week!
After one last look at Launceston from our terrace, we set off.
It wasn’t quite the day we’d planned and poor Craig ended up driving for about six hours (I tried to plan so there was no day with more than three hours of driving). He’d done some research and decided we should do a detour via the Mount William National Park on our way to the Bay of Fires. It’s nestled in the bit of the very top right of the map, at the extreme NE of Taz. It took three hours to get to the outskirts (some of it of course on unpaved roads) and when we arrived there wasn’t anywhere easy to stop and have a walk around. I looked it up in my guide book to find that the bit we’d arrived at was the endangered ‘Tasmanian forester kangaroo’ sanctuary so you couldn’t get out of the car…we did see some – including a Mom with a Joey in her pouch – from a long way off so couldn’t get a decent picture; this is from Google.
After driving extremely slowly for a very long time (we obviously did not want to run over any of these endangered creatures) we saw a sign for a campsite so headed there (we’d been in the car a long time and I needed the loo!). It was on a bay, hoorah! We could have a good stretch of the legs.
The weather was overcast but it was still a nice walk. Here’s Craig on the beach. There were fishing rods set up from one of the only two visitors staying in the campsite but of course there was no one else on the beach. Perfect.
I thought this looked like the kind of necklace I like to wear!
We got back in the car to drive about half an hour to (what Lonely Planet described at the most northerly point of) the Bay of Fires. Hmmm…
I’m being kind if I describe Ansons Bay as a bit rubbish. A few badly maintained houses, polluted foam, stinky shore, no birds at all; this “pier” was the high point of the area.
Back in the car I assured Craig that Binalong Bay looked more promising. I couldn’t stop singing “Binalong time, Binalong time, Binalong lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time” 😆. It was over an hour south – the whole journey apart from the last mile was on unpaved roads but it on the way to where we were staying so finally we were heading in the right direction.
What a lovely town. Well kept, well constructed coastal pathways, lovely beach, nice restaurants and shops but best of all… fire stones! The Bay of Fires at last! Even though it was mostly overcast they were very colourful; they must look even better in really bright sunshine.
Very happy that we’d found them we then drove the final leg to St Helens, which as a Yorkshire lass I was a bit uncomfortable staying there😆. It’s a lovely working fishing town. We arrived as it was getting dark and chatted to Attila the cool owner of our very trendy motel for ages (he’s had an amazing life, brought up in PNG, worked all over the world in mining, loves scuba…). Then we went straight out, walked past this lake, found somewhere to eat, walked back in the pitch black and fell asleep.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Easy choices today. Plus (what I think is) a cool backstory…
On June 30th, 1990 I was extremely lucky to go to the Knebworth 25 year anniversary special concert called the Silver Clef Award Winners. What an unbelievable lineup!
It was headlined by Pink Floyd with long sets by Paul McCartney, Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Phil Collins and Genesis, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Cliff Richard and The Shadows (we went to and stayed in the beer tent throughout that performance), and Status Quo. It was all kicked off by the amazing Tears for Fears who I didn’t see again for well over 20 years as they didn’t tour much It was absolutely chucking it down at the beginning of the day so we converted black bin liners into raincoats and danced in the rain! Without any doubt it is one of the best music days of my life.
Seeing Plant and Page together was a particularly special event as they hadn’t been the closest of friends for a while. So in honour of Binalong Bay here’s ‘Rock and Roll’ (1971) by Led Zeppelin live at Knebworth in 1979.
”It’s been a long time, been a long time, Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time”.
To honour the Bay of Fires and its glorious fire stones I also have to include the beautiful ‘Firestone’ (2008) by Kygo featuring Conrad Sewell. “Our hearts are like firestones, And when they strike, we feel the love, Sparks will fly, they ignite our bones, But when they strike, we light up the world”.
I urge you to listen to both, they are very very different genres but both are fantastic.
