Forrest

After we left Melbourne we spent four days in the Otway Ranges at a beautiful campsite at Stevenson's Falls. It was very wet and pretty cold, but very beautiful. We had another visit by a Superb Fairy Wren and his harem, we often have them at our campsite and love watching them.

Melbourne

We had a week in Melbourne with lots to do. Our busy week began staying with Jo & Simon for the night (thanks again guys) and then we camped down on foreshore at Rosebud. We were very excited to time our arrival with Mary and John (Tim's parents) who were in Melbourne for the day on a cruise. We met them at Port Melbourne and caught the tram into the city and had beautiful yum cha. After lunch we took them back to the port and said our farewells. It was so fantastic to see them both again, it has been too long! We then headed back into to town for a stroll around and to show the kids the street art in the alleyways.
We caught up with so many good friends as well as family during the week which included a great picnic, beautiful meals and lots of laughs. We even had visitors at our little home, which was fantastic! Thanks to everyone for their hospitality and for driving so far to see us.

Tazmazia!

Yes Tazmazia, its not a typo its a theme park full of you guessed it, mazes. Lots of fun running through very impressive mazes, pancakes at the end and more crazy mushrooms! We liked there attitude towards children and they seemed quite wise to some of our woes.

Cradle Mountain

Mary and Shane at Latrobe was close enough to Cradle Mountain so we could do a day trip up there rather than stay up where it was much cooler! We had a gorgeous day with perfect weather as we made our way around Dove Lake. It was the last thing left to do on our wish list of Tassie and and once again we were not disappointed. Oh and we thought the blue and purple mushrooms were amazing!

Mary & Shane

My cousin Mary made a very generous offer to park our camper on her property while we were at Penny's place, hopefully she didn't regret it! We spent a wonderful five days with her and Shane and their great boys Luke and Nick. We all loved feeding the animals and helping out where we could and I am not sure who wants a horse more, Tim or Lola!  Thankfully the Easter Bunny found us while we were there and we had a wonderful lunch with Mary, Shane, Luke and Nick as well as Anne, Ange and Sam on Good Friday. So great to spend some time with the relies in Tassie and hope to see them all again soon and thanks again to Mary, Shane, Nick and Luke for having us!
The dress Lola is wearing below is the dress Mary wore as flower girl at my Mum & Dad's wedding. I couldn't believe she had the dress still and Lola had to try it on. It didn't quite fit but Mary had another dress of hers that fit perfectly... combine that with Mary's horse ribbons and Lola became Tasmanian royalty.

We found a platypus at last!!!

The elusive platypus! We had spent hours sitting by rivers in Mt Field and various other locations. We were still, quiet and always looked around dusk but we had no luck. We had been told that Latrobe is the place to see them. We had hope, we were heading to Latrobe! We stopped in Deloraine to have a picnic lunch and a look around on the way. The kids were feeding their crusts to the ducks and swans and right there in the middle of a town, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the ducks & swans was a platypus! We watched him for ages, he wasn't bothered by the ducks and swans at all but they were certainly bothered by him.

Launceston and the Tamar Valley

Launceston was the last city in our Tassie Tour to explore. We used it as a base to also look around the east and west Tamar Valley. On our journey up to George Town we went for a walk along the beach at the mouth of the Tamar River. As we were walking along we saw two horses come around the corner and watched as their riders rode them hard along the length of the beach and back several times. It was just awesome to witness such fit horses at full gallop so close up. The sound of their hooves on the hard sand was amazing.

Musselroe Bay

We made our way to the top north east corner of Tassie, it was not the best weather and the seas were pretty wild. It was a lot more remote than we thought it would be, very beautiful and lots of wind farms. We stopped on the way at the Pub in the Paddock and had a quick drink while marvelling at the size of Prescilla the Pig. We could have bought her a beer, but to be honest we didn't think she needed it!

St Helens and the Bay of Fires

We stayed at a free camp outside of St Helens and explored the Bay of Fires and the amazing coastline nearby from there. We had lots of fun climbing around rocks and exploring beaches. Tim rescued a poor Pacific Gull that had eaten a fish still attached to some fishing line. It was stuck in the waves, very tired and very angry. He managed to get close enough to grab the line and it broke. We don't think it was completely untangled but it was able to fly and get out of water.

Freycinet National Park

We were so excited to leave Hobart and be on the road again! Our first stop was Freycinet National Park and were greeted with beautiful weather. The beach was perfect for relaxing on and watching the sun go down, which we took full advantage of. We walked over the range and down onto the beach of Wineglass Bay... so beautiful!

Seven Mile Beach

After eight weeks it was time to say good bye to Seven Mile Beach. It was a lovely place to stay with the beautiful beach with its constantly changing colours as well as the pine forest behind it. The kids built themselves a great fort with the help of some other kids they met and over time it grew to be quite impressive. We had such a wonderful time in Hobart and will miss a lot of things, including the Bellerive Farmers Market, where we discovered a local honey maker with a great sense of humour!

Penny & Tony's Farm

Before leaving Hobart, we headed north and spent a day visiting my cousin Penny. We had a great day walking through her paddocks and Tim even got to work and helped load some firewood. The kids learnt how to play "Hello Cow" which they love (and Tim says thanks for that Penny). It involves yelling "Hello Cows" at a field of cows (or sheep or goats or horses) and seeing how many look at you. Their bulls, including Fergus a scottish highland breed, were very impressive to us city slickers. It was lovely to catch up with Penny and Tony as well as Mary (my other cousin), her sons Nick & Luke and Tony's daughter Julie and her son Jack! I don't know why I didn't get anymore photos than just the bull, maybe too busy catching up to think of photos.

Port Arthur and Remarkable Cave

Back to the Tasman Peninsular to explore Port Arthur on a very cold morning. The kids enjoyed the convict stories but really enjoyed playing with the leg irons. We nearly got away from them but they didn't seem to have any locks for the leg irons. Its a pretty impressive attraction and we were happy we had the option to leave!
Tim had heard about Remarkable Cave and was keen to check it out. We wondered if it could stand up to its name... we should have know better, of course it did! It has two entrances open to the sea and we got lucky with the tides so could have a good explore.