February 22, 23, 24 - Start of Great Ocean Road

February 22 - Dalty's Birthday - I thought he would go golfing but not today, made a tee time for tomorrow instead. 

We arrived in Ballarat, which is another gold mining town.  The town is not as nice as Bendigo but it was raining there so we moved on, without getting a chance to take photos of the beautiful buildings.  Apparently, with all the riches from the gold mines in and around the area the town used the taxes to build some fabulous structures.  All the government offices and churches are particularly beautiful and big.

Anyway, back to Ballarat...we checked into the caravan park and were given all sorts of information about what to see.  We immediately left to go downtown to do some exploring.  Dalton found the Midlands Golf Course, he made a tee time and then we went into the lounge to watch Team Canada get their asses kicked by USA, we were not happy, however, we only saw the last period and it was a good one.  

We went to the centre of town, we were told the Gold Exchange was something to see, so we went.  It was a beautiful building, but we liked what was inside better.  The owner of the property was also the goldsmith that made the jewellery.  Dalton bought me a beautiful rose gold ring with gold nuggets on it.  A treasure from our travels in Oz.

We drove to Sovereign Hill, which was the next thing everyone said not to miss.  By the time we found it, it was too late to go in so decided to go the next day.  

We went to the golf course early in the morning, I had a good book so I waited in the comfort of the camper.  I went and played the pokies for a short time while I waited.  When Dalton got back, the lawn bowlers had arrived in the lounge so we decided to leave right away.  Dalton enjoyed the golf course and played with two sets of golfers, he is pretty versatile when it gets right down to it.

We went to Sovereign Hill, it was too late in the day to go through so we purchased tickets for the next day and decided we would stay for the dinner show and see the performance of the Eureka battle for the Southern Cross.  Dinner was at 8:00 and the performance started at 9:00.  We had a few hours to kill so we went over to the Gold Museum.  What a place, we spent about 2 1/2 hours there and still could have stayed longer.  A very interesting place and I am sure the contents are quite valuable.  Dalty needed a sleep so we went back to the camper, in the parking lot, he slept, I read.  When it was time for dinner, we changed clothes and were ready for our evening.

The performance was really great, very informative.  There were 275 people at the performance and 225 were school kids.  They were totally mesmerized by the performance as it was all about the battle bringing independence to Australia.  The performance ended at 10:30.  We made it home in about 10 minutes and had a great sleep, finally cool enough to actually sleep.  It has been horrifically hot during the day and doesn't cool off very well at night.  We have been swimming at the end of the day to cool ourselves off, it helps for a short while.

Today we went back to Sovereign Hill to, to see the rest of the town.  It is very much like Barkerville.  The townspeople are all dressed in period costumes.  We stayed there until about 1:30 and then we left for the Great Ocean Road.

You can take a carriage ride around the site if you wish.

Dalton was really impressed with the Wheelwright (you know, the guys that make wagon wheels).  I had to drag him away.

A lonely little petunia in an onion patch... this was one of the gardens at the mine owners house. 

On the way we came upon a little town, and I mean little town called "Lethbridge" we had to take a picture to prove it.  Truly a one horse town, we even saw the horse.  The surrounding area is much the same as Lehtbridge, Alberta.  I wonder where it got it's name.

When we arrived at the Great Ocean Road, we stopped in Torquay, the surf beach and the home of Rip Curl.  We took pictures of the surf and the beaches.  On to Aireys Inlet Holiday Park, we set up the camper and walked around the area, found a nice little pub for dinner and rushed home so I could do this...free WiFi again.

This is the start of the Great Ocean Road at Torquay - this is the swimming beach. 

This is the surfer's beach.

The next picture is a bunch of cockatoos in the site beside us.  Cute eh!

February 20 & 21, 2010

We left Yarram, a pretty little town, very well kept at 9:00 and we only went a short way before we stopped at a waterfall, had to get out to take some pictures it was in the Tarra Valley.  When we came up from the waterfall there was a local family out for a morning walk with their dog so we stopped for a chat.  They told us about some places we should not miss.  Our next stop was to see a suspension bridge and saw another waterfall - Cayalea Falls - very nice and we only had to walk about 1/2 hour to see it.  

 This was a funny little waterfall, we had to walk down to it, instead of up, very pretty though

The foliage is so different, the ferns seem to grow out of anything.

 

 Cyalea Falls

The walking paths are so nice, look at the stairs in the woods!

 

 Look at the size of that tree!

A suspension bridge in the middle of the forest.

A canopy of ferns below the suspension bridge.

 We stopped for lunch at a little place, especially for tourists, it was 42 degrees at 1:45 - we left town in a hurry.

