TASMANIA
Dear Alice,
Tasmanian holiday – Part one
I begin writing this post sitting on a very strange, yellow and blue ‘lump of comfort’. It has a large wing on the right-hand-side and droopy dropped side on the left. It looks like a melted fairground ride or perhaps a piece of modern sculpture, but is in reality a very trendy armchair. It’s one of three here at the holiday house we’re staying in and I have to say they are actually very comfortable. Perhaps a bit too comfortable for Grandma who is, (and none too lady-like I might add) laid out over the contours of another one, snoring her head off. We’re on Bruny Island, Tasmania staying in a very nice three-bedroom house that we’ve rented for five days.
Last Saturday afternoon as we departed for the airport, Monte dog was looking at us out of the window seemingly almost in tears. He was however being consoled by Janice the dog/house-sitter who was stroking his head reassuringly, so we felt confident he’d be okay and therefore accelerated away. The flight down was smooth, but thanks to strong crosswinds at Hobart airport, it felt like we almost landed sideways and with quite a bump. After one night with Auntie Julia and Uncle Mike we collected Grandma and headed over on the ferry to Bruny Island in our black Ford Falcon XR6. This proved to be a popular choice of hirecar with your ‘Top Gear, car loving, rev-head’ little brother who pronounced it ‘awesome’. Elliott too, is impressed, but perhaps more so with the car key which strongly resembles a flick knife, just not as sharp.
Our three new fishing rods, reels and tackle box accounted for about a third of our luggage from Sydney and so as you can probably imagine, the boys were very keen to get these into the water soon as possible. We’ve actually fished every day, mostly from our local jetty but sometimes from the other areas we visited. Elliott was very scathing that we only had plastic bait for the first day or so. Tristan too was equally convinced the fish would see through this pretend food and just swim on by. But fairly quickly I hauled in a 30cm Flathead caught using the fake prawn, only to be outdone by Trissy five minutes later who reeled in an even bigger one on a plastic grub. We kept both fish and enjoyed them an hour later for dinner, or at least I did. Tristan loves fishing at the moment but has identified a flaw to this newfound hobby, namely that he doesn’t really like the taste of fish!
Monday we started touring the island. But dragging reluctant boys and a slow moving Grandma along some beautiful bushwalks proved a challenge. Visits to assorted lookouts and other attractions were much more popular though. The fudge factory was a hit, as was the cheese factory, the berry farm and Get Shucked! Oyster Barn.
Most evenings Teacher Mum has been indulging in her passion for Scrabble and has found two very eager players in both your brothers to join her in this scholarly pastime. You won’t be surprised to hear though that their competitive spirit was running high and Rodent Boy (with the help of the Scrabble Dictionary) was hell-bent on beating me (which he did), and Elliott became quite obsessive about beating his mother (which he too succeeded in doing).
…Well stay tuned for part two of my riveting Tasmanian adventures, which I’ll post on Sunday. You will read there how Elliott hooked a seagull, how we all sailed the Southern Ocean, how I caught a Salmon and what happened when the boys and I went on a night-time Hobart ghost tour!
Missing you.
: Dad
