The Running Man

Tasmania '07

As mentioned previously, last weekend (10-12 Mar) the PwC Melb and Sydney people (plus one ex-auditor...myself) went to the 'Apple Isle' Tasmania! On the Fri night, us Sydney people all met at Oscars (not all of us were going on the trip) for Ribs!!! (I have made lots of mention about these famous ribs in my previous posts) haha... After dinner we (HY + Haz, Eugene, myself) went to Max's (actually Chris's) place @ Bankstown 1 of the 'safest' suburb in Sydney..to play...Mahjong!!! This is my first time I have played this great game whilst I was in Sydney! Now I can almost write an entire post on the game play...but to cut a long story short...the very first game I lost maximum (5 tai) to Haz :P @ 40/80 needless to say I was in shock haha...that pretty much set the trend for the rest of the night (I was thinking at one point...that there goes my Tassie spending money :P) thankfully (probably luckily) I got on some small runs near the end of the game and pretty much minimised my losses :P phew...haha. Anyway we slept at 2am (our flight the next day was at 8am). Now here is something funny...to catch our flight, we all had to wake up by 6am however no one set their alarms!! thankfully again...someone had their internal alarms working (typical auditors) and woke up and hence woke the rest of us up! Here is a picture of us at Sydney airport...
Finally at about 10.30am, we arrived at Hobart Airport...to link up with the Melbourne people who left on an earlier flight...only to discover (sorry Mich! :P haha..but its my blog) that Mich has missed her flight!!! Only Yish and Darrel made it because they were dropped off at the airport by Mich whilst she parked the car...as a result of some VERY last minute packing, the gate closed before Mich could get back to the airport. The result...haha...ask Mich...she now knows Melbourne airport very well :P (having spent over 6 hours there waiting for the next flight). Drama has already started! Our first location was Salamanca Market..(for the rest of the pictures please refer to slideshow below)..minus Mich :P we had lunch whilst walking through the market. It can be described as 3 rows of little stalls on a large street (Salamanca Place). Throughout the trip we would be driving through, around this place quite often (as its pretty much the centre of Hobart). Lunch was this huge German hot dog with sauerkraut (picked cabbage), fried onions, tomatoe sauce and mustard sauce...with an actual German sausage (bratwhurst) :)
On recommendation from HY (whom was advised by a senior who went to Tassie)...we also had to try Scallop pies! This can be described as scallops in a light curry sauce...not bad :P quite tasty and its something that you just have to try (dont' seem to be able to find this sort of pie in Melb or Sydney :P...must be a Tassie thing) haha

We stayed in the Salamanca area (and wharf) until about 3pm and went to pick up our guest of honour...Mich at Hobart airport. After that slight detour, we headed off to one of the highlights of Hobart...Mt Wellington...this is bascially a very high mountain (trust me...the drive up a steep and narrow slope up a mountain...as any one of the passengers can attest...was interesting ;) with views overlooking Hobart (see slideshow). The views were spectacular and amazing...being 1.2km up in the clouds haha...really could see the whole of Hobart and the river region (just like the brochure)

After the equally long drive down the mountain, we went to Hobart wharf...for Fish & Chips...typically Aussie! the view of the wharf was nice and there was even a wedding occurring right beside us :P (in Tassie?). The fish and chips @ Fish Frenzy was ok...nothing terribly fantastic (but hey it is Tassie after all so it was one of the better places I suppose haha)...We were then faced with a situation: what to do in Hobart at night?! like any Aussie city..everything closed at 5pm (if not earlier)...so we decided to watch a movie!! Yes travel all the way to Hobart from Sydney and Melbourne to watch a movie...yeah well there wasn't much to do :P anyway haha...such a novelty. Prior to watching the movie, we went back to the Hostel to set up our beds in the bunk. Being a hostel, we shared the room (toilets are shared with everyone in the hostel...there was like only 2 toilets :P) with a German and Italian backpackers. The pictures below show us and our room

