Tasmania

After a big day yesterday (which included a lot of eating!) we decided to prioritise sleep over breakfast this morning. We got up about 8:30 am and got ourselves organised for the activities of the day. There had been a lot of rain over night but the day looked like it might stay dry.

We headed up to the hotel lobby at about 9:15 am to meet our guide, Rob, for the first activity of the day: an education on bee-keeping. Rob was very knowledgeable and very enthusiastic about his bees. After a very entertaining talk, we donned our protective suits and headed off the hives, stopping many times on the way for Rob to tell us about the flora of the area and how it related to the lives of the bees. It sounds a bit quirky but it was extremely interesting. We enjoyed looking at the hives and getting up close with the bees.

After learning about the bees, it was time then to try some honey. The honey was unbelievably good. We tasted it on its own and then paired some local cheeses with honeycomb (cut fresh out of a frame on the spot) and washed it down with a local cider. It was all good but the fresh honeycomb was a standout.

At the conclusion of the bee tour we headed back to the hotel. We decided that we might as well keep the eating going so we headed straight to the restaurant for lunch.

After lunch we went back to our room and succumbed to the idea of a short nap. We probably had only about 20 minutes of sleep but it was enough to revive us. As we were getting ready to leave the room again to head to our next activity, we had a delivery of freshly-baked tarts from the kitchen (which we opted to put in the fridge for later, since we were still full from lunch).

We left our room and headed for the lobby to meet our guides, Fayth and Matt, who were taking us to the Freycinet Marine Farm to educate us about oysters. We hopped in a small van and headed off down the bumpy dirt road to the marine farm.

Our first task upon arrival at the oyster farm was to put on our waders. It’s fair to say that they weren’t very flattering!

We then went to the shed with the sorting machine, which grades the oysters according to size. The oyster farm is run by just five men and given that they are managing a few million oysters in the marine farm, any automation is a huge help.

Next we waded out into the water and inspected the oysters at various ages. They are generally harvested at about three years of age but can grow to more than 20 years old. After plenty of education about oysters, all that was left to do was to eat some! Our guides had set up a lovely table for us out in the water so we were lucky enough to be eating oysters in their natural habitat. We had a choice of sauces and condiments to put on our freshly shucked oysters. We are not really big fans of oysters but if ever there was a time to eat them, it was now! So, we loaded up one each with something to make them go down a bit easier (lime for Andrea and ponzu sauce for Keith) and, after the recommended amount of chewing and savouring, down they went! We were glad we ate them but we are unlikely to make it a habit! After a lesson on how to shuck an oyster, we waded back to the shore to jump back into the van to return to the hotel. (In the photos below you can see that the water is quite murky. We are told that it is normally crystal clear but the recent huge rainfalls have caused a lot of run-off into the river, which has caused the discolouration.)

Upon arrival back at the hotel we headed straight to the bar for a lesson on mixing cocktails. We learned how to make a few very nice cocktails, all of which then had to be consumed!

The cocktail course finished just after 5:00 pm so we decided that we’d relax in the lounge for a little while before heading to the restaurant for an early dinner. We didn’t plan on eating any more food before dinner but food arrived and we ate it!

We headed to the restaurant around 6:00 pm. We opted for the degustation menu, which featured some really nice dishes.

We got back to the room around 8:30 pm with not much left to do for the day but to head to bed!

Tomorrow we have a couple of activities booked: a trip to a local winery and a lesson on local history.