Tasmania 4th till 18th October 2005 Flying in over Tasmania again took me back to when I first arrived here four years ago. It was a stunning sunny day at the beaches looked amazing, the grass so very green. The only difference was a few more areas of logging that seem to have started in the north east region. Elaine Blaxland was there to meet me at the airport and to take me back to their house up in the Riverside area of Launceston. They live on the edge of town down a long track in a large plot of land over looking the Tamar river in the distance. It's great up there because you can't really see any other buildings and are surrounded by gum trees. There are also wallabies in the bush there! I stayed for the two weeks in Tassie with the Blaxland family. The three sisters, Sarah, Emma and Lucy were all at Launceston Church Grammar School when I worked there on my GAP year. Lucy was in Grade 6 when I started and is now in Grade 10!!! Spent Wednesday wandering round the Senior school catching up with the teachers that I used to work with. They all got a bit of a shock that I had been gone so long, they all thought it was only about 18 months ago that I left not three years, how time flies. I found it very strange since if felt like I hadn't been away at all. It felt so good to be back out here, and nice to know that I hadn't been forgotten!  Spoke to my friend Janice in the evening, she's back living on King Island (off the north-west coast of Tassie) for the UHT plant out there - she sent us an enormous box of King Island Cheese later in the week which was amazing. If you ever come across it you should try it, delicious. Janice was living in the boarding house when I worked there and we became very good friends. I spent a week out on her family's farm when I was out here last. One of my best weeks of my trip! Thursday Elaine and I went to the Platypus centre at Beauty Point up the Tamar River where Sarah now works. She gave us a great tour, the platypuses are so cool, and I got to hold a blue tongue lizard too! Oh, and by the way baby platypuses are called 'puggles' how ace is that! On Friday I spent the day at the Junior School Campus of Grammar, I used to work here one day a week in the Grade 1 and 2 classes and also grade 4 sport classes. I spent my time in Mrs. Jackson and Mrs. Hewitt's classes. Great fun helping to make Papier Mache planets and listen to them read etc. I showed them my photo's of Kenya which they loved. The school are taking a few more kids in now so there is a Grade 1 class which is taken by a newly qualified teacher David French. He's really into his outdoors activities which was a bonus! That evening Elaine and I went to the Launceston Show. Fireworks and rides, Dagwood dogs and showbags, tee hee I'd forgotten about them, Dagwood dogs are a hideous sausage type thing in batter on a stick smothered in ketchup.. ..Needless to say I managed to avoid them! Saturday Jen and I had planned a walk up in the Mountains (she's one of my good friends from the outdoor education department at the school), since we awoke to pouring rain and couldn't even see the top of the mountain for the cloud we decided to change plans and head for a walk at Liffey Falls. Tee hee... we thought that at least in the forest we'd be a little sheltered from the rain..... errmm.... Wasn't exactly the case!!! Kitted out in our waterproofs with our packed lunch we were the only nutters out that day. Lovely walk through the rainforest, though our path seemed to be Liffey River Mark 2,.... The water on the path was actually running! I started off trying to avoid the puddles then just gave up and was squelching in my trainers every step, eurgh! The waterfall was amazing; they've had so much rain over the last few weeks that it was spectacular. Retreated to Jen's house a couple of hours later like a pair of drowned rats and made Anzac biscuits.... Yum yum..... Sunday was a lazy day, headed to the boarding house in the afternoon to meet all the new GAP students that arrived here about a month ago. One of them, Robert, is the little brother of Nicola the girl who was a GAP student with me when I was out there. They seem a good bunch, four boys and one girl from Germany. Monday I helped out at juniors again, which included swimming lessons, I think I must have helped tie up about 30 pairs of shoe laces!!! We were hoping to go climbing after school but it looked like rain so Dave and I went for a walk at the Gorge to take a look at where we were hoping to climb. Tuesday I met up with Tess Morrison (she was in Grade 12 when I was here last and then did her GAP year at a school in Shrewsbury - she had Christmas in Louth with us a couple of years ago.) Elaine, Tess and I drove up to Beaconsfield to go around the Grub Shaft Gold Mine. So great to be able to catch up with her, she's going to be doing a jewelry making course next year! I love the way that all my friends out here are those good friends who I can catch up with easily despite having not seen each other for years. Brilliant!  