The first bit

This morning I completed my recce of the Point-to-Pinnacle course, in three stages. This time I did the first bit - from the event start at Wrest Point Casino down on the River Derwent up along the Huon Road to Fern Tree, all the while looking up at the top of kunanyi / Mt Wellington in the distance and thinking, yikes! That's where this thing ends. For the return trip I chose the scenic route, down the Pipeline Track and through Waterworks Reserve before hitting the side streets of Sandy Bay back to the car. 18.7km all up.

It was a gorgeous morning before the rain passed through this afternoon. I hope the weather is kind for the actual event. If I add together the three stages I've walked, I did it in just over 3 hours 30 minutes, with just a few stops to take photos and tie shoelaces. So walking it in one go I guess I'll be tired and a bit slower, but I think I can complete it within the 4 hours and 40 minute time limit. Two weeks to go...

Walking Wellers: Fern Tree to The Chalet

It didn't look like a great idea as I drove through Huonville towards kunanyi / Mount Wellington - or Wellers as we often call it at home. There was a large grey cloud sitting on the mountain and the windscreen wipers has been going since I left home. But I was determined to use Sunday morning for a training walk from Fern Tree (400m) up the mountain, feeling hopeful that I'll be fit enough to take on the Point to Pinnacle (walk, not run for me) in November. In typical Tassie weather, the sun came out not long after I parked the car. I reached The Springs (720m) much quicker than expected, so I stopped for a coffee at Lost Freight before continuing up Pinnacle Road. It started raining not long before I reached The Chalet (at about 1,000m) and then the rain turned into snowflakes. At the shelter, I put on my rain jacket and started heading back downhill. Ten minutes later the sun was out again! I intended to walk down the Middle Track from The Springs, but it was closed. So I got to enjoy a detour past Silver Falls on the way back to the car. Next time: The Pinnacle.

Paint the town red

Each year, businesses in the south of Tasmania are encouraged to light up in red in support of the Dark Mofo festival, the annual winter art and music festival run by the team at MONA. Whether it's red lighting, red coloured food and drinks or limited edition red packaging, many businesses get into the spirit of this fantastic festival that brings many visitors to the state. The idea is to create a great experience for tourists and local festival-goers as they travel around the Hobart area. As we now live on the main road and David runs his technology help business from here, we decided to light up the Franklin Old Bank in red too. Spooky huh! I love this time of year.

A night on the town

Oh my goodness, how young we were! I truly can't believe we've been married 25 years.

Yesterday, we celebrated our silver wedding anniversary with a lovely night out bar-hopping in Hobart - on a Tuesday night - what party animals! We popped in on our favourite Rude Boy, Etties, The Glass House... and stayed the night in a beautiful room at the MACq01 on the Hobart waterfront. That hotel just reeks of Tasmania. One night was not enough.

We're looking forward to the next 25 years of love and laughter and all that it brings.

Tasmanian Writers Festival

I'm so glad I booked tickets to some sessions at this year's Tasmanian Writers and Readers Festival. On the Friday evening, I caught Ashley Hay in conversation with Tasmanian writer Danielle Wood. I'm currently halfway through her book A Hundred Small Lessons and I really enjoyed her previous book The Railwayman's Wife. It was great to catch up on her life and writing. Many years ago we were in the same creative writing class at college in Bathurst in NSW. That small class included a few other notable writers like Charlotte Wood, and I guess others who are 'just readers' like me.

I read Caroline Baum's memoir Only earlier this year after hearing her interviewed on the 'So you want to be a writer' podcast. It was a wonderful book. On the Saturday morning of the festival she was interviewed by Stella Prize winning Tasmanian author Heather Rose. I found myself recalling parts of her book, nodding along, laughing, learning a lot and the hour passed just too quickly. Following advice from Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait who host the Australian Writers' Centre podcast I mentioned earlier (one of my favourites) I also just hung about at the festival a bit, went to some networking drinks and chatted to some interesting folks over coffee in the breaks.

