Port Arthur Historic Site in Tasmania

September 25, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

When we decided to holiday in Tasmania, the one place I knew I wanted to go to was Port Arthur. As children, we learn a lot about the early days of Australia at school, particularly the convicts and early settlers. Van Dieman’s Land, as Tasmania was first called, was reputed to have taken the worst convicts who were repeat offenders from all the other Australian colonies. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it was not what I found.

port_arthur_boats — Boats in Port Arthur

It was a beautiful day, especially compared with the previous ones, and after visiting the Blow Hole, Tasman’s Arch and the Devil’s Kitchen, we arrived at the Port Arthur Historic Site. The visitors’ centre is modern and highly organised. You choose between three passes according to the time you intend to spend there. For us, it was half a day and a bronze pass, giving us entry to all the buildings on the site and a 20-min cruise on the Bay past Point Puer and the Isle of the Dead.

ile_dead — The Isle of the Dead, Port Arthur

It was mostly sunny and quite cold (8°C) but we decided to stay on deck to take photographs. It turns out that Port Arthur was quite a model prison with a separate section called Point Puer for boys under 18 who were considered to be entirely responsible for their acts. It was nevertheless renowned for its stern discipline and harsh punishment but all the boys received an education and some acquired a trade.

port_arthur_penitentiary — Port Arthur penitentiary

The Port Arthur prison only operated for a short period, from 1833 to 1853, but in that time, an entire community grew up so the buildings from that period include the penitentiary, Point Puer, a police station, law courts, Commandant’s House, Officers’ Quarters, a hospital, a church and parsonage, government cottage and gardens, a dockyard slipway, lime kiln and shipwright’s house. Other buildings, including St David’s Church, were added later on.

Maybe because of the sun (though we got some light rain and a complete rainbow at the end of the boat ride), I found the site very beautiful and peaceful. Because the main prison was gutted by fire at the end of the 19th century, the prisoners’ cells didn’t seem daunting at all. The Commandant’s House looked very comfortable with furniture and other items imported from England.

Only the walls of Government House are still standing, also due to fire, but the formal gardens in front are full of spring flowers. The size of the Church, also gutted, is impressive – it was attended by up to 1100 people every Sunday and has a set of large bells. Once again I found it very peaceful.

port_arthur_tree — Large gum in Port Arthur

Quite by accident, we missed the Separate Prison, which was designed to deliver a new method of punishment, reforming convicts through isolation and contemplation by locking them up alone for 23 hours a day, with just one hour of exercice in a high-walled yard. Perhaps it would have given us a better idea of the prisoners’ conditions had we seen it.

Australia, Sightseeing

Tasmania Redeems Itself – the Devil’s Kitchen & Tasman’s Arch

September 24, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 5 Comments

Tasmania has redeemed itself! Today THERE WAS SUN. Not sun all the time, mind you, because there was intermittent rain and it was about 8°C, but it was an enormous improvement over yesterday and all the other days since we arrived in Tasmania a week ago. So we went to Port Arthur. On the way, I saw a sign: Blow hole: 4, Devil’s Kitchen: 4, Tasman’s Arch: 4. None of these were mentioned in our guide book but I told Relationnel that with names like those, we had to follow the sign.

AND THIS IS WHAT WE SAW. It was mind-blowing. The photos are only a reminder of the sensations we actually experienced.

View from first lookout at Tasman’s Arch

lookout_3 — View from next lookout – absolutely breathtaking

devils_kitchen_lookout — Devil’s Kitchen lookout

And we nearly missed the next one. The sign says “Devil’s Kitchen Car park” but it should saw “Car park and viewing area”. Good thing Relationnel insisted.

And, at Port Arthur, which I’ll talk about in another post, we had a full rainbow!

Then, during the whole of our drive back to Hobart (1 1/2 hours), we were treated to a spectacular sunset.