The roads were extremely narrow and winding. They don't have shoulders on lots of the roads and I spent the entire drive white knuckling it.  I have always felt safe and secure when Dalton is behind the wheel but this vehicle does not instill confidence.  I don't know if it is because I am so close to the front of the vehicle or, if it because I am so high up, whatever the reason, I don't like it much.

We stayed at Healesville and were parked beside a couple from France.  They live very close to Ron(Dalton's cousin) and Beate's  summer home.  

We left the campground at 9:00 because I wanted to go to the Healesville Sanctuary.  They have a Platypus House there and I finally got to see what a Platypus really looks like.  There were two, one small one and one big one.  What a thrill that was.  They are very shy little fellows and not many people get to see them, they usually hide.

We stopped at Marysville today, that is the town that was nearly wiped out by the fires last year.  They are doing a marvelous job of rebuilding.  We were hesitant to go there because we didn't want to seem to be gawking at other people's misery, however, the lady at the Information center said that they liked people to come.  The only building that survived was the Bakery and it does a booming business.  Tourists are flocking there by the dozens to help with the rebuilding by showing their support.  We bought a couple of smoked trout which we had for dinner, yum yum!

We are staying at Bendigo tonight, it is in the heart of gold country.  Dalton went to bed early and I am heading there myself, free WiFi so had to get as much done as I could.  I am now being eaten alive by those pesky mossies. 

Leaving Tassie for the Mainland

We left Hobart at 9:00 on Monday morning the 15th of February,  Arrived in Melbourne, after having to pay $230.00 for excess baggage.  We flew via Jet Star and they allow 20kg. per person and $10.00 per kg. after that, they did give us a break because it should have been $300.00.  I tell you, going naked doesn't sound so bad anymore!

We had to drag all of our luggage, golf clubs too, to McDonalds, which is about a 5 minute walk from the airport as the van was to be delivered to us there.  When we arrived we found that it had been driven down from Sydney.  We therefore had to deliver the driver and his wife, both named Chris..back to the depot as they were taking a van back to Sydney for the company.  We spend the better part of the day going over the vehicle and finding out what was missing and what we needed to acquire, so off to the big boys store to pick up a few things.  Dalton had asked for a Jerry Can for gas and an outdoor table. They purchased both for us and we were on our way.  

We wanted to get as far out of Melbourne as we could, we made it about 1/2 hour out of town, found a campsite and there we parked for the night.  After being up so early and having so much stressful running around we were both asleep by 8:00.  

Tuesday, we drove to Phillip Island, we wanted to see the Fairy Penguins there and heard it was a beautiful place to be.  It really is a beautiful spot, sandy beaches all around, the water is warm also.  We spent the rest of the day looking around the town.  The town we stayed in was called Cowes, we haven't figured out the correct way to say it yet, we were afraid to ask in case it was the obvious.

This little guy was sitting under a walkway at the Nobbies.  That evening we went to the Penguin Parade..awesome.  I couldn't get any pictures because we couldn't use the flash but we were able to have a picture taken, have to wait to get to Stuart's to scan it.

 Wednesday, we drove all over the island and visited everything there was to see.  We went to the Chocolate Factory where they have an exact replica of Michaelangelo's David made out of solid chocolate, the difference is, this one has a fig leaf and the real one doesn't.  I can attest, it is anatomically correct.    

This was absolutely amazing!  The picture does not do it justice.  If it wasn't so time consuming I would add the town made entirely of chocolate.  What a place.

 We also went to see the Penguin Parade, we paid a little extra and got a special tour, there were only 10 and the conservation officer in our group as opposed to the 3000 Chinese who showed up as their way of celebrating Chinese New Year.  The big groups go to one part of the Island and sit on bleachers to watch the penguins come out of the water and make their way to their burrows we, however, were taken to another part of the beach where we were supplied with night goggles, flashlights and comfy chairs to sit on.  The penguins came right up beside us on their way home, we also walked among them on our way back to our starting point.  There were at least 200 of the little guys, the only are about 33cm tall, very cute and soft too.  We also saw three wallabies close up and personal.  We arrived back at the campground at 11:30 and everyone around us was asleep. 

Thursday we decided to have a beach day as the most beautiful beech was just 100m from our doorstep.  We were only able to stay there for a short while as the sun here is extremely hot and the old ozone layer is slip sliding away, so you have to be very careful.  

Friday, We left Cowes and headed south, we want to see some of Victoria before we hit the Great Ocean Road.  

Our first stop was Tarwin Lower (they do have different names here) and we took a walk by the river, looked like crocodiles should have been leaping out at us, but there aren't any in this part of the country. 
 

Our next stop was to Venus Bay which is a beautiful surfing beach, there were a few people out but not as many as you would think, this is summer.

We stopped at Walkerville to look at the old Kilns, huge things and again the most beautiful beach with miles of sand, we walked in the water and decided it was every bit as warm as Maui.   

