Tasmania

Hello from Tassie!

  Last Saturday, the 3^rd of March, I packed up all my gear and said a heartfelt Good-bye to Jagumba and all of my friends both animal and human. 

Saying Good-bye to Sambo

Receiving farewell kisses from Bouncer and Brownie,
the two Kelpie puppies that are almost grown now.

Kathrin drove me down to meet with my friend Caitlin, who had graciously agreed to drive me down to Melbourne, where I would catch a plane over to the island state of Tasmania.  During our five hour trip, Caitlin drove on parts of the old highway that passes through all of the small towns.  Many of them have been there for decades and have some interesting histories.  We stopped by Glenrowan and saw the statue of the famous outlaw Ned Kelly.  Glenrowan was where Ned Kelly has his last stand against theVictorian police. 

Statue of Ned Kelly in his homemade armor.

Caitlin’s parents and most of her siblings live in Melbourne and I had the great pleasure of spending the weekend getting to know them and the city of Melbourne.   When we arrived, Caitlin’s parents, Dennis and Roxane, showed me around their lovely garden and Dennis even coaxed the Rainbow Lorikeets out of the trees with some bird seed. 

Rainbow Lorikeets

We had a wonderful BBQ dinner at the home of Caitlin’s older sister, Emily.  I was able to meet all of Caitlin’s nieces and nephews.

Roxane with daughters Caitlin and Emily

Me and one of Caitlin's nephews.

   The next morning Roxane agreed to take Caitlin and me on a personal tour of Melbourne.  Roxane is a native of the great city and was able to tell me all about the different buildings and all the stories behind them. 

Exhibition Hall

 We saw the Exhibition Hall, and part of the Melbourne Museum.  Then we walked through the downtown area.  We went into St. Patrick’s Cathedral. 

St. Patrick's Cathedral

The inside is absolutely beautiful with stain glass windows, impressive statues and a huge main altar.  Along the back wall behind the altar are special altars and tombs for the past Archbishops of Melbourne. 

A beautiful altar erected in memory
of a former Archbishop

  We walked down past large public parks and the Church of England Cathedral.  We saw the huge Central train station and the tallest building in Melbourne behind it. 

Central Station in Melbourne

We walked past the Parliament building, and took a bus down to the entrance to China town.  We saw the oldest Catholic Church in Melbourne which was founded in 1841.  We also saw the old jail house where Ned Kelly, the famous outlaw, was eventually convicted and hung. 

Old Melbourne Jail

We ended our tour of the city with a stroll along the board walk at Port Philip Bay.   

Port Philip Bay with Melbourne in the background
and the parachutes from parasailers in the sky.

    The next morning Caitlin dropped me off at the airport, and I caught an hour long flight over the sea to Tasmania.  Luckily, I had a beautiful day for viewing the coast of the island as we came in to land. 

First view of Tasmania

    While I am in Tasmania I will be staying with families that give traveling helpers room and board in exchange for daily work on their property.  I was met at the airport by my first hostess, Charmaine.  Charmaine and her husband, Wayne, live near the little coastal town of Burnie.  As we drove back from the airport, Charmaine gave me a short biography of the town.  Originally the town made its money by turning lumber into paper.  But the paper factory is closing down and being outsourced overseas.  Brunie also has a milk processing factory and there are many local dairy farms.  Most of the milk is used to make milk chocolate.  As we drove through the higher country, Charmaine pointed out the recently harvested poppy fields.  The poppies here are grown for morphine.  There are also a number of cattle farms, potato fields, and some paddocks are filled with the plants from which insect replant is made.  On their property Charmaine and Wayne have over 10 acres of rhododendrons and rare conifer trees.   



Rhododendron blossom

Charmaine gave me a tour of the property with the help of their labradoodle, Toby.  The smell of the pine trees reminds me of home.

   On Tuesday of that week, Charmaine and I spent the morning baking cookies and cooking homemade tomato soup.  In the afternoon, we went into town to pick up another helper.  Viola is from Germany.  She has traveled over quite a bit of the world.  Her mother is from Taiwan.  Viola speaks German, English, and Mandarin. 

  Wednesday morning, I helped Charmaine out in the garden.  We planted two new rhododendrons and pulled out bracken fern, which grows voraciously here.  

Charmaine planting a new rhododendron while
Toby tries to distract her with his pine cone.

In the afternoon I helped on sanding down the outside of some of the windows.  Wayne is in the process of re-painting the house.   Charmaine is an excellent cook.  Every night we have something different and homemade.  Charmaine and Wayne are originally from South Africa and moved here over thirty years ago to raise their children in Australia. 