Thursday 13 April ~ Launceston
Between us we had a morning of either relaxing (Craig, and well deserved after all the driving) or doing two lots of washing and one lot of hand washing (me, it’s been piling up!) as well as updating blogs and TiketyTok (both of us). Luckily it’s another glorious day so I could hang everything out. Hannah Hope: finally a picture of another chicken, I’ve named her Mrs Matilda; she’s the Tassie cousin of Señora Banos and lives on the next terrace down, she came to say hello whilst I was hanging out the washing.
Chores aside…
We decided to go to the Cataract Gorge, a short drive away. I hadn’t eaten yet so insisted we went to the Gorge restaurant for lunch which surprisingly turned out to be excellent even though it looked a bit worn. You can almost see part of the Gorge through the trees behind Craig. We were joined by a couple of noisy and inquisitive pea hens.
The area has partly been turned into a park with a kids playground, open swimming pool and another chairlift that I wouldn’t be going on!
We then set off on a trek which was very pleasant although steep and hard going in places. We enjoyed great views alternating with forest walks. We met four other people in 90 minutes although when we returned to the park it was fairly busy as was the chairlift.
Crossing the suspension bridge was unfortunately not an option for me and Craig didn’t want to go across this one alone. Before leaving we used the park loos, this was waiting outside for me 😱 I’m sure someone will know what type it is, all I know is that it was big. Oh, and I just noticed it’s eating a dragonfly.
If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll realise I don’t know much about species of birds. Fair enough, not everyone does. It may then surprise you to learn that I’ve been a paid up member of the RSPB for more than 12 years and that we’re members of the WWT London Wetland Centre. We go out of our way to find and go to lovely places such as WWT Castle Espie in NI and RSPB Balranald in North Uist. I urge anyone to go and seek out such places whether the birds themselves interest you or not because invariably they are absolutely beautiful. I go to loads but I don’t seem to learn much! I just enjoy them.
We passed a wetland centre on our way into Launceston last night but as it was quite late and sunset is around 5.30 pm we decided to leave it until today. It’s called Tamar Island and is promoted as Tasmania’s “only wetland interpretation centre” which I don’t really understand…(clearly I need an interpreter) but regardless, it’s fabulous.
As I was reading the sign at the entrance I was hissed at loudly which made me jump! So even before I went in I was greeted in style. He was right next to me!
There’s a lovely visitor centre and a wooden walkway that’s 1.5 km long and goes over a number of bridges, through marshes, wetlands, grasses, etc. It is really well done and well maintained. I took about 60 photos. I’ve been selective but wanted to show you the range of landscapes. I’ll also share them in the order I took them so you can see the sky change as the sun goes down.
Ah, superb!
We tramped the last km back to the car in the dark, drove home, chilled, ate, watched part of a film, fell asleep! Another great day in Tasmania.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Some of my Triptease colleagues might recognise this from the original in-person morning discos at our Soho office as I played it quite often. Anyone who likes proper early 80’s electro and synthwave will know and love this and for everyone else; enjoy giggling at the lead singer’s hairstyle! After seeing all the gulls lined up at dusk on the bridge it could only be A Flock of Seagulls with “Wishing (If I Had a Photograph of You)” (1983). Great tune.
Wednesday 12 April ~ Stanley – Launceston
One of the first fancy restaurants I ever ate in (when I worked in PR for Abbey in the 90’s and wasn’t paying for these expensive lunches myself!) was Launceston Place in Kensington. Jilly Goolden was on the table next to me. 90% of you will have no idea who that is but I remember her vividly as I was new to London and not used to seeing people off the tellybox in real life! I just checked and The Launceston is still going and still receiving rave reviews. I might have to return…Unlike that Launceston, here you pronounce all the syllables so it’s Lawn-sest-un.
It was a three hour drive away so after a relaxed brekkie at The Hard Nut Cafe near the entrance to the walk up The Nut we set off. We didn’t arrive in Launceston until after 5pm as we got distracted along the way; our three hours turned to over six. During the first two hours there was nothing much to note except that we passed a sign for Cooee Drive in Burnie 😆.
