Mood:  happy

First off, Happy Queen’s Birthday!  This Monday, 9 June, is celebrated as the Queen’s Birthday.  It’s a federal holiday, so, no work! –Except I have to work...more on that shortly...  In the meantime, this is the only weekend in Canberra (I think) that the public can purchase and use fireworks.  All of the other holidays the professionals come in, but this weekend:  rank amateurs!   Yeah, Canberra!  Last night, we all climbed half way up Mount Taylor and watched the fireworks go off.  It was pretty neat, but no pictures came out...

Jacoby asked what was going to happen when the Queen dies and they get a new one.  His question, "Does she have to take 6 June for her birthday?"  We laughed out loud...Then we learned that she probably would.  As it turns out, the Queen's birthday is actually in April.  It is celebrated on the second Monday in June by tradition.  Who knew?

Last week, we finished the Counterinsurgency elective, and Term 2.  We are starting Single Service and the third term on Tuesday.  For the last two weeks, we have been writing the Australian doctrine (LWD 3-0-4, or something like that).  It took a week to get all of the writing teams to get their chapters done, and then the last week to edit it all together.  All that’s left is to brief it to the Chief of the Army, who is coming on Thursday.  That means rehearsals until then, which is why I am working tomorrow.  All of the briefers are getting together for editing and rehearsals.  Then, we’ll do it again on Tuesday.  Then, a full dress rehearsal on Wednesday.  Finally, the actual briefing on Thursday.

Please allow me to say that the Counterinsurgency elective was incredible.  It was good enough to make up for the miserable excuse for academia that was Strategic Studies.  If they would allow us to skip Single Service and continue with COIN, I’d be there in a heart-beat.

So now, this week-end’s news.  On Saturday, we went to the Tradies Club for lunch, and then went to Jacoby’s soccer game.  They lost, but they played really well.  This morning (Sunday) we left for Kangaroo Valley, which is sort of up by Sydney.  It was supposed to be a neat little town with a fair-thing going on called ‘wildfire.’ 

We drove the basically two-hours-and-change, and stopped just short of Kangaroo Valley at a place called Fitzroy Falls.  I’d never heard of it, but Kimberly read something...We stopped, parked, and took a short walk and saw some of the most spectacular waterfalls I’ve ever seen in real life.  These things were huge.  Too big for the cameras, but we did the best we could.  The only issue was that the weather was extremely cloudy/foggy/drizzling, so none of the pictures are all that clear.  We decided to head off for Kangaroo Valley and hope that the afternoon sun would burn off some of the fog.

Kangaroo Valley was awesome!  It’s a really neat little town that had several bistro/cafes, pottery shops, wood shops, souvenirs, and more!  It had a little area set up as rental condos for visitors, but it was completely small town Australia with a GREAT deal of charm.  The 'wildfire' thing look like a bunch-o-nothin', so we didn't even stop in.  We ate lunch, shopped, and then headed back to the falls.

After walking the falls for the second time, we realized that it was just marginally better than the first time, so no real improvement, there.  Still, they are spectacular.

Then we drove home to be just in time for Jacoby to play hockey, immediately followed by about an hour of live music at the Irish Club, where we ate dinner. 

Not a bad two days.  It was Sabrina’s first longish drive around Australia, so she got to finally see life outside of Canberra.  More of that to come in the immediate future!

Have a good week!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 12:56 PM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 8 June 2008 1:12 PM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Well, I’m back from Vietnam.  Actually, I got back on the 19^th, but haven’t had a chance to write since then.   With Sabrina’s arrival and no time off work after the trip, this weekend is the first “breather” that we got!

First, before Vietnam, the week was fine.  We are pretty much finished with Counter Insurgency theory and are now ready to begin writing the doctrine.  We break into our writing teams on Monday.

