Thursday, October 1, 2015

Tasmania trip 2015


 Hello there, How are things going with you? 
It''s been a while since I last chatted with you here, September just kind of disappeared !
Life has been busy, busy, busy, but we managed to fit in a fair amount of relaxing on our little holiday to Tasmania last week.  We caught the ferry over with our car so we could do lots of sight seeing. 
The ferry was lovely, it has recently had a refurbishment, so was very comfortable, although I felt very uneasy for the whole trip, there was a surprising amount of swaying for such a big ship. I  really only feel comfortable on land, the sea and sky do freak me out a bit! 

Anyway, once we got to Tassie we drove to a little Northern town called Boat Harbour Beach where we rented a house for a few days, it is a really beautiful part of the world, the house opened up to the beach, so the beach was actually our backyard, totally awesome!  It is quite a private little place, with cute little beach houses along the foreshore, everyone would have the same amazing views as we did.
It was very idyllic and I did go a bit overboard with the pictures! 


.......I also found time for crochet of course! :) ......


........early morning quick dip in the very cold sea for Max.........


.......on our balcony looking to the left........


.......looking straight ahead ( lovely!)........


........and to the right of our house..........

 low tide


....our house was the third one from the end at the far end of the beach...


Look at the colour of that water, very tropical looking, so clean and inviting, I'd love to come back when Summer has warmed things up! 


......colourful beach storage at the Surf Club.


We did a lot of driving around and saw many beautiful places.  Tasmania really does beautiful landscapes well, and there is scenery and awesome views all over the place.   This is Stanley, a town in Northern Tasmania that was super cute, with lots of original historic buildings, all very well maintained.


........love the colours of these weatherboards, so cute!


We climbed the Stanley Nut. a really big rock that over shadows the town, fabulous views of the town from up top, I loved the wharf areas and the patterns of the piers....


We drove down to Hobart after our 4 days up north, and we popped into the Coal River Farm and I got to meet Mel (of Coal Valley Views blog fame) and her husband in the flesh, they have an amazing new set up and a beautiful restaurant/cafe space as well as delicious chocolates that I did have to bring home with me!  Everywhere around Hobart has amazing views, there seems to be rivers and inlets all over the place, so all the nearby hills look down on very pretty landscapes.


We visited the Russell Falls, another lovely spot, huge trees and rainforest, very picturesque.



.....We went to Cradle Mountain and walked around Dove Lake, it was raining the whole way so we all got soaked, and the tracks turned into little creeks, but once again, the landscape was pretty special!  And there was still snow on the peaks in the background, I think it was about 5 degrees that day! 





Andre wanted to find some surf, so we found the surf beach on the west cost at Strahan, very wild and isolated!  A bit too dangerous to take the board out! 


We spent a morning at the MONA gallery, what an amazing space, I used to spend a lot of time looking at galleries and interesting art when I was a student, so I really enjoyed seeing everything in this fabulous building.  The boys found it a bit harder to see the 'art' in some of the work, but it was a great conversation provoker, and got us all talking about the nature of art and what make something a work of art.  A fun day I thought!  


The other great  thing about Tasmania was all the fabulous food!!   We went to a couple of Farmers Markets and I noticed a strong local food culture, we brought home lots of delicious ginger beers,ciders, chocolates, cheese, ice cream ( I ate that on the day!) and fudge.  I visited a free range pig farm that made all there own bacons and bought some fabulous meat,( it was super delicious!)   and had a nice chat with the owner about what they were doing and their very lush kitchen garden.  I am all enthused now for my own garden, and am going to give me kitchen garden a big make over! 

We went to so many other places too, it was quite a whirl wind tour!  
But I think that's enough for today, this post is already too long!   
Sorry for all the holiday photos, well done if you've made it to the end!  

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I am tentatively going to say that I am doing a personal 'Blogtober' this year, so one post a day for the whole of October, it's a big commitment, but I'm trying to get my blogging mojo back and this might help! 

Talk soon! 
xxxxxx

21 comments:

  1. Just fabulous! Sounds and looks like a great trip! So beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Good luck with your challenge, I look forward to it. ; )) Just doing a spot of Autumn decorating at the moment. Our Autumn garden is in, so our gardening season will be over before long but, I look forward to seeing your garden make over soon( I s-o need to do that too). Have a great one!

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    1. Thanks Angela, The garden is going be an on going project I think!! I hope you get lots of produce from your Autumn planting, The seasons come and go so quickly don't they! xxxx Julie

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  2. Really does look like a great place to visit. You certainly have made some lovely memories to treasure. Good luck with the challenge.

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    1. It was a great holiday mamasmercantile, have to make the most of family time when you can get it! :) xxx Julie

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  3. Merci du partage des belle foto's Marie-Claire

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  4. such a lovely Place
    have a nice day

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  5. Really! you actually visited Mel, i am jealous.

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    1. She was so lovely and friendly too! I'm usually a pretty shy person, so I'm really glad I got over myself and said hello! :) xx

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  6. Looks like a lovely spot. I love the suitcase jam packed with yarn.
    Have just learnt to crochet (being a lefty) and love your blog - very inspirational. Trying to make your Granny square cat and a Christmas bauble at the moment. Thank you!

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    1. Glad you are enjoying the crochet JoLArts, it is pretty addictive I find :) xxx Julie

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  7. Tassie is a great place to visit but not sure I could take their winters... lovely that your sons are still at the age to holiday with the folks.

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    1. Thanks Anna, we were lucky with the weather, I was expecting it to be colder! I'm not sure how many more family holidays we'll have all together, I have 3 sons, and the eldest had university and work commitments so couldn't come with us to Tasmania, so it was just our younger 2 who had school holidays, they seemed happy enough to come along. :) xxx Julie

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  8. they are lovely photos plus it wouldn't be a holiday without lots of photos! glad you enjoyed your tassie break, am going down there in February myself with my daughter, looking forward to that
    a lovely post & good luck with your 'blogtober'
    thanx for sharing

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    1. Thanks Selina, I'm sure you'll have a great time with your daughter in Tassie, so much to see and do there! xxx Julie

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  9. You chose the best places! The only place you missed out on that I would have included was Bruny Island, so you did well! :) we moved to Sydney from Tassie last year and your pictures made me rather homesick, even in winter!

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    1. Thanks deadlycraft, we had planned to go to Bruny island, but just ran out of time. I loved Tassie, it's the first time I've been there, my husband wants to go again soon as we didn't get to see much of the east coast either. :) xxx Julie

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  10. This looks like a little corner of heaven! I loved your pictures

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  11. Hi Julie!
    Glad you loved Tassie! I live in Hobart but use to live not too far from Boat Harbour in a little town called Penguin. We're looking at going to stay in Boat Harbour at the the end of January for ym partners birthday with our two little children. That place you stayed in looks amazing. Could you tell me that accommodation details so I can check it out? Thanks.

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    1. Hi Chantelle, You are lucky to live in such beautiful state :) We went to Penguin too, m y cousin lived there for a while a few years ago too, such a lovely spot! The house we stayed in at Boat Harbour was called '17 steps to the beach' and we found it on Stayz.com. My husband searched 'top rating house in Tasmania' and that was up the top! :) It was a really lovely house, 2 bedrooms so perfect for 4 people. Hope that helps! :) xxx

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