Last night we went to Cracked Pepper for dinner. I had the duck confit and whilst it was nice I thought it was missing a wow factor. Jane had the beef and it looked like they had cut it through the middle to see if it was cooked since each fillet was presented separately and only one side of each had been on the grill.
Jane had a blackberry soufflé for dessert that was partially (although not fully) cooked, but she still enjoyed it.
The service was pleasant but not fast.
We started the day with a coffee and loaf at the Bliss Coffee Roasters in the Hunter Valley Gardens. One thing I continually forget is that skinny lattes (as they’re known here as opposed to trim lattes in NZ) are usually a single shot of coffee and not the double shot I have been accustomed to in Auckland.
The Hunter Olive Centre was packed with people when we arrived, and for good reason, since they have an excellent range of oils, tapenades, vinegars and jams to taste.
Hunter Valley Smelly Cheese (yes, that’s its official name) was our next stop. This is located in a magnificent complex with Tempus Two and another winery or two. Here, we enjoyed some more excellent cheeses.
Tempus Two has a very upmarket cellar door presence and some lovely wines to taste. I particularly enjoyed the Pinot Gris which had a nice passionfruit flavour. The Chardonnay (50% Hunter Valley Grapes) is big and oaky and whilst it is quite drinkable now I fear it will become too oaky over time for my palate. Their Shiraz is a very light style that I can imagine being a nice and easy drink on a hot summers day.
We popped into Adina Olives and tasted their small selection on offer. The Green Olive tapenade was my pick before I was also tempted to taste some of their wines. Of Adina Vineyard’s wines, I particularly liked their light and crisp Semillon, and found the Verdelho to be nice and dry with lots of flavour. Jane’s pick was the Dessert Semillon (an ice wine) that she found was more viscous than a table wine but not as sticky as many dessert wines.
Leaves & Fishes is a beautiful restaurant located nestled back into the trees on Lovedale Road overlooking their pond. It is a lovely setting, has nice ambience and great service. I had a beautiful sesame-crusted fish fillet that was done in a Thai style with coriander, fish sauce and a very light chilli, and micro-greens. Jane had crispy pork belly with a magnificent side salad comprising caper-berries, gherkins, olives, sweet garlic, feta, fennel, pea sprouts, coriander and various lettuces. We would happily return although the prices are certainly premium.
The Hunter Valley Chocolate Factory was our next stop, and we tasted a number of lovely chocolates and fudges. Great friendly service.
After a detour via a geocache we had a cheese tasting at Benorrie Dairy. The Herb & Garlic Fromage Frais is lovely. I enjoyed the Valencay (white mould goat cheese), although this was too strong for Jane. The Marinated Fetta Gold Medal was exquisite and very smooth. The Labna had a nice garlic/rosemary flavour and lots of exciting complexity. The Brie was a bit mild for me, but the Washed Rind was more to my liking. The Duetto is a dessert style cheese that they do and I quite enjoyed the sweeter flavour however Jane was not keen on this one (which is not surprising given that it contained gorgonzola). The Apple & Rosemary paste was also really good. We were also appreciative of the friendly service of the woman in the store.
In the same complex as the Benorrie Dairy is Arrowfield Estate. Once I finally got some service I decided to try their Riesling. This is a citrus-dominated Riesling that is enjoyable. I also enjoyed their Cabernet Merlot.
We had a nice meal on Friday night at San Martino Restaurant at the Hunter Resort on Hermitage Road in Pokolbin. I had a lovely fillet of beef that was very tender and cooked rare (as requested). Jane had a spatchcock of chicken that was supposedly marinated, however I suspect it only got its marinade seconds before hitting the pan and it could have been a little more moist. The amount of vegetables with the spatchcock was very stingy, and no vegetables or salads were available to be ordered as sides.
The main meal took approximately 45mins to arrive after ordering, but other than that the service was friendly and good. The ambience in the restaurant was also good, although we did notice that the cd was obviously on repeat.
