We’ve been here a week now after a pleasant sail across on the Spirit of Tasmania last Tuesday night. We drove down to Deloraine the first day, and nine days later are still here.

Deloraine is perfectly located for so many things. How do I start describing Tassie. Goodness, I could write book, a really lovely book, and it’s still only the first week.

We’ve been to Launceston several times, we’ve driven up to the North Coast and had a look at Wynyard, we’ve done a quick drive around the Vineyards in the Tamar Valley, we’ve had a look at Mole Creek, we’ve driven down the Great Lake which is around the middle of the Island. Okay, so that’s where we’ve been, but what have we been doing and seeing …..

Firstly, what’s amazing about the above places we’ve visited for a snap shot look is that all those places are within an hour or twos drive at most from Deloraine, and we’ve probably covered close to 1/4 of the Island. Nothing is far away if you base yourself in the right place.

The stand out highlights so far have been firstly, catching up with my sister. Wendy lives in Launceston which is only 45 mins from here, so we’ve managed several catch up visits. Yesterday we hooked up for a trip to Lilydale Falls for a picnic. It was only a short walk into the falls which were very pretty. Then, after we had our picnic lunch Wendy took us to a ‘pick your own’ blueberry orchard. That was amazing and Im sure rural France couldn’t have felt better. We ate our way down the rows of trees whilst at the same time filling our buckets with plump, fresh, sun ripened blueberries. We gathered 6 kgs, at a total cost of $39. It just doesn’t get any better than that. Our freezer has enough to keep us going for many months and we have enough fresh blueberries in the fridge to binge on over the next few days.

Today we took a drive down to the Great Lake which is around the centre of the country and about half way between Deloraine and New Norfolk (near Hobart). We’re going down to a place called Magra, near New Norfolk this Saturday to catch up with our good friends Marina and Terry.

On the way back we visited Liffey Falls again. We first went there in 1995, so nearly 20 years between visits. It’s an easy hike down a walking track shaded with trees and ferns, and brimming with fungi, moss and all the other gorgeous plants you’d expect in a cool rain forest. The falls are gorgeous.