We Love Tassie

by Marea Gray
(Alexandra Hills, Brisbane. Queensland.)

Myself, my husband and my mother have recently returned from a one week holiday to Tasmania. Our first port of call was Launceston we flew directly from Brisbane, this was the start of our wonderful holiday.

We stayed in a little place called Carrick which is just out of Launceston. We stayed at a B & B called The Stables, a wonderful place, cosy and warm, comfy beds and a lovely breakfast also..

Over the next two days we travelled up to Burnie, where we visited a whisky distillery and tasted and ended up purchasing some delicious whisky. We went through a lovely little town called Penguin, such a gorgeous little seaside town, so lovely. Also we stopped in at Devonport and saw the huge ship that takes passengers and cars from Melbourne, it was amazing.

We went south to Deloraine, Elizabeth Town and Latrobe where we found the Raspberry Farm, the cheese factory and the choc factory, all three of these places were quite a disappointment to us, as there really wasn't anything much there. My tip, would be to stay at the whisky distillery and do the tour, we missed out on this as we had to rush off to these other places..

Next was to travel down to Strahan, where we had a two night stay at Ormiston House, a lovely grand old house turned into a B & B, the hosts were delightful, and the house magnificent. Whilst in Strahan we did the Gordon River Cruise a must do, it was wonderful and the lunch on board was tremendous. But if you have more time there, we think the railway trip on the puffing billy would also be great, it goes down to Queenstown and back it looked wonderful.
We had a lovely fish meal that night at the fish cafe, which is on the wharf side of Strahan, just near where the boat takes you on your Gordon River Cruise. The fish was delicious Blue Eyed Trevalla.. look out for that fish it's divine.

Next step we travelled across to Hobart, this was a long journey, but a lovely one also, lots of twists and turns, and quite a few hours in the car. Hobart itself was very busy, and has alot of one way streets, and it is also filled with parking meters. Something we aren't used to here in Brisbane.

We stayed at Glenorchy, which is just outside of Hobart, quite close to the Cadbury Factory, we stayed at the Best Western Balmoral Motor Inn, it was fantastic, in fact it was actually one of the nicest places we stayed in the whole trip! and the cheapest too.. so give it a go..

We did a trip to the Cadbury Factory of course, and found the Cadbury shop there full of discounted chocs, we bought way too many of course. We spent just one short night in Hobart and wished we had stayed at least two.

We then travelled further south down to our last booked accomodation to a place called Taranna, just close to Eaglehawk Neck and Port Arthur, we stayed in a lovely motel called Abs by the Bay, they have beautiful family room type accommodation, the one we stayed in had two bedrooms, a queen bed in one and two king singles in the other, a huge bathroom and lounge and dining area. Plus a full working kitchen, pots, pans, microwave etc, plus there was a bbq on the verandah which we could have used as well.. A wonderful place once again, lovely and comfy beds, cosy air con and easy to find too.

We did the night time ghost tour at Port Arthur and the next day we spent back at Port Arthur. We explored the ruins and the gorgeous gardens and had a lovely lunch in the cafe, we also toured Point Puer the boys prison it was very interesting. Lunch and the tour of the prison was included in our Silver Pass.. make sure you look in the gift shop, its full of treasures..

The next day we flew out of Hobart and home to Brisbane, I wouldn't hesitate on recommending Tassie to anyone, especially in winter as it was totally amazing!! Just can't wait to go back, one day...