New Years Eve 2021. We hope that this year will be the last of the pandemic and we can get back to a “normal” life (whatever that means)
I do wonder if we will ever have a “pre CoVid” normal. When considering how other major events like 9/11 etc have changed our “normal” I think we will see masks on planes for a long time into the future and the need for testing for some time as well.
Today we had a light day planned. I wanted to see were a couple of businesses were located so it would be easier to find them once they were open and there would me more traffic on the roads.
We also needed to extend the hire car drop off time as our return flights had been pushed forward from the original times when I booked the car. I thought it would be FAR easier to go to the Hertz office Hobart itself than trying to get to the airport branch. I was correct 🙂 It proved no issue to change the drop off time from 9:00am tp 12:00pm on the same day and there was no charge for this change.
While we were in the city we took the advantage of not much traffic to call into Hobart BMW for a look… Let’s just say Coastline BMW is MUCH larger 🙂 The young sales guy we spoke to was very friendly and welcoming but the dealership has no where near the amount of vehicles as Coastline.
We went back to the land to see some of the Sydney-Hobart yachts, but I missed a bunch of them by about 30 minutes and, while we could see a couple further in toward Hobart, there were none out the front of “our place”
We picked up a hot chook for sandwiches and after a late lunch, had a quiet afternoon and got a picnic ready to have on our land later this evening to see the 9:30pm fireworks.
It was a lovely clear night for a perfect view of the fireworks. There were a number of cars taking advantage of the view. Although the fireworks were scheduled for 9:30pm it was still quite light.
We laid our towels out on the bottom of our block and again wondered at the view. In these photos you can see the city as well as the Tasman Bridge lit up on the right. Even though we are not drinking, I spoilt myself with one little glass of bubbles 🙂
Fireworks
Fireworks
Tasman Bidge lit up on the far right
Happy New Year
I really wanted to watch the show and not just through the screen of my phone, so I only took a short video.
Hobart Council, however live-streamed the event here
After the fireworks, we went back to the room, had a cuppa and off to bed. We thought we might have had a bit of noise, as the Hotel was having a NYE party, but neither of us heard anything. (I think we must be getting old 🙂 )
We both slept well and woke around 5:30am. We had some of the pastries for breakfast with a cup of tea, packed our bags back up and drove the short distance up the road to see the Country Club Resort and Casino (the Villas we stayed in are part of the resort)
The Country Club is a typical Aussie Casino with lots of poker machines and opulence. There is a lot to do within the resort complex. There is a golf course, Pony tours, bike hire, a huge pool area, gyms, a number of restaurants and of course the main casino area.
After a look around at the Country Club, we set off for the Cataract Gorge cruise, which was due to depart at 9:30am. There were only 14 of us aboard the “Lady Launceston” for the 50 minute cruise and our captain, Graham, was very knowledgeable and gave a good commentary of the Cataract Gorge, the Tamar River and Launceston in general.
I found this video on YouTube of the Cruise. (Great YouTube Channel with some nice videos)
The last time we were in Launceston was January 2010 and we did a 4hr Tamar River cruise with this same company and it was also excellent.
After the cruise, we were travelling south again back to Hobart, but today we would travel down the coast via Bicheno, Swansea and Sorell before crossing midway and back to Hobart.
We had decided on perhaps Fish and Chips or a Burger for lunch and Google told me that the best place was “The Gulch” in Bicheno. It must be good because after finally finding somewhere to park and securing a table, I was told there was a 1 HOUR wait for food….um no… it was already 12:30 and we were hungry 🙂 Back into the Main Street of Bicheno and we found a nice cafe and shared a huge burger and chips ( in 10 minutes )
After Bicheno, it was a nice drive back to Hobart. The highway is quite narrow and windy but quite often we would get amazing views of gorgeous beaches and bays. Given that this is only 60-90 minutes from the Hobart airport, it really is amazing that developers have not jumped on these areas. I can easily imagine a “Noosa of the South” with great Tassie produce creating “celebrity chef” restaurants with good wine and awesome views thrown in.
We arrived back at the Shoreline Hotel around 5:00pm. I put on a load of washing in the free guest laundry, ordered a pizza to eat in the room and another early night was in store.
Today we head to Launceston for a night away. We had not planned to do this when I originally booked this trip, but the Tasmanian Government were kindly giving away tourism dollars for Qld, SA and WA residents to the tune of $300, so I thought why not 🙂
The travel vouchers were for $200 to be used for accommodation and $100 to be used for activities.
As it has been quite a while since we have been “up north” I thought I would find somewhere to stay in or around Launceston. After some digging through the booking website to find places that would accept just one night, I found the Country Club Villas and booked a room. As the rate for these rooms is $209, using the voucher I paid just $9 for a lovely apartment suite.
With the $100 activity voucher, I found a 50 minute Cataract Gorge cruise.
So with our almost free tickets booked we were ready to go. Then as an added bonus, we were gifted 2 $50 meal vouchers for Christmas, one of which can be used at the Country Club’s restaurants.
We packed an overnight bag and left everything else at the room at the Shoreline Hotel and hit the road around 7:00am
Travelling North-East through the Coal Valley we made it to Ross for morning tea. We saw a sign that said Bakery and Scallop Pies and could not resist. We did not have a scallop pie on this occasion but did enjoy a very nice pot of tea and a sausage roll for me and a plain meat pie for him.
We tried to go to the park where we had been in 2009-10 (there was an altercation with a Cape Baron Goose), but the caravan park has expanded and you can no longer see the Ross Bridge from that side.