We finished with a Chocolate Torte and Macadamia Tart, both of which were good although the Macadamia Tart was easily my pick of the two of them.
We would return, but would make sure we had plenty of time.
After a great night out at the Night Noodle Markets in Hyde Market with friends (and a zillion other people, with huge lines to boot, but an excellent experience none-the-less) on Thursday night, we headed up to Pokolbin in the Hunter Valley wine region on Friday (via one cache on the way). Approximately two hours drive from Sydney, the Hunter Valley comprises myriad vineyards and surprisingly (to me at least) lots of cheese dairies.
The Hunter Valley Cheese Factory was the first dairy we visited and we found a very high calibre of cheese. I particularly liked their washed rind cheese (which had a nice bite to it) and their blue cheese (that was very light in blue flavour but lovely and creamy).
After checking in at our accommodation on Hermitage Road we headed along the road to Emerson’s at Pokolbin for lunch. They have only been open for 3 weeks (according to the chef/owner) and are doing tapas style meals. The duck liver pate was divine and one of the best we have had. We also had garlic prawns and calamari, both of which were okay although lacked a wow factor. We were impressed however that the chef/owner came out and asked us what we thought of the meals and took a genuine interest in our feedback.
We then ventured on to Piggs Peake for our first wine tasting and they were okay but nothing noteworthy. They were very friendly and gave generous tastings. I do wonder though whether since they were the first vineyard for the day and our first for this region whether I was being overly critical.
DenMar was our second vineyard and there was yet again nothing jumping out at me. I also found that their Pinot Noirs weren’t to my palate, but I think that may be more so due to me being more in-tune with NZ Pinot Noirs.
Tintilla Estate was my pick of the vineyards on Friday, also helped by the exuberance of the wine salesman. He was a member of the family and consequently knew lots about their huge selection of wines and was very open to all feedback. I particularly enjoyed their Semillon 2010 and their Sangiovese 2009. I also really enjoyed tasting their selection of fortified wines.
We then quickly grabbed a lovely cheddar cheese from Binnorie Dairy before they closed and had a taste of their washed rind cheese (which I enjoyed). We will return tomorrow for a proper tasting.
We thoroughly enjoyed Tasmania. We were very spoilt though with excellent weather.
If there was a direct flight from Auckland I expect it wouldn't be long before we went back (apparently a direct flight from somewhere in New Zealand to Hobart is under discussion according to one of our taxi drivers).
The people we met (other than one taxi driver) were all really friendly. The Georgian and Victorian architecture and stonework buildings and bridges were great.
Hawley Beach in the North is magnificent and there's hardly anybody around. I could imagine spending a lot more time there.
I really liked Hobart, it had a good buzz to it, but that would have been helped by the Taste of Hobart festival and the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. I would suggest that coinciding a trip with the Taste of Hobart is worthwhile in order to sample lots of good food and wine in one location and for the vibe itself. Long Beach was nice, Port Arthur was a day trip away, and the fireworks were also awesome for New Years.
Whilst Coles Bay was a lovely location, I expect we would look to stay in Bicheno instead, since it’s not far away, it has good beaches and a bit more going for it.
I thought Launceston itself was a little dull, but it was nice to look around the greater area and travel further North. The Cataract Gorge, Monkey Enclosure in the Park and Smokey Joe’s Creole Cafe, made it worth the visit though.
A car in Tasmania is mandatory and if you’re looking to go at peak times book accommodation and rental cars early. We were struggling to find central accommodation in Hobart for New Years 6 months out!
For further information about our trip read the numerous other posts here (I got a bit carried away).
We decided to take a different route back to Hobart from Launceston and went via the Highland Lakes. We didn’t realise however that we would be going up such a huge mountain to get to the lakes. It was a nice drive with lots of hairpin bends and the lakes were very isolated. There were also hardly any other vehicles on the road.
