Day 30. Tasmania (last day) Devonport to Launceston airport. 09-03-16

Unfortunately we are nearing the end of our 'epic journey Downunder'. But before we go there is a lasting picture (in the album) from our 'last supper' that Dee cooked yesterday !! We had to try to eat as much of the food that we had as we could not take it on the plane !! Everyone else was stuffed to the gunwales so Dee tucked into the pot !!

Today we have to travel to Launceston Airport to fly back to Sydney for a couple of days rest and relaxation from travelling, to recharge the batteries completely, ready to fly home to the UK. Another long holiday, that took many, many months (probably edging into years) to plan and co-ordinate is finally coming to its close !! There are just a couple of individual things to do but the "euro-6" group episodes are now complete until the next adventure..

Not sure why but most of us woke up early, even though we are not in any rush to leave our last "house". Breakfasted, showered, packed and prepared for the road we did one last check that we had everything and set off. At this point we thought the day was not going to be good as it started to rain, it was quite cloudy and overcast and actually quite cool, which we were not expecting. On the road though, first stop, Chocolate factory. It was only about a 10 min drive so the car hardly had time to warm up and the passengers didn't have time to settle before we were pulling into the car park.. Out we all jumped, into the dreary day and went into the factory area where we saw some old artefacts of the art of chocolate making and witnessed some people using a machine to coat what looked like marshmallow in white chocolate. Have drooled over this long enough we went into the chocolate/gift shop and could not believe the array of chocolate treats available.. There were sweets everywhere and it was difficult to decide what to buy to munch on as we travelled to the airport. We did all eventually get our favourites and left the shop.. As we were going towards the carpark we spotted another viewing area where two women were making different chocs !! One had a massive tray of square chocs and was hand filling them with liqueur !! Another young lady was placing a substance onto large trays that she had covered in blue plastic sheeting and was using a massive stainless steel rolling pin to flatten the golden brown toffee looking goo !! As she was rolling we gestured through the window to ask what it was ?? She wrote on a note pad that it was fudge.. Once she had finished rolling she cleaned up the edges putting the 'waste' back in the large pot and then weighed the tray. She then put the tray on a rack and wrote down on the note pad what the weight was. Then she started again with another tray.. This time after she had weighed it, she was talking as she placed the second tray on the rack. But she forgot to write the weight down on the pad.. As she started a third tray we knocked on the glass and pointed to the note pad.. she figured out immediately what we were trying to say to her and wrote it down. Her friend also realised what was happening and motioned to us that it was because the first girl was gossiping !! We all laughed and waved goodbye as we left.. Still raining we got back in the van and headed off towards a place called Beauty Point, which is north of Launceston, where we were hoping to visit Seahorse World. As we drove the weather slowly became brighter but as we arrived at Seahorse World it was rather windy and quite cold. We walked down the harbour front to find the entrance and were buffeted by the wind.. Finding the door into the Ticket office we entered, purchased the tickets and sat down to observe an information video as we had a short wait for the tour to start. It wasn't long before the guide came along and got us started on our journey into the world of Seahorses.. Initially we saw a couple of tanks where he explained what species seahorses were, the difference between male and females and the general habitat where they lived. Then we walked through into their breeding area and were amazed at the amount of 'babies' in the tanks. There were literally thousands of less than centimetre long seahorses, which he said could have come from a few fathers. It is the males that carry the young. They grow quite quickly and as we went from tank to tank he explained the different ages, hence the larger sizes, of the seahorses until nearly at adult stage. He also explained how they keep the water temperature slightly artificially low so as to stop the seahorses from breeding.. Their cycle is regulated by sea temperature in their natural environment, so the centre can 'farm' the seahorses under controlled conditions by maintaining the water heat.. One of the tanks had literally hundreds of adults in it and they were swimming around each other furiously. As we moved on he showed us different variants of seahorse and eventually took us into a 'touch area' where he placed seahorses, urchins, starfish and crabs into peoples hands to let them feel the texture of their skins !! Pat & Dee were lucky enough to get to handle most of the fish/animals that he pulled out of the tank.. Then we saw a few fish, ranging from small to large in quite a big tank and a rather large crab, a big white lobster sitting peacefully and then the tour was complete .. It had been an eye opening insight into the world of the seahorse and was extremely interesting !!