Driving back through town to the south side of the bridge, I took the obligatory phots 🙂
On toward Launceston and we saw a sign, we made a detour and can now say that we might not be allowed to travel to WA, but we have been to Perth…in Tasmania 🙂
Back on the road and we were reminded that the main north-south highway is known also known as the “Heritage Highway” as it follows roughly the same route as the original convict built road from the 1800’s. Learn more here
As we have seen many of these towns before, we did not stop choosing to keep going directly to Launceston.
We arrived at the Country Club Villas around lunchtime and were lucky that our room was ready, so we completed check-in and offloaded our bags.
We were very pleasantly surprised with the villa, it certainly had the largest bathroom I have ever seen in a hotel room and (a first for me) a TV in the bathroom!!
After we unpacked, we set off to see where we had to go for our Cataract Gorge cruise in the morning, then had a drive around Launceston.
We found a Woolworths and bought some milk and afternoon tea (and some extras for the trip back tomorrow 🙂 )
Snacks 🙂
Back at the Country Club, we had a lovely soak in the huge spa bath. As I knew this was a spa unit, I had brought Epsom salts and we soaked for a good 40minutes watching TV 🙂
Nicely relaxed, it was then time to walk over to the onsite Bar and Grill for dinner. A meal of Eye Fillet Steak with vegetables for me and Lamb Ragu for him was followed by Blueberry Cheesecake.
Suitably stuffed with food and relaxed from the spa, saw us turning in and sleeping soundly for the next 8 hours.
We both slept very well last night. After breakfast, we decided to drive back to the land and have another look at the view with the sun behind us. ( much easier to take photos 🙂 ) I walked up to the top of the block and shot the video and photos here.
Again, we were amazed at the gorgeous views and we definitely know we have chosen the right block.
Driving around the area, we found the Howrah Nursery & Garden Centre. The man in the centre was very friendly and we know he will be a wealth of knowledge and help when the time comes. He has a brilliant service, where he will come to the property, help with landscape design and plant planning. Often these types of services are very “Here is what we can sell you” but not this guy. He sells plants, but does not sell soil or actually do the landscaping, he can recommend people to help. We were both impressed with the service.
After the garden centre, we drove to the Bellrieve waterfront to see where the Derwent Ferry leaves from. I had read that there is not a lot of parking spaces for the ferry, but the bus stops at the wharf, so we will do that sometime over the holiday – the bus interchange is also at the Shoreline Shops.
Looking around the ferry area I noticed a sign on the liking track that denoted the track part of the “Charles Darwin Trail” It turns out that Charles Darwin visited this area in 1836 and had a leisurely walk on his day on the Eastern Shore. You can read more here.
Driving around, I saw a sign that said “Fish Bar” we thought fish and chips sounded nice for lunch, so we went exploring.
The Fish Bar turned out to be a busy shop on the beach at Bellerive beside the sports arena. We found a car park, ordered a fisherman’s basket, found a seat under a lovely shady tree and enjoyed our lunch looking across to the hill where our land is and also across toward Hobart.
Bellrieve Beach
Our block of land is on the hill in the background here 🙂
We had a quiet afternoon in the unit and packed a bag for a quick overnight stay up north in Launceston tomorrow
Neither of us had a great nights sleep, probably due to not being in our own beds and not wanting to sleep in.
After having a really nice shower and breakfast, we drove to the airport parking and found a spot to leave the car ( undercover secure parking) unloaded our bags and went to the bus stop to wait for the bus to the terminal. The bus was advertised as every 20 minutes, and we had no longer sat down when the bus arrived.
A short drive to the terminal, we checked in, cleared security and found our gate.
Soon enough we were boarding and ready for takeoff 🙂 We were lucky that, even though the plane was almost full, we had a spare seat next to us so we were able to spread out over the three seats.
2.5 hours later after a mostly smooth flight we were landing in Hobart. We needed to have our Approval to Enter Tasmania barcode on our phones ready to scan. This was a quick and easy process and we were through in no time. I was thinking it might have taken much longer as there were 3 aircraft arriving at the same time and the arrivals hall was very busy.
Once we collected our suitcases, we collected our hire car from Hertz. We have been given a small Suzuki Baleno. It feels very light 🙂 but is more than adequate for our needs.
We are staying at the Shoreline Hotel Accommodation units for the next 12 nights. The hotel is in the next suburb to our land, so this area will be our “local” Next to the hotel is Shoreline Plaza shopping centre with Woolworths and a number of specialty shops as well as a service station.
We checked into the room and went over to Woolworths to buy some supplies for our time here. After unpacking our bags and getting the room organised for our stay, we had a cup of tea and relaxed for a bit before going to the Hotel Cafe for dinner which we booked at check-in.
Room
Kitchen Area
Lounge
View across the Derwent
After dinner, we decided to go and have a look at the land. We had planned on doing that the following day but forgot that summer in Tasmania, means the sun does not set until around 8:30 pm. As it was only 6:30 or so, we set off.
To say we are happy with our purchase is to understate it 🙂 The view is simply STUNNING.
We drove back to the Hotel tired and excited for this next adventure. We fell into bed around 9:00 and crashed 🙂
We started Boxing Day with a relaxing sleep in before a final check of our packing lists.
I had booked a motel room near Brisbane airport for the night as we had an 8:15 am flight. With traffic and having to be at the airport 45minutes before takeoff, it would have been a VERY early start if we were to leave from home.
We drove to Brisbane after lunch, found the motel and drove on to the airport to find out exactly where we had to park the next morning.
Luckily I had rung to book a table for dinner at the onsite restaurant but was told that the restaurant was closed. This was somewhat disappointing as I had chosen this (slightly more expensive) motel over others in the area for the reason that we would be able to have a meal at the motel. We picked up some frozen microwave dinners for the night, so we at least ate 🙂
We had a quiet night watching TV and turned in early with the alarm set early in the morning.