Australia, Sightseeing, Wine

More Tassie Wines and Australia’s Oldest Bridge

September 23, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Today, we went wine tasting and the owner of the Puddleduck Vineyard about a half an hour out of Hobart told us it is the second driest capital in Australia. Considering how much rain we’ve had since we arrived, it is difficult to believe. He had lots of other figures: Tasmania produces 0.4 % of Australia’s wine but 10% of its best wine. Which might account for the consistently high prices.

puddleduck_cellar_door — Puddleduck Cellar Door

We enjoyed our tasting at Puddleduck’s. It’s the sort we particularly like where the wine grower is present and knowledgeable about his wine and enthusiastic about sharing what he knows. We also learnt from Darren that Tasmania is the second best-known producer of sparkling wine after France. We tasted their Bubbleduck first but found it too bubbly.

darrens_backyard — Darren’s backyard, as he calls it

To my surprise, I liked their chardonnay, Darren’s fist white wine as Puddleduck “Wine Maker”, which was much closer to my taste than the ones we tried at the previous vineyard, Stefano Lubiana, which unfortunately only had four wines available for tasting (the other two were pinot noir). We bought their pinot griggio without trying it, so hope it’s good.

view_near_richmond — View of another vineyard near Richmond

I also liked Puddleduck’s well-structured oaked pinot noir with its surprisingly spicy nose and finish. Not as keen on their Bazil Signature pinot noir, which, like the Lubiana pinot, was more reminiscent of the pinots from Alsace, which are rarely to my taste. At 34 dollars for the chardonnay and 42 for the pinot noir, they are not cheap by any standards.

richmond_bridge — Richmond Bridge, Australia’s oldest

It was a good way to pass a rainy afternoon in any case. In the morning, we just had time to visit Australia’s oldest bridge in Richmond and wander through the nearby cemetary with its old settler graves followed by a couple of tasty pies and an awful cappuccino at the Bakery before the rain set in. Judging from the large number of men and girls in kilts, some sort of Scottish event must have been on the programme later in the day.

richmond_graves — Graves of early settlers in Richmond

Tomorrow we’re off the Port Arthur and are hoping that the weather will be more clement. I’m still hoping to take a decent photo of Hobart’s magnificent harbour yet!

Architecture, Australia

Houses in Hobart

September 22, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp Leave a comment

Today we walked the length and breadth of inner Hobart so we saw a lot of houses. They are mostly made of brick and clapboard and are often brightly coloured with wrought iron lacework. Many have little picket fences and since it’s spring, they all have flowers.

Australia, Sightseeing, Wine

Coles Bay and Bicheno, Tasmania

September 20, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Our Launceston home exchange hosts have a house in Coles Bay on the east coast of Tasmania where we are spending three nights. We have the most marvellous view of the Hazards (1590 feet)

coles_bay_1 — The Hazards from Coles Bay

Yesterday morning, we went for a one-hour walk along the beach to Freycinet Lodge and saw the famous red stones you see in all the photos of the area.

coles_bay_2 — Red stones on Coles Bay beach with The Hazards in the background

coles_bay_3 — Red stones on Coles Bay beach

Today we went to Bicheno, about 35 K away, once the home of whalers and sealers and famous for its penguins but you only see them at dusk and have to go on a special tour. So we went to visit the Blow Hole instead.

bicheno_blow_hole — The Blow Hole at Bicheno

After that, we went to the Gulch, which is a little fishing port, and bought some fresh deepsea fish whose name I unfortunately can’t remember!

We then decided to drive north a bit and came to East Coast Nature World. We debated whether or not to go in and didn’t regret our choice. I had never seen a Tasmanian devil and certainly not two curled up together in the sun after a big feast on dead possum!

tasmanian_devlis_lumix — Tasmanian Devils

There were also lots of very tame wallabies and kangaroos, including one with a cute little joey sticking out of her pouch.

Not to mention this stunning pheasant imported from Asia.

We then went back to Bicheno to have lunch at the Sea Life Centre and soak up its stunning views of the white sandy beaches and turquoise water. We had freshly caught white head (?) and a glass of sauvignon blanc from Springvale vineyards which was our next visit.

At Springvale, recommended by friends, we tasted their two pinot noirs, both pleasant, one oaked (2009) the other not (2012). Relationnel ordered one of each, not realising he waslooking at the 1/2 bottle prices. The full bottles cost 25 and 40 dollars. Gulp!

Australia, Sightseeing

Old is Relative

September 19, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 9 Comments

Here I’ve been, for the last six months, vaunting my 400-year old house in the Loire Valley and I arrive in Tasmania which has some of the oldest buildings in Australia. The trouble is, most of them look just like the buildings in the centre of Townsville where I grew up and the oldest date from the early 1800s. I must confess that it’s a bit hard to get excited about houses that are not even 200 years old.

