Australia
third oldest church in australia
We have just returned from a long weekend to Port Macquarie. Port Macquarie is about a 4-hour drive north along the coast from Sydney. We had unusual weather – from rain, winds to sunny days. It was a good 3 days away.
We visited St Thomas’ Anglican Church, it was across the road from where we were staying. It is a beautiful church and intriguing as well. The day we were there, a wedding was due to start, so our visit was very brief. Partly a good day because it was also decorated with beautiful flowers especially on the pew doors.
St Thomas’ Anglican Church is the third oldest church in Australia. It was built by convicts in 1824 and the first service held 4 years later in 1828.
The most fascinating thing about this church were the raised family boxes (see photo).
The church goers once included convicts as well as the “free” people. The family boxes were rented to parishioners to protect them from the convict onlookers. Inside the boxes are standard pew seating as well as knee rests for kneeling. Towards the back of the church were the usual seating one would be familiar with in a church.
According to the brief history leaflet that is provided inside the church, the 1856 Walker Pipe Organ, in the gallery, is the only one of its kind in the southern hemisphere.
The winding stairwell up to the Muniments room was closed off when we visited. Within the Muniments room, there are historic documents, photographs, records, old Bibles and Prayer Books. However, we did get to see some of these things at the entrance of the church. Lots of interesting artefacts were housed in the cabinet.
St Thomas’ Anglican Church is open Monday to Fridays between 9.30 am to noon and 2 pm to 4 pm. Admission is a gold coin donation (i.e. $1-$2 Australian dollars).
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mrs wisemonkey reviews: museum of old and new art
Okay – I’m just going to come right out and say it. I did not like MONA, so bite me! I imagine that there are many people out there who would be mortified by me saying this. In fact, MONA came very highly recommended by most people when they found out we were visiting Hobart, so I might be upsetting some by writing this.
MONA stands for Museum of Old and New Art. To be honest, I didn’t see any old art, or maybe I just chose to whizz through the entire place because I felt a little overwhelmed by it all. It appeared to be new art which my mind is simply not geared to understand or appreciate. I had no idea what to expect before visiting and let’s just say, I left still not knowing what to feel. Should I feel like I have no culture because I just don’t get it?! Or do I just wish I was born several eras earlier?
I won’t deny that some of the exhibits were intriguing and others quite unusual, but in a good way. I would have to say my favourite was the taxidermy piece of art. The intricate level of suspending every little dragonfly, fly and bee simply amazed me!
There was one particular section where the exhibits were dark and macabre. There were joints and brains floating in a giant head, there was a maze room that was dark and unsettling and when you followed it around, you got to a tiny room with a mirror at the top, there was a large theatre room with a giant screen displaying lines and lines and lines of numbers with screeching loud static noise. I couldn’t spend too much time there, it was beginning to make me feel claustrophobic. Come to think of it, it would be a perfect set for a horror/thriller movie: sound & lighting sorted!
But the piece that stirred up the most conversation was what we termed the “Poo Machine” which is part of the “Evolving Exhibition”. It is exactly that… it’s a machine built to resemble our digestive system. Built with glass cavities and enzymes included all to mimic the cycle of eating and then defecating. It is fed routinely through the day at one opening (i.e. the mouth) and by 2 pm each day, excrement would be voided at the other end. Let’s just say, the room smells awful!
So I can’t complain that the experience wasn’t memorable. I just won’t be raving onwards to everybody else I meet who is visiting Tasmania. Sometimes I wish people wouldn’t talk things up so much so that it sets an expectation.
Anyway, in all fairness, I didn’t use the cool iPod touch guide device thingy that they give you to explain the artwork. I may just have appreciated the art more if I had taken the time to learn about them.
I understand MONA brings in a lot of tourism to Tasmania. So that’s fantastic for them! At least now, I can say that I have been. There is no rule that says I have to like every place in the world I visit.
MONA is located about 15 minute drive outside of Hobart City Centre. There is parking available however limited, so get there early. Actually get there early regardless because when those ferry loads of people arrive, it gets pretty crowded! Adult admissions are $20 and children under 18 are free.
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berry picking in tasmania
Today, we ate some delicious raspberries that we had bought on the weekend from the local supermarket and it made us think of berry picking in Tasmania.
In Tasmania, there are a few farms that you can stop at to pick your own fruit.
We stopped at two; Sorrell Fruit Farm and Hillwood Berry Farm. Both slightly different in their approach to fruit picking.
(1) Sorrell Fruit Farm
It is only about 20 minutes north east of Hobart. To our surprise, when we arrived, there was an entrance fee. We had visited back in 2008 and we were able to wander through free of charge. And were only charged if you picked any fruit.
Now, the price is $13.50 per adult and $6.00 per child, that includes the punnet of fruit that you pick. It was a shame that the price was set regardless of whether you were picking fruit or just photographing. That made it a little tricky for us as we were hoping to take some more photos for the blog. We thought it was a little expensive to pay $27 for both of us just to walk through so we waited outside. Imagine paying for all 12 of us to go through, we would’ve ended up with a lot of fruit. But we can understand from a business perspective where they were coming from so absolutely no criticism or complaints in our eyes.