One small gripe - when it came to the 10 minutes allocated for Q&A with the author at the end of each session, most of the 'questions' weren't (questions that is). Instead, they went something like this: "I've just finished my memoir and my daughter..." (cue personal life story lasting several minutes). No question in sight. To her great credit, Caroline Baum managed to respond to all of them with an insight about her own writing as if an actual question had been asked. This drives me crazy at conferences too. Please respect everyone's time and ask a succinct question so that we can hear more from the person we came to hear, not you! Gripe over.

Hobart sings in winter

Last Saturday, our little community choir from Franklin performed three pop-up gigs as part of the Festival of Voices in Hobart. We took the bus into town and sang in the lovely Wild Gallery in Salamanca, on top of a red double-decker bus parked at the Brook Street Pier and in the IXL Atrium behind the Henry Jones Art Hotel.

It turned out to be a glorious winter day in Hobart and aside from the fun we had singing, the hanging about at Salamanca Market and walking between venues was such a treat. David drove into town to meet me afterwards and we finished up the day with cocktails at Rude Boy and dinner at Restaurant Schulz at the Polish Club. A very long and happy day out "in town".

 

Mount Nelson Signal Station Brasserie

I had a day off last Thursday. I know, big news, right? We'd had notice from the power company that there would be an outage all day while new power poles were installed. Rather than juggle working locations, laptop charging and wifi issues, David and I both took the day off. What a treat that turned out to be. First up, knocking over a to-do list of items in Kingston and Hobart, everything from get a long-overdue X-ray (Susan) to buy a new suit (David). Tick!

The weather was beautiful, so on the way back, we decided to drive up Mount Nelson and have lunch at the Signal Station Brasserie. It was our first visit, but won't be the last. Our food was absolutely delicious. Nice Tassie wine list, lovely garden surroundings (dog friendly) and Derwent River views. And it's only a short drive from the centre of Hobart. My only gripe would be the lack of Tasmanian cider on the menu. There was only a commercial Aussie one, which seems a crime when Hobart is surrounded with fantastic local cider brands. The brasserie would be a perfect afternoon tea spot too - the cakes and scones arriving on the table near us looked excellent. We've added this place to our "when we have visitors" list and will go back soon, perhaps followed by a walk around Mount Nelson to work off the cake.

Wooden Boat Festival 2017

The organisers of this year's Australian Wooden Boat Festival (held every two years in Hobart) must be happy. It was absolutely packed when we visited this morning. The super-mega-enormous cruise liner in port at Hobart must have just offloaded its entire passenger load onto the docks. So. Many. People. We had a quick look at some beautiful boats, large and small, but couldn't cope with the crush and made a rapid escape. Next weekend, it's Franklin's turn, when the St. Ayles Skiff Regatta returns to the Huon. Come and join in the fun.

The end of the fest

Today is the last day of Oktoberfest in Munich. The world's biggest fair and folk festival is almost over for another year.

Most years, we host an Oktoberfest bash at our place, complete with proper German-style sausages, pretzels, sauerkraut, salads, cakes and of course, beer brewed according to Germany's purity law of 1516. But not this year. This year, we went to the real thing in Munich.

On the first Sunday, we went to the traditional parade through the streets of music, watching more than two hours of floats, brass bands and community groups as they headed up Maximillianstrasse towards the Theresienwiese where Oktoberfest is held. There were so many beautiful traditional costumes and floats crammed with happy, waving people despite the rain.

A week later, we returned to go the festival itself and had a brilliant time, going on the giant wheel and the skyfall ride, enjoying the food and beer and soaking up the atmosphere.

If you're in Hobart and all of this beer-talk is making you thirsty, next Saturday 8 October, the Hobart Brewing Company is hosting it's own local Oktoberfest event. There's another, larger Oktoberfest event at Princes Wharf on 25 and 26 November ... although it will be well past October by then. Prost!

