more of Tasmania

The main reason we did our East Coast trip was to visit my Aunt who lives in Swansea.  I can't believe I didn't get photos, but we spent a lovely time catching up and I even got to see one of my cousins who I probably haven't seen since Oscar was a baby!  

After we left, we stopped in on a few of the many wineries for a little bit of tasting.  I loved the effort that this one had gone to of creating an old world Tassie feel...

 I have to admit that I have a real fondness for old bleached farms and sheds.  Even in America, I was drawn to barns and old farm houses.   We saw plenty of these as we took the scary windy road over the hills to Launceston (we took the scenic route).  Most of Tassie is yellow dry, but up here, it's almost luscious green.

 And there is a lot of back burning going on all over the state after the bush fires of the summer.  Plumes of smoke in the distance are always a scary sight, but this one is at least a controlled burning.

 The soil up here is a deep brown red.  When we first got to Singapore, I remember seeing carrots shipped in from the Northern part of Tasmania.

 One of Ella's classic quotes from the trip is "I'd really like to see some wild LIFE as all I've seen is wild DEATH" in response to ALL the road kill that is just everywhere.  She got her wish when Matt saw an echidna cross the road in front of him.  We turned the car around and pulled up on the side of the road.  The little guy went into classic echidna defense mode and buried himself into the earth and brambles and no amount of prodding could get him to "show his face", but Ella did get the opportunity to stroke his spokes.

A random photo of Kit with my friend Anna's dog.  A gorgeous and slightly made Kelpie cross pup.

 A trip to Hobart is really not complete without a trip up to the top of Mount Wellington (something that both Charles Darwin and Mark Twain have done).  My kids call it "Windy Mountain" as their last trip was almost blowing all of us off our feet and was so cold and windy.  In the winter it usually has snow on it, and as a kid it was the only way you got to see snow.  There was no snow on the Saturday we went up- it was gorgeous and clear although still windy and cold, and PACKED with people.  There was a steady stream of cars all the way up and parking was very limited. (I made an effort with all the photos I took to keep out the hordes).

 There are paths now and viewing platforms, but for the kids, there is nothing like running around on the rocks.

 I've been going up to the top of Mt. Welllington all my life, and I have never seen it as clear as when we first got up there.  We could see all the way to the East coast...Maria Island and The Hazards, south down to Bruny Island and the Channel.

While we were up there it started to get more hazy, and we put it down to all these fires in the distance. Once again, controlled burning off.