We sent in the kids more for their experience with 2 adults and away they went. The loot was everything from raspberries, cherries, loganberries to tayberries. Other than raspberries and strawberries, we have never tried any of the other types of berries on offer.
(2) Hillwood Berry Farm
Halfway into the trip, we visited Hillwood Berry Farm from Launceston. This was about a 20-minute drive north.
The approach these guys took was slightly different. They charged by the kilogram depending on how much fruit you actually picked. There was also plenty of play equipment for children to keep themselves busy while the adults went fruit picking.
We ended up with 5 punnets between us filled with strawberries and MORE raspberries. Strawberries are quite easy to spot and pick in the fields. However raspberries are so much more delicate and harder to find. Raspberries and squish quite easily between your fingers as you pick them.
The strawberries were priced at approximately $10 per kg while raspberries at approximately $20 per kg.
We have never eaten so many berries in our lives as we did in those 10 days in Tasmania. They were just so scrumptious and juicy and fresh! It certainly gave us a greater appreciation of the cost of fruit: from the work of the farmer through to the picking and packaging of the fruit. It also made us realise how fresh fruit don’t keep well so how do the supermarkets do it?!
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how not to go hiking!
We flew back home to Sydney two days ago! Our biggest adventure and highlight in Tasmania would be our hike in Cradle Mountain National Park. At the time, it felt like a misadventure though! So let’s set the scene a little: There were 12 of us ranging from 20 months through to 64 years old. And we went to see Cradle Mountain. One cannot come to Tasmania and NOT see Cradle Mountain. The original plan was to walk Dove Lake Circuit because it was flat and therefore would be manageable with kids, a pram and a wheelie esky (a.k.a cooler bag).
In the group we had: – a 64 year old with gout in his left foot – a 30-something male who had pulled a hamstring during a spontaneous beach race on our first day in Tasmania – a 7 year old who had only just recovered from a 24 hour tummy bug the day before – a 20 month old asleep in a pram What was meant to be an easy walk turned into something extremely ambitious! Instead of walking the Dove Lake circuit which was a 2 hours walk around the lake (we all deemed it would take “too long”). We decided that we would walk the Lake Lilla Track to get to Ronny Creek so we could jump on the shuttle bus back to the Visitor Centre. How hard could it be, right? The map showed that it was mostly boardwalk so off we trot. Lake Lilla Track turned out NOT FLAT nor EASY nor QUICK especially if you were hiking with the four candidates listed above. We hadn’t prepared for this walk and this is when things started to get interesting!
Up and down the rocky pathway through the wilderness we walked with an infant asleep in the pram. Two of the men in our entourage carried the pram so Little Miss could continue to sleep, in hope that we would reach boardwalk soon. The path was narrow, and there were loose wet rocks as we hiked in single file. On and on we went, stopping occasionally to let passer-bys overtake us. We are sure they all thought we were mad! There were moments where we stopped to discuss whether to continue or to turn back as boardwalk was simply not in sight.
And always timely, we would see other hikers coming in the direction we were headed… Let’s ask them! So we did and the responses were similar: “You guys should turn back especially with the pram!” “The boardwalk is only at the very start of the hike, the rest will be rocks and water.” “There is a lot more rocks before you get to boardwalk.” “It’s pretty rough up ahead for you guys.” But did we heed their advice? Hmm… no! We pushed on because we had come so far already! There were times when we felt prematurely excited because there was boardwalk. We would celebrate and cheer, only to find that the boardwalk lasted 50 metres and we were back to gravel, uneven paths again! Were we EVER going to find civilisation?
Finally 2 and a half hours later, we arrived at boardwalk! Normally, it probably wouldn’t take hikers that long but with the entourage we had and our unpreparedness, it DID take us that long. Our reward for finishing was not only boardwalk but seeing wombats at the finish line! We had one wombat climb onto the boardwalk and walk right across our path. We also saw a baby wombat and its mum.
Regardless of our reward at the end – let us finish by clearly stating: THIS IS NOT HOW TO HIKE! It is so crucial to be prepared, to plan your hike to know where you are going and to notify a responsible person that you are hiking in case you don’t return. It was only after we arrived back at our motel, that we realised that we hadn’t done ANY of those things. We had one 600mL bottle of water each (if that) – we were not dressed for abrupt change in weather. We didn’t really know where we were going. We hadn’t told anyone what we were doing. We had changed our original walk plans and turned it into a hike. What was meant to be only an hour or two at Cradle Mountain National Park became a 3 hour visit. We can laugh about it now, safe and sunburnt but wouldn’t have been laughing if something dire had happened out there. Call us crazy or foolish, we learnt our lesson, we won’t be going unprepared again for bush walks or hikes!
wise monkeys abroad 