I’ve never seen a boat ramp as wide as the one at the Great Lake and it was definitely quite a barren area.
Back in Hobart we checked into the lovely Henry Jones Art Hotel in Sullivan Cove and then had an excellent lunch at Muirs Upper Deck a short walk away, that would be the classiest lunch we had in Tasmania. Excellent food, excellent service, and a magnificent setting.
The drive from Launceston to Devonport in Tasmania up the Bass Highway passes through a few stops that foodies are likely to enjoy.
Our first stop was at the Christmas Hill Raspberry Farm a few kilometres south east of Elizabeth Town where we had a very enjoyable experience. The farm is well setup with an outdoor area for kids and they have made good use of showcasing raspberries, including the excellent Raspberry Latte that I ordered, Jane’s fizzy Raspberry drink she thought tasted like sea water but I enjoyed, a sweet but excellent Raspberry Crepe with Raspberry Ice cream, and Damper (okay it has nothing to do with Raspberries, but we ordered it). They also had jams, a raspberry vinegar and a lovely chocolate dipped raspberry. The service was great and the cafe had a nice vibe. This place was our favourite cafe experience of the trip.
We then drove a little further up the road, just north of Elizabeth Town and went to the Ashgrove Cheese Factory. They had many cheeses available for tasting and you could watch the cheese being made.
The House of Anvers Chocolate Shop near Latrobe had some chocolates to taste and to buy however I can’t say I thought much of the chocolate I had there.
Devonport is where a number of people enter Tasmania (via the boats that come in), so we were a little shocked to find that the first restaurant we decided to go to for lunch was closed and that the cafe we then tried to go to thereafter was closed until mid January. I would have thought this would be their busy season.
We subsequently continued on to Hawley Beach and Port Sorell to the East of Devonport. Hawley Beach has one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever come across and is somewhere that we are very glad we decided to go to. In addition to rock pools there are beautiful white sand beaches and the colour of the water was akin to what you would normally associate with the tropics.
After a good burger at Port Sorell and a quick drive-by of Hawley House we headed back down towards Launceston via Exeter past many poppy fields, that are throughout Tasmania and a key part of the landscape.
The Tamar Valley is one of the key wine growing areas of Tasmania and the Tamar River flows through the valley looking magnificent.
We then had a short stop at the Grindelwald Tamar Resort Hotel that is modelled on a Swiss Village and has mini-golf, a 9 hole golf course, lake, kayaks, a games room and lots of other fun stuff that seems well equipped for families with kids.
Back in Launceston we went back to the Cataract Gorge and I walked along from the Gorge Restaurant to the Kings Bridge and was taken in by the beauty of the gorge.
Jam packed today (and my first post of the trip! Simon’s doing such a great job I figured I’d leave him to it.)
Up before the crack of dawn, well, it felt that way, and off to Jackman & McRoss bakery for a quick breakfast and a couple of takeaway pastries.
Then down to the Saturday morning Salamanca Markets in time to be there before some of the stalls had even set up - in our experience this is the very best time to arrive at markets, avoiding a least a little of the crowds. Although, this market is so extensive that by the time we had ambled past every single stall, it was actually fairly well crammed!
Great market, lots of great things to see and some not so good things to smell (neither of us can stand the smell of incense - fortunately there weren’t too many places burning it, but enough to notice!) and some great things to hear - one guy singing 80’s ballads with a beautiful voice, and harpist at another point. We both made small purchases then grabbed a crab, sorry, cab, but she really was a crabby patches, up to the Avis office to pick up our rental car.
That sorted, we headed down the coast to Port Arthur to visit the site of the Penal Colony. We wandered around with the initial working tour, this was really very informative, and contained much of the info that we received again later on the boat trip around the harbour (you wouldn’t miss much if you missed your scheduled sailing).
