MoyJos | Travelling MoyJos

Off We Go!!

by MoyJos | Dec 26, 2024 | Tasmania

And we are off:)

After a lovely Christmas Day lunch with family, we had a quiet night, finalised packing and we were ready to go.

We still did not have a sleep in 🙁 (Up at 4:30 am as usual) We had breakfast, a bit of a tidy up , packed the car and headed off to the airport at Maroochydore

We hd 2 flights: Maroochydore to Melbourne then Melbourne to Launceston.

We left on time from the Sunshine Coast. We had a very nice lunch of Turkey with Roast Vege(me) and Chorizo and Olive Pasta with Napoli sauce (M) and of course a glass of bubbles 🙂

Arriving in Melbourne we had a short wait of around an hour and we were off to Launceston.

The flight to Launceston was a short 55 minute “ take off – just enough time for a cup of tea – and land” flight.

At the airport, I decided to beat the queue and get the hire car while M collected our suitcases off the carrousel. This proved to be a good plan, as by the time I had finished with the Hertz lady there was a long line behind me 🙂

The hire car we have for the trip is a Kia Sportage. It is nice but not the Mazda CX3 I was hoping for. Why is it that hire cars advertise a car and you always get the “or similar” option? 🙁

From the airport, we drove to a local Woolworths for “pantry staples” Tea, Coffee, Milk, Bread, eggs etc and made our way to the CountryClub Villas.

We have stayed here before just after CoVid and we decided it was a good top for the first night. It is close to the airport and is a very short distance to the Country Club Casino resort that has a selection of nice restaurants for our dinner. I

When I had a look at the website to decide which restaurant we might choose, I saw that the “Link Buffet” had their Christmas Buffet available for Boxing Day.

At first I was thinking that the 7:30pm time slot was too late and we would be hungry before that, then I remembered that we are now 1 hour ahead of Qld time, so for us it was only 6:30pm…perfect.

When we were checking in to the Villas, the lady asked us if we had plans for dinner and told us the Casino had a courtesy bus :). Great!! I did not need to drive, so I could have a glass of wine with dinner.

The little bus was ready for us at reception at 7:15 and we were duly delivered for our dinner. And what a dinner it was. We did not go hungry 🙂

Feeling quite full we got the little bus back to our villa, had a cup of tea and pretty much went straight to bed after a big day.

Tomorrow we have a travel day to Sheffield.

Ready for a Christmas break in Tasmania 2024 -2025

by MoyJos | Oct 7, 2024 | Tasmania

A couple of months ago, I asked M where we wanted to go for our Christmas break this year.

The way Christmas falls this year means we will close up work on Friday the 20th and will open back up on the 6th.

We have not spent a Christmas Day with his family for couple of years, as we have been there for “Santa” with the boys down south. This year however, they are going away so we decided to stay around for Christmas Day and then head off somewhere.

He suggested we go to Tasmania Although we have been there a lot, the last few trips have been “real estate reconnaissance missions” and not so much sight seeing.

Looking into flights etc, I had to tell him that it might not be possible 🙁 The flights were crazy expensive and booking out fast. Hobart has the “Taste” food festival as well as the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. Add in people that just want to go to Tassie and it gets busy 🙁 I could see that our preferred motel at Howrah was booked out.

A few days later though, it dawned on me that we don’t have to fly to Hobart and I wondered if we could fly to Launceston instead. YES!!! That looked OK… reasonable prices and still plenty of seats available.

The next plan was to hire a campervan and amble around. That proved to be the next problem. I could get a camper no problem, but looking around, I could see that MANY caravan parks were booked solid.

So, it was back to a hire car and accommodation.

After, many days of planning I have finally settled on the following itinerary. (Click on the image to see it larger)

I am confident that I have left plenty of time to see the sights and not get too tired with only me driving.

Our first stop when we arrive is The Country Club just outside of Launceston itself. We stayed there a couple of years ago and we know it has a nice restaurant as well as the HUGEST bathroom in any room we have ever stayed in.

As we get closer to Christmas, I will ring them to find out of the restaurant is open for dinner on Boxing Day we we arrive. If not, we will cater for ourselves and spend the evening relaxing and soaking in the spa bath in the room.

Without specifically looking for spa rooms, I have managed to book 3 spas, so there will need to be some epsom salts packed in our bathroom bag 🙂

Our accomodation in Hobart is and Air BnB we have stayed at a number of times. I was excited to find “Julie’s” place listed again, as she removed it from Air BnB over the pandemic years.

Our final few days are in Launceston itself. We have not spent a lot of time “up north” and we had points at Mantra to make the stay a affordable.

From our Mantra base e plan on doing a few day trips around the North West.

We are looking forward to our trip and of course I will be documenting our travels here.

Country Club Launceston

Sheffield Motor Inn

Park Cabin in Big 4 Caravan Park Strahan

“Apartment 15”. Hobart

Mantra on George Launceston

Home Again

by MoyJos | Jan 5, 2024 | South Australia

We set the alarm early, but we both woke before it. We finished packing our suitcases, went down and had breakfast before checking out.