After this we were going to cross over to a different building and be taken on a different tour involving Duck Billed Platypus.. As we had not seen any yesterday on the river bank this was a good opportunity to see some.. It wasn't long before the lady came over to guide us round and the tour started. First we were led into a small 'theatre' where they put a video on the TV for us to watch.. Unfortunately it was not really that interesting, causing Paul to nearly drift off to sleep and Lis to actually fall asleep. No one else admitted to feeling drowsy (but I bet they all were) and as soon as it was finished the lady came to take us into the enclosure for the platypus.. We saw quite a few females at first in what appeared to be three different tanks but we were told that they were linked together and the platypus could wander wherever they liked.. We watched them dart around in the water, trying to take photos, and marvelled at their ease and speed in the water. We then went into the 'male' area. They only had one male who was a little larger than the females. Again he swam around without a care in the world making it difficult for us to photo him. We did manage to get some good ones between us, although a large number were rubbish and deleted immediately.. Before long it was time to leave them alone but as a bonus we were then taken into another area where they had some animals called Echidna's !! These looked like a cross between a hedgehog and a porcupine and were in the middle size wise as well.. They were sweet little things.. Extremely inquisitive but almost 'blind' as their sight is not good and we had to look all around us before we dared to move in case one of them had crept up without us knowing and we might tread on the them unwittingly !! The lady said that there were two females and one male and she put some bowls of food down to entice them into coming out of the 'undergrowth' The two females came out immediately and found a bowl each but the male did not appear.. Having finished their individual bowls the two females searched out the other bowl and began to eat it together.. Once they had finished they went on walkabouts and wandered around us. A little later the male came out and looked into the empty bowls, no luck it had all gone. Plenty of photos later it was time to leave them alone and the tour was over.. Again, it had been an amazing insight into the way these different creatures lived and had been extremely interesting to listen to the enthusiastic guides as they explained the stories to us !!

Tours over it was now time for lunch.. The sun was now out, clouds almost gone and although windy still it was no longer that cold. We drove a little way to find a 'picnic area', saw one and then went to find a shop for some water and some rolls.. We also saw a 'chip shop' so a bag of chips was on the menu, to go with everything that was left from our 'fridge and cupboards' .. We made ourselves comfortable in one of the covered picnic areas, placed the van strategically to help shield us from the wind and made a feast out of the 'left-overs' that would grace any table.. Unfortunately the indigenous population of seagulls decided that this was also their opportunity for a free lunch and they swarmed down around us.. Unlike their British counterparts these birds were not aggressive and did not come too close to us. They sort of crept up to within 10 feet of us but stayed there. We ate heartily from our 'scraps' endeavouring to finish as much of the food as possible, but try as hard as we could there was still some bits left over so the birds got their feast as well. They were quite well behaved so they deserved it. As we started to throw the unwanted pieces of bread, crisps, biscuits and pastry about for them they suddenly forgot their manners and it was every seagull for himself, sometimes ending in rather raucous squabbles..

As the sun was now shining it was time to head for the airport at Launceston (not pronounced the Cornish way) and say good-bye to Tasmania. However, it was not just Tasmania but North & South Islands of New Zealand as well.. It was becoming all too obvious that the trip was coming to an end and the first few miles of the journey were completed in silence. Probably as everyone was contemplating the wondrous adventure we had just had and how lucky were All were to have been in a position to fulfil a dream… We had travelled many miles by land, sea and air to be able to complete this journey and had some marvellous times, seen some magnificent sights, met up with old friends and acquaintances, eaten ourselves silly, taken some superb tours, stayed in some excellent and some not so excellent abodes, the diversity of which is hard to explain on 'paper', got thousands of photos to go with the memories, we have walked, talked and crawled our way around, over and under the mountains, clambered around waterfalls and riverbanks, risked life and limb on some of the roads around the more mountainous areas that were often so violently twisty that travel sickness was never far away. We had stayed in 'torture chambers' - 'ghost houses' - 'palaces' - 'old houses' - 'new builds' - 'on the beach' - 'amongst the mountains' - 'near streams' - 'beside large open spaces' but everywhere had its own special charm (well maybe not the 'torture chamber' !! ) and will always conjure up happy and interesting memories !! Even the adverse occasions added to the whole, the first hire car saga in Auckland, missing the Maori concert and Hangi meal because of it, missing two different boat trip due to bad weather, missing the plane trip over and onto the glaciers also due to bad weather, Paul having to fly home for a funeral to name just a few but out of adversity we have been able to partake of other adventures. We had a great time at Rotorua where Trev became 'chief' and we were the head family for the Maori dance show. The geysers in the same village where we did get to witness the 'large explosion' of the water eruption (knowing others have spent hours there and not seen it) . The "boys" having a great time in Hokitika when the glacier trip was cancelled, the unexpected waterfalls that we found, the dolphins, the seahorses, the platypus, the echidna, "the pies", the shops, the murals, the people……….. I could go on for much longer !!!