On the way back from the movie...we discovered something quite good...that Hobart police are quite nice. Found that out in a situation involving a one-way street in Hobart, an illegal U-turn and an unmarked police car :) phew! haha...my passengers would know the story (maybe) :P. Our first night in Hobart...and in a hostel (just like army days..but with girls..) haha...The next morning, our first destination was the famous Cascade Brewery! Here we signed up for an 11am tour of this historical site...the method of producing beer has not changed for hundreds of years! its still the same with the raw material being barley and converting (using yeast and enzymic processes) that to malt and adding hops to it until it becomes .... Beer! pretty interesting stuff...haha...wikipedia it!
After the tour, we the best part of the 'tour' started...the beer tasting...each of us was given 3 samples of beer each x 7 = 21 glasses of beer (actually they were 175ml glasses...so as you can drink 3 samples and not be over the alcohol limit...a bonus to the drivers!). Mich just loved the Apple Cidar, whereas the rest of us liked the Ginger Beer (brewed at Cascade)...non-alcoholic variety, and I like the 'Blondie' beer...the surprise of the day was Hazel enjoying the Stout sample (ie. Guiness like)...quite surprising as she finished off the entire glass by herself (because no one was really looking forward to finishing it haha). Darrel was a bit of an alcoholic and just drank his 3 beer samples in one shot (good stuff especially since your name starts with a "D")...whereas the rest of us mixed it around with Ginger Beer/Cidar/Apple Juice :). After Cascade (and a few drinks), we went by another place which Hobart is famous for...Oysters! Yes Tassie Oysters! Now we went to the one thats closest to Hobart...Barilla Bay Oyster Farm where the Oysters were grown in the ponds. Wasn't disappointed. Freshest oysters could be bought for $9 a dozen (would have been even cheaper - $6 if we had picked those that were not shelled). Now we stopped by here again for our morning fix (yes as some of you would be wondering...oysters in the morning?! ;) the following day. Anyway out of the group of us, only Maxy and Darrel (disappointing considering your name starts with "D") didn't eat Oysters..and in all over the two days we bought 4 dozen oysters for only $36!!! Can you believe that...usually you would pay $20-$30 per dozen at a resturant, but nothing can beat the freshness...Gobbled it down in seconds! A must try for any of my oyster loving readers :). Running out of daylight (it was about 1pm)...we headed off to our ultimate destination: Tahune Forest Airwalk at Geeveston (about 100km away)! This was basically something like a bushwalking trek and an airwalk set up high in the trees (Singapore has got something similar..)

Not a bad experience and you really do get to absorb the nature of Tasmania (also known for its wonderful views, nature, fresh air and of course...cold)..no big city, large shopping centres, or lots of people (Tassie's actual population is ~400K people...and its 16 times the size of S'pore...look at the atlas...you can actually see it). As it was getting late, we headed back to Hobart...stopping by a memorable (but not for the right reasons) 'Japanese' resturant...expensive (even more than Sydney standards) and tasted...hmmm...:P. At night we finally stopped by one of Tassie's many bars/pubs and had a drink to chill out and have a laugh amonst the 7 of us :)...mostly about audit ahaha. The day can also be remembered for some memorable moments all provided by Max: 1) the GPS incident - when the GPS receiver was facing the 'wrong direction' hence we were heading in the wrong direction...haha ;) a classic! 2) 'Special Equipment' - this was one of the more interesting conversations we had...and it concerns errrr...special equipment and care for it haha...don't want to go into too much detail except it was pretty funny subject; and 3) Yish forgetting to pack a jacket! - this is Tasmania you know...closest to Antartica! ;) blurr.... After our chill out session, we headed back to the hostel...where we played...Mahjong!!! (no money this time)...Kudos to HY and Haz for bringing their miniature MJ set (Note: to anyone coming from SG and visiting Sydney...I would be very grateful if you could buy a mini MJ set for me! ;)...see the size of the tiles...small!). Not a bad way to waste some time in Tassie...Our dear leader, Max, was tired and had to initially be forced to keep awake, but he slipped away and went to his room where he wasn't seen for the rest of the night :P haha. The next morning (our final day in Tassie), we headed off to the historic prison site...Port Arthur (yes this was initially used as a convict settlement so there was lots of historical significance here). Here is a picture of just us guys with our good 8 seater Toyota...was such a good trip because we could all sit together, talk together, and snack together whilst still all in the same car. On the way to Port Arthur, we stopped by the Oyster farm again (our daily fix of oysters...$9 per dozen!!) and Sorrell Fruit Farm (where there was apple trees, strawberries, and TAYberries!! no I am not making this up...needless to say Max was very interested :P)
So what does TAYberries taste like? Unfortunately they weren't in season...but we were told it was like a mixture between Raspberries and Strawberries...hmmm...haha..oh well another time (cannot seem to see TAYberries in the supermarkets of both Melb and Syd...must be a Tassie thing again haha).

Finally we reached Port Arthur...as the pictures can show it felt very historic with the old buildings which were once prison facilities over a hundred years ago...the feeling was very surreal (abeit the stinging cold wind...bring warm warm clothes readers! the wind is really cold)...its hard to describe it but it felt very surreal...with the wide open spaces, green grass, surrounded by forest, mountains and rivers (a natural prison...no need for walls here) with age old buildings around...it felt very peaceful and not like one of the harshest prisons known in Australia (at that time). Along with a 40min tour of the site, we also had a 20min harbour cruise...but pretty much stayed inside the boat (coz of the cold)...
You can see Yish being cold...poor thing :P
Outside what was once the hospital for the prison... After Port Arthur...we finally headed off back to Hobart Airport because the Melb people had to catch an earlier flight. Here is the typical waiting at the airport photo :)


Well Done to All for making it such a fun and enjoyable trip!!!

Thank you for letting this tourist tag along :)

posted by Darren at 5:47 AM