photos week 1:

sorry the photos are in reverse order, last ones are the first ones. :D

tasman arch

tesselated pavement

mt wellington

botanical gardens

night-time photo of harbor

at the salamanca markets

our view

in hobart, at our apartment

#Day 24

Saturday 24th March
4am alarm goes, hit snooze. 4.05, snooze. 4.10, snooze, 4.15
oh well guess we better get up! We all tumbled out of bed, got dressed and were
ready for our shuttle bus at 4.45am. SO COLD! around 4 degress. We headed for Hobart airport,
checked in grabbed a quick coffee to wake up and were on our morning plane by
6am. Sophie was awake by then, and just sat nicely on my lap, smiling at the
lady next to us or looking out of the window. We got into Melbourne around 7am,
with us all grabbing some breakfast then back on the plane 8.30am(their time).
Sophie slept from take-off for an hour, then sat nicely for the rest of the
flight. We all had the luxury of screens to watch something, which made the
flight go faster. We arrived in Perth around 9.30am (our time, which it felt weird
being back on) our bus picked us all up with luggage, and dropped us off home
by 10.45am. It is so great being home! We truly have been blessed to enjoy 3
weeks of holidays with family and see part of God’s creation, but I do so love
my own bed.

#Day 23

Friday 23rd march
Today is our last morning in Tasmania. We all packed our
suitcases, packed the cars before lazily making our way out of Ellendale. We
did one stop at New Norfolk for some thermos to make ourselves warm against the
brisk morning air, roughly around 8 degrees! We then drove up into Hobart,
since we couldn’t get our cabin keys till 2pm we decided to head into Hobart
town for a spot of shopping and lunch, also A.Carol + Kate had come down to
spend the last night with us (aren’t they nice) so we met up with them. We all
enjoyed the afternoon together. After which we all headed to our cabins next to
the airport, unpacked the cars, then the boys went and dropped off the rental
cars, while us ladies stayed in the warm cabins and chatted. With a subway run
(literally) for dinner we all then headed to bed on time eagerly anticipating our
flight home tomorrow morning.

#Day 22

Thursday 22nd March
After a wonderfully relaxing morning, sleeping in sitting by
the log fire, or walking through the homes extensive gardens to see the
chickens, goats, cows and some even spotted a platypus. We then packed a picnic
lunch before heading out to Russel Falls. After enjoying our lunch at the park,
we did the rainforest walk before coming across the falls in all their glory.
What a spectacular part of creation, and just glorious to photograph. After
Russel Falls we heading out for a little drive, till we did another walk and
saw Junee Caves. Pretty ureal, seeing all that our land has to offer us. On the
way home we stopped in Maydena for the world’s best scones with fresh raspberry
jam and cream, and bought some fresh raspberries. That night we enjoyed more
relaxing, the littlies loving the backyard, and visiting the animals, the rest
of us made ourselves comfortable in front of the fire with books and games.

#Day 21

Wednesday 21st March
We left Strahan early, today the weather was dismal,
completely different from the sunny weather we had enjoyed yesterday for our
boat cruise (Strahan enjoys rain 300 days
of the year) We travelled straight down to Queenstown where it was still
raining, we did some last minute shopping, toilet breaks before heading out
again. We did the 99 pass, where we stopped at the top lookout to view the
pass, and see the amazing waterfall running down the mountain scape. We did a
quick detour (recommended by some people at the lookout) to Iron blow lookout,
a canter leaver lookout to the view the brightest blue dam below us. We then
took off on more windy slippery roads, through the Tassie rainforest. We
stopped once for lunch and then kept going before making it by 3 to our last
stop, Ellendale, at our home stay Hamlet Downs. What a beautiful escape, with 3
connecting homes, set in the valley surrounded by orchards and roses it was
truly lovely. We all enjoyed our afternoon, some rested, the girls raced around
the house after each-other, we updated blogs and just enjoyed having our feet
up.

#Day 20

Tuesday 20th March
Today we woke up and had to be in town at the wharf in time
for we were doing the Gordon River Boat Cruise from 9am-3pm. We headed out
towards Hell’s Gate, an area of churning water heading out to sea, before
turning around and went to Sarah Island, where we were able to hop out for an
hour, of walking around and seeing the old building. (Sarah Island was a convict Island, where many contradicting versions of
events has happened, from gruesome tales to happy endings) From there we
headed into the Gordon River, all the while enjoying our delicious buffet lunch
prepared during our voyage by on board chefs. We could stand on the deck and
watch the pristine landscape folding around us, truly astounding. It truly was
a once in the lifetime experience, and nice that we could all enjoy it
together. We then had an easy night of doing whatever we wanted to do.

#Day 19

Monday 19th March
Our time at Corinna was at an end, we hopped on the barge to
cross the Pieman river , an adventure in itself, before we headed out to
Zeehan. We had some nice morning tea, before heading out to the Museum. What an interesting building with lots to read
on the history of mining from many of the towns surrounding Zeehan, (Zeehan itself was a mining town for
silver-lead, and was once Tassie’s biggest towns, and made as much money as
Kalgoorlie) inside there was even a simulated mine we could go into, and
all old trains, boats, sheds, and tools set up to walk through and see. There
was a room dedicated to the history of Freemasons, and then an old fashioned (gaiety) theatre, fitted with a big
screen and all old-fashioned chairs, surrounded by smaller rooms, show casing
various fashions for early years. From there we did a quick detour to see the
spray tunnel, dumped our Corinna rubbish and made our way to Strahan. Making
our way there nice and early so we could enjoy the afternoon before having
lovely pizza’s on the foreshore.