On our way from Launceston to Coles Bay, we stopped to get some lunch at Campbell Town, in the heart of Tasmania, established by Governor Macquarie in 1821, (population 800). We went past a place selling R.M. Williams clothing. Last time we were in Australia, Relationnel bought a shirt of that brand and we love the quality, so we went in. The young man in the shop looked about 16. He didn’t seem to have any idea where the shirts were to be found and the sizes seemed to be all mixed up.

changing_room — Changing room at the R.M. Williams store in Campbell Town

Most of the shirts were Stockyard, but he didn’t think to explain that it was the same brand. They were having a sale – 120 dollars for two Stockyard shirts. It took a lot of rooting around to find two Ms that we liked. What we loved was the changing room which looked like something out of a film. It seems the shop was once a grocery store.

As we left the shop we noticed a line of paving stones, with the names and details (crime, year, punishment) of the local convicts. We also passed an “Antiques and collectables” shop selling my mother’s old sewing chair for 12o dollars. I could make a fortune selling my Henri II furniture!

antiques — Antiques and collectables in Campbell Town

We crossed the road and I saw a church for sale. Now that’s an unusual piece of real estate! At the supermarket where we bought some coleslaw (we are pining for salad and vegetables in adequate amounts), I asked the lady at the check-out if there were any interesting villages to visit in the neighbourhood and she directed us to Ross (population 300) about 12 or 13 kilometers along the highway.

I consulted the Lonely Planet which was rather scathing I thought : “Another tidy (nay, immaculate) Midlands town … These days Ross’ elm-lined streets are almost gagging on colonial charm and history.” Not very encouraging , I thought. I was therefore very surprised to find a sleepy little town with hardly a soul in sight. Maybe the L.P. people don’t travel in early spring. We had our lunch at a picnic table near an old school which I initially thought was a church.

As it was starting to spit, we set off for the 3rd oldest bridge in Australia, which was a bit of a come-down (I was somehow expecting something bigger) but still very pretty with its intricate carvings sculpted by one of the two convict stone masons that built it in 1836. I was pleased to hear they were pardoned for their efforts.

We walked up to the Uniting Church on top of Church Street hill with its panoramnic view of the surrounding countryside (that’s were we should have had lunch!), then took the Heritage Walk down past the Ross Female Factory.

church_view — Uniting Church on Church Street, Ross

This was one of Tasmania’s two female prisons, operational between 1848 and 1854. I find it hard to imagine there were still convicts in those days. It was open for viewing so I lifted the latch and walked inside. Only two buildings remain, the assistant superintendant’s and overseer’s cottages.

female_factory_2 — Ross Female Factory convict prison

The site was both a factory and hiring depot, as well as an overnight station for convicts travelling between settlements. Because of the fresh air, it was also a lying-in hospital and nursery. I reckon the mothers and babies must have been pretty cold. I certainly was. Posters on the wall trace the history of some of the inmates. We got back to the car just before the rain started in earnest.

Australia, Australian customs, Travelling, Wine

Wine Tasting in Tassie

September 18, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 2 Comments

Our four days in Sydney were spent catching up with family and friends, some of whom we hadn’t seen for 3 years, which was wonderful but exhausting particularly since we arrived a day later than I had expected which meant quite a bit of rescheduling. We left for Tasmania on Monday morning.

flying_sydney_melbourne — Flying out of the Sydney

The plane left about an hour late but we made up for some of the lost time between Melbourne and Launceston. It was rainy and cold when we arrived at our home exchange in Riverside. It has a wonderful view of the River Tamar which it was difficult to fully appreciate because of the weather.

church_launceston — Holy Trinity Anglican Church built in 1902

We drove into the city centre in our smart home exchange car with its built-in GPS. However, as I mentioned yesterday, we were amazed to discover that the shops are all closed by 5.30 pm. So much for food shopping. So we ate at Fish n’ Chips on Seaport Boulevard but thought it was very expensive and nothing out of the ordinary. The other restaurant was more upmarket. So a rather gloomy day in all.

view_house — View from just below our home exchange house in Riverside

When we woke up this morning the world had taken on a new light. It was sunny! We could appreciate the stunning view the start with. We went into town to have breakfast at Elaia Café where we sat outside and ate our bacon and eggs with great gusto (you can’t buy regular bacon in France). We parked in a side street with the prettiest little houses.

elaia_cafe — Elaia Café in Charles Street

houses_launceston — Houses in a little street off Charles Street

Our next stop was a wine tasting at Vélo on West Tamar Highway. I had read about the vineyard in a magazine cutting sent by our friends in Canberra whom we went with on a wine tour to Young and Orange last time we were in Australia. Michael, the vineyard owner, is one of Australia’s leading cyclists, having participated in the Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 and competed in Tour de France and Giro d’Italia.

velo_counter — Wine tasting at Velo cellar door

During that time, he and his wife Mary lived in France and Italy where they fell in love with wine. About 10 years ago, they bought one of Tasmania’s oldest vineyards, planted in 1966 by Graham Wiltshire. They named their vineyard Vélo, which means bike in French. It was Mary who looked after us at their cellar door with its wonderful view of the Tamar Valley.

