Marakoopa

I could take 2 additional days off and we went for another trip: Cradle Mountain in Tassies northwest.

On our long and windy road we stopped at Marakoopa Cave and got a brief introduction in the fascinating world of stalactites and stalagmites.

Accomodation was booked in Sheffield where we stayed at the ACACIA Bed and Breakfast owned by Donna, a former flight attendant from Queensland. Sheffield is known as the town of murals and attracts visitors from all over the world to see the painting on the houses, walls, the church, …

Wineglas Bay

Sunday I could finally go on my long anticipated trip along the east coast. Freycinet National Park and its fantastic bays and beaches.

Wineglas Bay – recentely announced as one of the Top Ten Beaches of the World was a great experience. Hidden and shielded by a rock formation named the Hazards one has to walk for an hour and a half to get there.

Rewared by the finest purest white sand and blue water.

We had a lot of fun and literally, while we were enjoying the water and sun, there were maybe 20 people who shared that experience with us …. There were even wallabies/ kangaroos on the beach eating seaweed…

Tahune

On Saturday we went with our “hip” car rental – an Opel/ Vauxhall/ Holden Corsa (just a bit over 400,000 km) - down the Huon Valley. We went to the TAHUNE Forest AirWalk. It is an about 600 m long walk amongst the trees and it gets you 20m above the ground. The highlight is the cantilever that is 48m above the river level, providing really stunning and unique views of the forests and the junction of the Picton and Huon Rivers.

Pavlova

Adina has arrived last Thursday. Unfortunately United Airlines wasn’t able to proceed her luggage and we had to wait till Saturday (after numerous unanswered phone calls) for her suitcase to arrive.

I had Kim and Lizzie with partners and Karen over. So we had a little dinner party and we sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Adina who suffered through her birthday while flying from Germany to L.A. staying for 10 hours at the airport, flying to Sydney, Melbourne and finally to Hobart. We had a good veggie soup (Kim LOVES soup J …), onion cake, sushi, cheese plate.

PAVLOVA (a meringue based cake with whipped cream and fresh fruit) topped up our dinner experience....

Happy Valentines Day

Valentines Day last year was one of my firsts post on that blog and I cannot believe how fast time has passed by...

85 posts later I am still around and havent gotten up...



I m about to organize a fantastic week (full schedule) for Adina who is arriving tomorrow...
Some of the doctors and Karen (my Will&Grace DVD mate) are coming over.

Happy Valentines Day to all of you!

Sheepy

says HELLO from Melbourne...

Launnie-WE Part Two

The next morning we had a nice breakfast (bad service though) in a cute little place near Caz’ house.

And off we went to Weymouth at Piper River. Caz’ family owns a little shack there.

Her family (mother, father, two brothers and us) and other befriended families had a little BBQ party upstream (which means we had a little boat ride to get to the BBQ area).

Hungry as I was, I almost tried the local fauna (see the picture at far right end), but no worries (esp. Michelle): Mister Bug survived

After Lunch I had the fun opportunity to try out water skiing for the very first time. After 4 or 5 not so successful attempts to get up and stand on the skies I finally managed it and it was a lot of fun- though low tide was coming and we had to interruptL. Still, my forearms got very sore!

We were floating back in our wet suites and walked on the beach back to the shag, had some crackers and cookies until we left for the beach again. The big “family of ours” played some bôule and cricket (finally, I think I understood the rules…).

Sausage rolls for dinner and a crime story from “Midsummer” series at the end of the day- only Louise (Caz’ mum) and me managed not to fall asleep though.

The next morning we went to a seal colony and Caroline’s father had a fun time making us wet at the rear of the boat. We went water skiing again and the wuzzzz inside of me said: “my forearms are sore, I just come and watch”, but then (of course) I could not resist and tried again skiing while Caz and her brothers were going on the knee board and a snowboard-like board. And I was working fine this time! I even managed to stand a big turn, but soon after - my strength was gone completely… Every beginning is hard…

After helping to clean one of the big fishing nets it was time to say good-bye (I skip the story about Caz’ mum slipping over a string and falling softly in a big load of Victors (family dog) poooo).

We went back to Launceston and went to the Gronge- the most picturesque outdoor pool area I have ever seen. Located beautifully in between several hills with a steep one seater gondola, a river with a wooden hanging bridge, several walking tracks and perfect weather!

(I had a bad hair Sunday and got burnt a tiny little on my nose…).

Launnie-WE Part One

Last weekend I took the redline bus up north to Tassies second largest city: Launceston (or as the mates here in Tassie say: Launnie).

My friend Caz welcomed me and after a little curry to go (I love butter chicken!), we went to a farewell party of some of the residents/ registrars in town. It was fun and so many interesting people:

For instance, I met one of the consultants for emergency medicine. And she is originally from Claremont. That is a little town near little La Verne, CA, where I had a great summer back in 1998!

Or Christine and Alex – a young South African couple who just moved to Launnie. Christine was doing a clerkship in Heidelberg about 2 yrs ago and Alex was living for four years in Munich when he was growing up (perfect German- no the hint of a clue he isn’t a native speaker…).

Well I had more than one beer and other stuff and wasn’t in bed too late…

Some fun from the maternity ward

Thats something real- the bomb thread fact sheet is to be found on all wards and departments... still somehow funny!