Amazing weather, an amazing weekend full of dining out; walking on beaches and spending two glorious days away on the boat to Bruny Island.
Need I say any more, except Tasmania, your Autumn sun was so appreciated. x
Tag: Bruny Island
Autumn Boating
I hope you all enjoyed a fabulous weekend? It certainly was superb weather and we were lucky to be away on the boat for the whole weekend.
Bruny Island certainly turned it on for us as we enjoyed time on the water with our friends, Richard and Anna and Marcus and Janeen and their children. Happy days. Xx
Australia Day
We have just returned from being away for the Australia Day Long Weekend on Bruny Island with Nick’s folks and our ‘boating’ friends.
Poppy was in her element playing with the ‘big girls’, eating muffins, having her toenails painted, watching ‘Frozen’, riding in boats, playing on the beach and putting on Australian flag transfers!
Day Trippin’
I have finally found my Christmas groove! After the chaos of Christmas shopping last week, I loaded the kids in the car nice and early on Saturday morning and caught the 9:30am ferry to Bruny Island. My sister’s and brother-in-law were camping at Jetty Beach on South Bruny which provided a perfect day trip. Nick decided to stay at home and have a ‘sleep-in’ after his work drinks on Friday night.
I love day trips! The anticipation of getting out of the house, packing up all your bits and bobs that you need for travelling with wee ones and selecting the perfect driving tunes. My music genre has changed somewhat since I have two backseat drivers now and find Playschool and Frozen are often on high rotation!
We had a perfect drive to South Bruny, marvelling at the beautiful landscape and belting out a few nursery rhymes! We got into camp, had a cuppa and then ventured to the superb beach where Pops and James played for hours. A long walk and more cups of tea, I was back on the 5:30pm ferry with two sun-kissed, exhausted kids. It was a perfect escape from the pre-Christmas craziness.
On Sunday we had lunch with Nick’s parents on their boat at Triworks – a quick trip from Hobart. Nick and Poppy jumped in for a swim, we ate beautiful food and enjoyed the balmy conditions. xx
Restaurant Australia
There is a buzz in Hobart … that is because the world has been invited to dinner tonight!
Tasmania is currently hosting Restaurant Australia with a gala dinner at MONA tonight for the world’s most respected food and wine writers, celebrity chefs and broadcasters. Heston’s in Hobart!
Restaurant Australia will see over 80 international media and food and wine experts coming to Hobart for a uniquely Australian dinner at the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) on Friday 14th November.Restaurant Australia is about setting Australia’s food and beverage apart from the rest of the world, through the people, places and produce that make the country’s culinary experiences unique.In addition to the 80 international VIPs there will be over 200 influential guests visiting Hobart to be part of this event. They will include domestic media, state and territory tourism executives, government personnel, campaign ambassadors and renowned Australian food and beverage personalities.
I occasionally freelance for Tourism Tasmania as a guide with their Visiting Journalist Program and this week I was privileged to host Jessica Allen – a digital correspondent from The Social in Canada, her film crew and John Lethlean, a food reviewer from The Australian, as part of the Restaurant Australia event.
Growing up in such a special place, I appreciate how unique and beautiful Tasmania is. It is home and we live and breathe this beauty everyday, but when you show someone the magic of Tasmania for the first time, it never ceases to amaze me how utterly blown away they are. I get to experience this appeal through new eyes, each and every time this sense wonderment happens. This trip was no exception – they were staggered by the utter beauty, the houses, the water, but most of all … our food.
Our itinerary included lunch at Smolt, a wander around the city with Hobart Historic Tours, a drop of Whiskey at Lark Distillery, and a heavenly dinner at Ethos on Wednesday. On Thursday I picked the group up bright and early to catch the first ferry to Bruny Island where we had breakfast at the Bruny Island Cheese Co. Please let it be known that I experienced the best fruit buns ever – thank you Nic Haddow!
