Redlands Distillery

Our second day in Hobart, I surprised Drew by taking him to a distillery just outside of town. I had dragged him through enough vineyards and wine tastings on this trip to deserve at least one distillery tour. This place was particularly nice, as it was originally a barley farm run by an English royal, a 3rd illegitimate son or something who had no inheritance rights, so they gave him a farm in Australia to run instead of a country. The buildings were all very old and interesting, and the grounds were quite stunning. 

A clay tennis court! There were a far bit of weeds to disturb play though now. 

Walking around the grounds. 

More roses! They grew in reckless profusion. 

Back in the day, the farm was, of course, run by prisoners. This was one of the prisoner's rooms. Small and dirty, but at least it had a fire place! Beats a cell I suppose. 

Row of prisoner rooms. 

This was a large warehouse where they dried the barely. The circular window held a giant fan to assist in the drying process. 

This was the kitchen (oven), where bread is still baked fresh every morning. Apparently it's one of the oldest kitchens still in use in Australia!

This is the actual distillery. This is one of the few distilleries in the world where everything is done on site, from the growing of the grain, distilling, bottling, aging, everything. The only thing that is brought in is the peat from a different part of Tasmania. They gave us the full tour, letting us try the whiskey at different parts of the process, before aging, after aging etc. The before aging stuff (called white spirits) is knock your socks off strong, but the flavor before you get kicked in the teeth from the high alcohol percentage is actually sweeter (and in my opinion better) than after it is aged! But that's just me. 

All of this alcohol discussion reminds me about another part of the trip. Back in Melbourne, while driving on the Great Ocean Road, I got stopped for my first breathalyzer ever! EVER! I hadn't drank a single thing, but probably still looked very suspicious with my wide eyes of nervousness. It was 1pm on a Wednesday afternoon. They are super serious about drinking and driving in Australia. We got stopped again for another breathalyzer only 3 days later in a different part of Melbourne. No drinking and driving for me! 

Southwest National Park

After a few days in NE Tassie, we drove back down to Hobart, the largest city in Tassie and the second oldest state capital in Australia. As a local resident put it, Hobart is old, but doesn't have a lot of money like Melbourne or Perth, so nothing has been rebuilt, only repaired. Therefore, much looks the same as it did before. It is also the gateway for scientific explorations to Antarctica! How cool is that! We had some nice views on our 2-hour drive back, lots of sheep grazing land, forests etc. 

Also on the drive back, we passed the "Spiky Bridge" which was made by prisoners back when Tassie was first colonized. When the colony needed infrastructure built, the prisoners did it. Not sure why they made the bridge spiky as it looks a bit creepy now, but there you go. FYI, the bridge is not a part of the main highway. 

We arrived in Hobart and went to our airbnb house where we were renting a bedroom from a super nice lady. The house was old, creaky, drafty, and covered in art (as the lady is a painter!), and it was wonderful, full of charm you just can't find in a new home nowadays. Several funny things happened in this house though. First, the lady was a vegetarian, and she didn't allow any meat in the house at all. Drew and I didn't realize this until after we had unloaded our chilly bin full of brats and lunch meat into her refrigerator. Even her dog started sniffing us extensively. Gulp. So that night for dinner, we went to a park and had a picnic, to rid ourselves of the evidence. We never spoke of it again, but I think she knew of our indiscretions, and the dog knew for sure. 

Another funny experience. One charming part of having an old house is the abundance of fire places, and our bedroom was no exception. Well, the second morning there, a bird actually flew down the chimney and woke us by flying in circles around the room. Luckily the window didn't have a screen, so one quick lift and the bird feverishly sought his escape, but he may have left a few feathers behind. 

On our first full day in Hobart, we took a drive to the mountains in the SW section of Tassie called Southwest National Park.  I know, I know, the creativity is very evident here. Not sure if we were so gung-ho because we wanted a taste of CO, but it was a rainy day, we knew it was a rainy day, we knew it was likely to be rainier where we were going, but we drove anyways. The end result was a lot of mountains we could sometimes, sort of see, but I think we enjoyed it anyways. 

This is what the area would have looked like had it been sunny and had we been able to do a hike we originally planned on doing. Next time. 

The drive culminated at Lake Pedder and Lake Gordon, two man-made lakes used to create hydro-electricity. We stopped at the "Lake Pedder Chalet" which turned out to be the most old-school motel and lounge you can imagine. We had a chai to warm up, while the two workers (who were the only other people there) cleaned the bottoms of the restaurant chairs. We looked out the lounge window at the dreary weather, sipped our chais, and stumbled over questions from the 1974 Trivial Pursuit. While it may have been one of the most anti-climatic parts of our trip, it is also one of the parts I will remember most fondly. 

Mt. Wellington

For our return trip home, we had a late flight from Hobart to Melbourne, stayed the night at a budget hotel in Melbourne, then had a flight from Melbourne to Hong Kong the next morning. That last flight was 9 hours.