Protea blossom from the garden
The Protea is the national flower of South Africa

 Charmaine has a great love for the amazing animals that inhabit the plains and jungles of Africa and she also has a great respect for the native animals that live on their property.  Later in the evening, Charmaine took Viola and me on a night time tour of the gardens.  After sunset the grassy areas are full of wallabies, bandicoots, possums and occasionally Tasmanian devils (although people hardly ever see the devils).  We also stopped by the water dam to look for platypus, but we didn’t have any luck. 

    The next morning was a bit overcast, so Charmaine took Viola and me into town with her.  On our way, we stopped by a little natural area that has a river running through where people often see platypus.  The area is beautiful with ferns and trees shading a path next to the river.  We unfortunately did not see any platypus. 

Fern Glade

Once in town we stopped off at the local visitors’ information center, called the Makers’ Workshop.  Inside was information about the history and sights of the local area as well as local artists exhibiting their crafts.  I enjoyed looking at the paper sculptures and the hand crafted violin that has dolphins for “f” holes.    Viola and I spent the rest of our time in town walking around looking at the different shops. 

Sculpture made out of paper

Hand crafted violin with dolphins

    In the afternoon, we all set out to help clear away brush and weeds from underneath a portion of the rhododendrons. 

Tangle of brush and bracken fern that needs to be pulled

 It was not very difficult work.  But since this section of rhododendrons grow on an incline, I had to be careful where I stepped so as not to over balance myself and end up sliding down the hill. 

Working at clearing underbrush

  Friday morning was special because Viola and I were recruited to help with the preparation for a catered luncheon at the Emu Valley Rhododendron Garden, of which Charmaine is a member.  We helped the Rhododendron society (who was hosting the meal) arrange the settings on all the tables and clean up the after the lunch was over.  While the actual lunch was in progress, Viola and I were free to roam around the gardens looking at all the different rhododendrons and other plants from around the world.  The garden is arranged so that each area of the world has its own section to display its native rhododendrons.  I think Japan was my favorite area with a reflection pool and covered bridge.  I had a wonderful time trying the different settings on my camera.  I took pictures until the battery eventually died.

Viola and me with the Japanese covered bridge
in the background.

Beautiful flowers from the gardens

  On Saturday morning Charmaine took Viola, me, another helper, Yan, and Charmaine’s adult son, Collin, to the famous Cradle Mountain.  Yan is helping at another property not too far away.  She is originally from Hong Kong.  Cradle Mt. was beautiful.  We had a perfect day to be out walking about.   We walked around Dove Lake which sits at the base of Cradle Mountain.  The sun was shining and we had a lovely light breeze.  The scenery was absolutely breath-taking. 

Me, Charmaine, Viola, and Yan at Cradle Mt.

The old boat house on the shore of Dove Lake

Me, enjoying the beauty

 On the way back from Cradle Mt. stopped by a small town called Sheffield. Sheffield is famous for the many murals that adorn almost every wall in the city. 

My favorite mural

  Sunday morning we once again picked up Yan and headed out on another day trip.  This time we headed west to the coastal town of Stanley.  The town is famous for the large rock jutting out into the ocean that looks like a large nut.  From the top a person has an amazing view.  To reach the flat top you can either pay for a ride up the chair lift, or walk up a very steep trail.  We walked. 

View of the "nut".  We hiked all the way to the top.
The view was fantastic.

After our hiking adventure, we ate a lunch of fish and chips in Stanley and walked around the town.  Yan and I stopped in at the house where Joe Lyons was born.  Joe Lyons, as we learned, was the first Prime Minister of Australia to be born and raised in Tasmania.  Yet, I thought that Mr. Lyons wife, Enid Lyons, was actually more interesting.  As a child her mother made sure that she had a good education, which included elocution lessons.  Enid Lyons had twelve children and she became the first woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives.  She was an advocate for women’s rights and the family. 

House where Joe Lyons was born in Stanley

   On the way back to Burnie, we stopped by Rocky Cape National Park.  We were able to hike up a small trail and see an aboriginal trail.  And we also stopped by Circular Point to see the old lighthouse that still stands there.

Aboriginal cave

Lighthouse

  Sunday evening another helper arrived.  Nirose is an Australian man of Sri Lankan descent.  He is taking a year off of work to travel around Australia. 

 Monday morning we finished working on cleaning out the underbrush from the section of rhododendrons that we had started on Friday.  It took all day, but by the end the difference was definitely noticeable.  After dinner Wayne took Viola and I down to see the Blue Fairy Penguins at the city beach.  Blue Fairy Penguins are the smallest penguins in the world.  Most of the penguins we saw that night were less than a foot long.  They are called “Blue” because their feathers have a bluish tint.  The penguins were very cute, but extremely noisy.  Their call starts with a rolling guttural sound that turns into a high pitch squawk.