We grabbed a bit for lunch in the museum - which used to be the asylum, checked the database for any relatives who may have spent time there (no hits!) and then wandered off to the harbour tour as mentioned above. Simon did a little more exploring on the way while I took a few photos, but other than commenting that the governors house was climate controlled he didn’t mention anything so I’ll assume he didn’t see anything that really interested him!
We both listened to a little of the audio tour, but decided that the informative bits had mostly been included in the original 40 minute walking tour, although I did enjoy listening to some of the diary readings from the period.
We decided at this point we’d seen as much as we wanted to, so headed back up the coast to the historic village of Richmond. Took a few photos of the bridge….
And Simon (I asked him to smile. Just smile!)…
Drove through the absolutely beautiful little village with all of it’s gorgeous stone buildings and stopped for Devonshire Teas at Ashmore on Bridge Street. Seriously - these were the BEST scones I’ve ever eaten (sorry Mum!) and Simon loved his iced berry tea. So that brings us up to date again. No decision on what we’re doing for dinner tonight yet. We’ve got one more full day in Hobart before heading up to Launceston, although I expect tomorrow we’ll head down to the South coast in a Westerly direction and take in a few vineyards and dairies. Stay tuned and you’ll find out!
CREDITS: all food and drink photos are Simon’s, the rest are mine.
This morning I went for a walk through the streets of Battery Point and came across “Jackman & McRoss”, an excellent bakery / cafe located in Hampden Road just across from Waterloo Crescent. They have lots of indoor seating and a small amount of outdoor seating out the front.
I had a cafe style meal that consisted of scrambled eggs encased in Tasmanian Smoked Salmon on a brioche (Hmmm, maybe I wrong here) base. It was excellent as was the Skinny Latte I had with it. I’m slowly getting used to ordering Skinny Latte’s as opposed to Trim Latte’s, which are often met with a confused look in Australia.
I then wandered through Princes Park that had what looked like a pretty cool kids play area. Well, I thought it was cool anyway and noted that it had sand as its protective landing for kids.
From Princes Park I walked along the Esplanade (which didn’t have a lot going for it) to Salamanca Place and cooled down in Parliament Square and watched people on a trapeze setup for the New Years celebrations this evening.
Elizabeth Mall was one of the many places I ventured to in the CBD. The shopping area felt quite relaxed although I found that some of the malls were a bit outdated. There are however some beautiful character buildings located in the vicinity of the CBD.
I then met up with Jane and got some Garlic Mussels and a nice Bruny Island Cheese Platter from the Taste festival. I also tried a “Two Metre Tall” Tasmanian Bitter Ale, that was not to my liking; I thought it actually tasted a bit like a dirty homebrew. I followed this with a really nice Extra Zingy Ginger Beer from Gillespie’s Ginger Beer.
The temperature today kept creeping up higher and is apparently quite abnormal for Hobart; I noticed at one point it was 36.5˚ Celsius. Thankfully it is looking cooler for tomorrow.
This wife and husband run restaurant catches a significant amount of the fish themselves that they have on the menu.
Barb is very friendly and accommodating and makes you feel like you are part of the family as she rushes around but not getting flustered.
We started with the Oysters and the Seafood chowder. The Oysters are freshly shucked upon ordering them which is nice. The Seafood chowder was nice although it was a little disappointing to see it padded out with a pre-frozen seafood mix and a little too much potato in my opinion.
I then had the Wild Perch special which was beautifully presented, all-be-it with garnishing that was a little antiquated. This unfortunately was far too strong on the ginger. Jane had a lovely Trout that was very delicately flavoured.
For dessert I had a lovely Chocolate Mud cake and Jane had Cassata that she enjoyed although the almond was a little liquid.
We stopped in at four vineyards on our round trip from Coles Bay via Bicheno, St Marys, Campbell Town.
Our first stop was Milton, which has its shop located in a a lovely old home on top of a hill with a lovely backdrop of vines located across a lake.
