Tasmania

Forgot to blog about my trip to Tasmania. Tasmania is one of the places in Australia that I wanted to visit before I graduate, and I am glad that I managed to do so...according to my awesome hosts Conney and QY, Hobart and Launceston are the second oldest and third oldest cities in Australia respectively.

I arrived at Launceston at night around dinner time and we had this:

Dinner on the first day - udon with tempura and green tea mooncake

On the second day we started our journey to Hobart, which is about 2.5 hours away from Launceston. We made a few stops on the way:

1) Ross

Conney told me that it is famous because of Ross Village Bakery & Inn, which happened to be one of the places of inspiration for Japanese artist 宫崎骏 (you know, the guy who drew Totoro) in his cartoon 'Kiki's Delivery Service'. The bakery sells woodfired bread and a range of pastries.

in front of the bakery

QY bought a loaf of woodfired sourdough bread....really fragrant

us in front of a church

no idea why it is called female factory

crossing train tracks

2) Richmond
Famous for Richmond Bridge. We went there to feed ducks.

Richmond Bridge

And then we finally reached our destination Hobart. Had a fulfilling lunch at Kawasemi Japanese Teahouse....

bento box with miso soup (there was also entrée)

green tea pancake dessert with green tea ice cream

It wasn't really of good weather that day as it kept raining and it was really windy. We went to a few places around Hobart, mainly sight-seeing and some pictures.

Hobart city casino 

The next morning we went to Salamanca Market.

they call this fruit leather...it is edible, sweet and chewy

We also walked around the harbour front and then drove up to Mt Wellington. It was snowing!

Hobart city in the background

hello snowman

Back to Launceston in the evening. The next 2 days spent at exploring around Launceston... (including buying groceries)

Cataract Gorge

we made nasi lemak at home

with Niva in front of Launceston casino

our last dinner together...kangaroo steak

and homemade green tea + red bean cake!

Thanks to Conney and QY for making the trip fun and memorable =)