Blue Fairy Penguin

On Tuesday morning I assisted Viola in making a delicious German dessert called Donauwelle.  It is named after a river in Germany, because of the chocolate on the top that spreads out like waves on the top of a river.    The foundation of the dessert is a marbled vanilla/chocolate cake.  The cake is topped with cherries and then baked.  After the cake has cooled, a layer of vanilla pudding is added and then a layer of melted chocolate is poured on top to complete the taste.  After the cake was done, Viola and I helped out Charmaine by cleaning part of the house, while she went out to buy groceries for dinner.  We had guests for dinner: Jill and Graham who have been good friends of Wayne and Charmaine and have met all the helpers who have stayed with Wayne and Charmaine.  Dinner was wonderful and dessert was fantastic. 

Viola's Dessert

   We spent most of Wednesday clearing out weeds from one of the beds of rhododendrons next to the drive way and burning off all the plant waste and branches that had been trimmed from the trees.  It was a very warm day. 

Burning off the underbrush we cleared out

And after spending most of the afternoon feeding a roaring fire, Viola and I were looking for a way to cool off.  So Charmaine packed us with Toby into the car and took us to the beach.  The water was lovely and cool.  The temperature was not as cold as I thought it would be.  And I made several laps out and back from the shore. 

Toby ready to go to the beach

Me comtemplating a dip in the sea

Thursday we were suppose to visit a neighboring property to see them extract the honey from their bee hives, but we got rained out.  Viola and I woke up early to sit near the water dam and see if we could spot a platypus.  We waited for well over an hour but still had no luck.  Eventually we were forced to retreat into the house because of the rain. 

Waiting for the platypus

 Nirose volunteered to take Viola and I down to one of the small neighboring towns called La Trobe.  We also picked up another helper from France, who is working on a neighboring property.  Even though it was raining, we had an interesting time walking up and down the streets looking in the different shops.  The most unique shop was Reliqueware, which was stuffed full of old dolls, costumes, jewelry, and other novelty items in over fifteen rooms.  The shop literally had something to interest everyone.  They even had a small room devoted to the British TV show Dr. Who.  On our way out of town we stopped by Anvers Confectionery Chocolate Factory.  We were treated to different chocolate samples and able to watch through windows the workers as they made the chocolate.  While we were three I bought some hot chocolate, and it was the creamiest and richest hot chocolate I have ever tasted!

Watching the workers at the chocolate factory

  That night I made an all American dinner for my hosts.  I cooked American hamburgers with fries for the mail course, and for dessert we had homemade pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin. 

Friday morning was rainy once again.  But the sky cleared in the afternoon, so we quickly rushed outside to do a bit more work.  We raked up leaves and pine needles from the yard to use for mulching for the different plant beds.  After we finished, Viola and I once again spent some time down at the water dam looking for the platypus, but we didn’t even see any suspicious ripples in the water. 

  This Saturday, Viola, Nirose, and I went with Wayne to the local farmers market to buy fresh produce.  There were stalls and tables full of different kinds of homegrown/homemade foods.  There were stalls with tomatoes, onions, corn, potatoes, leeks, broccoli, and other stalls filled with fresh bread, pasta, honey, and preserves.  Many of the people browsing would greet each other with a G’day, and stand chatting. 

Bread Maker's stall

After the market, Wayne drove us up to an observation point where we could see the whole town of Burnie.  It was beautiful view. 

View of Burnie

And from there we continued driving inland to Guide Falls.  The falls were in rare form today due to the recent rain. 

Guide Falls

  Today I helped Charmaine make mulch out of leaves and pine needles we had collected earlier in the week.  We used a machine to turn old leaves into beautiful mulch. 

Mulching machine to the left, mulch pile in from,
and the pile of old leaves to the right

This evening, Wayne BBQed special sausages from South Africa for dinner.  The sausages were a combination of ground beef and pork.  They tasted rather good.  

Wayne chatting with Viola while BBQing,
with Toby standing by in case some sausages should drop
to the ground.

My Hosts: Wayne, Charmaine, and Toby

 
I will be spending at least another three weeks in Tasmania and I will be sure to write another update soon.  Just after leaving New South Wales, the country side was inundated with enormous amounts of rain.  Many of the towns near the rivers and on the flat lands were severely flooded.  Please keep these people as the start the recovery and rebuilding process in your thoughts and prayers. 

   Hana