Having not tasted wines from this region before I tried a variety of different wines (other than the Rose I had tasted the day before) and was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed them all. It is predominantly a cool-climate region, not too dissimilar to the Marlborough region in terms of flavours. I tried the Riesling to start and enjoyed the zesty citrus characteristics, the Pinot Gris had a lovely pear flavour and the Ice Riesling was light, packed with raison flavour and very drinkable.
If we didn’t have the logistics challenges of getting wine back to New Zealand I would have purchased more from here than the Riesling and Ice Riesling I ended up buying. This was my pick of the vineyards we visited in this region.
Whilst the wines here were appeared to be quite good, the tasting size was so small it was really hard to be able to assess the wines. I left empty handed.
This was an enjoyable experience. Finding the vineyard wasn’t the easiest with the signposts hard to see, then there was the driveway to navigate that was more equipped for a 4WD than our 2WD rental car.
The door on the shed had a sign on it saying “Honk for attention” but we didn’t need to do so as the elderly vintner saw us from the house, jumped in his Ute and headed down to meet us, with a half-full bottle of wine in hand.
After being asked what we were there for he then opened the shed and we were then surrounded by chemicals, barrels and packaging. He then proceeded to get one of the dirty wine glasses down from hanging above the sink and filled it with his Bordeaux blend. This tasted a little dusty, although maybe that was from the glass, as he proceeded to tell us about the region and Buttons his dog, which shortly after came to see us too. I then had his only other wine, a Pinot Noir, and this was reasonable enough for me to buy a bottle, although I was probably buying it more for the entertainment value than anything.
We decided to stop here because they had a sign out saying they sold Cherries.
Whilst there it would have been rude not to taste their wines too, so I tried a few.
They had a good selection of wines and I particularly enjoyed their Pinot Noir although decided not to buy any and stick with the cherries.
After breakfast in our apartment (and seeing a micro-lite fly overhead) we headed North along the coast and further up the Tasman Highway. Our first stop was in Bicheno which is a lovely sea-side town where we saw the blowhole - although it was more of a squirt on a day with very little surf.
We then travelled further up the Tasman Highway and turned off to drive inland through Elephant Pass to the quiet town of St Marys. This was a beautiful drive through the hills and with the windows down on the car we could smell the eucalyptus and hear the birds in the trees. We contemplated stopping at the Mt Elephant Pancakes shop just east of St Marys but decided it was a little early for lunch (approximately 11am), and instead opted for an ice coffee at the Purple Possum Wholefoods and Cafe in St Marys that was excellent. The staff running the shop were also very relaxed and friendly.
From St Marys we headed further inland on the Esk Highway and filled up the car in Avoca. The service station consisted of really old petrol pumps and the owner came out and filled the car and had a chat. He was very friendly and gave us directions on how to get back to Coles Bay which was via Campbell Town.
Campbell Town was bigger than we expected and an excellent stopping point for lunch at Cafe 100 where I had a decent sized burger and Jane had an excellent antipasto platter she thoroughly enjoyed. This was the hottest part of the day and a dry 28˚ Celcius heat.
From Campbell Town we took the B34 which meant we were heading towards the coast again and stopped off at Lake Leake (because we could). The water here actually looked a little swampy but the area was very peaceful.
We eventually connected back with the Tasman Highway and stopped at four vineyards along the way back to Coles Bay; one of which there was a sign outside saying “Honk for attention” and the driveway was more apt for a 4WD. We must have travelled 200-300km today but it was enjoyable.
I had to buy some local Freycinet Coast wines when given the opportunity in Coles Bay and one of these was Milton Vineyard’s Pinot Noir Rose 2009.
This wine is very pink and has a strong strawberry nose. To taste I find that it is very easy drinking, but lacking a little body in the middle with medium longevity. Some nice levels of acidity and quite nice to drink chilled on a hot day (like today!).
