Tasmania

This morning we were up early (after not enough sleep!) to head off to the airport for our 10:00 am departure to Launceston. We were a bit slow getting away but we got to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

After checking in and getting through security, we headed for the lounge to relax before the flight. One of the great things about travelling is developing an understanding of different people around the world. But standing in line at the bar in the Qantas lounge at Tullamarine, waiting to order a coffee, and hearing the bloke in front order an almond milk piccolo, just takes it to a whole new level!

At about 9:30 am we wandered down to the gate for boarding. We settled in for the relatively short flight (of just under an hour) but waited for a while as a result of various on-ground issues. We got away about half an hour behind schedule. The flight was very pleasant and just long enough to have a nice meal en route. After landing and disembarking, we headed off to the Avis desk to do the paperwork for our hire car while waiting for our bags to appear on the luggage carousel (which they did after a wait of about half an hour!).

At about midday we headed out of Launceston Airport for the drive of about two hours to Saffire on the Freycinet peninsula. The drive was quite scenic, even though the rain had well and truly set in. We got to Saffire about 2:00 pm and were greeted by Patrick, the hotel’s general manager. Patrick seemed familiar to us. We established that he previously worked at Qualia and Longitude 131, so we probably met him at one of those resorts on a previous trip. Patrick procured champagne for us and talked us through the program they had set up for us for the next few days. It seems that there won’t be a lot of time for resting!

The first item on the program was to have lunch, which was very nice. We sat and looked over the bay (or what we could see of it between the clouds and rain) while enjoying our lunch. But we couldn’t sit for too long because we had a cooking demonstration set up for us at 3:00 pm.

The cooking demonstration was good fun. One of the hotel’s chefs took us through a ramen recipe, which was very tasty. After the demonstration we had a tour of the kitchen, which was very interesting.

Next up we headed back to the foyer to meet our guide to take us to see the Tasmanian devils that live on the property. The devils were fascinating, although it would be a stretch to call them cute. We learned a lot about the efforts to bring them back from the edge of extinction and even how some of the research being done on them has human medical implications.

After finishing up with the Tasmanian devils, we walked back up to the hotel lobby. We decided to sit by the fire and enjoy a cocktail (or mocktail), looking out over the beautiful (but still very wet and cloudy!) view, before heading to the restaurant for dinner.

Our table at the restaurant had a very nice view (although some imagination was still required because of the clouds and rain). We enjoyed watching a kookaburra just outside the restaurant, as it moved from tree to tree.

We were spoiled for choice at dinner. We opted for the à la carte menu rather than the full degustation menu (since it’s only the first day and we’re trying to exercise a little restraint!).

After a beautiful dinner, we were back in our room by around 8:00 pm. The room is lovely, very spacious, and very nicely appointed. We have a private plunge pool but it’s doubtful that we’ll brave the cold weather to go out and actually plunge into it. We also have a kitchen, which we don’t plan on cooking in! However, we can get one of the hotel’s chefs to cook in our kitchen if we want to have dinner cooked for us in our room.

The plan now is to have a reasonably early night in anticipation of tomorrow’s activities. However, it’s raining pretty heavily at the moment so we’ll see what the weather’s like in the morning and we may reassess our plans.