On our very last day in Hobart, before our flight out, we went to the Salamanca Market. The Salamanca area looks like the old fishing wharf with old trading houses, hotels, etc. Then, every Saturday, they have a huge farmers market there, full of everything a town could want. Produce, flowers, clothes, souvenirs, knick knacks, and of course, street food! We ate the legendary brats from the sausage stand. Actually we ate there twice, as we walked down the street once and up the street once. It's a family owned operation, and they make their entire week's income from this single market. Talk about doing some business! Drew had one brat covered in hot mustard. It had so much horseradish in it that after the first bite he started to cry! Or, maybe he just thought the brat was so beautiful....

Right nearby the market was a large park that lots of people were hanging out in. When we started walking through, we noticed all of these large monuments, so we went to check them out. Turns out, the part was originally a graveyard. They moved all of the smaller headstones and put them into a wall, which is really interesting to look at, as it shows the names, ages at death, date, and sometimes the cause. They left the large memorials in place, which is what we initially noticed. They also left the bodies there, obviously. So all of these people are just hanging out on people's graves.... A bit weird, but these people didn't seem to mind. 

We then took a drive to the top of Mt. Wellington, the mountain the stands behind the city. We originally wanted to hike this, but the weather never cooperated. And honestly, if the hike had taken us to the same place the drive did, that's always a bit frustrated. You take your last turn on the trail, only to come out into a parking lot with lots of other people milling around. You mean I could have drove here?!? It's always a annoying feeling right at that moment. 

The view from the top was incredible. You could see the city, the Derwent River, other surrounding mountains, etc. Apparently there was an enormous forest fire on Mt. Wellington back in 1967, and the land is still recovering. 

Again, a bit out of order. The night before we left, we had an amazing seafood dinner right by the marina. I had a Moreton Bay bug, which looked like a lobster tail, and most of the meat was in the tail, except it didn't have claws. Delicious! 

Drew had the seafood platter, which consisted of oysters (which are my new favorite seafood!), raw salmon, raw tuna, prawns, scallops, some delicious white fish, and fried barramundi. Fantastic! And a great way to wrap up our trip!

Freycinet National Park

Our second day in Tasmania, we drove to Freycinet National Park. The day started off overcast and drizzly, but 2 hours into our 2 hour hike, suddenly the clouds parted, and we ended up with sunshine and gorgeousness! The hike took us to this beach, which was stunning. No instagram filters on these photos! 

It was warm enough now to walk along the shoreline in bare feet, but still not warm enough to swim. 

Drew had too much fun with the panoramas on this trip. 

After the hike, we stopped at a nearby lighthouse, from which we saw these views. Supposedly whales can be spotted from here, but we didn't see any this time. I did forget to mention we did actually see whales in Perth, while on a nature walk. We were on a similar promenade overlooking the ocean, and there they were! Just frolicking and spouting away! Drew and I have seen whales on boats before, but never from land. The whales migrate from near Antarctica past Australia up to Alaska area. That's a heck of a migration! They stop by Australia to rest. Pit stop! 

Also on this hike, we discovered through trial by experience that Tasmania has a hole in its ozone layer, similar to New Zealand. We discovered this because we got unfortunately burned during the hike, despite it being cloudy for the majority of the day. (Yes, I know UV still gets through clouds, but it shouldn't have been that bad.) There is a plant in Tassie, name unknown, that when it sprouts new growth, the leaves are orange in color. Most new growth on plants are a vibrant baby green color. What's the difference here? This orange pigment is the plant providing UV protection for the new leaves, a sunscreen if you will. This tells scientists that this ozone hole has been around for a VERY long time, as the plant has been able to evolve to survive in this unique, ozone depleted environment. 

This picture is slightly out of order, but this post wasn't to the length of my liking yet. On the first morning of our stay in Hobart, we went out for breakfast and I had crumpets! If you look closely, the top crumpet is actually a giant block of maple flavored butter. Ha! Needless to say, that was pushed to the side of the plate, but I devoured the crumpets, which tasted like sweet english muffins soaked in more butter. Not my healthiest breakfasts, but how could I turn down crumpets?!?

Drew and I have an affection for Taiwanese bubble tea, so that dragged us into the shop right away, not to mention the shop was named after me! 

 

Or, maybe it was named after Momo from Avatar.....

Bay of Fires

The third part of the trip we went to Tasmania, which is an island the size of Indiana of the SE coast of Aussie. It is home to the Tasmanian devil, famously represented as Taz in Looney Toons, but we never saw one in the wild, only an animal sanctuary.

It also has a lot of rugged beauty, with a great mix of beaches, mountains, and forests. The first day of our Tasmanian trip was spent at the Bay of Fires. Everyone assumes the name stems from all of these orange rocks that skirt the bays. In actuality, English sailors saw lots of Aboriginal fires along the shore. The red rocks are caused by lichen. The water is a beautiful turquoise color if the sun shines. We had a nice morning walking along the shore line, rock hopping, and wave evading. a lot of people do the drive and take pictures at the first outcropping they come to, but we were some of the few that walked on farther.  

