Day 45. Launceston to Townsville

The morning temperature was 1°C in Launceston. We agreed last night that we would sleep in this morning because we weren’t leaving till late. After packing, we spent the morning enjoying Angela’s hospitality talking family things until it was time to go to the airport. Joanne kindly drove us to the airport where we had lunch together before boarding our plane to Melbourne which departed at 1:30pm.

We are both grateful for the kindness shown by all those we encountered during our holiday, but particularly Joanne and Brendan and the extended Callinan families, Melbourne and Tasmania. A particular thank you to Brendan and Joanne and Angela and Tubby for sharing their homes with us.

We touched down in Melbourne at 2:30 and re-boarded for Brisbane for a 4:30 departure. Brisbane airport was the last staging post and we were lucky we were tired and not thirsty. At $10.90 for a regular glass of Savignon Blanc at the airport, we would have been broke if the wait was any longer. The wine on the plane was only $6! We left Brisbane late at 7:55 and arrived in Townsville at 9:55, later.

Back in our town the coats and jumpers came off for our cab ride home. The cabbie told us it had been cold.

Sebastian was there to greet us. He has done a good job looking after security around the place during our absence. Adrienne was not so full of praise about his plant watering efforts.

Friday morning we were about early. Besides the domestic chores, our main activity was to see the grandchildren, and their parents of course.

I will finish of the bLog with photos of Josephine, Isabella, Mia with us and of Sebastian

Day 44. Launceston / Hobart / Launceston

I wanted to catch up with a friend in Hobart, Robert Smith, who is recognised as the most knowledgeable person in Australia on the Swift marque. Discussing this earlier in the week at Boat Harbour, Adrienne and Joanne were willing travellers for the 400km return trip from Launceston to Hobart. The temperature outside was 1degC while we were having breakfast, and we were being treated to a different day. The day dawned clear and cloudless in Launceston. We were on our way to Hobart by 8:40am.

Today is my Mum Laura's, birthday. Only 80 today. We called her this morning to wish her many happy returns. Once again, happy birthday, Mum. It is also the birthday of Andrew, Josephine's man and dad of Isabella and Mia. Happy birthday, mate.

The trip to Hobart alternated between clear and foggy. Photo 1 & 2. On the way we stopped for morning coffee at Oatlands to admire the town's architecture and examine dry stone walls that Joanne is planning to emulate at Boat Harbour. The temperature had not reached 5degC by the time we reached Hobart. We agreed the ladies would shop while I spent some time with Robert and then then at the Tasmania Fire Brigade museum on Argyle Street. I dropped the ladies at Salamanca and we went our separate ways.

Both Adrienne and Joanne were able to find things to buy for their respective grandchildren, and, of course, some little things for themselves. They dined at a nice relaxed lunch of dips and wine watching the citizenry of Hobart go by. For my part, I spent some quality time with Robert and picked up a part for necessary to complete the restoration of the Swift. Later I spent an hour at the TasFire museum.

When we were all done, I joined the ladies in the city for afternoon coffee before commencing our return trip to Launceston. During our walk to the car, Adrienne saw an interesting eye-tree. Photo 3.

This evening we hosted Angela and Tubby to some fine dining at a premier Launceston restaurant, Fidler's Brisbane Street Bistro. My recent experience is that restaurants in this part of the world are top class. Photo 4. After dinner we returned home arriving at the 68th minute of State of Origin 1 to see the Queenslanders win victory from the Blues and referee.

Tomorrow we return home. It has been a great holiday. We hope you have enjoyed it too.

Day 43. Launceston.

Today, our last day at Boat Harbour, the weather turned bleak. No, more than bleak, it was positively miserable. It rained all night and this morning with 7.5degC on the thermometer and with the rain still falling it was a trial going out and getting the daily paper from the front yard. Photo 1. Brendan was off today to Melbourne, leaving from Burnie. He planned to return to Wynyard, so was going to drive his ute there. After a fortifying breakfast we followed Brendan to Wynyard. This was Joanne's first opportunity to program the GPS, and liked it. We met Brendan in the airport carpark at Wynyard and then were off to Burnie.