In other news, we had Toshi (Japanese exchange student) and his family over for Tex-Mex night on Friday.   It was a great night and Toshi seemed to enjoy it!  Plus it was really good food...  J

Also this weekend, Jacoby had to go door to door with some school mates collecting money for the Salvation Army.  He spent about three hours and collected about $250 or so.  He has a hockey game tonight, but it is sort of a “pick up” game, outside of his normal team.  His real team is playing in Sydney tonight, but he wasn’t selected to play this week. 

Now for Vietnam...First off, it was a great trip.  I learned an awful lot about Vietnam and enjoyed the markets and food immensely.   Of course, it was work related, so it wasn’t all fun and games, and you had to be careful about WHERE and WHAT you chose to eat, but again, all turned out well in the end.

We started off in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) which is better known by us westerners as Saigon.  We stayed there for a few days, travelling out to see the cultural, military, and shopping sites in the south of Vietnam.  We visited Long Tan and Nui Dat, which are significant sights for the Australians.  Long Tan is a sight in the middle of a rubber plantation where they fought their most significant battle, and Nui Dat is the firebase closest to Long Tan, which provided their fire support during this battle.  We visited and crawled through the Cu Chi tunnels, out in the jungle.  Also while in HCMC, we got some cultural and national briefs from government figures to make sure “got the message.”  It is a communist country, after all...

-But is it?  I was VERY surprised to see all of the activity in their markets and the people creating and selling their products.  We learned from the Foreign Affairs Minister that Vietnam switched from a Command Economy to a Market Economy about ten years ago.  They simply realized that the Command Economy wasn’t working, so they adopted the change.   They also accepted/revitalized their need for open and private education.  So let’s review...Free markets, open education...Both of which are strongly AGAINST their communist foundations.  However, everywhere you go, you see statues and portraits of three people; Karl Marx, Lenin, and Ho Chi Minh.  Looking at the people, though, I’d say that there was no evidence of any sort of government controls on the day-to-day life of the population.   While impoverished, their economy is growing by leaps and bounds under the principles of free trade. 

Here are some interesting facts before I go back to narration.  First, 75% of the population of Viet Nam was born after the “American War” (their name for it).  That means that right now, 75% of their population is under 38 years old.  The population is growing, steadily.  The government sets their poverty line at $1 (US) per person, per house hold, per day.  While they still have a sizable percentage of people below that line, that number is shrinking.  Finally, the Vietnamese people are friendly (even to us) and look to the future for good international relations.  Actually, they thought we were peculiar for even asking about the war.  It was a common saying...”That was the past.  We look to the future.”  Maybe I was fooled, but they really seemed to believe in that mentality.

Back to narration.

After HCMC, we left for Hue (it’s pronounced “way” with a hard “h” sound at the front).  There we toured the Citadel and the surrounding area.  Interestingly, Hue was the capitol of Vietnam for a few hundred years a long time ago.  The citadel was the site of some pretty brutal fighting during the war.  We saw and crawled through another set of tunnels that, apparently, the Vietnamese people lived in for SIX YEARS during the war.  Six years!  Living in tunnels!  We saw the rooms, the kitchens, the medical facilities (to including birthing centers).   Six YEARS underground.  No life on the surface.  In the vernacular of the resort hotels, these tunnels rated exactly no stars.  I honestly can’t see how they did it. 

After Hue, we headed off to Hanoi, the current capitol.  We visited the war museums and even the prison (the Hanoi Hilton) where they kept the American POWs, including John McCain.  We had plenty of time to walk through what was left of it and took a bunch of pictures.

Then we came home, following a long layover in Singapore.

Now, some of the unofficial stuff.  The cheapest beer we found (for the group, not for me) was $0.20 per liter.  Average price was about $1 per bottle/can from reputable stores/bars.  Food was cheap and plentiful, centring mostly around seafood.    Also on most menu was pigeon (not a joke), beef, chicken, and pork.  Almost every meal we were served had some sort of seafood chowder, prawn, squid, and fish.  Most meals took about two hours, as it was served in ten small courses over that time.  We left each meal full enough, but not stuffed, and of course, we knew everything about everyone around the table.  Lots of conversation...