We got a rental car in Hobart and headed up the East coast towards Coles Bay on the Freycinet Peninsula along the Tasman Highway with the help of our trusty GPS. It is worth noting though that once out of Hobart, that many of the smaller roads in towns up the East Coast were not covered by the TomTom maps. This wasn’t a problem due to how few streets there are in some of these towns but does make the GPS a little less useful.
Along the way we stopped at Spring Beach which is just out of Orford which was a beautiful beach busy with families today. Actually, on either side of the shot taken here it was a lot emptier on the beach. The temperature at this point was about 24˚ Celcius and it was about 11am.
Our next stop was about 10km south of Swansea at Spiky Bridge, a convict built construction. One look at the bridge and it’s not hard to see where the name came from. We were initially looking at heading down to the beach on the other side of the road but the temperature was getting a bit too warm.
We stopped a few kilometres up the road at Kate’s Berry Farm. Whilst the cakes and jams looked nice (and I think I saw some ice-cream too), there were literally only two punnets of raspberries and one punnet of strawberries to be seen and it appeared to be a tourist trap with a lovely building and outlook so we escaped. There were lots of other tourists there on a bus that weren’t so lucky.
Nine Mile Beach just North of Swansea was our next stop along the way, and this beach had significantly more drift wood on the shore than Spiky Beach and did not appear to be as friendly for swimming at but was nice all the same. It would however be nice if some of these beaches had some sun shelter.
Coles Bay (or to be more accurate Swanwick), our destination was basically at the end of Nine Mile Beach, however there is a little stretch of water at the end without a bridge which means that a 60km (or thereabouts) long drive is required to drive around the bay. The view from our unit at Freycinet Beach Holiday Apartments is absolutely beautiful and it is lovely listening to the waves arriving on the shore.
For lunch we went to the Freycinet Bakery Cafe in Coles Bay and I had a Curried Scallop Pie which was okay (but the scallops, as expected in a pie, were overdone) and Jane had a Seafood chowder that she enjoyed. I then went to the Bottle Store at the back of the local Bar and bought a couple of local wines to enjoy over the next couple of days. We also bought a couple of other bits and pieces at the local store for breakfast and snacks and then returned to our apartment to find a Snake on the driveway. Thankfully the snake moved and we were able to park the car but it was a little scary. Unsure of the protocol re snakes, we have been reading a few little bits in some of our guidebooks but without the Internet readily on hand it’s a little hard. Apparently there are four Snake varieties in Tasmania and all are venomous so we are keeping our distance! It does look like he might live in our garden though.
I woke up early this morning and went out for a walk along the waterfront in Hobart. It was a nice start to our trip away and a magnificently sunny day.
Hobart is so picturesque and has many buildings that have been there since the settlers arrived in the 1800’s looking for the next penal settlement after Sydney.
Salamanca Place has a number of cafes, bars and shops and this morning when I ventured out many appeared to be just opening up around 7:30. I can imagine that this area will be buzzing later and there will be lots of people lingering around.
I bought some supplies at the Salamanca Store and then found that there was free Wifi available in this area for up to 5MB download per day so quickly checked Twitter, posted a Twitpic and checked out some emails.
I then went back to our Hotel (Zero Davey) and Jane & I ventured out to breakfast at The Timeless Way. We started with some excellent (build-your-own Latte’s) out the front, but it got a tad too chilly so we ventured out the back to a lovely atrium to eat the mediocre breakfast that was made up for the fact that the Waitress was friendly, the food arrived in a timely manner, and the aforementioned coffee.
To accompany a lamb rump this evening we opened up a bottle of Potts Family Langhorne Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 from Australia.
It is a lovely wine that is very easy to drink. It has a beautiful leather aroma and a lovely deep red/purple colour.
It is a very fruit-filled wine that is well balanced with a medium to long tail, but would have been better matched with a meal with slightly more fat. Berry fruit, Plum and Leather are the flavours shining through.
Drinking well now and should also keep for a while yet.