At Burnie, we dropped the ladies in a shopping precinct while we went to an antiques shop to look at some period newspaper clippings of car advertisements. The earliest was for a 1928 Willys Whippet. We returned to pick up the ladies and headed for the airport and bid Brendan goodbye. We headed for the Tamar River valley. Our first stop was at La Trobe, which is the town where Adrienne was born. They took a nostalgic walk down the street and a photo in front of Coventry's old chemist's shop. Photo 2. In the late 1960's Joanne and Adrienne, while holidaying in Tasmania stayed with the Coventry family above the dispensary. The Dorneys and Coventrys were friends during Dr Dorney's tenure at the Devonport Hospital which was in La Trobe

We then took a diversion through Beaconsfield. The most interesting thing I found about Beaconsfield was that the mine where Todd Russell and Brant Webb were rescued following an earthquake was actually in the town, and just one street back from the main street. There is a mining interpretive centre at the mine. Photo 3.

After Beaconsfield we headed up the valley to the Ninth Island Winery. There we enjoyed the views and one of the more memorable meals we have had on this trip. Photo 4. The meals were taken with the wine suggested by the chef, and he knows his food as well as the complementary wine.

After lunch, and without due haste, we headed into Launceston to the home of Owen, affectionately called Tubby and Angela. Recall that Angela is Nancye's daughter and sister to Christine. We were greeted by Angela, whom I had not previously met, but who had known Adrienne and Joanne from a very young age in Townsville. There was coffee and chat until Tubby arrived home from work. After that Angela treated us to a sumptuous meal commencing with nibblies through to a main dish of Thai curry and followed by a crowning dessert.

We talked late into the night, which meant that the daily bLog was not completed.

Day 42. Boat Harbour day 5 – our last day here.

This is the start of the new week. Brendan has work to do in Melbourne from Tuesday. We are leaving Boat Harbour tomorrow for Hobart. In a planned manoeuvre we are driving to Devonport to get Brendan to his plane. We then are having lunch in the Tamar Valley at the restaurant at the 9th Island Winery before travelling to Launceston. We are spending the night at Launceston with Nancye Callinan's youngest daughter, Angela and her family. But more about that tomorrow.

Today we did some geeky stuff and some gardening. In the morning we drove to Burnie. There, Adrienne and Joanne went to a gallery displaying and promoting the manufacture of paper. Brendan and I went to Harvey Norman to buy a TomTom GPS. After shopping we collected the girls and returned home. The rest of the morning was spent by us setting up the GPS. We also set up a printer that Brendan had previously bought.

After lunch Joanne and Adrienne planted some bay trees that Joanne had bought as the start of her herb garden. Brendan and I installed Skype on his laptop to allow Joanne and him closer access to their boys and their grandson, Jack, Dan and Chris' boy.

After a quiet afternoon, Brendan cooked a wonderful risotto for dinner and we spent the evening in discussion.

As I write this the rain has started to fall and is presently thundering down. It appears we have been lucky with the weather.

Day 41. Boat Harbour day 4 – Sunday

Today was chosen to be a quiet day, but it did start early. Adrienne wanted to take a photo of the sunrise from Boat Harbour beach, which faces east. She and Joanne left for the beach a little before 7am while it was still dark. Her favourite photo from this morning is attached.

Today is the first cloudy day since we have been here. The wind was also up which made the place cold. Our overnight minimum was 5degC and the maximum 12degC.

We hung around the house for the morning. Adrienne and Joanne took the opportunity to walk down Mackenzies Road to the beach. Photos 2 to 5. Brendan spent the morning quietly working. I did a little web surfing looking for a tool to splice leather transmission belting.

For lunch we went to Jolly Rogers Restaurant at Boat Harbour beach. Photos 6 to 7. The restaurant was on the beach and the clear plastic walling to their marquee allowed us full view of the sea shore whilst being protected from the bitterly cold, howling wind. Believe it or not the local Surf Lifesaving Club held rubber ducky practice during our lunch. After lunch was a time for nanna naps for the nannas. Brendan and I continued where we left off this morning.

This evening Joanne and Brendan treated us to a wonderful home cooked honey marinated chicken dinner. Delicious.

Day 40. Boat Harbour day 4 – Saturday

The temperature dipped to 2degC overnight, but we felt no pain. The insulation and heating in Northcote is superb, with assistance from a little port. During breakfast the temperature was 6 and it was Adrienne's turn to walk out to the front gate and collect the daily paper “The Advocate”. After breakfast we went to the Farmers' Market in Wynyard. This farmers' market is smaller than the one we experienced in Albany, but proved to be equally as productive and we bought fruit, vegetables, cake and sausages.

We did a little shopping in Wynyard before returning home. We bought “The Weekend Australian”, but were told “The Melbourne Age” had not arrived and would not be available. We also bought a new hair dryer as the one provided stopped working between when Adrienne used it and Joanne wanted to.