An evening with a whisky legend

Bill Lark is known as the father of Tasmania's whisky industry. He tells a good yarn too. Last month the Public Relations Institute of Australia hosted an evening with Bill where he told us the stories behind the Lark Distillery and its single-malt whisky that (along with Bill) is now well known in whisky circles worldwide. He's a good storyteller, one of the keys to the success of his brand.

I am not a big whisky drinker but I do enjoy a taste. Whether you drink whisky or not, Lark's cellar door in Hobart is a great spot to enjoy a drink or simply to soak up the atmosphere. On arrival we were served a gin and tonic with Lark's Forty Spotted Gin with a strip of pink grapefruit and a few Tasmanian pepperberries. Then it was on to the serious stuff. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the Cask Strength single malt. At 58 percent ABV I expected it to blow my head off, but it was smooth and delicious. As was the slightly sweet Slainte whisky liqueur developed by Lynn Lark. Tasmania will make a whisky drinker out of me yet.

Footy first timers

Many people in Tasmania are big AFL supporters. Us... well, let's just say we aren't exactly the biggest sports nuts on the planet. We like watching the World Cup football and some of the Euro Cup when it's on. Formula One Grand Prix. A bit of the Olympics. David likes the tennis, as long as the sound is turned off so you don't hear all the grunts and sighs. That's about it really. No cricket. No footy. But when your good friends (and massive Sydney Swans fans) decide to visit Tassie for an AFL round played at Blundstone Arena AND organise awesome tickets, well... you just have to go! They even brought spare Swans scarves for us to wear. We had a great day out with lots of laughs. And luckily the Swans won. But don't worry. Despite how much I enjoyed my pie and chips and the quarter time entertainment, I haven't turned. I reckon it might be a while before our next game.

First timers at the Festival of Voices

As part of the annual winter-time vocal extravaganza that is Hobart's Festival of Voices, 'pop up choirs' perform short sets in various locations around the city. The Little Boat Choir of Franklin is barely a year old and today we took part for the first time. We were assigned two locations for the Sunday morning. First up, the open space in Mathers Place at the popular Farm Gate Market held each Sunday in Bathurst Street. It was a chilly but sunny morning and there was a good crowd sitting around sipping coffee or taking a break from shopping. They even got to enjoy our warm up routine... oh dear!

Then we hot-footed it down to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery where we got to perform in a warm and inviting gallery space with arranged seating and even beanbags! There was no time pressure of a choir following us, so we sang a few more numbers. To the right is our set list... a mixture of the folk, gospel and world music we typically sing. It was so much fun. People commented that it looked like we were having fun. And smiling and having fun is a bit infectious in group singing. That's all thanks to the hard work of our choir director Tiffany Eckhardt who arranges the songs, leads our weekly singing and herds cats (us) to make it all happen. Community singing has grown in popularity in recent years and the health benefits are well documented. Get out and sing!

Drink Tasmania(n)

For a girlfriend's birthday, a small group of us 'locals' from Hobart and surrounds joined the Drink Tasmania 'signature tour' last Saturday, together with visitors from Melbourne, USA-via-Sydney and Canada-via-Brisbane. Starting with a 9am coffee and a taste of Lost Pippin wild ferment cider at Brooke Street Pier, our super-friendly and relaxed guide Dolly drove south to Home Hill Winery in Ranelagh where we sampled some of their lovely wines, then Pagan Cider where we tried several delicious ciders including a strawberry and a quince.

We had lunch and a Willie Smiths cider tasting at The Apple Shed in Grove, before heading back into Hobart for a whisky tasting and history lesson at Lark Distillery. From there we headed out to Cambridge to see how Lark's whisky is made. I have been on other distillery tours, and none explained the process as well as our host did at Lark. Finally, I really understand how it it made... and the difference between 'whisky' and 'whiskey'! On the way back into Hobart we popped into a shed in an industrial estate, a.k.a. one of Tasmania's newest breweries, Last Rites, to sample some of their wares.

We had such a lovely day. It reminded me that tourism experiences are not just for tourists. Get out there and see what our beautiful island has to offer.