March 2018
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Mar 31 Launceston
Travelled in
Sheffield with murals everywhere, Deloraine community embroidery project, salmon and ginseng farm. David runs the Inglis River track in the other direction this morning, toward Bass Highway (named after George, first circumnavigator of Tassie), and meets the same good-lookin gal… Continue reading
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Mar 30 Wynyard
Travelled in
After a late breakfast, we tool off to Stanley in the Volvo we certainly are getting to know well. Stanley is a beautiful, tiny port town about an hour from Wynyard. It’s the birthplace of Joseph Lyons, the only Tasmanian… Continue reading
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Mar 29 Strahan to Wynyard
Travelled in
Walking around Strahan harbor, collecting mushrooms for dinner in Wynyard with family. After a quick continental breakfast in the 1896 mansion that’s our hotel, we walk left around Strahan’s bay to an old train station, look at its Thomas the… Continue reading
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Mar 28 Hobart to Strahan
Travelled in
Drive Hobart to Strahan via Mt Fields National Park and ”the wall” We try to leave Michael and Ingrid’s immaculate and fascinatingly art-filled apartment as neat and tidy as it welcomed us, and we motor out of Hobart, over its… Continue reading
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Mar 27 Hobart to Port Arthur
Travelled in
Port Arthur, Tasman Arch, Dogline at Eaglehawk Neck Blue sky everywhere. Sandwiches, check. Chips, check. Cameras and phones, check. Chargers, check. Gas, check. Warm layers, check. Sunglasses, check. We’re on the road to Port Arthur, a kilometer of cars in… Continue reading
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Mar 26 Hobart
Travelled in
Day in town for museum, Mawson’s hut and shopping. What a difference a day … an hour … makes. Sunrise is like the inside of a conch shell, the white center giving way to soft and gradually darker pinks with… Continue reading
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Mar 25 Hobart
Travelled in
MONA art gallery and Mt. Wellington Tasmania. The name alone conjures wild, hairy, grinning cartoon figures straight out of Disney. Before we came here, it was certainly less substantial in our minds than New Zealand, which is two islands, or… Continue reading
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Mar 24 Hobart
Travelled in
Rain pelts our bedroom windows through the night and we wake to a light drizzle. Thankfully, our seventeenth bed on this trip — yes, you read that number right — is firm and comfortable and we have a lazy morning.… Continue reading
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Mar 22 Melbourne
Travelled in
Treasury and Parliament buildings and the Immigration Museum David runs down Bayview and turns left, toward the town beach where a dozen bathers of all ages, some in scuba gear, others in thongs, swim in the pre-dawn bay, and a… Continue reading
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Mar 21 Melbourne
Travelled in
Federation Square tour, Ian Potter building of NGV, walk along the Yarra and see Rod Laver Arena, pub dinner. David runs as instructed down Bayview to the water where he turns right and jogs on a path along the shoreline,… Continue reading
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Mar 20 Christchurch to Melbourne
Travelled in
Fly to Melbourne and see Jenny and Jim for the first time in about 40 years. We wake at 3:30 in the morning, hurriedly put on clothes and take our bags to the street where we are picked up by… Continue reading
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Mar 19 Christchurch
Travelled in
Visit cardboard cathedral, earthquake memorials, Lyttelton, and the Tannery. Last day in New Zealand. In the light of a day born cold with a chill wind, downtown Christchurch seems like a desecrated graveyard, its stones defaced and toppled, its… Continue reading
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Mar 18 Christchurch
Travelled in
Lunch at Pegasus Bay Winery Stephen tells David that Bob the dog needs a brisk two-hour run up a nearby hill — the unspoken observation is that some of us are fast and others are not — and that Hugh… Continue reading
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Mar 17 Christchurch
Travelled in
Quake museum, art gallery, cathedral square, buy possum yarn. Stephen and Robyn have their personal trainer, Nathan, arrive at six a.m. for an hour of three “reps” of a dozen moves — squats, push-ups, standing jumps, stuff with 15-pound weights,… Continue reading
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Mar 16 Greymouth to Christchurch
Travelled in
Transalpine train from Greymouth to Christchurch We’re treated to a full English breakfast in Mary’s kitchen at 9 a.m. A picture of her four daughters is on the wall: one in Durbin, South Africa, one in London, one in Auckland… Continue reading
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Mar 15 Greymouth
Travelled in
Travel Fox to Greymouth retracing our steps. We get up, caffeinate, pack — yech, seems like we’re always packing for one reason or another — and drive out of Fox Glacier after Cynthia makes a couple egg salad sandwiches for… Continue reading
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Mar 14 Fox Glacier
Travelled in
Heli-hike on Fox Glacier and circumnavigate Lake Matheson. We wake, dress, get caffeinated and are at the Fox Glacier Heli-hiking office a two-minute walk from our split-level rooms. We ask the Asian gal behind the counter if our 8:50… Continue reading
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Mar 13 Okarito to Fox Glacier
Travelled in
Kayak on lagoon and travel to Fox. We have 8:00 a.m. coffee and tea with Rich and Karen, lodge-mates from Madison, Wisconsin, who are going on the Okarito lagoon bird-watching kayak adventure with us at 8:45. As we prepare to… Continue reading
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Mar 12 Hokitika to Okarito
Travelled in
Drive to Okarito and see a kiwi in the wild. We take forever to pack, book some kiwi hunting for the next day, gas up and leave Hokitika by 11:30, wending away from the coast and toward the foothills of… Continue reading
Two Tramps 