She was busy with other customers when we arrived so had the time to hear us speaking French. Relationnel was delighted when she said “bonjour”. Although a little hesitant at first, she was able to present the different whites we wanted to try and I just supplied the missing vocab from time to time. We began with a sauvignon blanc, followed by a riesling (as we’d mentioned oysters), a pinot gris and an unwooded chardonnay with a surprising lychee nose.

view_velo — View from Velo’s cellar door, soon to add a café

We chose the well-structured riesling and the pinot gris, with its elegant mineral nose and long finish, both 2010. They were not cheap by our standards at 25 dollars a piece, but then nothing is cheap for us at the moment now that the euro and dollar are practically on a par. They were our first experience of Tasmanian wines and we found them to be of excellent quality and very well-finished.

An excellent start to our first real day of holidays!

Australia, Australian customs, French customs

Feeling like a foreigner in my home country

September 17, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 7 Comments

Each time I go back to Australia, I feel more like a foreigner and less like an Australian. Although I have dual nationality, I don’t really consider myself to be French, despite the fact that I have lived there 37 years. The trouble is, I still have my Australian accent so people expect me to know how things work and to act like one of the natives.

I don’t know the coins to start with. Our one and two euro coins are more or less the same size but the two euro coin has two colours so is easy to distinguish. The two dollar coinn however, is much smaller than the one dollar piece. Very confusing. I can still remember the pounds, shillings and pence which disappeared in 1966! And those dollars used to be much cheaper in the past as well. Now they are almost worth a euro!

I can’t always understand what people are saying either. The other day, I bought two wraps (a new word in itself) in a tiny terrace café in Redfern and was asked “justhose?” “I’m sorry I don’t understand”, I replied. “Do you want anything else ?” Oh, I realised, he must have said “just those ?” I wasn’t expecting him to say that.

daniel — The outdoor eating area at Brainy Pianist’s

When we were taking the train to Brainy Pianist’s the other day, we couldn’t get the train vending machines to work so we just stood back and watched the next person. It turned out we were putting the money in the wrong machine – we didn’t realise there were two different ones, one of which said EFTPOS, not that I know what that means. Which leads to another difficulty – they have all sorts of strange abbreviations these days.

leonardo_view — View from Leonardo’s terrace

Would you believe that you don’t “go into town” any more but into the CBD or Central Business District. We just went into the Launceston CBD today and were stunned to find that all the shops were already closed at 5.30 pm (which explained why the parking metre was free – I initially thought it was just something else we didn’t understand. Only a news store (which didn’t have any more maps so was of no use whatsoever) and a pharmacy were open plus a couple of travel agents. We did see a Batman number plate on a Suburu though. How can you have a Batman number plate on a car?

batman_number_plate — Batman number plate

I guess it will gradually get better but I think it would be a whole lot easier if I didn’t sound like an Aussie !

Asia, Travelling

Flying into Sydney – one day late!

September 15, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 7 Comments

It’s about 6 am and I wake up in our hotel room in Hong Kong with a strange feeling. I look at my iPhone and see there is a message from Leonardo. Panic! Why is he ringing me? I see there is another call coming in (I’ve turned off the sound during the night) so I answer it. “Leonardo, what’s the matter?” “Hi Mum, where are you? I’ve been waiting for you for two hours!” “I’m in Hong Kong. I’m coming on Wednesday”. “Mum, it IS Wednesday”. “No, it can’t be! I’m still in Hong Kong”.

hotel_outside — Butterfly on Wellington Hotel

I frantically wake up Relationnel. “Leonardo’s at the airport in Sydney waiting for us. Have we missed the plane?” Relationnel finds the paper and checks the dates. No, thank goodness, we haven’t missed the plane. I have just got the arrival dates mixed up. I apologize profusely to Leonardo who very sweetly says “Don’t worry Mum. The important thing is that you’re OK. I was worried when I didn’t see you.”

breakfast — Breakfast the Chinese way – almost

After writing emails to all the people who are expecting us on Wednesday and trying to reschedule our already overloaded schedule, we decide to go and have breakfast which is not served at the hotel. The streets around the hotel look deserted and naked in the early morning. We are given a strange omelette and ham sandwich served with milk tea in a little Chinese eatery. Everyone else is eating noodles!

hong_kong_morning — Early morning in Hong Kong

We go back to the hotel to sleep for a couple of hours and check out at 12. We have lunch over the pier at “The Carvery”, obviously frequented by Hong Kong’s young executives from the offices nearby then do the shopping we didn’t do the day before and head off for the airport before anything else goes wrong!