I bought a North Face backpack for $20 that would have cost over $200 in Australia.  $20 means a lunch to me, but to the Vietnamese, that’s about a month’s worth of income.  I bought Kimberly several outfits, mostly silk, and some wooden coasters and chopsticks, and two coats, one leather, the other a Columbia ski jacket.  Both cost $30.  We also got some DVDs for next to nothing.  Now, are these things real, or knock offs?  Who knows.  We were told they were real, since both Columbia and North Face are produced in China, and they both have reputable resellers in Vietnam.  Either way, I can’t tell the difference in material or construction...

And that’s about it.  Vietnam was a great trip.  I feel no need to go back, but I’m VERY glad that I went.  I have about 500 pictures of the place, so I’m still working through them.  I’ll see what I can post, eventually.

Hope all is well for you!

- Ryan -

Posted by kisajaja at 6:01 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

Wow, the end of a busy week!  -Or the beginning of another one.  Either way.  Both Jacoby and I finished our Fall Break, so it was back to school with both of us.

School for me has gotten to be much better, now that we are out of the Strategic Studies module.  Strat Studies was a university module, taught by UNSW (University of New South Wales), and it was bad.  Really bad.  But now we have started our electives and I have completed week one of Counterinsurgency (COIN).

COIN is taught by a man named Dr Michael Evans.  The guy is brilliant.  In fact, after I heard him give a guest lecture on one of the few good days in Strat Studies, I knew that Dr Evans had stuff to teach and I wanted to hear what he has to say.  Thank goodness I got into this course.  It's been fantatic!

We spent last week talking about the history of Insurgency and the many books and practitioners of Insurgency and Guerrilla Warefare.  We went from Mao Tze Tong (China), to Michael Collins (Ireland), to Che Guevara (Cuba, South America), to Gen Giap (Viet Nam). 

This week we are studying the origins and early thinkers of Counterinsurgency.  From there, we will go on to more advanced COIN studies, to include actually writing the Australian Military Doctrine on the topic, as currently they have none.

Before all of that, though, I will leave for Vietnam on Friday, as part of the Overseas Study Tour.  It should be a good trip.  We've had a few briefings on it thus far, and even spent Friday afternoon walking through the Australian War Memorial's Vietnam section, getting refreshed on Australia's involvement there.  It'll be a ten-day trip, all in all.

As for Jacoby, he's had a busy weekend!  On Saturday, he played his first Hockey game in Australia.  The Canberra Phoenix (Jacoby's team) played, well, someone else, and won!  Jacoby had a few minutes of ice time and came off the ice feeling good about having played.  By the time he got out of the dressing rooms, he was already late for his Soccer game.

Yes, soccer.  Jacoby joined the Canberra Grammar School's 2nd team (think Junior Varsity at the 8th Grade level, and you're there).  Jacoby played defence, but I don't know anything about soccer, so I can't be more specific than that.  He's not the goalie.  He had a good amount of field time, and appeared to have fun.  They lost the game, but they played pretty well (I'm guessing).

We saw two movies this weekend.  Iron Man is here, and we really enjoyed it.  We caught that one Friday night after our Japanese dinner (more on that later).  Last night we saw Darleejing Limited (or something close) and it was terrible.  It had a few funny seconds in it, but all in all, not good.  We saw that at the ANU movie club, so it didn't cost anything.  Seriously, though, go see Iron Man.

On Friday, we went over to Toshi's house to eat.  He is another International student in the course with me.  He invited Kimberly, Jacoby and I over to his house for a Japanese dinner.  It was fantastic!  His wife made all manner of Japanese foods for us to try.  We ended up staying for a couple hours talking about Japanese culture and learning about his family, and such.  They are coming over here for Tex-Mex before the end of the month.  He gave me Wasabi...I'm giving him jalapenos!