We saw a sign for Narawntapu National Park which I’d not heard of. It was a 45 minute detour which we happily took as after two hours of driving up the M2 (equivalent) we wanted something different.
Ah, what a detour. If you look at the map of Taz at the top of the page it’s directly north of Beaconsfield, right on the coast. It was a great drive on tiny winding forested roads then we parked up and set off on a walk which started with typical Tassie landscapes.
Then it changed to mangroves and swamps.
Then we found a hide where a local bird enthusiast / photographer showed us his amazing photos and told me that the blue headed bird we’d seen at Boar Harbour Beach was a male Superb Wren who would juggle up to seven girlfriends during breeding season. Poor thing must have been exhausted! Here he is again from a different angle.
Unfortunately, apart from a couple of coots there were no birds out but the view from the hide was lovely (below and the picture before Mr Superb).
Just as we were heading out of the Park we saw a sign to a beach. So we followed it. Not a sole…stunning.
We had a decent stroll up and down then on the way to the car saw this wallaby right next to the path with his tail curled up under him. Cute!
Then we saw two kangaroos – the wildlife was really coming out to show off for us; Craig got really close!
Absolutely delighted with our detour we were happy to head straight to Launceston down the Tamar Valley but we hadn’t accounted for how arrestingly beautiful it would be so we had to stop again!
I (heard then) saw some very noisy parrots, they’re not great pictures as they were not at all interested in being photographed and kept moving trees every time I got closer.
Finally, almost a decent close up of one of them.
We finally arrived in Launceston, checked into our hilltop apartment, dumped our stuff, got straight back in the car, headed into town, got stuck on confusing one way busy rush hour roads, couldn’t find anything interesting to look at so went to a supermarket then a bottle shop (no alcohol sold in supermarkets), headed home, ate, relaxed and had an early night. Exhausted and very happy. Tasmania has been an excellent choice. Love it.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Again, for absolutely no reason other than it was played on the (Devonport local station) radio on our journey today and because it reminds me of Debbie – all Earth, Wind & Fire songs do – and because it’s a fun, happy, upbeat tune to match our fab day here’s the dance-tastic “Let’s Groove” (1981) live. It’s time to dance around your handbags you groovy people! 💃🏼🕺
Tuesday 11 April ~ Stanley
Happy birthday to Alex, Craig’s glamorous niece who is loving her new life working for BA jet-setting around the world! 🥂 ✈️ 🎂
Having been defeated by the last stretch of Mount Maunganui I was determined to make it to the top of the local version Moo-Nut-Re-Ker or The Nut which is what’s left of a massive volcanic explosion. It’s only 250 metres / 820 foot but it’s extremely steep and there are warnings everywhere about how challenging it is. There’s a chairlift which most people take but that would terrify the life out of me so walking it was…
It was a challenge but as it wasn’t very far it didn’t take more than 20 minutes including a couple of stops – I determinedly did not look out at the view at either stop so I must have looked a bit strange standing right next to and staring at a cliff at close range. Once we reached the top it was fantastic, even for someone terrified of heights, as the two km track around the top of The Nut provided plenty of views without having to go near the edge. The terrain was really varied and at one stage we walked through a mini rainforest.
At the end of the track we came across the chairlift, there was absolutely no way I could have managed it!
The way down was awful though; it was really steep, you had to shuffle rather than walk and on top of that poor Craig had to hold one of my hands whilst I shielded my eyes from the sheer drop with the other! Clearly we headed straight for the pub for a drink straight afterwards so that my jelly legs could recover.
