Day 11 - Launceston

Cookie says...
Before we knew it, the final day was upon us and we headed off to another maze. It was conquered and there were other puzzles there to get stuck into.

Mikey tried to give Mim a hand in the maze

Luke and Julz supersized this game

Julz and I had to bail early as we still had something to do. I was thinking that we wouldn't get a chance to do this but we managed to sneak into a Boags brewery tour. I must admit that the first Boags I had wasn't very good so I went for several years thinking that it was overrated (but still better than XXXX). It was pretty good. We walked through a few areas where things happen (or look like they happen because it all happens within silos then we were back to the Boags building where we sampled some beers match with cheese. Checked out the gift shop (it's all about a buck these days) and then into the car to get lunch and out to the airport.

Hmm.... Beer... Boags beer...

We arrived with plenty of time, the others arrived half an hour later with plenty of time. In fact, if we had arrived when the plane was sheduled to have left, we would have had plenty of time. The flight had experienced a few delays, something Mikey's bladder had appreciated. He's now known as Michael Yo-Yo. We sat around playing cards and doing some of this blog. Finally boarded, into the air and after some more cards, we landed home in Brisbane.

That was another wonderful trip so until next time.

Bec says...
Lucky we only had about 3 hours to kill at the airport... otherwise where would Mickey have fit his 15 toilet stops in before we boarded.

Day 10 - Launceston

Cookie says...
Last time Mim and Mikey missed the cooked breaky but made up for it this morning. For Mikey, Bec and Luke, it was a day in while Julz, Mim and I made for the wine trail.

Mikey wonders why you can take him anywhere but out

The Tamar region has quite a few wineries however being winter, a lot of them are closed. Fortunately the main ones we were interested in were open.

It's not a wombat but Mim enjoyed another
opportunity to mingle with animals

Long live the good old days. Plus, Maunsell must be doing
something right because this bridge still stands

We stopped in the 'township' of Pipers Brook for lunch which was yummy. I say 'township' because if you blink, you would miss it.

Yup... that's all of Pipers Brook

Between the three of us, we snagged over two cases worth so we had the last venue (Pipers Brook) send them on for us.

Another town competing in the lameness stakes

Upon returning we cracked out some cheese and bread we sourced and it turns out that the others basically played games all day. Sadly, I had one more thing I wanted to do here and that was a Boag's brewery tour however when we rang to book, the first tour was full and the second tour was later than desirable for our timing for tomorrow. Oh well... next time. Thai was on the cards for the Roddas and the Cooks while the A-A's had chicken. Afterwards the games continued until the State of Origin aired when Julz and I glued ourselves to the TV. It was a success and the right result for Lockyer's final Origin but at the cost of a season ending injury for Thurston.

The games finished, I blogged and it was lights out.

Bec says...
A day indoors, relaxing, watching movies and playing board games was just what I needed. After I smashed the boys in some Citadels, I regret to report that my efforts in Ticket To Ride and Settlers of Catan leave something to be desired.

Day 9 - Bicheno

Cookie says...
As we had a change of plans for checking out Freycinet and Wineglass Bay, we back tracked a bit of a distance.

It seems that car lifting is a past-time that kangaroos
really get into around these parts, especially at night

When we arrived we found out that the Wineglass Bay lookout was closed for an upgrade so while Bec and Luke stayed with the cars, we tramped our way onto the beach. The beach probably wasn't as magical as it looks for afar but it was still wonderful.

No lookout view but this should give you an idea of the spot

Mim and Mikey stayed on for a few more walks while the rest of us headed onto Launceston.

Mikey in the... er... rock room not the green room

On the way there, we found the Bicheno Blowhole (it's more a crevace than a true blowhole) that Mim and Mikey saw in the morning but as it was low tide then, it was pretty boring.

It wasn't doing this when Mim and Mikey found it. A high tide helps

We had a late lunch and were back on the road again. Mim let us know where they were and after another hour or so and in true Top Gear form (actually, this was legit and not the typical staged Top Gear scenario), we met up with the others just minutes from the town. In fact, Luke thought we had so much spare time that we did a lap of a round about and that allowed the Rodda's to sneak in front. Thanks to the Roddas GPS pretending to be Tasmanian and giving them the bum steer, we arrived first.

Once again we checked into the same place we stayed the first night and then headed out for dinner. Italian was the cusine of choice and after two courses, we were heading to a surprise location.

On the way to dinner, I wasn't complaining

Bec had wanted to treat Luke to a round of putt putt and it turned into a six person affair.

Bec lighting it up on the putting green

Mim making up for her wedding day

It was fun, naturally Luke won and after dessert in a food mall, we headed home. We were keen on a late night of games but we piked on ourselves and hit the hay.

