Just a quick note to thank-you for the gift that you gave me 9 years ago.

Love,

Davena

Long-time readers (and I'm fairly sure, I only have long-time readers now days) will know that I met my husband Ross, via xanga.

As of today, we have been a couple for 9 years.

Then:

Now:

He could even be getting better with age.

He's alright, for an Aussie.

Plan: driving Swansea to Launceston.
Visit Cataract Gorge.
fly back to Melbourne.

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On the way to Launceston, we had the choice to turn right towards Launceston, or left towards Ross.

Ross was keen to go to Ross to get a photo underneth the 'Welcome to Ross' sign.
(He also wanted to get a 'Ross' hat to replace the one he lost on the cruise)

So we did.

This photo doesn't convey how freaken cold it was.
There was a really icy wind blowing.

After lunch at the Ross Tearooms, and a quick look around the town we doubled back to get to Launceston.

First stop, Cataract Gorge (which is pretty much in the middle of Launcestion)

Cataract Gorge has a chair-lift that goes across to a cafe/resturant.

It's the longest, single-span chair-lift in the southern hemisphere.
Or something.

On the way across.

Check out my 'Ross' hat.

(it was cold!)

There were loads of peacocks.

Noisy buggers they are!

This one stole a pie off the table next to us. It was very funny.

Looking back from the swing-bridge:

Ross on the swing-bridge.

We had planned to eat at the posh resturant at Cataract Gorge,
but it turned out that it didn't open until 6.30pm.

We had to be at the airport at 7pm. so we asked the waiter at the cafe what we
should do for the next 2.5hrs.

He said "Ahhhh... Monkeys in the park?"

Monkey's in the park?

Alright then.

Launceston reminded me of Wellington.

Can't think why.

So. Monkeys in the park.

We arrived at the park at 4.25pm.

There was a sign saying the monkey are there until 4.30pm.

I pulled out my camera, and snapped this photo of a group of monkey's loitering.

A second after this photo was taken, and a door inside that cave opened, and whooosh!
All the monkey's were gone.

What the hell?

LOL!

So, we drove around a bit and found an open resturant and had Tapas.

And that ends our Tasmanian adventure!

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November 2nd, 2009.
The next morning we drove to Coles Bay to go on a scenic cruise with 'Rastus the Dolphin Spotting Dog'.

November 1st, 2009.

In the interests of time, I'm turning this into a photo blog.

After leaving Taranna, we drove to Swansea, along the way we came across this fence covered in shoes:

Then, we stopped at the 'Spikey Bridge' just outside of Swansea. 

The bridge was built in the early 1840's by convicts, but doesn't appear to go anywhere.

There also doesn't appear to be a reason why it's spikey.



 

On arrving at Swansea we checked into the resort, this was our cabin:

That path at the front leads down to the beach.

Inside:

The beach:

Looking from the beach towards the cabin:

The resort has a resturant that has won several awards, I planned for us to eat there the first night, but sadly it was booked out. The next night it was closed! I was so upset!

Happily we were able to get a reservation at 'The Banc' which I must say was amazing.

Both Ross and I really enjoyed our meals, so much so I wanted to eat there again the following night, sadly for me, it was booked out.

(This is not a very good photo, sorry!)

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November 1st, 2009.

Spend the morning at Port Arthur.
Lunch at a fabulous seafood restaurant in Taranna.
Driving from Port Arthur to Swansea.

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After breakfast at the 'Storm Bay Guest House' we drove back to Port Arthur Historic site to have more of a look around in the daylight:

Looking at this photo -- these beautiful ruins in this lovely green lush place -- it's just so hard to imagine that Port Arthur was the place of such horror in the 1800's.

One of the cool things they do at Port Arthur is that when you arrive, they give you a playing card and using your playing card you can trace the life of 'your' prisoner.

My prisoner had been sent to Port Arthur for stealing two £5 notes.

This is the church that is the background of the Ghost tour photo.

The the ruins of the Separate Prison are on this hill behind the willow tree to the right. The energy in there was so bad during the Ghost tour, that I didn't want to go back, even in the daylight.

After another hour or so looking around, we headed over to the jetty, to go on the harbour cruise.

This little island is Isle of the Dead, where the bodies of over 1,000 convicts were buried.

Just out of the shot on the right is a jetty, and if you had purchased a special pass you could get off the boat and do a tour of the island.

