Just a note...

...to let you know that I've been really busy lately get ready for out little holiday next week. James and I are head to the land of the Land of the Long White Cloud (aka New Zealand) to visit a friend who moved back there a while back. James and I have been to NZ several times but this will be the first time that we will be seeing our friends new home. She lives on the North Island and we will be spending all of or time on the North Island. You really need a couple of weeks if you want to visit both North and South islands properly. We are really looking forward to the visit as well as the chance to get away for a few days. So, needless to say posts will be at a minimum except for the few I might get done from our friends place. Who knows there may be pictures before we get back. Until then I will try to keep up with my blog reading and I'll see you when I get back. Cheers...

Strahan Tasmania...

We've just gotten back from a three day holiday up to Strahan, Tasmania. We stayed at a nice little place called The Aldemere Estates. The weather was fantastic! Yes, it is winter and it was bit cold but the crowds were low and that made it nice to get around. We went on a the Gordon River Cruise that took us around the harbour and up the Gordon river. It was an all day cruise leaving at 9 and getting back at 2:30. They served us all local foods during the cruise and the menu consisted of:

Appetizers (Spiced pumpkin tartlets, salmon mousse on toast, lemon tartlets) and cheese platter (King Island Dairy Black Label Double Brie, King Island Dairy Roaring Forties Blue, wasabi-flavoured cheese, Dutch Edam) The lunch consisted of three salads (Marinated mushrooms, artichokes and baby spinach, Fresh new potatoes and pumpkin in a sweet mayonnaise dressing, Fresh broccoli, snap peas and baby spinach in a walnut vinaigrette) Fresh smoked Tasmanian salmon, Pate, Thyme infused pork terrine, local sausages and antipasto platter, cold cut meats (smoked ham, beef and turkey) and Wild game ragout made out of local farmed venison and wallaby. There was also all the wine, beer, lattes, tea and all the assorted beverage you could want.

This was all provided within the price of the ticket in the luxury of the captain's private quarter/viewing station including leather seats. It's been a bit of a rough time lately so we thought we deserved to spoil ourselves and it was so worth it. Anyway, if you want to see the pictures you can click on the pictures on the side columns under the Flickr badge or you can alternately just click on this link. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed taking them.

Also of note, while we were in Strahan, which is in the northwest of our little island, a cold front came through and it was the coldest day on record (-2C/28F) in the past 12 years back home in Hobart. There is a lot of snow on the mountain and we are expecting more. It looks like winter just might be a cold one this year. We ran into a bit of snow and ice on or drive home but not enough to make it to treacherous.

The simple life...

When we moved to Tasmania over two years ago we did so for many reasons. One of those reasons was we had enough of all the people in Sydney (over 4 million) compared to the smaller population here in Hobart (approximately 180,000+/-). Most of the year it stays relatively quiet but during the summer we have on average 30 large cruise liners dock in port for a few days on their way from Sydney to New Zealand. The boats bring much needed money to the economy along with those that come in by plane for summer holidays. During thew three months of summer December-February it gets just a little crowded on our little island. I thought I'd share a picture of one of the liners taken from our back yard. we love seeing the boats and thankful for tourist dollar but I can't wait for Fall/Winter so they will all go home!