This leg of the journey is only 9 hours, a whole two hours shorter than Paris-Hong Kong. I haven’t got any more episodes of Friends to watch so I watch an Australian film called The Hunter about a man hunting the Tasmanian Devil for a pharmaceutical company and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, strongly recommended to me by Brainy Pianist, by which time they are serving breakfast.

I open the cabin window and see the first light of dawn. Unfortunately, we’re just next to the wing, but it’s still quite magical to watch the sun come up as we fly into Sydney.

Everything goes smoothly. We go straight through passport control and customs. Our luggage has arrived without any hitches and there is Leonardo, waiting for us!

Sightseeing, Travelling

Lamma Island – Hong Kong

September 13, 2012 Rosemary Kneipp 6 Comments

The last time we went to Australia, we stayed in Hong Kong on the way there and the way back so we have already visited most of the sights. After touching down at about 7 am, we went to our hotel, Butterfly on Wellington, a so-called boutique hotel (I’ve yet to really understand what a boutique hotel is) highly recommended by Trip Advisor. Well, you have to start somewhere, don’t you? Book-in time is normally 2 pm, but we decided to take our chance.

hotel_room — Executive suite, Butterfly on Wellington Hotel, Hong Kong

The staff were very friendly and for an extra 30 euro, we took an excecutive suite we could use straight away. Considering that we’d hardly slept during the 11 hour flight, it seemed worth it. The room was spacious and attractive, with an expresso coffee machine and bathrobes as extras. After sleeping for a while, we ventured out for lunch about 1 pm. I love dim sum but I’d never seen these green ones which turned out to be spinach.

green_dim_sum — Delicious dim sums, including a spinach one

We then headed for Kowloon to do some shopping but as we neared the ferry, I saw signs for “outlying islands”which seemed far more attractive than the crowded streets of Kowloon. We studied up the guide book and decided to go to Lamma Island, about ½ hour by boat from Hong Kong Island and a favourite with ex-patriots because it’s cheaper than living in Hong Kong. We found the right pier and changed our notes to get 160 Hong Kong dollars each in coins to feed into the turnstile. You’d wonder why they can’t install a ticket system !

lamma_arrival — Arrival at Yung Shue Wan on Lamma Island

There are no cars on Lamma because there are no roads, just concrete paths and the occasional long very narrow vehicle full of workers. The eponymous main street has a little temple and lots of shops and restaurants catering to both Chinese and ex-pat customers. You see the occasional bike but not really that many. We followed a sign to an old village but there wasn’t much to see so we went in the other direction and did the « family walk » to Sok Kwu Wan – 1 hour 15 minutes on a concrete coastal path that wound up the hill and down again.

We saw lots of tropical trees, flowers and birds very reminiscent of North Queensland. After a while, I noticed that all the teenagers coming towards us appeared to have been swimming. We soon came across an attractive little beach with surprisingly few people. Unfortunately, we didn’t have our swimsuits with us because they even had showers and changing facilities further along. We had a freshly made watermelon juice at Hung Shing Ye instead, refreshed by a fine overhead mist that floated down on us from time to time.

When we set off at about 6 pm, we still had 50 minutes to go. We got to Sok just as the sun was setting. We’re so used to the long summer twilights in France that we could easily have been caught in the dark ! We walked along the main street which was really just a series of restaurants and chose the Rainbow. We had a delicious bug called squilla, some tasty little geoduck clams and a somewhat insipid fish called garoupa. After filling in our customer satisfaction form (they have them everywhere in Hong Kong), we discovered that our restaurant had its own “Rainbow ferry” whose price was included in the meal.

hillside_view — Hillside view overlooking villlagd

The most spectacular part of the day was the view of Hong Kong on the way back. Unfortunately, the boat moved a little too much to take photos that would do it justice. We were up on the upper deck and I was afraid that I was going to lose my iPhone, particularly when I had to keep changing sides. We walked back to the hotel via the extraordinary network of passenger walkways a couple of floors above street level, very pleased with our impromptu day in Hong Kong.

Aussie in France