Apparently there is a stretch of Tasmania that has the cleanest air in the world. Along the 40th parallel, that stretch of ocean that only come into contact with land in three places. In Wellington, N.Z. (which is one of the windiest cities in the world), the southern tip of South America, and then not again until Tasmania. This is the longest stretch of open ocean in the world, so the winds travel unabated, which sailors call the "Roaring 40's." Therefore, the air is really clean once it hits Tasmania, so every day, they fly a little prop plane along this one section of coastline in NW Tassie, and they measure the air quality. That's what they use as a benchmark for "0" pollution for the rest of the world. By contrast, some areas in China have air quality that is so bad, it is off the air pollution scale. 

As we were walking along the beach, we came to a section where someone had clearly spent some time rearranging the rocks for some reason. While we can't know for sure, I am going to pretend these are the fire pits made by the Aborigines however long ago to protect their fires from wind etc. It was certainly man-made, but who knows if they were the real thing. 

As the tide was out, we also got to see lots of tidal pools. There was a star fish in this one! Along with some small crabs and a minnow or two. 

That evening, we stayed at a house called the Penguin Nook, so clearly I was expecting to see heaps of penguins. The penguins fish all day at sea, then come back to shore around dusk, (we thought) clambering over the rocks, then retreating to their nests in the scrub. I was determined to watch this clambering out of the water process, so I geared up with every piece of warm clothes I had, a blanket, and a lawn chair. I set up camp on the side of the rocks right at sunset. The sunset was beautiful, so that was worth it, but as the sun set and the winds picked up, things got a bit chilly. But, I was determined to see a penguin hop out of the water. An hour into the ordeal, Drew took pity on me and joined me, bringing us hot water bottles to hold on to. In the end, we sat out there two hours and didn't see a single penguin until the last 10 min, at which we barely saw one scramble quickly down a trail and at that point it was so dark we could barely make it out. So, we called it a fail and numbly made our way back to the house. We plopped on the couch, which faces the backyard with nice windows, and watched a Breaking Bad. About 30 min into the episode, we see two penguins walk right past our back window on the patio, around the side of the house. Certainly it was a laughing matter. We freeze our butts off for two hours trying to see one, when we see two within the warmth and comfort of our living room. Darn penguins, you are lucky you are so cute. At that point we knew they were back from the sea, so we went out there to see more. As we were standing on a trail down to the sea, we saw one waddle up, coming right towards us. We didn't move, and even while whispering quietly to each other, it took no notice of us, almost scrambling right over our feet, on its way to the nest. 

Frankston and Lingo

On our last day with Sandra and Des, we drove along the eastern side of the Port of Phillip, the giant bay that Melbourne is on. Along the bay, we passed through beach town after beach town. Some were upscale, some were family towns, some were for surfers, some were for campers, any kind you could want. We drove up to Arthurs Seat, which was essentially a hill with great views of the surrounding area. You can see today the rain dissipated, and we finally got some sunshine. Notice how blue the water is! Wouldn't you like to spend summer vacation here?

That evening, we were invited to Frances and Andrew's parents' house for dinner. They are Sri Lankan, and man can they cook! We had duck, lentils, fried rice, veggies, all fantastic! Then, there was passion fruit creme brûlée for dessert! Heaven! Passion fruit is quickly becoming one of my favorite new fruits, minus the seeds. I will eat passion fruit anything. 

Since I don't have a lot of pictures to portray this day, I will instead continue on to the fascinating topic of Australian slang. The rule of thumb is to shorten the word and add a "ie" to the end for cuteness.

1. Sunnies, as in "Don't forget to wear your sunnies!" 

2. Brekkie. When we first came to HK, we had breakfast at the hotel and I surprised to find grilled tomatoes and baked beans on the menu. What kind of ridiculous western breakfast is this?!? It actually wasn't an American breakfast, but apparently a British one. Oops. The world doesn't revolve around the US?

3. Let's have a wander. Sounds poetic doesn't it? They say this when they want to go for a stroll. 

4. Clucky. I actually learned this one from a Kiwi, but apparently Aussie's use it too. It refers to a female who is feeling motherly. Such was the story. "My sister says she doesn't want kids if you ask her outright, but every time she is around a kid, she gets all clucky..."

5. Arvo: Afternoon. 

6. Avos: Avacados. But careful, because it sounds a lot like arvo.

7. Cuppa, as in "Would you like a cuppa?" They are referring to a cup or coffee or tea. Your response, yes, coffee please, white with 2. Meaning, a cup of coffee with milk and two sugars. 

8. Dear as in "This purse was very dear" or expensive. 

9. Fairy floss = Cotton candy!

10. Chilly Bin = Cooler

11. Maccas as in "Let's go to Maccas for a Big Mac and fries. You guessed it! McDonalds. 

12. Togs = Swim suit. 

13. Uni as in "Where did you go to uni?" 

14. Thongs = Flip flops.  Googled that one accidentally. Not my best move. 

15. How are you going? This was the most confusing phrase to me, upon first hearing it. How am I going? By bus, you mean? I got here by car. Is that what you mean? They actually are just asking, "How are you doing?" so they expect a "Fine" as a response. That was not my first response.