Today we went to the annual Pumpkin Festival heald in a small town (population 150, no joke) called Collector.  It was a nice festival for a town this small, and we were fairly impressed by it.  Now, it was small, to be sure, but it was much better done than say, the Queanbeyen Multicultural Festival, if you remember that.  After spending about an hour out there, we headed back to the Hall Markets for another walk around.  We bought a few odds and ends, and then headed to the Tradies Club for their meat raffle. 

We won another tray of meat, like last week (if I mentioned it, I don't remember).  Some people come out of this thing having won several trays.  I'm talking meat for a month, here.  We won a tray, which is enough for four nights of dinner, and I'm feeling pretty good about that!    We aren't "killin'" at these raffles, but we aren't walking away empty handed, either.  I guess we are doing pretty well, percentage wise.

We went back to the Tradies for dinner, although the plan was to listen to live music at the Irish Club.  We went there first and didn't care much for the band that was playing...

And that brings me to right now!  The big events coming up are two fold.  First, of course, is Vietnam on Friday, but even bigger than that is Sabrina's visit.  She should get here while I'm gone.  It's a long flight, but she'll be fine and I'll see her as soon as I get home.

Anyway, all is well, and we are looking forward to another busy week!  -And in case she's reading this (I doubt it, but maybe), Happy Birthday one more time to Mimi (my Grandmother).  She's a fantastic lady and I sincerely hope she had a wonderful day!  Jamey (sister) is next, with a birthday this Thursday.  Happy Birthday to you, too.

Take care!

- Ryan

Posted by kisajaja at 11:38 AM MEST

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Mood:  party time!

Happy ANZAC Day to all.  Now. let me explain.

ANZAC stands for Australia New Zealand Armed Corps.  As a day, it celebrates the Aussies and Ziwis landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, thus entering World War I.  It also celebrates all Aussie and Ziwi soldiers of the past and present.  As such, it is the American equivalent of Memorial Day and Veteran's Day rolled into one.

It is a National holiday.

We celebrated ANZAC Day in the traditional Canberran way.  We attended the Sunrise Service held at the Australian War Memorial.  The service was held at 5:30a, which is at the same time that the ANZAC Brigade landed in Gallipoli.  After the service, members of the Aussie and Ziwi Defence Forces walk in a parade around their cities. 

The whole event is televised and dominates radio shows.  The Australian public (and presumably the Ziwis) have a strong attachment to their Defence Forces, and so their is a tremendous outpouring of support.  We have heard several times today that the ANZAC landing in Gallipoli was the point that Australia became a Nation, not just the independent country that it had been. 

What's cool is that the original ANZAC Bde was relatively small.  While we are sitting here watching the parade in Sydney on TV, the commentators are telling the human-interest stories about the individual soldiers that made up the Brigade, talking about which ones are still alive, and showing family members in attendance.

We attended this morning's service with Peter, who showed up to the event with Australian flags for both Kimberly and I to wave all morning.  He had one for Jacoby, too, but he chose to sleep in.  While I didn't wear my uniform (I didn't think it was appropriate), I did wear my U.S. Army racing jacket (NASCAR) proudly.

The plan is to go to the War Memorial later today and walk through the museum, which has a few different exhibits since the last time we were there. 

Enjoy your day!

Posted by kisajaja at 1:05 AM MEST

Updated: Sunday, 4 May 2008 11:36 AM MEST

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Mood:  happy

This morning, or “the morning after” as I like to call it, the Olympic Torch arrived in Australia.  More specifically, it arrived in Canberra, not too far from the house.  The plan was to go to the gym, then head to Commonwealth Park to participate in the festivities.  

All went well!  We found a parking space that was only available due to its being nowhere near the actual venue, walked the rest of the way, and stood in a crowd holding what appeared to be a sea of Chinese flags. 

Yes, there were protests.  Yes, people got arrested, but no, nothing bad happened at this event.

