Almost back to right!

I'm writing this in Tasmania, while the kids are home in Melbourne with mum and dad. Duncan and I have flown back to collect our belongings in the hope of reuniting our scattered lives. We had a car full of stuff in Melbourne, a car full of stuff in Launceston and a bus full of stuff in Hobart! 2 more days and we should be all back together again...

We had a lovely time in Melbourne. The children popped into school for a day or two, but really we treated it like any other stop on this trip. Living in my uncle and aunt's house "out in the hills" meant we had this truly gorgeous view:

We took the kids to the Docklands in Melbourne for a day of tourist activities. We went on the new Melbourne Star observation thingie which is FINALLY working after goodness knows how many years of construction. It cost us $80 for the family and I'm not really that sure I'd recommend it. I think perhaps it was because it was first thing in the morning on a school day and it was really quiet. All of the stuff in the he gift shop is very 'light up' and I'm sure it would be a far better experience at night. There's also a ltittle fairground right next door with rides and amusements and I think going at dusk on a summers evening would be lots of fun. 

After our high ride, we went ice skating. Lexie was super keen to go and Duncan rather less so. I'd never been so was looking forward to trying it out. I think we can safely say that Duncan and Angus HATE ice skating, I would happily never do it again, and Lexie is the only one who truly enjoyed herself! At least we can say we all gave it a go, and now Angus and I know we do not enjoy it.

We finished off with a trip to the museum to see the James Bond exhibition which Duncan had been really looking forward to. Unfortunately it finished the DAY BEFORE so he was somewhat peeved. I believe he refered to the day as "Torture Duncan Day". We did get to see the rest of the museum, including parts we had never gotten to before, so the rest of us enjoyed ourselves. 

Catching up with friends and family was the best bit. We had a lovely big party to celebrate 6 different birthdays in the Gough family and got to catch up with everyone. We had playdates with friends form school and dinners with other friends. The children did lots of schoolwork at home and some at school too.

And then it was time for Duncan and I to fly back to Launceston to collect our car and drive to Hobart to collect our dear Bertha!

‘Home’ for a while

Well ‘home’ as in Melbourne. Not ‘home’ as in ‘on Bertha’. It feels a little weird being here without her. I kind of feel like a fraud. We promised everyone we’d be back with Bertha at the start of Feb, and now we’ve slunk back in with our tail between our legs and no Bertha in sight.

But we have been incredibly lucky! My wonderful Uncle and Aunt had a very well-timed and entirely unexpected holiday which meant they left the night before we arrived. They oh-so-kindly offered us their house while they are gone so we are living rent-free in a BEAUTIFUL and ENORMOUS house in the hills. The children could easily have stayed in a room of their own, but Angus said “I’m too used to being close to Lexie. Please could you move the bed in so we can share?” Soooo sweet! After we arrived the first night and unpacked a bit (unzipped our bags, made the bed and put the toiletry bags on the bathroom bench. Yeah… that took a whole 3 minutes!) Dunc and I were standing in the kitchen making a cup of tea. “I reckon you could get 7 Berthas in here!” he said. LOL.

We have had a fantastic few days. We had a lovely lunch with my Mum and Dad and Dunc’s mum, and then have been tarting ourselves around to various close friends for dinner. It’s been so nice to catch up with everyone!  We visited our darling kitty cats and their wonderful foster family. It’s so nice to see them settled and comfortable with them. They were both a bit confused with their ‘old people’ and ‘new people’ all together. After a good hour or so I was allowed to pick up and cuddle each cat which was reassuring.

Yesterday the children and I each went to school. Them for a day to catch-up with their classes and teachers, and me for a yummy lunch and gossip with my work friends. You’ve never seen a child more excited to go to school than Lexie! I dropped Dunc at his mum’s and he got to play in the garage and unearth an old telephone that his father had kept in there. Now whenever we see one in a museum I won’t have to hear Dunc fret about their old one!

So here we are, pottering around and waiting for the call from the mechanic. It’s a little like the last few days of being pregnant. We know that Bertha will be ready one day soon, but we don’t know when. Meanwhile we wait. Today Dunc took the kids to Scienceworks and I went out for lunch with Mum and my cousins and other Aunties. And tonight we are safe and warm and all have comfy beds to sleep in. Lovely!!

Launceston (again)

Being in Launceston gave us the chance to catch up with some attractions we hadn’t seen the first time around:

The QVMAG Museum which has a brilliant section quite like our Scienceworks. The kids (and adults) had a ball playing in there before we all checked out a movie and starfield in the planetarium.

The Automobile Museum where we saw cars from the Model T Ford right up to the modern Charger.

The City Park, where they have a display of Japanese Macaque monkeys.

And a ‘short’ drive south to have a tour of the Callington Mill and pop into Ross to check out the bridge.
Oh and Duncan FINALLY got to do a brewery tour!