Bec says...
Tell the truth Pete... we didn't pike on ourselves - you had a unique way of clearing us out of the motel room (something that can only be matched by Mikey). My caution warning to you for next time: that kind of gas is flammable you know, and you almost cleared your wife out of the room with us!

Cookie says...
Be that as it may but I wasn't the worst offender. Someone ignored the confined space rule and cleared out a car at some point and a few of us had tender noses for the rest of the trip!

Day 8 - Bicheno

Cookie says...
After last nights ghost tour, I had wondered if we'd be visited in the night but no. In fact, I was almost surprised considering we woke to find that the Comfort Inn virtually looks over the site. After breaky we headed back to it to investigate it.

Port Arthur has some wonderful buildings like this church

It's a pretty good place to visit. Clearly it had quite a lot history and involvement with the penal side of things even if it only operated as such for 40 odd years.

A wing of the Seperate Prison.
Jail these days would be a walk in the park in comparrison

We did the harbour cruise but didn't step onto the Isle of the Dead, next time. Some of the buildings are in great condition but some were lost to bushfires with the church accidently burning down.

I might suggest this layout to Nathan for the hall expansion

Mikey still struggles to take good photos

It was time to hit the road again so we fanged it to Bicheno. We arrived here quicker than expected which allowed us to break out Settlers again. This time I won in a neck and neck game where I pipped Luke at the post. Time for dinner so it was off to the Diamond Island Resort. The food was okay and they showed us down to the beach to look for penguins. We found some, it was pretty poor conditions so we headed back to base and played some six handed 500 followed by Up and Down the River.

This fella was a bit shy about appearing in the blog

Day 7 - Hobart

Cookie says...
There was a bit of driving today. We made it to Richmond followed by Mim and Mikey. They had an amazing time in the maze (we had conqured it in their absence) while we checked out the model village of Old Hobart Town.

It's not LEGO® but the model village was very, very good

There's also a historical prison here which most of us scoped out and afterwards we had another bakery lunch.

Mikey was busting... again...

We continued on our way again and Mim found a few detours to check out. Mim was over the moon about some tesselated pavement (oh what a highlight - she even bought a postcard) and we checked out a blowhole, Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen. Back in the cars and next stop, Port Arthur.

Mim's trip highlight shifted from wombats to this tesselated pavement

For dinner we had to eat at the information centre as nothing was open and oddly enough, it was probably one of the best meals we we've eaten so far. Our ghost tour started and it was great, Mikey didn't come though, he was either too scared or too addicted to X Construction on Bec's phone. Definately one of the highlights of the trip although we didn't experience anything ghostly and Julie didn't approve of my ghostly humour.

Bec was really getting into the local tunes

Maybe we might have some ghosts keeping us up tonight?

Day 6 - Hobart

Cookie says...
Even though as far as I'm concerned everyday is Holiday, the rest of the world decided it was Saturday and this meant the Salamanca Markets were on. After probably the best cooked breaky I've had ever had, we joined the masses. I'm not usually a big fan of markets but these were quite big and pretty good. Mim and Mikey had a couple they wanted to meet up with and Bec and Luke joined us too.

Behind the scenes at the Salamanca Markets

After the markets we strolled around town trying to find something to do. Oddly enough, Luke ended in an EB Games while Bec had her rings cleaned because there was nothing to do. We strolled some more, had lunch, found Mim and Mikey and headed for the Shot Tower. It was an interesting building which was built for the production of shot rounds and Mim managed to correctly count the number of steps allowing her to be presented with a certificate.

The view from the tower - 360° view

Next was Mt Wellington. It's quite a climb, even in a car, and while the view is wroth the effort, it is certainly breezy. Now, I've sat exposed on a few chairliffts but nothing prepared us for the battering we copped on Mount Wellington. With Luke being built like a rake, he had to wear lead boots to keep from flying away!

Julie is smiling... honest!

Bec and Luke headed off to do their own thing while the four of us headed to Mures for dinner. It's a flash restaurant and we were lucky to get a table. It was being shared with a bunch of girls there for a 16th birthday dinner. We had a giggle when one of the girls ordered a milkshake and the waitress replied with 'I think we have the ingredients to make it but I'll check that we can'. That's a bit low brow for this high brow kinda of establishment. But then Mikey goes and orders a bowl of chips for his entrée (the waitress even asked if he'd like a fork) and makes himself a chip sandwich with BBQ sauce! Anyway, it was a decent meal with Julz reminding me that her meal was better than mine (as usual).

This is the most expensive chip sanger he's ever had!

We had some dessert downstairs and headed back to our rooms to get some Ticket to Ride in.