We witnessed the final torch bearer’s entry to the stage area, triumphantly holding the torch aloft, then setting the big podium bowl thingy a-blaze.  He then walked to the podium to be interviewed at which time the flaming bowl promptly went un-a-blaze.  Extinguished.  No smoke, no fire.  Big bowl of nothing.

They got the fire re-lit and continued on like nothing happened.  They sang the national anthems of both Australia and China, then we left for lunch.

Here we go, again... 

First, we couldn’t find the restaurant that a friend told us to try.  She gave us directions.  She said, “It’s on the corner of Northbourne Avenue and Markus Clarke Street,  kitty-corner from the McDonald’s.”  I wrote it down.  This morning, I tell Ken the GPS to take us there, and he (Ken, the GPS) just gave us the finger.  Apparently, Northbourne Ave doesn’t intersect with Marcus Clarke St.

Okay, well Northbourne isn’t far, so we’ll just drive down that and look for a McDonald’s.  Well, that didn’t work so well.  First, no McDonald’s, second, half of China is wandering the streets of Canberra.  So, with absolutely no joy, we decided to head to the Embassy to pick up our mail.

After that, I decided to try one more time.  If it’s not on Northbourne Ave, I’ll try Marcus Clarke St.  We drove back into the frey, found Marcus Clarke St, drove the entire length of it, and found....Nothing.  No restaurant, no McDonald’s.  So we decided to head to the fruit markets for next week’s stash. 

Driving out of Marcus Clarke St, onto Barry St, approaching Northbourne Ave, Kimberly spots the restaurant, with a triumphant “There it is!”  I look.  It is indeed, right there.  On Barry St.  In the middle of the block.  I look for a McDonald’s.  Nothing.  Finally, I see a McDonald’s about a block later.  Anyway, I drive all over the place to get back to Barry St, which is divided with me currently on the wrong side.   We finally make our way back, but for Pete’s sake, there isn’t an empty parking space among all 6 available on the city block.

Forget it!  We are going to buy fruit!  -And away we went.

While driving to Fyshwick, we passed Kingstown, the home of the Kingstown Pub.  One of my favourites!  We decided to go ahead a get lunch there, and then do fruit afterwards.

Here’s where the story gets cool.  Once we walked into the pub and wandered up to place our order, an older gentleman asked us if we wanted to hold the Olympic Torch.

“Huh?!?!?”

Sure enough, this guy had a replica Olympic Torch.  It was neat, and it looked pretty real, so I asked, “Where did you get this?” He replied, “They let me keep it after my leg of the relay.”

“Huh?!?!”

It was the real thing!  The guy’s name is Ray Smee.  He was leg number 54 in today’s Olympic Relay.  He was a two-time Olympian, playing Water Polo for Australia in 1954.  I’m not sure if he was also in 1950 or 1958. 

He allowed all of us to hold the torch and take pictures.  I ended up talking to him for about 20 minutes before turning to my food and leaving him to eat his.  It was a tremendous honour to meet him. 

We all took a turn at holding the torch.

Posted by kisajaja at 1:08 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:15 PM MEST

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Mood:  irritated

The last day was a bit of a challenge.  The plan was to just kill some time until around 11:00a, at which time we would eat lunch, and then head to the airport to return the car and get home.

Good plan.  –Not really.

We went back on top of Mount Wellington hoping to get more clear photographs of Hobart without a lot of haze.  That didn’t work out so well, although we got more pictures of Hobart with some pretty cool sunrise effects.

After Mount Wellington, we decided to go to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.  We got there, parked, and realized the museum didn’t open for other hour (it was 9:00a). 

So we went into the Maritime Museum, only to discover that it was paid entry.  Not being very nautically motivated, we hung out in the gift/book shop for a little while.  Then we headed out for a wander around another store that we already shopped at a few days before.  We did discover that there was a Chinese Buffet that opened at 11:00, so we had choices for lunch! To that point, we thought we would have to eat at Hog’s Breath Saloon, since their radio commercial said it opened at 11:00.

