City Park Grand Hotel Launceston

... a bit further to a rocky outcrop where Ana &amp; Erin could jump off. Erin's high pitched shrieks as he entered the water convinced me how cold the water was. I elected for my usual 'dabble at the edges till you're more acclimatised then launch yourself in' method of attack. It was bloody cold and deep, but the sun was warm and dried us off pretty quickly. Ana had to return home to complete homework, but Erin and I took our time before returning to cook and share dinner with her.<br>

... to wine making. I particularly enjoyed talking to Shane at Delamare &#8211; a young and passionate wine maker who had also helped produce some of the wines at the other properties and was able to give me a good view on which he thought had the best vines and what characteristics distinguished certain local terroir and micro climates.<br><br>Returning to the hotel I finally got the chance to swallow some wine having had to swill and ...

... day after again and went to ramsey street aka pin oak court aka the place where they film neighbours! sadly didnt see any of the characters but it was cool standing outside dr karl kennedys house! the next day we went to melbourne city for the day and even though we spent all day there we didnt actually see anything really as we seemed spent a thousand hours trying to understand the tram system and sending parcels home which you think would be ...

... wanderten wir hinunter in die beruehmte wineglass bay, eine perfekt geformte bucht mit tuerkisfarbenem wasser und weissem sandstrand. hier haben wir zwei junge deutsche vor dem verdursten gerettet (er aus stuttgart, sie aus siegburg). die beiden hatten eine dreitageswanderung gemacht und am letzten abend suess/und salzwasser vermischt. ueber eine landzunge gings es dann durch einen kuehlen wald zur hazard beach. insgesamt ...

... t get into the hops supply. In the brewery's books, Oscar's vet's bills were called "repairs to the vermin eradication machine." Hilarious. All-in-all, Paul and I really enjoyed our trip to Tasmania, and Launceston ("Lonnie" to the locals), and would both like to come back in the Tasmanian summertime. We are now headed back to the "Mainland" where we will spend a night in Melbourne and then begin the trek up the coast towards Sydney.

... actually has a pretty interesting history and it's an incredibly beautiful island to boot! Very well worth the trip! Tassie (originally Van Dieman's Land) is one of Australia's states. A place where the European settlers brought their convicts and slowly, because of disease, murder, colonization, and war, the indigenous people of Tassie are no more. Australia's history has so many similarities to the US's and the parallels to ...

... our JR Passes so we can get around between cities. At the moment the main places we're planning to visit are Osaka (landing there), Kyoto, Tokyo (inc. Greater Tokyo, Chiba, etc.) and Nagoya! I'll update with more planned specifics at a later date! Not long to go until departure :)

... its not a issue as normal tempratures are still about 25, the water is crystal clear and manny a day ive whiled away swimming and reading by the lake shore, havent tried swimming in it yet but when theres a clean swimming pool 10 feet away theres not much compitition, definitly a 7/7 in the gorge rankings. Working has been the name of the game here, and like manny things its like waiting for a bus, you have ...

... Cairns in Queensland then off to Hong Kong and Japan for 20(ish) days, back to Australia and down to Brisbane to catch up with my eldest daughters then continue South to Melbourne and back to Tasmania in December 2006. I will stick to the ocean views all the way around and as I am travelling around Australia clockwise, the beach will always be on my left. So many things to see and do, yet so little time.

... in Darling Harbour for a fantastic Italian meal and brilliant company. It was so good to catch up with them and share all results of putting my new skills into practice. We had a laugh at the fact that I had brought along an example of my work (Hilary - I had to mention it!) and many more laughs beside. Fantastic to see them all and hope they have a good trip home. I would share some more photos, but the memory card has been wiped by the machine here in the ...