We had found some accommodation with a swimming pool! That really isn’t so easy in Tasmania. I know we are here in the hottest time of the year, but there really are very few pools anywhere to be found. Fortunately this was the place with the indoor pool, free wifi and free kid’s accommodation. Yet again though, we were disappointed with the wifi. For the THIRD time, the wifi didn’t reach our rooms/cabin. Why do places advertise wifi if they can’t get it to all of the rooms?? “Oh yeah.. it doesn’t quite reach all the way down to (whatever)” was what we heard. Over and over again. We had to sit at the pool if we wanted to access the free stuff – which admittedly was wonderfully fast and free when we did! We have had no end of dramas with wifi and coverage in Tasmania. I don’t know how the locals can stand the limited service they have. In so many caravan parks we have had only one or one and a half bars of service. We fully expected to have issues with coverage on this trip, but not in fairly well sized towns!

So here we are, back in Launceston and about to head to Melbourne tomorrow. On a plane. Without Bertha. The kids are excited about the flight, and I am excited about not having to pay for accommodation, but it just feels weird not having our home with us.

Bridport and the North Coast

After our day driving all over the eastern tip of Tassie, we headed along the north coast.  We started by heading out to the local lavender farm to grab ourselves the hottest item in Asia right now - the Bridestowe Bobby Bear! ABC Story On the way we drove past this little beauty on the side of the road and had to stop and ask the price. We've been admiring everyone else's camp fires in all the caravan parks. We were expecting to see them ask over $200 for it. $120 - Bargain!!

Having earlier stayed in Kelso, this time we checked out the eastern side of the Tamar River and headed up to George Town. There we saw another lighthouse and spent a lovely afternoon going through the local Maritime Museum.

It was full of whale bones and shipwreck relics and was quite interesting. The kids had been in the car for a few hours by the time we got to the museum, and sadly the older gentlemen who was volunteering on the door that day wasn’t too good at reading his audience. He wouldn’t let us into the museum without a lovely long lecture on the full history of George Town. It was quite fascinating but after a good 10 minutes I had to quietly excuse myself and the children before the two of them throttled the poor man! Thank goodness the first room had a thrilling HUGE whalebone display and the kids were soon thoroughly engrossed in that. And Dunc remained behind to hear the rest of the lecture…

From George Town we headed south along the Tamar to Launceston.

Bicheno and the East Coast

After our stay at Port Arthur, we headed up the east coast. We chose Bicheno and St Helens as our spots to stay, although in hindsight I would thoroughly recommend Binnalong Bay over St Helens.

In Bicheno we spent some time chilling out and hitting the schoolbooks, hiking up to the Wineglass bay lookout, checking out the local penguins (some of whom lived under the cabins where we were staying!), taking a ride in a glass bottomed boat and playing at the blow hole.

In St Helens we got to celebrate Dunc’s birthday over multiple days thanks to a very poorly timed power outage. We heard the bang and saw the flash as a good-sized branch hit the power lines outside the caravan park. Thankfully we had enough food in our plastic tub for dinner. We drove all through town in the hope of finding somewhere open to eat out and celebrate Dunc’s birthday, but absolutely NOTHING was open. So Dunc got to have a double birthday.

We spent a couple of days driving around the Northeastern corner of Tassie. We went to Pyenganna and saw the Pub in the Paddock which has a beer-drinking pig named Pinky. We spent the rest of the afternoon speaking in p’s just like Mr Popper’s assistant and Dunc was by far the best (preposterously perfect at pontificating prodigious parses purporting p’s)! We also stopped at the Pyenganna Dairy Farm and watched the cows milk themselves. It was an amazing process and we were quite mesmerised watching the automated milking robot at work.

We headed up as far North as possible, past Binnalong Bay and the gorgeous Bay of Fires with its stunning orange rocks, to the Eddystone Point Lighthouse. From the stunning white sand beaches to the rainforest; we went back to Pyenganna and checked out the St Columbus waterfall that we didn’t know about the day before – whoops! It also gave Dunc the chance to check out some ciders and micro-brewed beers at the Welsborough Pub.

Heading ‘home’ for a bit.

We are a little demoralized. We got news today that Bertha’s engine changeover is taking longer than the longer than expected and we have to move our ferry trip back another 12 – 14 days.

We’ve seen sooooo much of Tasmania. We’ve done “nearly everything, Mummy!” according to the kids, and they are kind of right. There’s sooooo much more we could do, of course, but having to pay for accommodation every night is killing us! And almost everywhere adds another price gouge for the kids – an extra $10 to $20 per child per night. AND you have to make their beds for them! How the hell do they get away with that?!? We are currently in Launceston in a hotel which has FREE kids accommodation, FREE wifi and an indoor pool. And its about the cheapest rate per night so far.

But even so, it’s cheaper for us to fly the whole family home to Melbourne for 12 days and Duncan and I will fly back to collect Bertha when she is repaired. We’ve done our lap around Tas, seen so very much and we are just sick of packing our stuff and moving house every 2-4 days. The kids are sick of the sight of Baby Bertha - though they haven’t complained once about all the driving! Dunc is sick of packing our stuff in the car over and over and over again. We need a break.

So we are off to Melbourne, where we will still be homeless! But at least we can bunk down with relatives and I’m certain we won’t have to move every 2 days. It will be great to see all our family and friends and catch up for a bit.

We have a few days here still – time enough for Dunc to get to the brewery he hasn’t got to yet and for Angus to explore one more museum. I’ll be back soon with some fill-in posts about our time travelling up the east coast, which was just beautiful!