Melbourne

Our first night in Melbourne was unbearably hot! Denise stayed at Amy's flat (she is staying at her parents - amazing!) with aircon - I stayed at my old friend Michelle's flat with fan. I must tell you that I am very happy to be here but I only realised last week that Michelle doesn't actually live here even though she bought the place last October. She is working 300km away and is staying with her parents until she can find a job in Melbourne. She does come and stay at weekends though. So Michelle has had to go out and buy a frying pan, baking tray (she obviously thinks I'm going to spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking), saucepan, blow up mattress, 2 glasses and a dongle so that I can have the internet. So I am very grateful despite the fact there is no telly or furniture - I tell a lie, there is a table and chairs.
The following day it was pouring with rain and quite cool (Melbourne is famous for having 4 seasons in one day so the difference over 2 days was quite normal). We had a very exciting evening planned - the Cuba Four had tickets for the Women's tennis final at the Melbourne Open. Admittedly I was hoping to see Serena  and Ash Barty slog it out and was disappointed when they were knocked out, but Muguruza and Kenin were good enough for me!

I was supporting Muguruza - obviously the kiss of death as she lost on a double fault!

This morning I went on a walk along the Yarra river with Michelle before she went back to her parents ( a 3 hour drive ) oh, and I also saw a couple of feathery things

I have spent the afternoon doing my washing and hanging my clothes in a wardrobe (it's built in so Michelle didn't have to buy one!). I intend to spend the evening watching Thiem beat Djokovic on my tablet thanks to Michelle buying a dongle! 

BTW I must apologise for the delay in updating this time but decent WiFi in Tasmania is as rare as hen's teeth!

On Monday I met up in town with Denise and we went on a boat trip on the Yarra river which was very pleasant

Back to Hobart

Our last couple of days in Tasmania were back in our lovely hotel in Hobart,

The first destination was the Cascades female factory which basically was a penal colony for women. They came off the ships in Sullivan Bay in Hobart and were paraded up the hill to the factory - many of them didn't even make it as they were snatched in the street never to be seen again. They eventually started to bring them on unmarked ships in the dead of night so that most of them ended up in the factory.. It was a cruel place where women were punished for singing, getting raped, being pregnant and other more minor misdemeanors. Anne, Denise and Amy went on the guided tour, I chose to see a dramatisation of some of the actual characters that had spent time in the factory - it was a one woman show and she was fantastic, it brought everything to life and was quite emotional. I would thoroughly recommend it if you ever go to Tasmania.

As it was next door we also found ourselves in the Cascade Brewery - Amy's favourite tipple so she was in seventh heaven

The following day denise and Amy went to MONA (Museum of old and new art) which was a boat trip away whilst Anne and I went to Bruny Island to go on a jet boat around the coastline ( no I still haven't grown up yet!). We got on a coach at Kettering, which is by the sea and not in the middle of England, where we caught a ferry over to Bruny

Kettering

We then drove through the North Island of Bruny to a narrow spit of land that went to the South

When we reached the south of the south island we jumped on our jet boat to explore the coastline wearing the most delightful, very long, waterproof coats - I felt like one of the 7 dwarves and almost fell in a couple of times as it was about 12 inches too long!

The jet boat

Anne in her 1950's film pose

The ride was quite bumpy as we were going over 4 meter swells but it was okay as we were tied in!

We saw some amazing rock formations

This called the breathing rock

and a colony of fur seals

Of course there were birds there too................

We left Hobart the following day in 40 degree heat and arrived in melbourne in 43 degree heat - OMG!

Tasmania - Central

We arrived at Launceston and was surprised to see how big it was (maybe even bigger than Hobart) - it seemed to be quite industrial. It had the Tamar river going through it and our lovely modern apartment (well done to Amy for getting us such exquisite accommodation) overlooked Cataract Gorge - if you ignore the factory rooves in the foreground!

I saw that there was an opportunity to see the only blue penguins in Australia just 1/2 hour up the road at Low Head and both Anne and I seized the chance. We arrived just before dusk and it was extremely windy and cold but we didn't care, we were very excited to see them come out of the sea and go to their rookery. We could not use flash or white light to see them as that would stop them from coming out so the guides used orange light which sort of cancelled out their blue colour. Only one penguin comes out first as they check out for danger before the others follow. When they do come out of the sea they spend quite a lot of time preening and oiling their feathers ready for the next day. We sat their for 2 hours waiting for them to approach us but they were taking their time! Eventually the coach loads of people had to leave and that left 5 of us and a guide - what a treat............ the little buggers came up as soon as the crowds had gone and we had a ringside seat - it was amazing. I could only do video as the light levels were too low and also my camera had difficulty focussing but here are some highlights

The beach where they came out

Anne and I braving the weather

On the way home we talked about how lucky we were to see them up so close and how we were looking forward to seeing Cradle Mountain the next day .........................

Our trip to Cradle mountain was going to be a long one - 2 1/2 hours each way. We had found a leaflet that said there was a lake nearby which took 2 1/2 hours to walk around so we grabbed a picnic lunch and set off. Anne had set the satnav for St Clair Lake so everything was under control. The closer we got to our destination, the worse the weather got - grey, cold and wet! We arrived about midday and went up to the reception to pay for the entrance fee which varied depending on what you intended to do. I said to the man that we had a car, were here for the day and intended to take the 2 1/2 hour walk around the lake. He corrected me saying that the walk was 6 hours, we were a bit suprised but thought nothing of it as he showed a little map with a 2 hour walk on it that would satisfy our needs, at this point Anne said  'but we will still see cradle mountain wont we?' to which he replied 'nope!'   'well why not?' said Anne, 'because it's a 3 1/2 hour drive north' he said with glee. Well at this point they had to scrape me up off the counter as I was laughing so much. Anne was mortified that she had got the wrong lake but looking on the bright side there was a TV monitor in reception showing Cradle mountain covered in thick cloud so we wouldn't have seen it anyway. We ate our packed lunch under shelter because it was torrential rain and set of when it had stopped. According to the information leaflet we could see duck billed platypus in Platypus Bay so that was something to look forward to - except when we got there they were in their burrows as they only come out at dawn and dusk! I didn't see any birds either or wombats in fact apart from having a walk by a lake the only thing that happened (quite frequently) was rain, but we did have a good laugh. On the way home - just to lift our spirits an echidna decided to appear on the roadside which was lovely to see

There was an aboriginal walk part way along the lake which had this sign - it made me very sad as apparently there are no native aboriginals in Tasmania as they were all murdered by the British and I am truly ashamed of my ancesters and would like to profusely apologise on their behalf