After our arrival home and morning tea I attempted to get WiFi working. My first attempt was on Wednesday, but was unsuccessful. A call to BigPond and confirmation a hexadecimal password can contain upper case letters, the WiFi began to work. It is naw a very robust system and both of the Pentony's computers, and those of any visitors can easily communicate with the outside world.

After lunch we planned to visit some antique shops in Ulverstone before visiting relatives in Lower Barrington. The owner of one of the antique shops, Peter Broadfield, is a volunteer fireman and Brendan thought he and his place had some interest. It did. He had recently authored a book on the centenary of the fire brigade in Ulverstone. We spent quite some time talking about fire brigade stuff. The ladies frequented the other antique shop across the road and made some good purchases.

Then it was off to visit the relatives. This time we went to see Tony Callinan's wife, Nancye and her daughter and family. Tony Callinan was Joan Dorney's brother. Nancye is his widow. Nancye lives in nearby Devonport. Nancye has unfortunately suffered a broken leg and is convalescing with her daughter Christine and husband Barry at Lower Barrington, where they own a farm. The photo shows Christine, Nancye, Joanne and Adrienne.

We returned home to Boat Harbour for a filling dinner of very Australian bangers and mash, and red wine. It is cold after all!

Day 39. Boat Harbour day 3 – sightseeing with some work

This morning Brendan and I travelled to Wynyard to look at the collection of veteran and vintage cars at Wonders of Wynyard. This museum houses only cars owned by Francis Ransley. The most significant car in the collection is a 1903 Ford model A. This car, number 31 is the oldest surviving Ford car.

The museum contains besides the Ford 1903 model A, a 1905 model F, 1907 model K, 1906 model N, 1908 model S, 1916 model T, 1928 model A and 1933 V8. There is also Darracq 1904 12hp, 1905 15hp; Cadillac 1904 model B and 1915 V8, Brush 1911, International Harvester 1911 motor buggy and Oldsmobile 1917 V8.There are also three motorcycles. I videoed the collection for my friend Norm, up there in the north of the Big Island.

While the boys were here, the girls took another ride through Table Cape. It is from here that we see some photographs taken by Adrienne. 1 – from Table Cape looking towards Boat Harbour beach, 2 - unusual architecture of a house with a winged roof, 3 – interesting place name, 4 – the light house with the sun caught in the rotating lens.

After lunch Brendan and I had an appointment with the fire wood supplier where Brendan bought a cubic metre of cut, split timber for his wood heater. We loaded the ute and brought the timber home.

It was then time for a scenic drive via Riana and Gunns Plains to Ulverstone. Adrienne took two interesting shots in the Leven Valley. The last time Brendan and Joanne were here it was the middle of the day and looked spectacular. Today half the valley was in shadow because the sun was going down, at 4:30pm

On our way to dinner at Fish Frenzy on the beach at Burnie, we witnessed a sunset at Sulphur Creek on the Old Bass Highway. We hope you will appreciate it.

Our way home after dinner was disrupted by a Police road block due to a traffic accident. The late news reported the death of two people in the accident. Instead of the 8km trip home we went 12km via Table Cape. This was the second time the girls had been on this road today.

Day 38. Boat Harbour day 2 – rocks and The Nut

Brendan mentioned yesterday that he had two rogue rocks in his yard which were making mowing a problem. We had a look over the recalcitrant rocks yesterday afternoon and hatched a plan to rid them from the yard. Before that though, at 7am, Adrienne was up photographing the sunrise.

After breakfast we commenced our assault on the rocks. They are smooth black basalt and came out of the rich, red volcanic soil fairly easily, but were heavy. Brendan had bought a dog trailer for his ride-on mower since coming over, but it was still “new in box”. We planned to use the trailer to reposition the rocks. I re-acquainted myself with spanners for the first time in six weeks and we put the trailer together. This also necessitated a trip into town to pump up the tyres.

We finally decided the rocks were too heavy to load into the trailer by just two old blokes, so a plan to move them later was agreed. Thank goodness.

It was then lunchtime so we drove west to Stanley for some sightseeing and lunch. Stanley is a pretty town at the base of a weathered volcanic plug named “The Nut”. After lunch we visited the Stanley harbour area via the house lived in by Prime Minister Joseph Lyons and the historically significant governor's house at Highfield. The photos go some way to describe how beautiful this place is.