Once 10:00a rolled around, we went back to the museum, which took us about 45 minutes to walk through.  Then we left for the Chinese Buffet.  Once we got there, Kimberly noticed the door said they opened at 11:30a.  I checked my newly acquired flyer.  11:00.  I looked at the door.  11:30.  Damn!  We left for Hog’s Breath.  Right when we got there, we saw the guy unlocking the door.  Great!  We tried the door, and it didn’t budge.  Damn!  Apparently the guy saw us pull in and remembered that he failed to lock the door when he got in to work.  The guy came over, opened the door and said, “11:30. Sorry for the inconvenience.”  He was unimpressed with my pleas to his radio commercial and said we’d have to come back.  Right.  I’ve been thwarted, again!  He wants us to come back?  Not gonna happen.

So we went to a sandwich shop.  By now I am highly irritated about driving back and forth all over Hobart to find food.  We get to the sandwich shop.  I find an available parking place, which I over shot just a little.  Backed the car up about 10 feet, and then, BAM!   Another car was leaving her parking place, didn’t see us, and smashed into the back of the rental car.  DAMN!!!!!  So now I’m standing around, trying to call Thrifty to tell them there’s been an accident, no, no one’s hurt, yes, the car is drivable.  Once complete, still angry about the restaurants being closed, the accident, the being but on perpetual hold by Thrifty, we finally went in to get lunch. 

We ate a quick sandwich and then left for the airport.  About three minutes into our drive, Kimberly points to the windshield and says, “What’s that?”  DAMN!!!!  I forgot to pay for my parking space and got a ticket! 

I’m not having a good day, to this point.

We finally get to the airport.  Now I have to deal with Thrifty-boy.  He comes out, views the damage, writes some notes, and then points to the front bumper.  “Did this damage occur during the accident?”   I said, “No, the accident was just the back.  That damage to the front bumper was there.”  He gives me a sceptical look.  Now I’m wondering, “Holy crap!  I didn’t look at the car when we picket it up.  Did I damage the front end driving over Charles Mountain?!?  I didn’t hit anything!  I bottomed out once or twice, but didn’t hit anything!” 

Thrifty-boy checks his paperwork, turns to me and says, “This just says scratches/abrasions.  That’s a hole in the bumper!”  I turn back to him and said, “We didn’t hit anything.  We noticed the bumper damage, checked the paperwork, saw the marks, and thought nothing of it.”

Then we went inside and finished the paperwork, during which time he explained to me that despite the accident not being my fault, despite the other lady admitting being at fault, the proper way to proceed is to charge my credit card $3,130 for the damage while the Thrifty people deal with the lady’s insurance people.  With any luck, the charge should get refunded within a week or so.

DAMN!!!!!

Now, to give all of this just one more twist, we came home and found that USAA shut off my credit card because of fraudulent charges. 

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I called them immediately, and they were right.  Stuff was showing up on my credit card that we didn’t do.  So USAA terminated that card and is sending me a new one.  What does that mean?   Nothing to me.  Thrifty is going to have a hard time charging me if that lady’s insurance doesn’t clear this up!

Anyway, there was no further drama for the return trip.  Peter was there to pick us up, and took us right home.  We gave him his chocolate and invited him to dinner, which he accepted, so we all went to the Tradies Club to get our Chinese Buffet that started this whole mess about 12 hours before. 

It was damn good!

Posted by kisajaja at 1:01 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:08 PM MEST

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Mood:  a-ok

Day four was our last full day in Tasmania.  We headed out early, in order to make it to ZooDoo, a small zoo with several “petting” areas, baby animals, and a sort of pseudo-safari.  We got their too early, so we left for Ross, which has a historic bridge in it (lots of photos, post cards, etc), and got breakfast, then headed back to ZooDoo.