We got a taxi to the airport, checked our bags and waited in the Virgin Lounge until our flight.

It was an uneventful flight home. We arrived into Brisbane just after 12:30, collected our bags and drove home.

Unpacked, did a load of washing and relaxed for the evening.

Where will we go next??

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Last Day in Adelaide

by MoyJos | Jan 4, 2024 | South Australia

Another quiet day for our last day in the city.

A quick bus trip to Elder Park and a sightseeing trip on the iconic “Popeye”

This service has been running since 1939 delighting Adeliade locals and tourists alike.

The 45 minute trip up and back on the Torrens River included commentary with many facts of the river and Adelaide in general.

From there, another short bus ride ( nothing is very far in Adelaide :). ) took us to the Haigh’s Chocolate Factory and Visitor centre. We booked a self guided tour and had a look at the factory. It was smaller than I expected, but apparently they are building a big new factory shortly to handle the growing demand. I would think that when the new factory comes online, we may see a Haigh’s outlet in Brisbane.

Back to the city we bought some salmon to go with the last of our veges.

We packed our suitcases ready to have the last few bits and pieces to pack in the morning. We check out in the morning. 🙁

Wine, Railway Station and Glenelg

by MoyJos | Jan 3, 2024 | South Australia

I had planned a fairly easy day today.

First was a visit to the National Wine Centre. This is located quite close to the CBD in the Botanic Gardens.

The centre has self-guided walk with lots of sign boards explaining the history of the wine industry as well as stories of the people that have been involved over the years.

Back to the CBD and I wanted to look at the Adelaide Railway Station building. This is another sight I had been told to do. I know why!! It is a grand old building with towering ceilings and ornate decorations. With its large curved glass walls at each end it reminded me of Grand Central Station you see in the American movies

From there we caught a tram all the way to Glenelg. The tram takes about 40 minutes. We had a lovely lunch overlooking the ocean at the Pier Hotel before walking past a water park that has a waterslide winding in and out of a building

Further along we stopped and had a look through the Town Hall museum that has displays all about the history of Glenelg. Glenelg was always a summer holiday place for the wealthy business men of Adelaide with many building elaborate holiday houses there.

We caught the tram back to Rundle Mall, bought some lamb chops and veges and had a nice dinner in the unit.

Kangaroo Island – Day 2

by MoyJos | Jan 2, 2024 | South Australia

After a busy day yesterday, we slept very well in a lovely comfortable bed.

Given the lack of food yesterday, we thought we would use up the rest of the ham and make some sandwiches to take with us today just in case needed them tonight.

Our plan was to ask the driver today what time we would be getting back to Penneshaw tonight and to ring Fire and Smoke when they open at 4:30 and order a pizza to be ready for us as soon as we arrived.

We had breakfast included and were not sure what to expect as the restaurant in the hotel was not open for dinner over the break.

We were very pleasantly surprised as we were given a menu to choose from. I had smashed avocado and poached eggs and Mick had the “big breakfast”.

Our bus arrived on time and we were told by our driver, Kevin, that were due back at 6:00- 6:30pm this evening.

Our first stop today was Raptor Domain for a free flight bird presentation. We had not been to one of these in a while and it always amazing the size of the big wedge tailed eagles. As always, the information from the keepers was fascinating. We were shown a barn owl and told that they can hear mouse rustling in the grass at 3kms away and can hear its heartbeat from 3 meters. They can also see light in the UV spectrum so warm blooded animals show up in the dark brightly.

From here we went to the Emu Ridge Eucalyptus Distillery for a tour and lunch.(Chicken salad and cake again)

The KI mallee eucalyptus bushes are very high in oil content and completely regenerate in just 2 years after they harvest them down to a mere stump for processing.

The fact that these trees are so full of oil and are so prolific on KI is what caused such severe fires, as the tress literally blew up, spreading the fire quickly.

Next stop was Clifford’s Honey farm where they have a type of Italian bee that is now the only one of its kind in the world, for a tour and tasting.

Our final stop was a wine tasting at False Cape Wines. I tasted a few and they were very nice. While we were here, Mick rang the pizza place and was assured that it was not a problem to have a pizza ready for us when we got back..

We arrived back to Penneshaw and sure enough our pizza was just about ready. I think they must have had it ready to throw in the oven as soon as they saw the bus arrive.

We sat in the park opposite the shop and ate it overlooking the passage. Soon enough we were back on the bus and taken down the hill to the ferry terminal and given our boarding passes. We had a short wait for the ferry to board, but soon enough we were on our way back to Cape Jervis.

Another coach was waiting for us at the other side and we made the trip back to Adelaide. We had a number of people to drop off and we finally made it back to the Mantra at 11:00pm.

We did not even have a cup of tea, just fell into bed tired but happy.

Travelling MoyJos

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