Luke says...
Salamancan crepes are the best. Ham, cheese, spring onion with tomato salsa for the win. We even went back for more later!

Day 5 - Cradle Mountain

Cookie says...
Mim, Mikey and I rose pretty early today. They wanted to do another walk and I wanted to get more photos of Cradle Mountain if it's clear. It was, so we shot through. I set up one camera for some time-lapse while taking photos with the dSLR and the others went for their walk. I ended up talking to some guy and it turns out he was a pro who was shooting some stuff for Tourism Tasmania. I hung around him like a fly for a while and it was interesting to hear how he got into photography and videography. He even shot me (photographically that is) posing and vice versa.

This is why where here. This plus friends, cabins, wood heater,
food, drinks and games

It was the last day at Cradle and the photographer had recommended getting to some falls and Mim was keen for another walk (no surprises there) so we sent the others on their way to Hobart. We managed to bump into this guy again and he shot us walking alone the trail after I tried my hand at the falls. We bailed and caught up with the others in Ross for a late lunch.

Luke felt popular... and out numbered...

Bec and Luke stole one truck as they were staying with family while the rest of us headed to our accommodation. After a brief walk around Constitution Dock we ended up in a cheap pub eating five dollar meals and drinking a few pints of ale and cider. When we headed home we cracked out the Ticket to Ride and proceeded to have Mim slaughter us before hitting the hay.

Hopefully this isn't the only ghost we encounter

Bec says...
Attempting not to suggest any more detours in an effort to make it to Hobart by Christmas, we only made 2 official stops. The first was at King Solomon's Caves (disappointing in the end, as it cost too much to get in, and was already freezing outside the caves entrance), and the second was at Mole Creek (also disappointing, as the town was closed and all we wanted was hot chips for lunch - clearly too much to ask for).

Luke says...
Mole Creek is reminiscent of the pub with no beer.... we went to the cafe with a flashing "Open" sign, only to be told by the resident creepy man that there was no-one around to serve us. In fact, the whole town was like Adelaide i.e. closed.

Day 4 - Cradle Mountain

Cookie says...
Padawan Rebecca decided to have the morning in so the rest of us headed to the interpretation center (interpretive dance anyone?) to do a few of the short walks. Here we learnt the truth about why yesterdays hike went pear-shaped.

Our track was a dead-end but we kept on walking!

We did a few of the walks, took photos, found evidence of ent warfare (LotR reference) and Mim kept an eye out for wombats but to no avail.

Pencil Falls was a neat spot

Lunch was back at the ranch and afterwards we cracked out Citadels. Mim won and then we escaped for some more walking for photos. Mim was overjoyed to find some wombats. The light was pretty crumby so no time-lapse of Cradle Mountain at sunset.

The last known photo of this tourist
before he was mauled by this savage beast

Mim and Mikey went off on a night walk to look for wombats and check out Tasmanian Devils while we headed to the tavern for dinner and snuck in some 500. After they returned we cracked out Settlers where Mim proceeded to trash us.

Mim says...
I stalked some wombats and managed to pat one after some tourists herded it in my direction. After the night walk the tally stood at ten.

This will definately be the highlight of the trip

Luke says...
My knee hurts. So do my ribs.

Bec says...
I slept!

Day 3 - Cradle Mountain

Cookie says...
Two words: bush walk. And lots of it today. After breaky we sorted out our passes and headed for the Dove Lake carpark with the intent to do the two hour Dove Lake circuit. Two detours and six hours later and we arrived back at the car. I swear there was a warp in the space time continuum or we walked through a few temporal singularities because one sign said 1hr 30 and it took us 45mins but another sign said 1hr 45 and it took us somwhere between 2.5 - 3.0hrs. We even got the bum steer from a ranger... a RANGER!!!

The start was great. Boardwalk and some steps. Piece of pie. Then the first detour took us up a steep bit. We made Wilks Lake for lunch and continued. All we seemed to do is go up and up. We finally made Little Horn and started coming down to where there's an emergency hut and the path split nearby.

If we hadn't walked the circuit backwards,
we'd have seen this sign earlier!

Two people including a ranger said that the Twisted Lakes path was flat albeit muddy so we thought we'd do it and avoid a climb. Strange idea of flat. It was a hard slog up and down for hours. Not happy. But we made it back in one piece and we all feel impressed with where we walked and Mim was happy. Not only did she get to take some more detours, she now has a young Padawan in the form of Rebecca.

In spite of my whinging, the views are very rewarding

We returned to the cabins for nibbles, a roast dinner, games and some much needed sleep.

This made the hard slog worth it

Julie says...
I was looking forward to getting some hiking training in (I'm doing the Gold Coast Kokoda walk) but after getting lost beside a Twisted Lake I decided that this wasn't worth it.