The building at the front is part of the Guard Tower, we didn't tour any of that part of the site, so we missed out on the Guard Tower, the Officers Quarters and the Commandants House.

Oh well, we'll just have to go back.

We had a booking for lunch, so we had to go.

We drove to Tranna, stopping for a quick look at the Tasmanian Devil park on the way.

I'd done a lot of research on food in Tasmania, and this one seafood restaurant stood out, so I insisted we go there.

I'm in two minds as to if I should name the place, but I must say, I was very disappointed.

Our first course of Oysters came out and tasted great, although, the presentation could have been better (I think).

(Salt and szechwan peppered Oysters, and Oysters Kilpatrick)

Our main dishes came out, and the only way I can explain it is this.

You know on Master Chef, when the cooks are given a recipe of something amazing by award winning chefs, and they have to go away and cook/present it?

And at the end, it kinda looks OK, but if you compare it to the chef's dish, it looks (and tastes) a bit dodgy.... well that's what the food was like.

I had duck with five spice pancakes, and while it all tasted fine, it honestly looked like it had been cooked and plated up by someone who'd never cooked before.

Considering the cost of the place, it wasn't as good as it should have been, our dinner the night before at Felon's Bistro tasted (and looked) better, and cost approx half as much.

Part two, to follow.

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October 31st, 2009.

Basic plan, fly into Hobart, drive to Port Arthur.
Dinner at the Historic Site, followed by ghost tour.

We arrived at 'Storm Bay Guest House' at 2pm, only  a 15min drive from the Port Arthur Historic Site. It's a beautiful Bed and Breakfast with amazing views from the deck:

After a few hours relaxing, we headed to the Port Arthur Historic Site early so that we'd have time to have a look at the ruins in the daylight before the ghost tour.

note:

For those of you who don't know the history of Port Arthur, (here is a link to the wiki page) the basic overview is that in the 1830's Port Arthur served as Penal Colony.

In addition to being an place of amazing historic significance, in 1996 a gunman went on a shooting spree at the Port Arthur Historic site, killing 35 people and injuring approx 20 more.

We arrived at about 5pm, and mists had just started to come down around the buildings. This is the first sight you get of the ruins, it's the shell of the main Penitentiary:

The orange/yellow house behind the ruins is (I think) the Commadant's Office.

The ruins higher on the hill in this shot, are the remains of the hospital, and the house to the right of the shot, behind the tree is the Policeman's Residence.

(here is a link to a Port Arthur Site Map).

Ross looking smug inside the ruins of the Penitentiary.

Ross and I.

Mist rolling into the bay.

At about 6.30pm, Ross and I went to 'Felons Bistro' a restaurant located in the visitor's center (dinner was included in the Ghost Tour tickets).

After dinner, we lined up for the Ghost Tour.

The
thing about the Ghost Tour is that there are no theatrics to make it
spookier. The only things that make it spooky are the location, and the
fact that it's dark.

I
only took a few photos during the tour, and none of them turned out
very well, but here is one of the few that shows the true spookiness of
the evening. That's our tour guide Todd Darling at the far right of the shot, with the church ruins in the background. After the tour finished, we headed back to the Visitor's Centre to pick up our 'Certificate of Bravery' and headed out to the carpark to head back to the B&B.

I overheard a lady who'd been on our tour telling her friend that she'd been able to feel the ghosts touching her hair .... *shiver*.

I didn't see any ghosts myself, but I did feel uncomfortable in two of the buildings, one was the 'Separate Prison' and the other was the 'Autopsy Room' under the surgeon's house.

The Separate Prison in particular had very bad energy.

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Hurrah!

 I brought a bunch of really nice ceramic beads/buttons and pendants from the amazing Gaea, here is some of her work:

Amazing huh?

I thought the colours and textures that she uses would go well with my glass beads, so I'm looking forward to them arriving.

I've been really slack lately with both making beads (the cold weather has kept me out of the garage) and making jewellery, so hopefully the arrival of my new stash of ceramic beads will kick me off again.

I have set aside some time this weekend for 'bead stuff'... I have a kiln load to fire, another kiln load to clean, and once that's done? Then I'll have two kiln loads ready to make jewellery with.

Most of the beads I've brought from Gaea are in blues and greens, so I guess I better get a bunch of blue and green beads made.

After 'meeting' 8 1/2yrs ago via our blogs here on Xanga, Ross and I got married on Friday, June 5th, 2009.

We got married in front our our families in the Registry Office off the 'Old Treasury Building' at 3pm.