AUSTRALIA, Tasmania,
15-17 Mar 2013
North Shores Beaches & Flight Down to Family in Tasmania
Australia, North shore beaches & onto Tasmania 15-17 mar 2013 collaroy, curl curl, hobart, Mackay Cyclone remains affecting North Shore, covering amongst others 70 selective slideshow images, dee why, beaches galore, salt water pools, narabeen beach and lakes, family, Cromer goodbye and farewell poopie the dog, Kingsford Smith Mascot Sydney airport, flight to tasmania, Jet Star internal flights, family, apple juice, ss carnival in port, huon valley, roses, stanley and florence twight reserve, long reef, aquatic reserve, ranelagh, maple tree cottage, north huon road, chicken coop, river derwent, mount nelson, lookout, kunanyi , derwent estuary, richmond heritage town and bridge, Sorell, howrah, hobart harbour, signal hill, truganini reserve, mount wellington, bicentennial park, mount stuart lookout, tasman bridge, sandy bay, wrest point, sleeping maiden range We were previously in this area in 1995, 2007 and then again in 2017.
Friday March 15th 2013
Summary, Sydney
Woke up to rain! First real rain we have had on this trip and especially in Australia. Keef checked emails and sent messages and did some photo processing / saving. Anne did laundry and a big pile of ironing.
The rain stopped, we had a late lunch and then drove to Collaroy beach, which has quite coarse sand. Amazingly big waves here, lots of surfers, we sat and watched them from the Stanley and Florence Twight reserve or park in English (lovely name for some now long-gone locals). Some of what the surfers were doing looked very difficult.
We then drove to Dee Why beach and visited quite a few smaller beaches in between. We parked the car at Dee Why for free which was quite a novelty , nearly everywhere else in Sydney we have had to pay. New Zealand is the complete opposite so we had been used to bowling up to beauty spots for free.
At Dee Why we walked to the sea water swimming pool by the beach. The waves here were huge crashing into rocks and over into the seawater pool. It looked very stormy but did not rain. The weather currently was the edge of the cyclone that had hit Mackay in Queensland. It was what was causing such huge waves. Perfect for the huge number of surfers as Dee Why. We then drove to Curl Curl beach, which had lovely architect designed individual houses all with fabulous sea views. We could even see Narabeen lakes from the hill tops overlooking Curl Curl beach.
We then returned to the cottage and packed our bags ready for our early flight to Hobart, Tasmania the next morning.
In the evening we watched a Bruce Willis film about an African rebel army attacking nuns and local people whom BW had to rescue, a bit gory and not very good, really can’t remember what it was called as totally unmemorable.
Saturday March 16th 2013
Summary, Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania.
Got up at 5.30 a.m. and left for the airport to get the jet star flight to Hobart at 11.30 a.m. We handed back the hire car at the Kingsford Smith (Mascot) Sydney airport. It was about 42 minutes driving via Warringah Road, and you had to be there 3 hours earlier, who knows why hence such an early start which seemed strange for what in the end was only a 90-minute flight down to Hobart.
Jet star had very cramped seats, no food and you even had to pay for water. Not sure how much we like these budget airlines, but I guess you get what you pay for. Anne had security check for explosives, see looked dodgy ha-ha. At Hobart airport it was pouring with rain. John Terry met us at the airport, it all felt about the same size as Jersey airport, very small and only 1 luggage carousel.
John kindly drove us back to his and Diana’s house in Ranelagh, outside Hobart in the Huon valley. We all had afternoon tea and hot cross buns, and afterwards we unpacked our bags.
We had a lovely roast lamb dinner in the evening. John and Diana have sold their house to some people from Victoria and must move out by the end of April. At the time they believed they were going abroad to live near Diana’s son Steven and his family in Denver, Colorado in the USA. Time subsequently changed their plans and they moved to Swansea, south of Launceston in Tasmania.
They also hoped to return briefly to the UK to visit her daughter and grandchildren as well as other family and friends, they would always be welcome at our house. Subsequently that plan didn’t mature, they did come to us in Derbyshire however back in 2001.
Sunday March 17th 2013
Summary, Ranelagh, Tasmania.
We had a cooked breakfast and then drove in John & Diana’s car to Richmond, a historical town with then allegedly oldest bridge in Australia. Many of the houses and buildings were built by convicts. The town was very busy and hard to park in, so we drove through looking at stuff on the way up to the bridge. We then drove onto Sorell. We then returned to Hobart and went to the Mount Nelson signal point lookout which we had been to before back in 2008. There you get fabulous views of Hobart, the Derwent valley, and the River Derwent. There was a cruise ship , the SS Carnival, sailing in at the time we were at the lookout.
We had a coffee there and then drove to Sandy Bay and walked along the river estuary which had very clear water, it turned very sunny and hot.
John then drove us back to their house. He did a very nice Thai green curry in the evening.