Fri. 8th February 2013
As Chris knows about Tasmanian wines she had put together a shortlist of half a dozen wineries to visit today which were vaguely on the way to the airport where we were due to catch the 1520 flight back to Melbourne. This list had to be whittled down to fit the time available. The first stop was Frogmore Creek where we discovered they had bought out the next-door Meadowbank Estate, which was going to be our second stop. That crossed two off the list of wineries in one hit. It was also a good choice as they had a varied list of wines which were very good and they do export to the UK so we will have to look out for it when we eventually return home.
After that we moved on to Puddleduck which is a small vineyard run by a young couple, quite a contrast to the previous one. The wife was working in the shop helping with the wine tasting and the dog is called Pinot – you could tell as his name was painted on his kennel. It advertised itself as a reverse BYO which meant you could bring your own food but had to buy their drinks! The garden was a fantastic setting out sit out and chill – if only we had the time….
All too soon we had to head off to the airport for our flight. The advantage of no check in baggage on an internal flight was we could walk straight into the departure lounge and onto the plane. We barely had time to grab a sandwich and a coffee on the way through before we saw the queue beginning to board the plane. After gulping down our coffee we ran through the shop to buy a fridge magnet and joined the stragglers for last call!
It was a short hop back to Melbourne and an easy bus ride into the centre to the hustle and bustle of city life. Another Friday night, well late afternoon and the pubs were already full of workers stopping for a beer on their way home. As it was a lovely sunny evening we walked around the waters edge to the other side and looked back over the water at Myf’s apartment block jealously eying up the penthouses on the top floor and their many balconies. We also tried to compare the width of James Packer’s super yacht with an average apartment and we think the yacht won!
Soon the Party boats could be heard heading out for the evening full of merry people not due back until late. Earplugs in place we were soon asleep. We often say “stop the world we want to get off”, well our side trip to Tassie was just like that! We had a great time in a laid back place, without a care in the world and easy going company. Thank you so much Chris and Graham for inviting us to visit after knowing us for such a brief time in Cuba. We look forward to seeing you in the UK next time you are on our side of the world and you will not need to speak Spanish.