Picturesque Tasmania

Well, wecome to Tasmania, the island of scenic undulating hills, cool weather and lots of tourist things to do! We have enjoyed our first few days here with some days of drizzly rain and some with lovely sunshine.

On Saturday we visited a chocolate factory and then a cheese factory, both wonderful places to stock up on Valentines Day goodies! We also went for drive through Railton, a small town which has some 50 topiary bushes down its main street. That was fun as you can see in the photo - yes there was a train one!

On Sunday we went to a local church and enjoyed catching up with the people there that are just beginning to work with the GFA material. It was wonderful to be able to hear where they are at and encourage them further with ideas of how to use the material and the wonderful benefits of encouraging families. We have also met another family in the caravan park - they have three children and are on a trip around Oz too having just finished Tasmania - and we ended up at the fence twice a day watching the Spirit of Tasmania Ferry coming in to dock, then the kids would go off and play and we chatted. It has been great to hear their tips on Tasmania and their thoughts on travelling to the West soon. What a great opportunity we have to spend time with our families like this and see our wonderful country which is such a majestic and awesome place. Hello to the travelling Mannion's out there - Mark and Michelle, Alyssa, Mason and Ella - we still miss you and hope your culling has worked the trick!

Sunday afternoon saw us visiting the Don River Railway - the first train trip of our travels! It was drizzly but we enjoyed a drive afterwards and loved the undulating countryside, it is so like a little slice of England. The soil is rich and red and the crops of vegetables are proliferic. Did you know Tasmania produces 60% of Australia's frozen veges? Well we can see why with the rain and the soil and perfect match for growing excellent crops!

Yesterday we went to Tasmazia - well that is an aMAZEing place with eight different mazes - hedge maze, the yellow brick road maze, the balancing maze, the hexagonal maze... As well as a little village of houses called the Lower Crackpot Village. Then there is a cubby corner with 10 or so cubby houses for the kids to visit from church cubby to firemans cubby and the theatre cubby, etc, and some beautiful lavendar fields. All of this and a backdrop of Mr Roland which juts out into the sky like a small piece of European landscape (albeit a very small one compared to those in Europe).

Well that is the news to date, we are on to the next spot today, Cradle Mountain National Park.

Love to everyone from the Birch's in Tassie