All of this and more was going through the minds of each of us as we drove towards Launceston airport..

During the drive we spotted a sign which proclaimed "Batmans Bridge", we justb had to have a look so we tok a small detour.. It was quite a big bridge over the 'River Tamar' (again not the Devon/Cornwall Tamar) and not as impressive as the Tamar Bridge !!! Nevertheless a good photo opportunity !! Back on the road to Launceston....

We arrived at the airport about 45 mins before check-in time and unloaded the van for the final time before returning it.. The "girls" & John got themselves some baggage trolleys while Paul & Trev went off in the van to park it up and return the keys !! This second hire van had been much better than the Auckland one as it had more space for bags and better leg room for passengers but it had a very annoying squeal from the brakes no matter how softly the pedal was used and this made it a nerve wrecking experience on the mountain passes that we had navigated around !! Still it all adds to the memories. We parked the van up but there did not appear to be anyone to receive it from us, we asked and were told to take they keys into the main airport terminal and return them to the relevant car hire desk.. This we did, the lady asked "is it full?", we replied 'Yes' -" were there any problems experienced?", we replied 'ONLY THE BRAKES !!!' She took the keys and bade us a good and safe trip home….

Launceston is not a large airport and we all met up again and found somewhere to sit in wait for check-in time. There were a couple of planes on the tarmac in the waiting areas with people climbing up and down the gangways to get on and off.. The two planes, fully loaded, turned, went to the end of the runway and then took off !! Within seconds they were out of sight and gone.. About half an hour later two more came in, passengers got off, passengers got on and they were gone !! This left our flight as the last one out for the day. We were due to take off at 20:50.. the plane we were to leave on was not due to land until 20:10 !! Looking around the airport it was now almost empty.. We took the opportunity to finish off the crisps, sweets, chocolates, biscuits, fruit and drinks and waited for check-in.. Once it was time we went to the desk and handed over the hold luggage and as another bonus to our holiday we were given upgraded seats to the ones over the wings with emergency doors.. This gave us all much better leg room for the 1hr 20 min flight back to Sydney..and all we had to do was be 'old' and promise to remove and discard the door in the event of an emergency !! "No worries mate !" So we had much better seating for this flight !. Back to the waiting area where Pat did some knitting, Lis did some embroidery, Paul wandered round taking photos, John joined him to watch the planes fly in and fly out !! Dee & Trev were 'faceaching' and all just waiting for the time to board…. Eventually the plane came in, passengers scrambled off and we replaced them.. We all found our seats, we had the whole row across the wings, next to the emergency doors and settled down to for the quick flight to Sydney.. On time, we took off, zipped across to Sydney and landed on-time.. Bags came through quickly and ours were some of the first around the conveyor , so we picked them off and pulled to the bus waiting area. The 'bus home' arrived and off we went.. The driver spent nearly the whole of the journey in the centre lane even though lots of signs saying "Keep left, unless overtaking" - the Aussies drive like the Brits……

We arrived at John & Lis's at about 11:30 at night, threw the bags into the rooms and had a cup of tea.. However, for whatever reasons, be it tiredness of the long day or being deflated by the realisation of being almost at the end, everyone drifted off to bed… There were only a few individual things to do now before flying home to UK but that could all wait to be discussed tomorrow !!! For now it was time for sleep and to dream over the last 4½ weeks of outstanding events !!