Lunch was at Foster at the Exchange Hotel, Dalton wanted to go there and it has a beautiful facade.  The lunch was $18.00 each, pretty expensive down here.  I guess we can miss dinner tonight.  

We stopped at a little town called Yarrem, a very nice campground, not by the water but has nice facilities and we can park on green grass, something we haven't seen much of lately.

It takes such a long time to download our pictures onto the blog and we have lots, will save this for later.

Peppermint Bay Cruise

Wednesday Feb.11 - Today Ellie arranged for us to go on a cruise out of Hobart.  We left the dock at 11:00 and arrived back at 4:30.  Again, we had a lovely, comfortable boat, this time we had the center area, horseshoe shape, seating for 8 with 2 table in a raised area.  It pays to go with someone who has an in, however, Ellie's last day is today so we were lucky to get the chance to go.  The crew were very knowledgeable regarding the area, so they filled our heads with all sorts of information which I promptly forgot most of.

Ellie showing us how to put on the life jacket.

They stopped in the middle of a lovely bay and put down an underwater camera.  This is where we got the biggest surprise...we didn't know that under the dark waters of the Derwent River, lies Neptune's tropical garden.  What a beautiful sight, we would expect to see this in Queensland or New South Wales but not in Tasmania.  We saw beautiful, brightly colored fish along with an octopus and a very large skate.  We must have watched for 30 minutes or so, it was absolutely incredible.  The waters here are very cold so snorkeling for us is out of the question, but it would be a great place to see interesting things.

The coastline is really nice, sandy beaches everywhere.  I don't think you could have a home here without a view, everything is so lovely to look at.  The water views are especially nice and everything here is built around the water.  I am bringing some Real Estate information home with me, just for drooling purposes.

Dalton tried to make a deal for a couple of the crayfish but no such luck. 

We passed one of the oldest home in Tasmania, has been totally restored, looked like a beautiful long rancher, the backdrop was a cherry orchard, two of my favorite things.  The cherry orchard had sold their crop to Japan for $A40.00 a kg.  Unbelievable. 

We stopped at Peppermint Bay, where the lunches were loaded onto the boat for our consumption.  We continued around to a lovely peaceful bay where we could watch the white bellied eagles dive for fish, they are not as big as out bald eagles, but just as spectacular to watch when they are on the hunt.  The lunches that were provided were (1) seafood of various types, which Dalton enjoyed very much and (2) chicken, for those of us that prefer the non swimming variety.  The food was very delicious.  After we ate, we went back to Peppermint Bay and got off the boat for an hour to walk around and explore the area.  Jenny and I wandered around the shops while Dalton tried out the various beers in the pub overlooking the water.  

This is the best shot we could get of an Eagle catching the fish that was thrown to him

 On our way home, we went under the Hobart bridge that had been destroyed by a ship, in 1975, when it hit two of the pylons holding up the bridge. 

A pretty long bridge, the large space in the middle is where the ship lost its way.

 

 Anyway, our skipper was a much better sailor, or at least he could see better, and we arrived at the dock safe and sound.  It was a great experience.   

West Coast of Tasmania - Gordon River Cruise

Saturday, Feb.6 - Stuart & Jenny took us to the west coast of Tasmania today.  This is probably where the Beatles were when they wrote "The Long and Winding Road".  We're glad Stuart was doing the driving.  Scenery was beautiful...

You can see what I mean about a winding road!

The town at the bottom is Queenstown, an old copper and gold mining town.

  

This is the town of Strahan where we boarded the boat for the Gordon River Cruise.

This is the boat - Isn't she lovely!  Stuart, Jenny and I are in front of the post in case you were wondering.

A view from the inside, just like a luxury cruiser, which it is.  We were on the posh upper deck, had our own buffet, which was delicious.

I wanted to get the centre of the ship, we sat in the red seats by the window.  It was so spacious and comfortable, we sat up at the very top for part of the time.  In Tasmania you can't spend too much time in the sun because this is where the ozone layer is badly depleted, sun screen and hats are a must.

I am getting ahead of myself though.  We stopped for lunch at "The Hungry Wambat" for lunch where we sat beside some motor bikers, one was talking about how much they would like the next part of the trip because the road was especially made for motorcycles, in his estimation, however, when we caught up to them, one had wiped himself out against a guard rail.  We think badly hurt rather than the other option.

When we got to Queenstown, we stopped to have a look around.  It is not totally deserted but there are some very old homes.  The outside of the home may look old and weather-beaten but you can see the lace curtains in the windows.  The sidewalks are made of interlocking brick, everything looks so well kept and lovely.  There is a "Tidy Town" competition and people take it very seriously.  

Queenstown, after the mining.

