Tasmania

This morning we were up at about 8:00 am to get ready for our first activity of the day, a trip to a local winery. We decided to forgo breakfast but just as we were getting ready to leave our room, we got a phone call to say that the winery that we were visiting had been flooded, such was the quantity of rain again overnight. Plans were rearranged for a slightly later departure to a different winery, so we decided that we’d make use of the extra time by having breakfast.

After breakfast we met our guide, Paul, hopped into a van, and headed off to Freycinet Vineyards in Bicheno (which is about a half-hour drive from the hotel). We were welcomed by Claudio (the owner) and then introduced to Keira, the winemaker. We spent a couple of hours with Kiera, learning all about winemaking in Tasmania and trying a number of the local wines. We really enjoyed the discussion, and we really appreciated Keira’s enthusiasm and passion for winemaking.

We left the vineyards around 12:30 pm and headed back to the hotel. Since we had another activity booked for 2:00 pm, we decided to head straight to the restaurant for some lunch when we got back.

After lunch we went back upstairs to the hotel lobby to meet Mick, the local indigenous historian. We spent nearly three hours with Mick, learning about the history and culture of the indigenous locals. This was very interesting and we appreciated Mick’s willingness to share his knowledge with us. He even made some damper for us, which we ate with a sweet tree sap.

By the time we finished chatting about culture and history with Mick, it was nearly 5:00 pm. We decided to go back to our room and think about what we’d do next. When we got back to our room, we discovered a nice treat that the hotel staff had left for us.

Since we still had a little time before dinner, we thought we should go for a walk down to the beach. When we got down to the beach, we were surprised by how much water was rushing out of the river into the ocean. The beach and weather were not at their best so we didn’t stay very long before walking back.

On the way back, we stopped by the hotel foyer and had a chat with Patrick, the hotel’s general manager. We then decided we should get a photo of the two of us from the hotel’s lobby with the coastline scenery in the background. But the scenery was intent on hiding behind the clouds (as it has since we arrived on Monday)! We got a photo anyway but we’re hoping for a clearer day tomorrow.

Since we were already out, we decided to stay out and admire some of the local plants in the hotel’s grounds. The diversity of plant life here is pretty amazing.

After our walk we contemplated going straight to dinner but we decided that it was probably a little too early to eat again. So we went to the lounge and enjoyed a relaxing drink, looking out over the bay. We were joined by Matt, the assistant general manager, and we chatted with him for about half an hour before finishing our drinks, extracting ourselves from the very comfortable lounge chairs, and walking across to the restaurant for a lovely dinner.

We finished dinner around 9:45 pm and walked back to our room to retire for the evening.

Tomorrow we have a walk planned in the morning and in the afternoon we’re driving to Hobart.