The Midlands

My final Tassie blog is to suggest to anyone driving through Tassie to stop at Oatlands, Ross and Campbelltown. All are considered 'midland' towns on the highway between Hobart and Launceston or Devonport in the north. Ross has long been famous for an historic bridge but all three towns are very up and coming with little homeware stores, antique stores and cafes. Here pictured is the antique store in Campbelltown. It's one of many such shops that you'll find if you take the time to get out of the car and stretch your legs a little. And I did get the chance to look in Coco Blue in Campbelltown too. It's featured in the January Country Style magazine, which is how I knew about it, and it's a gorgeous homewares' store with four or five rooms filled to the brim with funky toys, French Provinical jugs, ceramics and plenty of pretty things to give the credit card a workout!

Berry farm delights

Not far from the port of Devonport where you disembark in Tasmania from the Spirit of Tasmania ship is a beautiful berry farm called Christmas Hills. We had breakfast there after an unsettled night at sea and it was the perfect antidote to feeling a bit queasy. It's situated overlooking a pond and trees and there's a great play area for little ones. The menu is indulgent and the food delectable. Who wouldn't want chocolate and raspberry crepes at 7.30 in the morning?!

Thankfully it's not the only berry farm in Tassie. Further away on our travels we visited another. On the east coast near the town of Swansea and the famed Freycinet Peninsula, Kate's Berry Farm has beautiful vistas over the sea and food to match. Photos attached to whet your appetite for this charming place. 

Wanderings and food delights in Tassie

I was lucky enough to have a holiday on the east coast of Tassie and in Hobart over the Christmas period. Hobart is where I spent most of my childhood so it has lots of happy and wonderful memories and invokes nostalgia whenever I visit it. Having visited many cities since I was a child, I return to Hobart as an adult and realise how spectacular and beautiful it is. It easily compares with the Scandinavian cities that I've visited - Copenhagen and Stockholm - for its beauty and position. Some would say it surpasses. Its harbour is full of yachts and a few old sailing ships and bobbing fish and chip boats selling their produce direct. Mount Wellington dominates the skyline and looks down on the city. Hobart has a certain isolation and a feeling of being at the end of the world. While we were there the Aurora Australis left for Antarctica and Hobart really is the last port of call before the great unknown. For some this is disconcerting but I love that it's at the end of the world.

Houses are still comparatively cheap when comparing against other Australian capitals, distances are short, and you can be at great surf spots, in the wilderness or surrounded by mountains or lakes within just an hour or two.

Increasingly Hobart is a trendy place for both foodies and those wanting a calmer, less frenetic lifestyle. While we were there, the amazing Taste of Tasmania Food Festival was on. It's housed in a huge wharf shed and the produce is second to none. Huge punnets of raspberries, grilled lemon chicken and kofta, crepes, game hamburgers, fresh and creamy ice-cream and cuisine from all over. If you want fresh food straight from the producer it's there. 

Tassie takes its food very seriously and wherever you go there are roadside stalls selling the freshest cherries or raspberries or apples or home-made chutneys and jams. Even the water bottles celebrate the Tasmanian love for food (see photo attached).

So, the next few blogs are all about Tassie. Go for a weekend or a month and you won't be disappointed.