It was all smiles at the start

Mikey says...
The walk was fantastic. Didn't see much wildlife though.

Mim and I having a ball. Haha... get it?
I'm so funny!

Luke says...
Even though I was at the back, I could still hear Mikey's singing. I feel sorry for the wildlife.

Mikey couldn't understand why he kept losing at Liars Dice

Bec says...
I was proud of my previous detour suggestion (day 1) when I lead the team to the Cataract Gorge... but not so proud of my later detour suggestion that had us turn a day of 'we'll just do a short walk' into what will go down in history as the longest hike ever. The team: noisy pants Mickey (you are the reason we didn't see any wildlife); always happy hiker Mim; the camera guy Pete; the camera guy's assistant (Julie your dedication to carry a camera tripod that entire trip was incredible); preggas (I would never have attempted this walk in my normal not-super-fit condition and now I was doing this 27 weeks pregnant); and the always helpful preggas assistant (Luke's dedication to push me up the hills, talk me through the hyperventilation and escort me down the rock faces will never be matched), are now available for hire if you are in the mood for an adventure hike with a twist.

I found snow!

Day 2 - Launceston

Cookie says...
The plan was to rise early, go for a walk and then meet for breaky but Mim let the team down. In fact, she's our first casualty. She had a big night last night, drinking like a fish and now she's paying for it. She's claims it was food poisoning (the scallops apparently) but we know the truth. Julz and I walked with the mercury registering 0 while Mikey took Mim to the hospital. The rest of us had breaky and caught up with them as Mim was being discharged.

It's a wee bit cold for a walk!

Before heading out of Launceston, we checked out Cataract Gorge (First Basin). We rode the chairlift (the worlds longest single span chairlift) to the other side and walked back via the suspension bridge. It's worth a visit.

Mim and Mikey went in search of a chemist while we headed for Cradle Mountain. On the way we passed through two towns who are clearly in competition with easch other in the uniqueness stakes. Railton which is 'The Town of Topiary' (whatever that is) is full of shaped hedges and Sheffield is 'The Town of Murals'.

The vandals out here are a special breed

A 45 minute windey road later and our car was the second to arrive at the cabins. We checked in, fired up the wood heater, fell in love with the place and started feasting on the food (courtesy of Ashgrove Cheese Farm and a bakery) and wine we'd bought during the day. Gout here we come!

Glad to see they use real moo cows for their cheese

It's interesting to see how people occupy themselves. I have my cameras, Julie and Mim have their books, Bec and Luke have their dice and cards while Mikey talks to himself. We're here for three nights, hoping for snow (unlikely), and swingers party jokes aside, we have several board, card and dice games to keep us occupied.

The team doing what they do best

Julie says...
The Town of Topiary was a unique find on the journey. I was devistated at the thought of arriving at Cradle Mountain with no win after the large town of Sheffield provided a mediocre IGA and no Bottle-O (that we could find).

Is this a work in progress or topiary nudity?

Mim says...
Being sick is bad. Poor Mikey. he had trouble figuring out how to rub my back while sticking his fingers in his ears to stave off sympathetic spewing.

Mikey says...
Cracked the windscreen today... don't tell Cookie...

Day 1 - Launceston

Cookie says...
Well, we're (read: I'm) at it again. We're off to Tasmania and this time we're not alone. The man who was with me (and inspired me) when this blog first started, Mikey, is here and he's brought a wife (Mim). Oh, Mikey says hi. Also, long time reader Luke Allen-Ankins has saddled up with us and he too has brought his wife (Rebecca). And naturally I have brought my wonderful wife (Julie) too and Mikey says hi.

Funnily enough... Mikey says hi... we're sitting in the JetStar waiting lounge and they're showing a movie about a plane crash. Nice choice. Mikey says hi.

Anyway, the flight came and went, we picked up the cars and headed to our accomodation after a detour. Yup, they've started already. This one was Rebecca's but I swear Mim sponsored it! As any self respecting tourist would do, after checking in we headed to the pub for dinner and some James Boags on tap (when in Rome!). Good food and great company but I reckon that if this is the norm for the rest of the trip then checked in baggage won't be the only weight I'll be worried about when coming home!

For Sarah's benefit, and Mikey says hi... it turns out I didn't need to bring the bowl or the keys because these days there's an app for it.

Okay, Mikey... I appreciate your keeness to contribute but please get back in your box! Mim, where's his medication?

Mikey says...
I loved the view from the window seat!

Mim says...
I'm really excited that I'm travelling again and the best part is that Mikey and I had Cook Tours organise this trip for us!

Luke says...
Mikey stole my window seat!