Literally. We went for a hike yesterday in the Freycinet Park, with beautiful beaches, wallaby sitings, starfish, birdsong and trees.

We stopped to get our bearings with the compass I brought from home and found North is South in Tasmania. We need a southern hemisphere compass.

We rented a car and I got to drive on the left. All was fine until we began our trip home and found there were no petrel stations open. The one game in town only accepted its own brand of credit card after hours (6:15 pm!!!).

So we ate at a restaurant where the owner called everyone in town she knew to see if they had a card with the explanation,

” they are a lovely couple but they are from New York…”

We could have used the remaining gas we had to pull into a drive through liquor store, which are present all over Tasmania. Drive through lanes are marked, Express or Browsing. After shopping, the drivers head off into traffic.

At the last moment, when we were almost prepared to find a room and spend the night, a knight in shining armor in a flatbed pick up truck stopped to buy gas and let us use his card. Then we drove home, 150 km or so, in the dark, dodging wallabies and wombats on the road. I saw more wallabies on my drive home than in the park. I should have expected it when my best wallaby photo was taken in the car park.

Wineglass Bay was gorgeous. I think this is what Deal Island may look like and we are getting very excited. Our shopping is done and the boat is loaded because we leave for a six day back packing, bush walking trip on Monday. The boat will leave with everything except our hiking gear while we are away. We will celebrate Thanksgiving in a hut with dehydrated Turkey Tetrazzini; no football.

We saw gianormous oyster shells and starfish along the beach. One area was called Oyster Bay, just like home.

This tree man greeted us at the end of our walk before we almost ran out of gas.

Or so they say on the newscasts here and I have to agree. Long days, the sun and we rise at about 6 am and we both set around 8pm. We get a lot done during the day.

We finally figured out the wine casks. We were thinking large wooden barrels, lots of wine. They are actually sold in 2L or 4L quantities. It’s much cheaper than bottled wine, partly due to quality and partly due to taxation or lack thereof. They are also referred to as Chateau Cardboard and some sort of Ladies Handbag.  The innovation is  a vacuum sealed bag inside the box that prevents the wine from oxidizing once you open the box.  The downside is you get a plastic taste as well.

Some towns only carry 2L sizes in an attempt to combat alcoholism. We seem to have a variety here and will give it a shot. Tomorrow we begin to load the palette on the ship. It’s mostly symbolic but I will feel better if we get started. We’re going bush walking next week, which means we have to load the boat by this Friday. Suddenly the pace quickens.

I finished knitting a sweater I began at home and sent it off in the mail today. Luckily I found some merino, possum wool and started a pair of socks .

We went back to the orchid exhibit in the City Park today. The flowers and trees are simply amazing. Huge, with evergreens growing next to palm trees.

We reflected on this.

We’ve been running along Cataract Gorge on the Tasmanian Tiger trail. They post information on benches where I learned the Tasmanian Tiger is no longer here and had a pouch. We are planning to go on a bush walk so maybe we’ll sight one. Next week we will walk the Overland Track, when all our chores are done. Oh boy. We may find the famous Tasmanian leeches. And here I was worried about white lipped snakes, tiger snakes and copperheads. Silly me. The real threat comes from the jack jumper ant . Here’s a perspective photo . Yow.

Today was much nicer. I saw peacocks and wallabies along the running trail.

We are still trying to work out our wine list. We were planning to bring what we thought was a barrel of wine but may actually turn out to be box wine. We’re in a bit of a tizzy. We can’t even try them unless we buy a box. Beer making is set though. One batch of blonde and then a batch of stout. Yogurt procurement still in process. it sounds complicated unless I just buy a carton of yogurt, use some for my first batch and so on and so on…

I took Tim to the City Park with wisteria, rhododendrons, orchids and snow monkeys. On the way home I spotted this perfect Christmas flower, complete with gold dust. I don’t know what it is yet but I have identified some of the birds here. We saw a flock of galah in the local park. Very pretty.

Those were no sheep outside my first night’s window. They were the Australian raven. They sounded like sheep though.

I’m not sure if we over or under-packed. Tim can never find anything but the airlines keep losing our bags. At least we didn’t have to carry them to our hotels. On our last flight, they had to fly standby and missed the plane. We’ve been reunited once again. I’m not used to hearing remarks about how much stuff I have because I pride myself on packing light.

We are settled in for a few days in a hotel which used to be a hospital. Apparently we are staying on the surgical floor. We’ve begun scoping out food items. The one thing we packed was whole fat powdered milk because it is never in grocery stores in the states and we ordered it online from REI. Well they sell it here for a quarter the price in the grocery stores. I won’t be packing any vegemite though. It’s not for me.

Most importantly, I met a couple who raise merino sheep and promised me a fleece and a glass of chardonnay. I’m set. I want to spin it on the island and bring it home as yarn or maybe even a sweater!!! I’ll use a turkish drop spindle which will keep me busy for a while.