Heya! How is everyone? All excited about Christmas?!

I managed to arrive safe and sound in Tasmania last Thursday and was met at the airport by Jim and Denise (my uncle and aunt). They’ve been looking after me very well, it’s so nice to have my own bathroom, someone to cook for me and clean all my clothes! Denise is a good tour guide and likes to tell me all the gossip of the area and Jim is exactly like Dad, so I’m feeling quite at home!

On the first day we went to the top of Mt Wellington and we could see the whole of Hobart and other stuff- Denise was telling me about what we could see but I was still pretty tired from the jetlag so I didn’t take in a lot of what she was saying! The view was amazing though.

Denise also took me to Bonarong Wildlife Park. We were given a bag full of pellets to feed the kangaroos and wallabies! It brought back memories of when I was there when I was 3 with Mum, Dad, Lucy and Edward, and me and Edward got chased by a kangaroo. Nothing that exciting happened this time though as most of the animals were asleep.

Today I went to Salamanca market – a huge market by the water front that sells just about everything. It was very festive as all the buskers were playing Christmas songs, it was a cool atmosphere and I enjoyed myself even though I didn’t buy anything.

That’s about all the touristy stuff I’ve done! When I’m not being a tourist, I’ve been doing some track riding for the racing yard next door to Jim and Denise’s farm. Basically, I had to canter a horse around a 1.2km track 4 TIMES!!! That’s quite a long way I reckon. And it killed my legs and arms. So after riding two horses each day my legs and back are soooooo stiff and I now walk like an old woman. OK, so I only went there for two days and yes the people that work there ride at least 10 horses a day and do 6 days a week, but still, 4 times round a 1.2km track – that’s a long way!! Plus there’s the added fear factor of whether you can stop your horse or not. All the horses are young and really strong and don’t really respond to you pulling on the reins, so you just have to hope they stop at the end. Its sooo fun, I’m going back tomorrow.

I’ve also been successful in getting Jim to get a Christmas tree. It’s not exactly a normal Christmas tree…

Because of the threat of bush fires, Jim is taking lots of precautions to lower the risk of the house burning down. This included cutting down the low branches of the trees right next to the house. I helped him cut down branches of the cherry tree in the garden and we’re using one of the branches as our Christmas tree! I decorated it just now and it looks rubbish, its not very bushy and the few branches that it does have stick out in random directions! Never mind!

Another job on the farm is to check that the cows have water. I helped Jim do this the other day and he let me drive the quad bike!!! That’s definitely one of the highlights of Tasmania!!

I’m still not feeling very Christmassy just because of the weather. Its so hot and dry here, all the fields are yellow or brown because of the lack of water and there’s a constant worry that there will be a fire on the farm. Its quite frightening.

That’s about it from Tassie, I’m leaving next Thursday for Sydney. If anything exciting happens between now and then I’ll let y’all know!!

Have a good Christmas everyone xxxx