This place was great!  We walked through the indoor baby-animal area and were told to feel free to climb right into the cages and play with the animals.  They had miniature horses the smallest I have ever seen them (more on them later, it’s hilarious!!), piglets, ferrets, guinea pigs, rabbits, and some birds.  Outside, we found the native animal area and, again, were allowed to enter and play with the tamar wallabies, the bennett wallabies, a koala, and got to see (but NOT play with) a Tasmanian Devil.

But the “biggest” event, by far, was the miniature horse races.  I kid you not.  They had a tiny race track, complete with tiny start-gates, built in a two car garage looking barn.  They brought out three tiny horses in complete racing attire, including a stuffed monkey sitting in a saddle as the jockey.  They loaded the gates, let us all place our bets (sort of, they gave us all a number and told us which horse was “ours.”  The winner got a lollipop.) and away they went, being chased by a dude waving a flag behind them to keep them interested.  My horse won!  I gave Kimberly my lollipop.

Then we went back out to the native animals area and played a bit more with the koala and wallabies.

Here’s another funny thing.  The Koala was really gentle.  We have been told many times not to mess with them because they smell bad and are ill-tempered.  Not this one.  Didn’t smell at all and was as ferocious as belly-button lint.  Anyway, while Kimberly was petting him, she wanted a picture that made it look like he was kissing the koala in his nose.  She got really close, but sort of behind the koala, and made this huge pucker.  I readied the camera, but then, before either of us knew it, the koala decided that he didn’t like being ALMOST kissed, and stuck his head out to finish the job.  I was a little late in catching it on camera, but Kimberly is the only person I know to get hit on (full-up smooched) by a koala.  I couldn’t stop laughing long enough to get jealous.

After ZooDoo, we left for Cadbury Factory, stopping for lunch at the Maze place.  –Think corn mazes (two of them) and an attached restaurant and you’re there.  That was back in Ross, the place with the historic bridge.

As previously written, the Cadbury Factory no longer gives tours.  That’s okay, because we have seen chocolate being made (Hershy), and they still offered admission to the gift and chocolate shops on site.  It cost us $10 to get into the door since they can’t sell “to the public,” but we enjoyed the chocolate shop immensely.  I figured we would spend the money we would have spent on the tour on the chocolate.  We got a bunch, including a pretty “healthy” dose of Dark Chocolates for Peter for driving us to and from the airport.  I figured we owed him AT LEAST that, and much more.  We got one of just about everything they made in Tasmania...

Afterwards, we went to the Female Factory (used to be a women’s’ prison, but now it makes homemade fudge), and got a few packs of “seconds” fudges in the flavours we like.  These were the excess pieces taken from what’s left after the blocks are cut for packaging.  Same fudge, same flavours, just the wrong size for “professional wrapping,” so we got it cheap!

We left the fudge factory, went back to Tacos the Mexican place for dinner, since it was our last night and we liked it the best.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:47 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 1:00 PM MEST

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Mood:  a-ok

We left the Motel for the Mount Field National Park, which contained several waterfalls and the “Land of Giants,” the tallest trees in the southern hemisphere.  Kimberly did some read-ahead on Mount Field and knew exactly which two waterfalls she wanted to see, and neither was that much of a hike, so it was an easy feat to do it all.

After we finished Mount Field National Park, we wanted to make our way over  Charles Mountain in order to get to the Hartz National Park.  Before I talk about Hartz, let me give you a fair warning.  If you decide that the highway is long and boring, and you already saw it, you might think that the small and winding “road” on the map might be a good alternative.   Once you head off for said road, you might find a friendly local gentleman to point out where said road is, because it is hard to find.  While talking to this gentleman, he may try to discourage you from taking said long and winding road in a small economic road-based rental car.  He may go so far as to suggest only a 4x4 would make it.  I can’t say this clearly enough...BELIEVE THIS MAN!  We climbed a fairly gentle dirt road (all of the parks have them) for several kilometers, at which time the road turned into an intense mixture of mud, rock, and crevasses, the nature of which would intimidate a Humvee.  Clearly, we weren’t well suited for this in our Mitsubishi Colt.  Not wanting to damage the car, we turned around and took the long and boring, already seen, highway.  For the record, we almost made it.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!  The truth is that we just didn’t have the clearance to negotiate the rocks and crevasses and I certainly did NOT want to get stuck in the mud. 

