Family Visit: Friendly Beaches and Cape Tourville

20070121_Freycinet

As part of our jaunt up the coast, we stopped in at Friendly Beaches and Cape Tourville, for some spectacular views. More importantly, as pictured, spectacular surf. I'm very excited to see some surf in these parts, as Schouten Beach is a little too placid [despite my best efforts at body surfing the available waves this morning].

Check out the web album for some photos of the views, Nonie, Arvid and the surf. Jodie was very pleased to see a couple of pods of dolphins having a very exciting time, either playing or hunting some energetic prey. Jodie's Christmas present [binoculars] came in handy for the whole family... while an even bigger zoom lens and a monopod is on my shopping list.

Family Visit: Poker

After a quick trip around Tassie, we had Dad, Nonie and Arvid back again for the weekend. There will be more stories and photos to come, but first... poker.

The Sunday afternoon poker session was very exciting, with a wonderful atmosphere - confirming that the Schouten House lounge is an ideal poker venue. Arvid is seen gloating in the photo above, after winning the hand with [yet] another ace up his sleeve.

As far as the results go... I was travelling along quite nicely, until I couldn't resist the urge to put Arvid all in on a bad, bad hand. Shortly thereafter, I made a trip to the bank... followed closely by Nonie. Jodie held her own, with a very nice run in the middle of the game, as I clawed my way towards paying off the debt. Dad quietly raked in a few hands, while Arvid sat on his big stack.

At the last had of the game, after getting back into the black, Dad took me for a huge pot - but just not enough to eclipse the chip leader Arvid... the difference in chip count being just 5 percent. The final positions - Arvid, Dad, Me, Jodie, Nonie.

More from the family visit a little later...

Family Visit: Bicheno

20070121 Bicheno

I have posted some photos from our quick trip up to Bicheno last weekend with Dad, Arvid and Nonie [click on the picture above to go to the web album].

Bicheno is a fishing / tourist town half an hour north of Swansea. Until now, we haven't managed to have a proper look around. The coast line north of Freycinet is spectacular, and we had a perfect sunny day to enjoy it. We are looking forward to going back for a penguin tour one evening. Our guests have told us that it's worth the drive back in the dark.

The huge granite rocks that litter the shoreline are full of cracks and rock pools. The blowhole is definitely worth a visit and put on a show, even with a relatively calm sea.

Australia Day

Happy Australia Day.

Swansea celebrated with a family fun day on the sports ground near Schouten House. There was an Aussie BBQ with plenty of drinks on hand. We arrived fashionably late and missed out on snags and chops, but enjoyed a veggie burger and trevally instead. A glass of local wine and a boags rounded out a nice Australia Day lunch.

The kids had plenty of things to do - and I approve that Spiderman is very popular in Swansea, making his second appearance since we've been here. Pictured above was the rock climbing wall and a bungee of some kind.

More face painting on the race track, patriotic to boot.

Australia day wouldn't be complete without a kick of the footy [Schouten House.

Sold!

Yesterday, after a few minor hiccups, my house in Adelaide finally settled. Sold. All gone. Jodie and I celebrated with champagne yesterday, since it's taken [some of] the pressure off our new business venture - with one less loan. Business aside, it's nice to simplify things and be able to concentrate on enjoying all things Tasmanian.

We are both looking forward to seeing Dad, Nonie and Arvid when they return later in the week... and discussing Federa's complete dismantling of Rodick tonight.

Happy Australia day for tomorrow.

Photo credit goes to Andrew, with his new DSLR, while in Adelaide over Christmas.

Family Visit

Dad, Nonie and Arvid have been visiting with us for the last few days, and have now left us to circumnavigate Tasmania before returning next weekend. It has been wonderful having them, and a great excuse to take a drive up the coast.

We've all been extremely lucky with the weather, as it cleared up as soon as we started driving to Bicheno. In fact, it turned out to be a powerfully sunny day, and we came home sunburnt. The scenes in Bicheno [sealife centre, blowhole] and Friendly Beaches and Cape Torville in Freycinet National park were so spectacular that they deserve their own blog.

We stopped at Freycinet Marine Farm on the way home, and got the last of the day's oysters, and a huge crayfish hours out of the water and freshly cooked to start the evening's feast.

Unfortunately due to gale wind warnings, the cruise to wineglass bay was cancelled the following day. However, we had a relaxing day in Swansea, and caught up on the tennis. Curry Night(tm) consisted of my trademark vindaloo and a mild balti curry served and devoured in quick time.

Booked Solid...

They're coming right for us!

Since Christmas, Jodie and I have been very, very busy. We had 18 straight days being fully booked, which has now come to an end. We've even had the last three days off, which has been a nice breather before things hopefully pick up again in February.

We have still managed to fit in some swimming in Great Oyster Bay, which has been nice when the weather has been hot.

We have some wonderful neighbours that have helped us through our busy patch. When we have been stuck for ideas, or just too exhausted to make the effort to cook, they have magically shown up on our doorstep with freshly caught, filleted flathead! They have also rung us with Dolphin alerts, so that we can get down to the beach and see them. Unfortunately for Jodie, these photos were taken by me, as I'd finished cooking, and was able to run down to the beach to have a look.

Rain

Finally, just before Christmas, and for the last 24 hours, Swansea has gotten some rain. Although it hasn't been appreciated by our guests, none of them have begrudged the bush fire plagued, dry East Coast some rain. We are already up to stage 2 water restrictions, and there hasn't been a green lawn as far as the eye can see for a while now.

Enjoying the rain, was this little rabbit... who came right into our garden. It looks like we'll need to protect our vegetable and herb gardens when we get them up and running...

Happy New Year

We saw in the new year with bagpipes at midnight, much to the delight of some of our guests. It may have been a welcome distraction from some of the party noises we were hearing during the lead up.

The lack of posts since Christmas is due to us hitting our busiest time of the year. We have been booked solid since boxing day, and several times had all six suites [sometimes with extra beds to construct or take down] vacate on the same day. Our record for the number of guests is 15, with 4 in one room. We'll let you know what a fully booked run is when it finally comes to an end. Although it's very busy, we are enjoying the challenge of turning everything around in the middle of the day, and dreaming about what we might outsource next peak season. We even got to the beach for a quick swim yesterday, and have seen some dolphins out in the bay!

Some lucky locals have been showing off their Christmas presents, including Jodie, who is frequently seen on our balcony with her new binoculars trained on the bay. She is very handy for spotting photo opportunities that require a large zoom lens.

Jodie and I wish everyone a Happy New Year! Stay tuned for more updates from the Supreme Overlords of Schouten House [a term recently coined for us by AW - we're not sure what Australia Post would have thought...]