New Year and New Beginnings

New Year and New Beginnings. Thursday, 5 July 2007  

 

Karen and I flew in to Hobart on New Years Eve, to a waiting Bernard.
The drive 'home' was Peaceful.
We made our ‘usual’ hurried shop in Kingston,
racing to catch the ‘next’ Ferry.
( Bernie is always in a hurry and never more so than
when there’s a ferry to catch ).
I was anticipating a night full of festivities
and partying but to my surprise there we
no public celebrations of the New Year on Bruny
 (perhaps the locals had their own celebrations ).
 So we spent a quiet evening with each other,
just enjoying being there and being together.

I am still baffled as to why there were no celebrations

 as I remember a wonderful evening in the

 Beer Garden in winter with a singer and open fire. 

It was a great night if a little breezy and arctic!! 

and I wonder why the pub did not have a band.

 The Beer Garden is a delightful area and maybe

 this year it will be used more in the summer months?

The arrival of Mel, Royce and Clive the next day    

set our holiday off to a flying start. 

 Some sight seeing, good food and good times!.

 We had a lot of fun and felt pride in showing

 off our Island Paradise. 

We saw the Lighthouse, the Penguins and 

other wildlife. 

We went for walks and swims.

 Clive enjoyed the beach with its shells and crabs.           

frequently calling for us to pick them up for him!?

 ‘Poor  Boy’!!??  he had no idea about my

 complete aversion to all things not human! 

and wasn’t impressed with my response..

We got ‘Shucked’ with the local oysters,

 fresh from the local supplier 

and ate several gourmet meals in the Pub Restaurant.                                          

We took a drive to Adventure Bay

 one day and decided

 to return via a route we had not previously taken.

BIG MISTAKE!!!!

 Let me say at this point that the majority of roads on

 Bruny Island are dirt but this was the mother of all dirt tracks....

Up hill and down dales, the poor Landrover making

 heavy weather of it and the new Brakes 

( which obviously had not worn in yet ) 

couldn’t take the pressure! 

About 1/2 way along the road we came 

to an abrupt halt as we noticed smoke 

billowing from the wheels

 and decided we should investgate.

The thought that we might actually be on fire 

occured to me however I was reassured by all 

those mechanically minded ( the males ) in the 

car that it was just hot rubber! 

Not being overconfident that what 

they were telling me wasn’t all ‘hot air’, 

I was glad to vacate the vehicle to see for myself. 

We had to wait quite some time for the brakes to cool                             

 but were fortunately in a spot with a view. 

We also had young Clive to entertain us

 which he did so well.

 He was a bundle of energy

 and so excited about everything we did.

In keeping with the friendly nature

 of the Islanders, several other vehicles 

passed us and all stopped to offer assistance.

This is one method of meeting new people I don’t recommen