Tasmania - settling in

view over the Tamar River from Brady's Lookout. There are alot of little vineyards in this area. Our rental is pretty much straight down there

you'll see the vegetation is extremely dry!! We've had about 3 or 4 rains since this photo, not much at all, and its amazing how quickly everything is turning green!

we stayed here with Joh & Anna Hidding for the first week and a half, lovely people and we really felt at home. Its a beautiful old homestead surrounded by apple orchards.

Afternoon wine and snacks with Joh and Arno (Joh's cousin from Germany)

Launceston Basin. Public, free swimming pool.

Gravelly Beach, this spot is just great for Joshua and to do a bit of fishing. Its 10minutes from our house.

public BBQ area

the fish weren't biting, Reinier reading a book! (lekker lag Marissa!)

at Myrtle Park for the church picnic. On the right is Joshua with a little girl doing a scavenger hunt. I forgot to tell her Josh doesn't understand English very much, and when they were at the other side of the field, I could see her looking at the organisers with a "what the" look on her face!! I had a good laugh...

enjoying a nice sunset from our house

interesting boat going past. dont know what he's carrying? we thought it was sheep at first glance!

we never tire of the view. we can hear the cows mooing too.

helping with the dishes

Our container arrived on the 24th March!! The truck couldn't get up the steep driveway, so the poor blokes got a good workout!

unpacking. I'm glad they took away all the rubbish!

first things first. set up the weber! Ons wil braai!!

my manne. lief julle!

ooohhh...a parcel from Pop & Nanna!

thankyou very much!! He loves the train book!

nutter

a huge boat gliding past. It almost looked too big to be on the river.

Saturday was the annual "Rosevears Speedboat Spectacular" it was very very noisy!!

We had a bbq on the front deck and invited some friends over. The kids loved it!

Joh Hidding, Brendan & Emma Buist and Nathan & Claire Kroeze. Josh loves playing with Kayden, Adia and Imogen.

Kayden and Joshua

the front of the house

we took the kids for a walk over the road to see the boats closer up

very noisy!!

Australias fastest speed boat. 

Brendan took two trout that he'd caught and smoked them, so delicious!

There are these fresh produce stalls all over the place with an honesty box! Only in Australia...

Just down the road from us is a coolbox on the side of the road with fresh figs, free range eggs and lemons, you just take what you need and leave money in the box. Last week I noticed a fridge on the side of the road in front of someones house, open it up, and there are delicious home grown fresh tomato's. Its quite funny really, I cant help thinking of South Africa at times like this and wondering if it would work there? hmmm?

Batman Bridge

Oh, and in Tasmania, if its grey and cloudy like this, doesn't mean its cold!! This was shorts & t-shirt weather. The sky and weather changes constantly and very quickly too. I always have jumpers in the car for just incase!

Deviot

freshly baked Artisan Bread, so good and very easy! Give it a go, here is the recipe

ok, following is a heap of random photos of the house for those of you who want a sneak peak! And no, the house isn't that organised yet or very tidy, but I just thought right, now or never, lets take some photos, otherwise you might be waiting for a year! I often have to remind myself, its just a rental, might not have such a beautiful view next year?! Oh well, we are enjoying it alot!

the backyard is huge! this isn't even half of it.

(Anneke, Joshua se "sjoe Mamma, jou kar lyk soos n Hot Wheels, Bernhard sal dink dit is cool")

back of the house