Stanley is now my favourite place that we’ve visited. It’s on the end of a peninsula, has glorious beaches and The Nut so in that way it’s like Mount Maunganui. It’s much much smaller and quieter though. It’s also very reminiscent of Akaroa. The buildings are a combination of well preserved 1800’s homes and shops as well as some well designed more modern designs from 1900 onwards. It has everything you could want. Every shop and place to eat is a local one-off (including the extremely well stocked local supermarket), the local fishing industry is embedded in the culture, it’s a place for locals that tourists go to rather than being completely focussed on tourists. It’s beautiful.
It also has its own penguins! We headed off at dusk…
It was a really clear night and the Milky Way was on display.
We saw these two on the way to dinner!
When we reached the Stanley Hotel (1837) – where we had a delicious dinner – this was parked outside…later on when I’d popped outside after eating (unfortunately without my phone so I couldn’t take a picture of them) I saw two 70+ year old dudes clambering on. I said I’d wondered who owned the magnificent beast and they offered me a lift which of course I laughingly declined.
I’m sure my photos don’t do the town justice but maybe you can begin to understand why I’ve totally fallen for Stanley. What a great day.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
For no real reason other than it’s a great catchy song I’ve chosen We Built This City (1985) by Starship which I can’t now hear (it’s been on the radio a couple of times) without singing the ‘we built this city on sausage rolls’ version thanks to Tracey and John! You’ll be humming this all day; enjoy!
Monday 10 April ~ Devonport – Stanley
The alarm was set for early so we could watch the sunrise next to the lighthouse at Mersey Bluff (about a ten minute drive away) which we’d spotted a sign for the day before. It was cold. Not sure we were there quite early enough…
We went back, ate, packed and said farewell to Devonport which we’d thoroughly enjoyed. Then we set off for Stanley with two planned stops along the way.
The first was Boat Harbour Beach which looked amazing and as it was Easter Monday I expected it to be packed…it wasn’t! The cafe was though and you couldn’t get a seat but no one was on the beach itself. Bizarre.
Lovely sunshine but it was also quite windy! Oh, finally another person on the beach! You’ll need to squint to see them.
This pretty blue headed bird (I really should learn more about these things!) was next to our car – it was very friendly and not at all shy. Maybe it was used to being fed by visitors to the cafe.
Next stop – Rocky Cape National Park; Australia’s smallest national park. We spent ages here. Alone. On a bank holiday Monday.
We saw our second lighthouse of the day.
I had to persuade Craig that this path up the hill was not the road back…!
Back on the road we spotted another beach; an opportunity for an unplanned spontaneous stop! It was called Peggs Beach and of course it was totally empty. Craig disappeared for over an hour with his true love (Droney) whilst I sat and continued reading the latest Jeffrey Archer series about a detective. I’m sorry if that offends any of you; despite what anyone (myself included) thinks about him as a person I adore his books. Cain and Abel is outstanding and the Clifton series is excellent. Let’s move on and not talk about politics or perjury and perverting the course of justice…
The beach was gorgeous. Yes, that’s Craig, we didn’t see another sole.
Back on the road to our destination…
I’m not sure exactly why but I’d totally fallen for Stanley years ago whilst planning our trip after reading only a few short lines in Lonely Planet. Sure enough I have now fallen completely, truly, madly, deeply and I’m sorry to say that Akaroa is now relegated to second place in my affections. That’s really saying something. I’ll explain more about the place itself tomorrow.
We checked in to our teeny tiny lovely room in a holiday / caravan park in what is definitely the cheap area of this lovely village. We had a proper long walk to orientate ourselves and saw our third lighthouse of the day even though this one’s not real. We had a drink in the local pub and then returned later to have dinner at Hursey’s (the place with the lobster roof!) which gets its seafood from the nine local fishing boats that sell primarily to locals. Excellent practice.
Amusing toilet signs at Hurseys.