A long lunch in a vineyard at Bruny Island Premium Wines and we finished off the day sampling salty morsels plucked from their sub-tidal homes at Get Shucked Oysters. I felt proud to be Tasmanian and even prouder to be showing off our ‘every-day’. X
A Boating BBQ in 36 seconds
Our barbecue at ‘The Quarries’ on Bruny Island last Saturday … in 36 seconds. x
Bruny Bound
Here we are on Bruny Island (the ‘bobsy’ twins with our matching tees) showing Greg and Jackie the sights on Friday – an absolutely glorious day. We had a lovely day, albeit a few meltdowns from James and Poppy!
Poor ‘ol Jackie had to cram into the backseat in between the two car seats and as we were driving off the ferry, James was absolutely screaming due to over-tiredness. This was complemented by Poppy repeatedly asking ‘Are we there yet‘ and having a tantrum about being able to swim and kicking the back of my seat. I could feel my blood boiling as I was driving and all I could think was poor Jackie and Greg – this was their Bruny Island experience!
James finally fell asleep as we drove to Dennes Point and I bribed Poppy with an apple.
On the way back to the ferry in the afternoon we were cutting it fine with the time when Poppy said:
Mummy, I need to do a wee!
I piled her out of the car and as she was squatting she said:
Mummy, I need to do a poo!
I yelled out to Jackie and Greg:
We have a ‘Code Brown’!
This could just be the impetus to missing the ferry. After rushing Poppy to ‘just push harder’ we drove like mad dreading the thought of the hour and a half wait for the next ferry and a repeat of the morning scenario. Thankfully we were the last car on the ferry! Phew, we made it! High fives all round, until Poppy said:
Mummy, I need to do another poo!
I just looked at her and said ‘hold tight’ until we get off the ferry! A relaxing G&T once we were home and then I bundled my poor babies up again and whisked them out to Rektango where we enjoyed a brief set from Mr Coconut before the wheels (almost) fell off again. Xx
Sunny Days : Stormy Seas
We have just had the Royal Hobart Regatta Long Weekend and you guessed – we went away again on the boat to Bruny Island.
We had a lovely swim at Little Fancy Bay on Saturday afternoon; Nick caught nineteen flathead at Missionary Bay; we had a nice catch up with friends on their yacht and then weathered the biggest storm I have seen in the Channel! We were fine but had to make a quick dash from an exposed bay into 65 Knot winds. Unfortunately some other boats weren’t so lucky as they dragged their moorings from Kettering and ended up on the rocks on Bruny Island.
On our way home yesterday we checked out the Royal Hobart Regatta and Poppy welcomed the cruise ship to town!
Rockly Rolly
Mum, it’s rockly rolly!
With this statement, Poppy summed up our recent boating trip perfectly! She couldn’t quite say “rocky” without the ‘l’.
It was our first trip away as a family of four on our little Tagus and we had a fab time but did strike some very windy weather over the four days, hence the ‘rocky rolly’! We bunkered down in the safety of sheltered coves on Bruny Island and had a very relaxing time with our friends.
I ended up ‘jumping ship’ with Poppy, James and Maisy due to the conditions and John, my father-in-law picked us up from North Bruny Island on Saturday afternoon.
Both James and Poppy slept well in their new bunks on board, which was a relief!
Escape on Tagus
We have spent the weekend away on the boat, trying to find some respite from the heat and coming to terms with the devastating fires that have gripped South-Eastern Tasmania.
Friday was an incredibly eerie day, with temperatures soaring to 41.3 c with a howling wind. Even though we had planned to head down the Channel on the boat, all I really wanted to do was to stay at home with the blinds closed.
We did leave and found a beautiful place to have a swim and cool down. Poppy loved swimming with her Dad, but man-oh-man it was HOT. I am not very good in the heat!
We stayed in The Gentleman’s – Bruny Island that night and thankfully the weather did cool down in the evening. Poppy slept all night too which was a relief, as she hasn’t been away on the boat since Easter last year.
The next day we went for a beautiful swim at Conningham and then met up with Nick’s parents. In the afternoon we caught up with James, Leesa, Meg and Emily and stayed at Missionary Bay.
Yesterday we had a lovely day at our favourite spot – Little Fancy Bay. Sublime!
Social Butterfly
The Poppy Files 