Had a quiet day on Wednesday, took Emma shopping for a dress for an 18th party at the weekend. Thursday was back at the junior school, spent a bit of time in the Grade 1 class, it's amazing how different the children were to the grade 2's! They need so much more attention and guidance and crowd control!!! Finally the weather was good so Dave took me for a climb up at the Gorge. The Gorge is steep sided and after a good rain has a few rapids to raft down, where it opens up to a large pool there are gardens and a tea room and a swimming pool that if filled up with river water in the summer. A really lovely place to hang out and only a 5 min walk from the centre of town. It was great to be climbing again after so long, but being so unfit and wearing trainers instead of climbing shoes it was rather hard!!! I need more practice! Poor Dave had recently broken his coccyx so he had to take it easy, he's been wanting to get out climbing again for ages so was glad of the change in the weather finally. Most days have started off lovely and then rained at some point in the afternoon. I think that they said it's been the wettest Oct on record. Sarah B had been caught in a flood in the car a couple of weeks before I got there, the water went over the level of the car seat!! Anyway, that evening I went out to dinner with some of the teachers. Mrs.Davies the GAP coordinator and now assistant school Dean, Mr.Zantuck the junior sports teacher and old Boarding house tutor, Mrs.Thompson a Grade 7 teacher and Mrs.Bowers the drama teacher. Lovely evening, nice to be able to have a proper chat with them all without them having to rush off to a class or meeting. On Friday I met up with Jane Chapman who used to be a tutor in the boarding house on my GAP year. She's such a laugh and we had great fun catching up on gossip. That evening we went out to dinner with all the new GAP student a couple of boarding house tutors and my friend Marcus who is now a teacher at a primary school out in the west of Tassie. Ended up out on the town.... Hilarious really since it was a Friday night but town was so empty, such a contrast to Brighton!!! Saturday David, Harry (a Gappie) and I went for another climb up at the gorge, and planned an expedition for the Sunday. Sunday Jen, Dave, Laurence (gappie) , Robert (Nicola's brother) and I went for a walk up Mt Arthur which is about 30 mins from town. It was finally a gorgeous sunny clear day and took us about 4 hours round trip to the top and down again. Rather steep on the way up, Jen and I were left behind nattering to each other whilst the boys ploughed ahead on a mission! The view from the top was stunning, you could see right up the Tamar river to where it meets the sea, the beaches and other distant mountains. I love the way that Tasmania is si compact and that all these stunningly beautiful places are so close to each other. You'd have to visit here to believe it. It was the boys' first time out of Launceston and they loved it. Fantastic picnic at the top with apple muffins and banana cake.. yumyum... found out that Laurence is scared of skinks (tiny little lizards)... oh dear... wait until he sees a huntsman spider or a snake! (huntsmans look like triantula but are harmless... still I don't like spiders that are so big you can see the hairs on their legs!) Monday Elaine and I drove out to a lavender farm and I started to pack my things. Went out in the evening for a drink with all my mates to Irish Murphys in town. Two weeks just flew by, and it felt like I was leaving home all over again.:( Flew back to Sydney on Tuesday, one night at Madeleines place to unpack and repack my bags and then a coach to Canberra on Wednesday. Here I am staying with my friend Emma Viney who Katie and Ian met a few years ago when she visited in the UK. Today, Thursday, Emma and I went around the Australian War Memorial Museum, and then to Questicon - a fab place, really interactive science centre.... Pretended we were about 8 for the afternoon!!!  So then that's the last couple of weeks. As to the future, the only definite thing is that I fly to Christchurch NZ on Saturday and Carole Romaine meets me on Monday 24th for our two week grand tour of the south island. After that I am hoping to stick around in NZ for a while, I may well be working on a few farms on the 'Willing Workers on Organic Farms' scheme that they have over there. Then I hope to return to Tasmania for a while. Either I will be spending a term helping out at the junior school and getting a part time job, or perhaps I might be staying longer than just a few months. The job for outdoor education trainee has come up at the Grammar school. This is the job that I wanted straight after my GAP year before I did my degree. I thought however that it would be a good idea to get my Psychology done first. So here I am back out here and the job it up!!!  Will apply for it and see what happens, it would involve changing lots of plans but would be amazing. I would be on school camp every other week and the school would pay for all my training courses over the year so that by the end of I will be able to guide in a couple of areas and be an assistant guide in a number of others. Eg. Walking, kayaking, climbing etc etc.... So, fingers crossed and I'll keep you all posted! Much love to you all, would love to hear what you are all up to! Big Hugs Zoe x