Craig ordered the fish and chips and I was laughing at how enormous it was when mine arrived. I had his exact dinner plus scallops, prawns and calamari. I’d assumed wrongly that the platter would have a much smaller portion of fish. I gamely made my way through it all. Apart from a few chips. Well, you have to support the local fishermen, it would be rude not to! Surprisingly we were almost the last out of the restaurant. Again. People eat so early! Stuffed to the point of almost not being able to walk, we shuffled home and had an excellent night’s sleep after another truly excellent day.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
I do enjoy it when the artist or song lend themselves perfectly to the day. It has to be something by The Lighthouse Family. I bought this album; their debut – Ocean Drive – in 1995 and it’s a happy uplifting collection of chilled songs (they sound happy and uplifting, just don’t listen to the lyrics too closely!). I hope you enjoy the title track.
🐣 Sunday 9 April ~ Devonport
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE AND HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!
We woke up to the sound of a kookaburra in the trees opposite then had breakfast next door to the chalets at The Hungry Wombat where for some unknown reason I bought a 2023 calendar of Tasmanian wilderness huts. Yep. Strange!
We set off for Devonport on the north coast, a functional city (third largest in Taz) a bit like Southampton. It’s the main ferry port for ships and ferries from the mainland and elsewhere. We needed a stop on the way to Stanley and it seemed a sensible place to stay. Luckily when we bought our Parks pass the lady there informed us that the most direct and quickest route started with 30 km / 18 miles of unmade dirt track roads. Good to know. I was less nervous about it as we had an SUV this time. It was actually quite pleasant despite many many potholes!
We’d heard the expression ‘four seasons in one day’ many times in NZ but until today we hadn’t actually experienced it. Whilst the sun was shining at the start of the journey there was snow on the hills and some had settled along the side of the road as it had snowed overnight. Over the course of our journey we drove through torrential rain, hail, sleet, high winds as well as bright sunshine. If it wasn’t Dad’s birthday today I’d clearly be playing ‘Four Seasons in One Day” by Crowded House in the morning disco.
Very dark mid-morning but with the promise of blue sky ahead.
This part of Taz is virtually uninhabited and the scenery kept changing all the time. Sometimes it was savannah-like, sometimes we were surrounded by high inland cliffs and rainforest and sometimes we were high up in mountains with views of beautiful but unreachable beaches. We hardly saw any cars and thoroughly enjoyed our journey. Apart from one thing. I cannot tell you how many dead Tasmanian devils, wombats and wallabies we saw on the road. Well into triple figures. It was extremely sad.
We passed a road sign pointing to Smith and Others Road. OK, let me get this straight. So Smith is important enough to be named but wasn’t alone and that needed to be acknowledged but the others who were there with Smith were important enough to be noted on the road name but weren’t important or memorable enough to be actually named. Bloody hilarious. I’ve googled it and there’s no explanation. Someone somewhere will know the history and if I have time I’m going to message someone from that area to find out exactly what the deal is. In the meantime I won’t lose any sleep over it but I will occasionally giggle about it.
After a few hours in the car we arrived in a small town called Deloraine which, if it hadn’t been Easter Sunday and therefore everything was shut, showed promise as a buzzy little town full of artist shops (our favourite was called Art As Mania, very clever) and artisan shops. We stopped for Craig’s coffee then stopped again a few miles later at one of my favourite types of shop called Ashgrove Cheese Dairy 🧀🧀🧀 where we had a couple of tasters and bought quite a few cheeses. Of course. Half an hour later in bright sunshine we checked into our perfectly reasonable motel in Devonport. Let’s just say that the city is not somewhere that the Tassies head to for an Easter weekend.
However, it was much more pleasant than I’d thought. Our place was a couple of minutes from the shore and if you looked left you had this beautiful view.
If you looked right you could see it was a working port city. Not unattractive at all though.
We walked 25 minutes into town through a park where we saw dozens of dogs having walkies; two of which attached themselves to Craig for quite some time which of course made him very happy.
We walked along a pier to see the Spirit of the Sea up close.