It is interesting to note that a young Doctor Kiernan Dorney, Joanne and Adrienne's father, was the family doctor to the Lyons family during their respective times in Devonport. In those days the Devonport Hospital was located at La Trobe, Adrienne's birthplace.

Day 37. Melbourne to Boat Harbour

My anxiety must have been evident because I woke an hour too early concerned that the alarm had not sounded. By the time it was time to get up we were wide awake. Shower, dress, finish packing and we were ready for the shuttle bus at 6:35am for a 6:45am pickup. Arranging the shuttle bus was done for us by Cube Apartment staff and hence not in our control, so I was concerned. By 6:55 the bus had not turned up, but an employee of Cube Apartment had and we persuaded her to find out what was happening. Unfortunately the shuttle bus company did not open until 7:30am so she did not find much. We decided that we would take a taxi and asked the employee to contact their taxi provider. She appeared to be unconcerned, but eventually confirmed the cab was on its way. We were in the taxi and away by 7:05. The trip to Tullamarine was uneventful except for the flickering low fuel warning light on the taxi.

We were in the line at REX Airlines by 7:45, and I was confident we were away. “I'm afraid, your baggage is overweight.” We were told by the check-in operator. I saw we were weighing in at 20kg per bag. We had been carrying four bottles of wine and a bottle of olive oil since Margaret River for Joanne and Brendan. “The weight limit is 15kg.” We had to pick one of our suitcases that we agreed to leave behind if the total baggage was over the limit. Fortunately all the luggage arrived.

The plane was fully loaded. There were two ministers of the crown on board, Penny Wong, Minister for Climate Change, Energy Efficiency and Water and Nicola Roxon, Minister for Health & Ageing, with their individual entourages, numbering eight in total. During the flight they all perused speeches and press releases, read all the daily newspapers and passed notes between themselves. I did not have the opportunity to enquire whether all the words to be spoken that day had been scripted.

As we were filing down the stairs, Minister Wong's handbag strap became tangled on the railing. I was following immediately behind and released it for her. Thus was my 10 seconds of fame.

After we arrived a big jet touched down. It carried the Prime Minister and the rest of Cabinet for a meeting today in Burnie. Brendan said he had never seen a big jet at Wynyard airport. Usually it was the SAAB turbo-prop planes in which we came over.

Brendan and Joanne were there to greet us, after which we set out for Boat Harbour. When we arrived at 1 Mackenzie Road we were greeted by one of the most beautiful and peaceful vistas I could imagine. See photos 1,2. Their house (3) is pre-1900 and very comfortable.

After lunch we went on our first tour including Boat Harbour Beach (4) and a look along the coast to Burnie from Table Cape (5). Serene. We drove east as far as Somerset and then returned home. Adrienne took some very interesting photos of the sunset.

Day 36. Last day in Melbourne, day 8

The morning was spent at Williamstown North as guests of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Museum. The trip gave me the opportunity to ride a train, take a bus and do a bit of walking. We bought a MetLink day pass for Zone 1. At $6.80 per head our decision to return the car was vindicated. The Museum workshop and storage area is located on the abandoned railway workshops site. The Railway Museum takes the remaining sheds at the site.

I have featured a 1911 Hotchkiss car converted to a fire engine by the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. This is one of 11 vehicles bound for South America which were unloaded in Melbourne for reasons unknown and bought by the MFB. Other photos shows appliances in storage. There are about 80.

Adrienne writes: We then returned to the city and visited the Exhibition Gardens and Building. I have included a photo showing the fountain in the foreground. This building was built in 1880 and used for the World Exhibition, and later, in 1901 to house the Victorian Parliament while the Parliament Building was used for the first sitting of the Australian Parliament. The last photo shows the city skyline from behind the Exhibition Building.

We then moved on to the Victorian Museum which is now situated behind the Exhibition Building. The old museum is now the State Library. We saw the Titanic Artefacts exhibition, and then saw the Insects, Dinosaur and Animals exhibits, then a Mind & Body exhibit, a Forest Walk and then the Melbourne Exhibition which had Phar Lap as it's core element. There was also an exhibition of design work from high school students which is an annual event here. Interesting. I then went to see an exhibition called “'til you drop shopping, a Melbourne history”, which was not very exciting.

Frank forgot to tell you yesterday about the chap who sat next to us at lunch. He bought two dessert sweets and a cup of coffee. He then proceeded to put in 6 sachets of sugar into his coffee. Diabetic, maybe? Interestingly he took the strawberry off one of the desserts and did not eat it. Fruit! Yuk!