Well the nights sailing in the ship ended up with girls having a fantastic sleep (after their excitement ended and they drifted off), Marty getting at least 4 hours and me having only 2 hours. There was no sea sickness but the noise and rocking up and down off the waves was enough not to let me relax and drift off to sleep. I got up a few times and had a look out the port hole, it did look pretty cool, the height of the waves and all. But at 5:30 am when the captain gave us his wake up call over the speakers, it didn't feel that cool anymore. We woke the girls and the excitement cake back to them after they realized we had made it to Tasmania, and we were about to be reunited with the Woods again..
We ported at Devonport, the view coming in was spectacular, rolling hills along the coastline and the sunrise. We finally drove off the Spirit of Tasmania at around 7:45am and headed five minutes up the road to have breaky with Amanda, Mark, Charlotte and Jake. We pulled up and were greeted excitedly by the Woods family, hugs all round. All the kids were jumping up and down and reuniting with hugs and kisses, so cute. We made our way inside, it was Amanda's patents house, and had a cooked breaky of bacon, eggs and tomato, we had looked forward to it all morning!
The rest of the day was spent with Amanda showing us around Devonport area. Mark unfortunately had to go to go to work, so the gang was one man down, but it was still a great day. Amanda first took us down to 'The Bluff', a playground along the beach, it was beautiful. I hadn't realized how l had missed the beach until then. We then took a little stroll up to the lighthouse were l proceeded to take some pics of the kids in front of it. To try and get a smile l say "nanna's knickers", next minute Amanda is hitching her knickers up saying "Amanda's knickers" when we hear a snap when she let go of them, very funny. Sure it gave her a massive wedgie, kids thought it was hilarious.
Next stop was at Port Sorell, the Wood's old hometown. She took us to the beach, again it was beautiful, clear water and fine sand. Dipped my toe in the water, bloody freezing l thought but Amanda said was good enough for a swim. I must still be climatised to northern weather.
We headed back to Devonport and had some lunch. I felt like a had just finished a night duty, was so tired and exhausted from the last month lead alone only having two hours sleep. My body was also failing with hip pain and a bloody sore neck. Anyway, the excitement of finally being in Tassie was overcoming all of this. After lunch Amanda convinced us that it was warm enough for a swim down at the local outdoor aquatic center. So for Marty and l it wasn't probably warm enough but when we saw this big waterside, we were all of a sudden in and getting changed into our bathers. We had half an hour to have as many rides as possible and we certainly used our time well. The girls loved it, both were date devils and racing down as fast as they could using mates to get more speed. As soon as we landed in the pool below we all ran up the hill, l reckon we had at least 8 goes down the slide. Far effort l thought, had a blast, felt like a big kid!! We then went for a swim in the pool but was too cold for Marty and l so we got out pretty quick.
We had a relaxing arvo back at the house, catching up on things and planning our itinerary. We were pretty b*****ed at the end of the day, probably was a slight let down for Mark and Amanda that we weren't really up for a drink, but am sure mojo will return!! So great to see them again, plan to stay with them for a few days and see some local sights. Looking forward to it....
Still cant believe we're here, in Tasmania. Seems like we have talking about it forever.
Bell Xx