We arrived in town. It was dead. We had a good walk around, not a single shop or restaurant was open (it was 4pm) and apart from two teenage girls on a bench we didn’t see anyone. We found one place open – it was, of course, an Irish pub! Doing Sunday roasts!! It was empty…
The amount of meat with the roast was ridiculous and I probably didn’t really need to order an extra bowl of roasties but I’d established you’d only get two (one more than most places in NZ!) so I had no choice. Clearly I also ordered extra gravy later.
I went to the loo and had to go through a lounge place which opened onto a massive gaming room which was absolutely packed with people playing machines. So that’s where half the population of Devonport was spending Easter Sunday. It was so bizarre and unexpected after seeing no one for hours that I had to show Craig on our way out.
We ambled back for dusk, got in the car and drove a couple of miles along the coast to a penguin viewing platform where the other half of Devonport had turned up to see Fairy Penguins. The sky at dusk was stunning. We had to wait for the best part of an hour for pingu and friends to turn up. It was chilly but one of us has dressed for the occasion and was perfectly warm!
This one was hanging around whilst the others were out at sea. I tried to take pictures of them arriving in groups out of the ocean but it was pitch black by then and although the penguin warden had a red light torch so we could see them, it wasn’t really conducive to photo taking. There are four in this picture – good luck finding them!
You’ll know that just sometimes I can be funny. Mostly I just think I’m funny but occasionally I really do come up with a great one liner. Here we go… the woman standing next to me remarked how amazing it was that the penguins knew what time it was and arrived at the time the penguin warden (volunteer, not paid) said they’d arrive. I didn’t resort to logic and tell her that’s it’s clearly to do with dusk, waiting for predators to lose the ability to see them in the dark (there are eagles around here and they love a penguin snack), etc. No. I said “it’s because they have a Clocktopus with them”. Thank you. You’re welcome. 🙇♀️👏🎺.
Not sure this entirely worked but I tried to take a photo of the Milky Way as the sky was very clear and there were very few white lights around the penguin viewing area.
We drove back, put the kettle on and had a birthday FaceTime with Dad. It was brilliant to catch up and to see him and Aly. A really great end to a really great day.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Dad and music go together like bread and butter, salt and pepper and any other things you can think of that wouldn’t be the same without the other! Not only did he love and introduce me to the classics of his teens and 20’s – ELO, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Roxy Music, Mike Oldfield, etc – but he listened to a really diverse range of artists, most of whom I’d never have heard of otherwise including The Alan Parsons Project, Philip Glass, Ennio Morricone, Jean-Michel Jarre, Al Jareau, Miles Davis and, wait for it Donna Summer! Class.
He would constantly surprise me during the 80’s with his predictions of what would be big hits – he’d bring home 12 inch singles of songs that weren’t yet on the radio but they all made it to number one! Off the top of my head, the three I remember most are KC and The Sunshine Band’s Everybody Wants You, The Crown by Gary Byrd and the GB Experience (niche!) and Teardrops by Womack & Womack. He should have put money on them, he’d have made a fortune! If there is one artist that’s synonymous with Dad though it’s David Bowie. Sorry Dad, I tried to enjoy Tin Machine but seriously, you have to be an absolute die hard Bowie fan to listen to it!!
So it’s a hard task to choose only a few tracks and I’ve chosen an eclectic trio that I cannot hear at all without thinking of Dad.
The first is Let’s Dance (1983) by David Bowie. We played this album a lot at home! The video was filmed in Carinda, a town with one pub about 645 kilometres out over the Blue Mountains in NSW, Australia so a very apt choice!
You might not recognise the title of this one but I’d bet pretty much anything you’ll recognise it… It’s Jean-Michel Jarre‘s Oxygene – part four (1976).
Finally one of my favourite songs – The Alan Parsons Project with Eye in the Sky (1982). I absolutely love the lyrics to this and you’ll be humming the extremely catchy tune.