We arrived at Hartz National Park late, but not too late, and went to the Tahune Air Walk.  This is an elevated sidewalk, if you will, that takes the walkers out over the canyon to take some pretty cool pictures from up high.  We got to this place, looked around, and by this time in our adventure, we’d climbed higher, saw more spectacular views, and did so on foot over trails and rocks.  Paying what it would have cost to see less from a lower altitude didn’t seem all that appealing, so we left for the drive back to the Motel.

 On the way back, we stopped at a place called the Enchanted Woods shop.  A really nice lady worked there, along with several others, creating these wooden trinkets, bowls, spoons, boxes, everything from natural Tasmanian woods.  The shop was amazing.  We bought Kimberly a Scent Bottle carved out of a single piece of wood, which sort of resembles a genie bottle, complete with top.  Inside the bottle are small wood shavings which soak up the liquid “scent-of-choice.”  It’s a beautiful bottle.  The lady through in a bottle of the scent that Kimberly liked, gave me a small wooden key chain, and tossed in a few apples right off the trees growing next to her shop.  Fantastic!

Then we went back to Hobart and ate Fish-n-Chips for dinner.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:26 PM MEST

Updated: Friday, 25 April 2008 1:04 AM MEST

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Mood:  a-ok

The next day, we woke up early (6:30a, which sort of became the habit), and drove across the state to Lanceston (pronounced lawn-sess-ton).  Lanceston is in Northern Tasmania, and is home to Cataract Gorge, a sort of small-scale Grand Canyon. 

Yep, I have an official Mount Elephant Pancakes hat as a souvenir.  Can’t beat that!

After lunch, we drove into the State Park that contained Wineglass Bay.  Kimberly would know what it was called, but I didn’t write it down...Once we got to the park, we parked the car and hiked up the mountain to the viewing platform over the bay, which was on the other side.  It didn’t take long, and it was beautiful!

The funny thing is that all of the views you see of Wineglass Bay on postcards or the internet are all from an angle that you can’t get from the ground.  All of them are aerial photography.  These pictures are about as good as you can get from the viewing platform.

After Wineglass Bay, we returned to Hobart, ate Greek food for dinner, and returned to the Motel for the night.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:14 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 12:25 PM MEST

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Mood:  a-ok

Okay.  That’s easy, except that we found out two days before we left that Cadbury no longer offered factory tours.  The Market, however, was still going on.  –And it was awesome!  They had all manner of wooden products, like cutting boards, pens and pencils, salt and pepper grinders, bowls, etc.  They had food vendors, clothes, souvenirs, toys, everything. 

The market was truly one of the trips highlights.

After the markets, we left for Port Arthur, which is an old prison, for those that don’t know.   Australia, at its birth, was a penal colony for British criminals.  The worst of those criminals, and several “home-grown” ones, were sent to Port Arthur, Tasmania.   Several of the buildings still stand and tours are available, including the “Ghost Tour” which happens at night.  We didn’t do that, though.  We showed up, took our pictures, and left for other things.

The drive out there was spectacular.  We drove through the mountains, down the coast, saw rock formations, waves crashing, ate Fish-n-Chips, all in all, it was a fantastic scenic tour of Tasmania. 

When we got back to Hobart, we had enough sunlight left to climb (re: drive up) Mount Wellington and take some pictures.  It wasn’t a particularly clear day (none of them were), but it was still quite a

view.

Posted by kisajaja at 12:00 PM MEST

Updated: Thursday, 24 April 2008 12:13 PM MEST

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