Woke up this morning and found the air smoky and hazy again. The wind must have turned. Then we heard the fires were moving across from the west, and there was a fire just south of Deloraine, in Chudleigh. Glad we had decided against that. Today we decided to finally head for Launceston. We had been avoiding the big towns, but George had walked around the centre of town last time we were here on New Year's Eve and he was suitably impressed, and keen to check it ...

Well, it's New Year's Eve tonight, so we thought we would have to head to a big town which would have some celebrations. We wanted to be in Hobart by Friday night so we could go to the Salamanca markets on Saturday. So we headed to Launceston, from whence we would continue south the following day. On the way to Launceston there were several attractions on the Cradle to Coast Tasting Trail. Our first stop was the chocolate factory, where we had a lovely breakfast...