“Believe me
The Sun in your eyes
Made some of the lies worth believing
I am the eye in the sky looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules, dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don’t need to see anymore to know that
I can read your mind…”
Saturday 8 April ~ Derwent Bridge
We woke up to grey skies and knew we were heading into rain. We took a cab to the airport and picked up our hire car – they gave us an upgrade to an SUV, nice!
We were driving northwest to Derwent Bridge, a journey of just under two and a half hours (according to 💩 Nav) but it took us almost five. Derwent Bridge is a strange little place consisting of a number of chalets, a pub / hotel and a cafe strung along half a mile of road. Nothing else. No visible homes and no shops for over 100 km in any direction I was informed later on. It’s a base for Lake St Clair and is at the south end of the Cradle Mountains where lots of people go trekking.
At first the weather was fine and I took a couple of photos out of the window including one of two big healthy looking piggies foraging at the side of the road.
Then came the rain…we had to really slow down as we couldn’t see much.
There were no towns along the way so we couldn’t stop to get Craig a coffee; the only place we could find to stop en route was Tungatinah power station. When it was built in the early 1950’s it was Australia’s largest hydro-electric power station. It had picnic tables, an undercover BBQ area (hello Australia! 😆) and public toilets – we were wondering why on earth they were there; who would have a picnic or BBQ here?! 🤔 Nonetheless we were very pleased we could have a much needed break undercover. Here it is in all its glory, picnic table and all!
We arrived at Derwent Bridge Chalets just before checkin time at 3pm but as reception was firmly closed we drove to the Derwent Bridge Wilderness Hotel half a mile down the road. I’d tried to book accommodation there – you had to phone up as they had no email address; I could see why when we met the owners who must have been pushing 90 (the place is up for sale if anyone is interested?). I won’t ever forget the date I phoned (19 September) because when I asked if there was a room available the lady (Carol) shouted “David, David, there’s some crazy English lady calling in the middle of the queen’s funeral wondering if we have any rooms on Easter Saturday” She clearly didn’t realise I could hear her 😆😆. The upshot was the place was full, which I suspected would be the case as it was the Easter weekend but she recommended the place we stayed in which I could book direct online.
So… interesting pub / hotel / hunting lodge. One of the dead things on the wall is a wombat. Much cuter when they’re alive. I didn’t take a photo of the rug on the wall made from 40 wombat furs…
Craig trying to dry off next to a real fire – just running the few foot from the car soaked us through! We had a drink, went to checkin at our place (a very rustic lovely tiny cabin) then the sun came out! Hoorah! We quickly got into the car and drove a few miles to the Lake St Clair visitor centre, paid for our National Parks pass (valid for a month for all parks) and set off on a walk around the lake.
I took this picture as it looks like a dragon made from wood which instantly reminded me of an amazing set of books by Robin Hobb called the Liveship Traders. Unless your name is John Amey (congratulations on six years at Carnegie John!) I don’t expect anyone to have heard of them. He likes many of the same fantasy fiction books I love and is the only person I know to have heard of never mind read these books. We can highly recommend them! 🐉🌴
It started getting dark and overcast so we went back and not long after we went back to the Derwent Hotel for dinner. It was very clear very quickly why we couldn’t book a room as there was a massive party of extremely drunk Aussies staying there and when I say extremely drunk I mean they couldn’t stand upright and every time one of them stumbled past our table I thought they would fall onto it. More than one of them did fall over more than once but luckily not on us! One of them, despite being so drunk he could hardly stand, sat down at the piano and played Creep by Radiohead with a few mistakes but very loudly and with great enthusiasm so when he finished the whole restaurant (which was packed – you can see how big it is in one of the photos above) applauded and cheered so he bowed and almost fell over. 😆 Brilliant. We were of course the last to leave (at 8.15 pm!), drove the half mile back in torrential rain and relaxed in our cute very warm cabin. An interesting day!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
This one chose itself – here’s Creep (1993) by Radiohead which was named NME’s Best Single that year. Enjoy it being played sober!!
