Beginning our Tasmanian Adventure

For the first time in two and a half years we're having a holiday in the greatest country in the world - Australia. We love visiting home and catching up with everyone but we just wish it didn't involve such a long flight. We've flown with Emirates the last few times as the experience is always as good as it can be when you're flying economy

Picture of us in Heathrow waiting for our flight minus makeup so a little bit scary.

The airport was decorated for Christmas and I really liked the Christmas trees that were dotted throughout.

After nearly 7 hours on the plane we had a two and a half hour stop in Dubai - the airport is lovely and we like this fountain that sits behind the elevators.

After two more long flights split by half an hour in Singapore and my legs nearly seizing up, we arrived in Melbourne. My beloved has never spent any time in the city but I'll have to correct that one day - I'd love to take Ken to an Aussie Rules game and of course it would have to feature Carlton, the greatest team ever (no comments from the cheap seats about our recent performances).

We had a few hours to mooch around Tullamarine airport and it was really nice to see Tasmanian wine for sale.

The airport was decorated for Christmas and we loved the decorations that were painted on the walls.

Below is Ken being a spotter and checking out the planes - or he may have been doing an impression of Tattoo from Fantasy Island (sorry, you have to be of a certain age to get that reference).

After the huge planes we'd flown to Australia in, the toy plane we get across the straight to Tassie always comes as a bit of a shock to the system.  Thankfully it was a lovely calm day with not very much wind - I have done this flight in the past when even the flight attendants didn't undo their seatbelts.

If you look really closely, in the picture below you can see a distant shot of the nut, and the one below that is a shot of table cape as we flew into Wynyard.

I'm sure if you've read any of our blogs you'll know that we're big fans of silliness - we like to have a laugh, so we've obtained a mascot for our holiday and he will be sharing our adventures with us. We'd like to introduce you to Crumble the Devil (crumble after one of my favourite chocolate bars, violet crumble) and a devil as they're uniquely Tasmanian.

Wynyard may be small but it isn't short of our favourite type of shop, cafes. You know we love coffee and cake. My favourite is Rumours - it has fabulous food and a great decor.

Crumble made the acquaintance of one of Rumours rare green rabbits.

But then he totally embarrassed himself by deciding to see what rabbit tasted like - I can see we're going to have to keep an eye on him.

Today we went for a walk along the river track as it was a glorious sunny 21 degrees.  The track is alongside the Inglis river which runs for 62.1km before it flows into the sea at Wynyard and used to be part of our cross country route when I was at school.

Sorry, but I had to sneak in a graveyard - this is the old Wynyard graveyard which is at the end of the track.

We then walked down through Gutteridge gardens  which were developed by Richard Gutteridge after the first world war and after his death in 1940 the council took them over. Along the path someone has written some very positive graffiti on the path - this was just one of many.

Now in the past I have been known to make my beloved put on silly hats so that I can take pictures of him - today I think Ken was getting his own back when he made me model these glasses - at least they matched what I was wearing.

One of the things I really love about this little town is the colonial style homes - here's just two that we like.

So our holiday has started well despite the jet lag, Ken is suffering more than me and is fading by mid afternoon - the sunglasses are hiding our tired eyes.

Until next time, be happy, stay safe, and do something nice for someone who can never thank you.

Pamela and Ken
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