Tasmania! Yummy food, green and cold!!

Once arriving in Devonport, we drove just 10mins to Graham and Gloria Scott's.  They are friends from Mobile Mission Maintenance who we worked with in North Queensland.  We will stay a few days and chat about the MMM projects and when they start.

Our very first experience of Tasmania was wind and cold weather.  I have already got out all our winter gear I packed and put some summer clothes away.  We knew to expect all seasons down here in Tassie, but it was still a shock when we were putting jeans and jumpers on and grabbing more blankets for our beds!!

 

The Scott's told us about some local places to visit and as soon as they mentioned the words chocolate, cheese and berries we were planning our day already!  First stop was the chocolate factory.  We tasted some delicious fudge!

 Next stop was the Cherry Shed.  There was cherry everything !! We decided to try the cherry and raspberry sorbets.  Even though we were freezing and in jumpers, it still tasted good.

Next stop was tasting some Tasmanian cheese.  Both Bridget and I love cheese and enjoyed the many samples.  I think we went around the sample table quite a few times!!  No need for lunch!


Then it was on to a raspberry farm where we enjoyed chocolate coated raspberries! Yum!!

Our day kept extending as we followed our way through the beautiful green hills and valleys in search of yummy local produce.  We drove back home through Sheffield.  We parked right outside a shop called 'World of Marbles'.  The girls loved it!!!  They had some huge and complicated marble runs.

And I thought the girls wouldn't get much chance to practise piano while we travelled!  This piano was on the street with a sign saying 'don't be shy, sit down and play'.

 

Sheffield is known for it's beautiful murals all around the town.  We walked the streets and enjoyed looking at all the artwork.  Some of them were just amazing!!

On Our Way to Tassie!!

 

SPIRIT OF TASMANIA

We stayed in Melbourne overnight and had our alarms set for 6am ready to pack up and drive to the port. As you can see from the photo, it was a beautiful morning.  We were definitely happy to see the blue skies and smooth waters. 

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Boarding the ship was a lot easier than we anticipated.  We just had to pass the check in where they took all our gas bottles, flammable things etc and then we were on.

It was a good feeling to be on and parked.  We packed up everything we would need for the day and headed up.  It was still a while 'til we'd leave the port.  It was going to be a long day!

We were glad to find comfy seats and set ourselves up for the day.  The girls were all excited and wanted to look around.  They were happy to find out that we were very close to the movie theatre and watching 3 movies through the duration of the trip made the day go quicker. While they were watching movies, I had my feet up and finished my book!  The captain announced early in the trip that they were expecting gail force winds from the West to hit us closer to Tasmania.  We are thankful they never came and our trip over was smooth and surprisingly relaxing!

We are hitting the road again!

Thursday 2nd January 2014

We have decided to pack up and head off travelling again. It has been four years since we first left to travel Australia and we have now been home for two years. This time we plan to go for six months and spend most of our time in Tasmania working with Mobile Mission Maintenance (MMM) and Kununurra connecting with St James Anglican church. We loved it so much last time and there has been many things we've missed.  We are all excited to be going and look forward to serving and glorifying our great God in all that we do.

 

This photo has become a tradition now for when we leave home and return.  It's a great snapshot of how much the girls grow!  It's hard to believe that when we first left in 2010, Bridget was Lucy's age (8).

 This is our set up for the six months.  A different ute to last time (Hilux has been replaced by the Colorado) and a different van.  We have down sized (majorly) from a full size 20ft van to a pop top 13ft van!!  It may seem a little strange since the girls are a lot bigger than last time, but we are only going for six months and it feels like plenty of room when the beds pop out either end (time will tell). I know I will miss my comfortable bed, a washing machine, shower and toilet, but I also know I've done it before and we just get used to what we have (or don't have for that matter).  We can't wait to see more of God's creation and meet new people.

 It hasn't taken the girls long to get back into the 'groove' of travelling!!  Day 2 on the road we cross the border into Victoria and it feels like just yesterday we were on our big 2 year trip!  So many things have very quickly come back to us and so far we are settling in very quickly to life on the road.

 

Night 2 on the road and we have struck gold with this free camp site!!  We are on the Kings River at Edi, Victoria.  Top view from my bed and we all enjoy a swim (shower) in the river. 



Signing Off!!!!!

This is it......the final blog from Smith's Aussie Adventures. We arrived back at our house on Friday 2nd December. After two years on the road, it's time to settle back into life at Yeoval.
We feel so blessed to have had the most amazing experience travelling this beautiful country and meeting some very special people. It's a little daunting being back, but we know how God supplied for all our needs travelling and are certain, he'll provide for us now at home. Praise God!!

Two years on....

From this...to this..... The first photo was taken the day we left on our trip, and the other photo two years later on the day we arrived home. Wow!! The girls have grown up so much!! Not only are they taller and older, but they have had the most amazing experience and grown in so many other ways!!

Caravan to House

AND from this to this.....After 2 years in the caravan, our house feels sooooo big!! When we first walked into our house, we just wandered in a daze for an hour wondering where to start and what to do with all this room. Wow!! We will never think our house is small again!! The caravan is now empty and clean and down in the shed. I was amazed how much stuff came out of the caravan and also how long it took me to clean it! There are endless little nooks and crannies in there!! Some wonderful, wonderful memories in there too! I got a little sad cleaning it out for the final time.

Presentation Day at Dubbo

We arrive home in time to make it to the Dubbo School of Distance Education Presentation Day. It was lovely for the girls to receive recognition for all the hard work they'd put into school. They each received a class certificate and Claire was also presented with a special award for Literacy Achievement.
We were excited to catch up with The Parkers again and we got to meet the girl's teachers. It was a strange experience meeting the teachers as we had only ever spoken to them over the phone and never met them. Once we worked out who they were, we had a great chat and it meant a lot to the girls and I to connect with who we'd been speaking to each week. They were lovely teachers and really cared about the girls. Claire is with Mrs White, Lucy with Ms Dwarte and Bridget with Mrs Dugan.