Friday 7 April ~ Hobart
The weather changed, it was colder, rain was predicted, I was hungover but it was Easter Friday and we had a trip to MONA – Museum of Old and New Art – booked so we got ready and headed to the wharf to catch the 11 am boat over. Luckily it was only a 25 minute journey.
MONA is hard to describe. It’s not like any museum or art gallery we’ve been to before. It was created by David Walsh (an online gambling business multimillionaire) and it’s his own personal highly eclectic and often bizarre collection of art, sculptures and installations. The buildings and architecture are fantastic, some of the art is challenging. Craig says it’s the best gallery / art museum he’s ever been to and it is hard to disagree if you consider the whole experience rather than just the exhibits themselves. I liked the James Bond-like entrance that you weren’t allowed to use – you had to walk up the 99 steps (unless you really couldn’t make it up them). It was raining so much I didn’t really take any photos after getting off the boat – the second photo below is from the internet but gives you some idea of how interesting the place is.
After four hours, a pizza and a drink (best cure, I immediately felt much better!) we were done – it’s a great but quite intense place. If the weather had been better we could have spent more time outside as the grounds were definitely worth exploring more. As it was I think it’s the longest by far I’ve ever spent in an art galley. Back on the boat, a nice walk up to Battery Point, watched the film Stargate (I still think it’s great after all these years despite the awful acting!) then a very long sleep!
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
Goodness, apparently there are almost 30 songs with Mona in the title! The one I had always planned on playing is sung by Craig McLachlan (he of Neighbours fame 😆, well, he’s an Australian ‘artist’ so I have to choose him really) – it’s a copy of a Bo Didley song from 1957. Here’s Craig with his version of Mona on Top of The Pops in 1990.
Thursday 6 April ~ Auckland to Hobart
We were up just after 4 am to catch the shuttle to the terminal, had a smooth checkin and a couple of hours (mainly eating of course!) in yet another lovely Air NZ lounge. We had a four hour flight and caught a taxi into Hobart. Despite a terrible weather forecast a few days earlier we were delighted that the sun had followed us. At least temporarily…
We were staying in Battery Point, a well preserved 19th century part of the city and it was extremely attractive. Our hotel – Battery Point Manor – was built in 1831. It was a lovely old creaky place with gorgeous features, wonky floors and our room was enormous.
Due to the time difference we were there quite early but yet again they let us in early so we dumped our stuff and set off for town. We had a tour booked at 2pm so we had a couple of hours to walk slowly around the coast and have a drink. We joined the tour – a 2.5 hour trip up Mt Wellington which is over 1,270 metres / 4,170 foot high. Our tour guide David was great fun and one of the other passengers (a Zimbabwean Dr who’d moved to Brisbane) took a fancy to him. At first she offered him dinner (Nah, I can cook pretty well thank you). Then she offered him a holiday on the mainland (Nah, sorry, I don’t have a passport) and she kept upping the offer until it included a complete life with her including living at her apparently massive home in Brisbane; it was very entertaining. Needless to say she left the bus with her friends at the end of the tour without David! It was pretty cold at the top and I took some pictures but I couldn’t get too close to the edge…
I definitely didn’t walk all the way down the viewing platform!
The loo block was very fancy; it even had heated floors as well as great views.
Once we’d returned to the city we had a walk around the very attractive harbour and – surprise surprise we had a drink!
We went to another bar and watched the sunset then ended up not in a lovely seafood restaurant (which is where you are supposed to go to eat in Hobart) but a properly tacky Mexican!
We had a great time but maybe we had one margarita too many… I’m definitely looking the worse for wear here!
We crawled home, set the alarm, fell asleep.
💃🏼🪩 MORNING DISCO 🪩 🕺
This song was massive in the early 80’s and I apologise for being obvious in choosing it for our first day in Tasmania but it has to be this! It’s Men At Work with ‘Down Under’ (1981)
