New Norfolk Part 2, Tasmania

The caravan park that we are staying in at New Norfolk is a council run park.  It makes me feel sad.  The majority of sites are taken up with permanent residents and the caravan opposite us (probably 15ft and a 1960 vintage, no annex) houses mum, teenage daughter and dad.  Dad works but mum and daughter seem to sit inside the van all day long.  They seem like a happy family so it proves that you do not need much in this world to make you happy. We should never forget to be thankful for the life we live.  

So what have we been doing? Yesterday we drove into Hobart, as far as the Botanical Gardens.  It is a good place to leave our car for the Hop on Hop off bus tour that departs right outside the gardens.  We have arrived early for the first bus so we head inside the Botanical Gardens for a bit of a wander around.  In my opinion this is the loveliest Botanical Garden in Australia.  It is not too big so you can easily wander around in a few hours, but there is also plenty to see.  We did of course check out the ABC's Gardening Australia vegetable plot that surprised us last time with its small size but it somehow looked bigger this time.  Probably our imagination.  After a walk we headed back up the hill to the coffee shop for a Devonshire tea that really hit the spot on this cold, showery day.

After smoko we made our way to the bus stop and the bus arrived right on time at 10am to pick us up.  The Hop On Hop Off bus tour takes around 90 minutes and covers most of the important sites across Hobart.  We stopped at Salamanca Place, Battery Point, Wrest Point Casino, Cascade Brewery and the CBD to name a few.  There are in fact 20 stops.  We chose to sit on the top deck of the bus but on our first stop at the Information Centre I raced in to buy a wool scarf.  It is very cold but thankfully the rain has passed.  There are a lot of people wandering the streets of Hobart and then we notice a huge P & O ship docked at the wharf so we presume that is why.  We pass by Hadleys Hotel and instantly recognise it as where we stayed in Hobart back in 2011.

We disembark the bus in the CBD area because it is now lunch and Philip has spotted a seafood restaurant on the marina that looks good.  It is just a few blocks walk and once we enter the restaurant Philip says we have been here before.  Can't say I remember but my memory is not so good. We are shown to our table and seated, and it doesn't take us long to choose the Seafood Platter with Half Lobster Mornay, to share. It turned out to be just the right thing.  Every single element on the tiered platter was delicious.  We had Salt n Pepper Calamari, Crumbed local fish, Salmon Gravlax, Scallops cooked in the shell, fresh prawns, fresh oysters and a choice of three different dipping sauces.  It was certainly worth the $$'s and the view from our table, looking out over the marina, was pretty special.

After the meal we took a short walk back to where we left the bus to finish the remainder of the Hop on Hop Off that brought us right back to where we started from at the Botanical Gardens.  New Norfolk is just 40k from us so we were home by 4.30.

Today we visited a farm where we picked our own raspberries and strawberries.  It was very hard not to take one for me and then one for the punnet!  They are so fresh and delicious and I'm sure both Philip and I will have a pain in the belly by the time we get to bed tonight!  There were also some freshly picked peas and broad beans in the farm gate shop so I bought some of them, also some freshly ground coffee and a bottle of Tasmanian Apricot Jam.  How good is it to be able to purchase straight from the farmer!

The last place for us to visit in New Norfolk today is the Salmon Ponds.  This is Australia's oldest trout hatchery and continues to supply over a million trout each year for the stocking of Tasmania's lakes, river and dams.  The first stock arrived in 1864 and we read that descendants from the same family still run this enterprise.  There are many ponds that are stocked with different varieties of trout and Atlantic salmon.  You are able to purchase containers of fish food to feed the fish that are voracious eaters when they are hungry.  The gardens, that are very English, are lovely and we enjoy walking through them to the buildings that house information about the beginnings of the trout industry in Australia.  It is very interesting reading.

Our time in New Norfolk is drawing to an end.  We will take one more Cliff Top walk along the Derwent River this evening and say goodbye to this lovely town.  Tomorrow we head to Huonville in the Huon Valley.