This is what is left of the penitentiary at Sarah's Island.  Before Port Arthur was Sarah's Island.

The convicts shipped from England were placed here first.  The Island is beautiful, most of the buildings have been destroyed over the years.  I am sure the convicts that were placed here did not notice the beauty of the place.  Several large ships were built here while the prison was in full swing.  The last ship was built at the convict settlement shipyard at Macquarie Harbour, January 1934 and was about to be sailed to the new prison at Port Arthur when 10 men stole a ship, the Franklin, sailed to South America and eventually became free men.  That was the last of the prisoners for Sarah Island, after that they went to Port Arthur.

This little Island is where they sent the men before Sarah's Island, they could get 40 on it, there is a cave on the other side, however, it doesn't look like it would hold 40 people.  they moved the men to Sarah's Island and put the women on there for a short time before they realized they would be better off housing them in Hobart.

This little opening is known as "Hells Gates", it was a beautiful calm day when we went through but can be very treacherous on a day when they have 27m waves.  It rains 300 days out of the year in this neck of the woods, so we have been very lucky.

  A little stream along the way, just to show some beautiful scenery.

Note the reflections in the water, that what the Gordon River cruise is all about.  We couldn't have asked for a better day.

We started the cruise at 9:00 and were back at the dock at 3:30.  We learned all about the first convicts, the rain forest in this area, the Huon pine, which is a very coveted tree in these parts, as well as all about the "Piners", who are the people who rowed up the rivers, cut down the trees, dragged them out of the bush and sent them down the river to be milled.  What a life, I am glad I was not around then.  We had a wonderful day.  Jenny and I went to a play that evening...the dramatic and hilarious, true story of the Great Escape from Sarah Island!

David & Jaqui`s New House & Zoo Doo

Sunday - we went to see David and Jaqui's new house.  They thought they would be in before Christmas but things never happen the way they should.  It is beautiful and Dalton took a bunch of pictures.  It is not quite finished, carpets go in on Thursday, painting needs to be done and David is laying the tiles and he just left Monday for the Mainland or 5 months so.....Jaqui will be moving their stuff in with help from both their families and odd and sundry friends.  I would say they won't be settled until about the same time next year.  They are going to be in great shape as there are loads of stairs, but it is a wonderful house, I wish I could see it when it is finished.

David did all the woodwork himself, it looks really good, unfortunately it won't be finished by the time we leave.  Dalton took this picture, means more to men than women

Stuart and Ellie are in the Kitchen, loads of windows, cupboards and space, will have a spot of tea in it when we return.

The view from the road, wish the old Ute wasn't in the picture.

We went to Jaqui's parents home for a BBQ in the evening...a sort of going away party for David.  Loads of good food and conversation.  It was about 39 degrees...very hot...next thing you know, thunder, lightening and rain started.  We got 4mm of rain in about 10 minutes, it stopped for about 20 minutes and started again for about 5 minutes, not quite so hard the second time.  It was hard to believe how the weather could change, the temperature dropped to 19...still pretty warm for sleeping.  However, by morning it cools down nicely, just to get us confused as to what to wear...Dalton gets stuck wearing jeans but I am always in my capris or shorts so am much more comfortable than he is.

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Monday, Jenny's parents came to town so we had a nice visit with them and then did some running around, mostly though, we just had a down day, much needed.  Stuart, however, had to leave for the west coast to fight more fires.

Jenny and her mother and father - Joyce and James Weeding - making lunch 

Tuesday, Dalton and I went to Russell Falls.  We had a great day, we took all the secondary roads rather than the main highways so we saw lots more than we normally would.  We stopped at the "Zoo Doo" they have albino wallabies and white lion cubs.  Dalton hated the place because the animals didn't have enough room but the animals were very interesting to see.  The albino wallabies were a bit odd though.

  This is the albino wallaby

This cute little Koala sleeps about 23 hours a day.

There are 4 white Tigers here, very cute but their pen is too small for them!

One of the views of Russell Falls, not much water this time around.

This is on the path to Russell Falls.

I took a bunch of pictures of the black swans on the way home, however, I didn't get as many shots as I would have liked so I will be going back, they have babies now, the babies are white.  They are lovely to look at.

We had to get home so Dalton could cook dinner, he promised Jaqui he would cook for her.  Ellie also came over so it was a lovely evening.

Wednesday, Jenny and I took Dalton to play golf in Orford, a little place 52km. from Sorell.  Jenny's parents live there so we took the dog and went for a visit...we walked along a beautiful sandy beach, it was more sheltered than the one outside the door of Jenny's parents.  It looked to be very overcast today, however, it was very hot...fires are still burning on the West coast and the smoke is heading in our direction.  We have been praying for rain the last few days as we want Stuart to have the week-end off.