18-19 Launceston, TAS - Day 1 & 2

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 job in preserving the old buildings (from the 1800s), and there were no high rises in town.







 
Afterwards we went to see the Cataract Gorge.  We had to walk up a twisty path on the side of the hill and came back along the path on the other side of the river.   It was a very relaxing 1.5 hr walk. The park land has a suspension bridge and a cable car to go across a pool in the middle of the gorge.  And you can even choose to swim in the river or in the pool … a perfect place for family outing. 

yummy porterhouse from Black Cow
Dinner was at a steak house called the Black Cow.  Most of us went for meat since we had seafood for a few days. They put our party in their wine cellar and we had a very good and enjoyable meal in our own ‘private’ room.







the Stillwater restaurant







Feb 15 is Aunt Angela's birthday.  To celebrate the occasion, we had lunch at Stillwater, one of the best restaurants in Launceston, since they are closed for dinner on Mondays.  As it turned out, these people own the Black Cow restaurant also.  They also put us in the wine cellar and so we had a ‘private’ room again. They have a little shop upstairs that sells all kinds of food and it was interesting to browse. Lunch was another delight and the service was impeccable, Carole has really outdone herself in the choice of restaurants.






After lunch, we went on a tour at the Boags Brewery.  There was not a lot to see, but it was interesting to hear the guide go through the brewing process.  David and a few others stayed behind for the tasting while I went shopping.  As usual, guess who benefited when I went shopping ;).
Dinner was at Geronimo. The restaurant promotes sharing of various dishes and this suits us just fine as most of us are still full from the big lunch.  Our lamb ribs were very good, but the beet and feta pizza was just so so.  This is almost an anti-climax to our eight days foodie journey in Tasmania, I guess we’ve had so much good food that we are getting too picky!
full protective gear before brewery tour 


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