Karen & David's travel

The family left for Melbourne in the morning and that concluded the 10 days family trip. Many thanks to the family for the great time and company, and special thanks to our master organizer Carole for the first rate choices of the itinerary, accommodations, and particularly the superb restaurants! miles and miles of open space as we drove through pasture land Nine Miles Bay - the beach goes on forever! We changed the van to a SUV for the next 4 days. We went back south towards Little Swanport for the next two nights. We took a different highway and it was actually fun driving the twisty road in a more powerful SUV (as compared to the gutless minivan).  The day was cloudy and we were unlucky in that every time we stopped to get out, it would start to rain and stop when we got back in the car! I guess we can't expect good weather every day. We went into Nile Miles Bay area just north of Swansea. There were not too many access points to the beach as the land is occ...

Birthday girl surrounded by family Jazz band at the winery Mom at the winery We drove to Launceston in the morning and stopped at a vineyard to have lunch. The grounds is beautiful and this place is set up for all kinds of functions.  We had lunch outdoor and it was not too hot nor buggy.  A jazz band was playing in the garden to a packed audience.  A lot of locals came out to hear the band and made the occasion a family outing.  They brought blankets and picnic, and came with their parents and young children. penthouse apartment at Sebel We checked into the Sebel Hotel. There was a glitch in the reservation system and they had a duplicate reservation on the 2-bedroom suite. The owners, who have worked in HK before and can speak some Cantonese, ended up giving us a penthouse unit with 4 bedrooms and a complimentary bottle of wine!   The place is huge.  We went for a short historic walk around town. They did a good jo...

Bay of Fire Conservation Area Since we only had a glimpse of the Bay of Fire yesterday. David, Aunt Angela, and I decided to go back and look at the rest. We went all the way to the northern most point of the southern access – the Garden.  The beaches are mostly the same, but the rocks with orange lichens form a pretty picture.  We looked at some tidal pools and followed a circular path that took us amongst the rocks and the sand – a refreshing morning walk. Next we met up with the rest of the family to go buy lobsters for dinner. We picked two live lobsters and had the place cook them for us.  And we also bought some big tiger prawns and scallops.  Then we saw a couple shucking back oysters at the back.  It turned out the seafood place had 17 left (from the Lease 65 place no less)!  We bought the bunch and had the best oysters yet … fresh, fat and tasty. After lunch, we went to the St. Columba Falls. ...

Since we missed the visit to the Cape Tourville Lighthouse the last two days, we decided to visit it this morning. It was a short walk around the light house and we had an opportunity to take a group picture. We saw more interesting light houses before, I must say this one is just so so. We drove to St. Helen's today and planned for a BBQ dinner. We stopped at the Sir Loin Breir Butchery for some steak, lamb chops, chicken wings, and a lobster. This place was recommended by the chef at the lodge last night (and also selected by our master trip planner, Carol). It was not a long drive, but the road was twisty at parts and there was not much to see. We stopped at Mount Elephant Pancakes for a snack/lunch. Both the savory and sweet pancakes (more like a crepe) were good. This cafe is in the middle of nowhere and is currently up for sale, though they say they will continue to run the place. We arrived at Pelican Point Sanctuary for the next two nights. Though the name is...

Wineglass Bay We started our day with the Wineglass Bay cruise. It was a 4 hours cruise around the Freycinet Peninsula and the boat did a return trip from Coles Bay to Wineglass Bay.  Wineglass Bay is rated as the second best beach in Australia. On the way, I happened to see a flying fish. It was quite amazing - the fish was less than a foot long and it stayed in the air by flapping the two fins on its sides. It flew quite fast - almost at the same speed as our boat. The sailor said the reason the fish flew was because the boat disturbed it.  I stayed outside for most of the trip and did not see another one. Orange lichens on most of the rocks along the shore! The sea was calm and it was a sunny day. We saw eagles and seals. Someone saw the dolphins, but I missed that.  We also got close to the shore and saw different rock formations with bright orange lichens on some of them.  Lunch was a bento box like meal with smoked salmon, cold cuts, cheese ...

We went north and headed towards the Freycinet Peninsula this morning. On our way, we stopped at the Kate's Berry Farm for a break. There is a small field in front of the café, with strawberries and raspberry still bearing fruits. The crepe is better than the pancake, and my raspberry ice cream is yum. Next stop is the Freycinet Marine Farm. We had high hope for some great seafood; but their oysters are all opened and arranged on a plate and do not look too appetizing!  We decided to skip and went to the lodge for a proper lunch. View of  Richardson's Beach from the balcony of our cabin The lodge is inside the Freycinet National Park and we have five cabins with nice view of the beach – very nice and very pricey!  We had mussels and salad for a late lunch and the oysters are freshly opened.  After lunch, we went to the Sleepy Bay Lookout.   Then I saw the tidal pools down on the beach and I could not resist the 10-minute walk down to chec...

Wombat We visited the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary in the morning and had a short guided tour. The first animal is the wombat, it is native to Australia.  The ones we saw are babies, as in younger than 1 year, they are quite cute. Koala Then the koalas, though they are not native to Tasmania, the sanctuary has 3 of them. We got to pat them, but not hold them.  Then there are the infamous Tasmanian Devils. A lot of the devils have been wiped out by the Devil Facial Tumor Disease and so the sanctuary is actually breeding them.  These guys do not look as bad as they sound!  Devil The Echinda sanctuary also has this little short-beaked echidna; the poor thing lost one leg, but it still moves around foraging in the enclosure. (The sanctuary “adopts” injured animals, i.e. those that don’t become roadkill!)  Last, but not least, are the kangaroos and wallabies. The staff gave us each a small bag of kangaroo food and warned us that the k...