We visited The Salmon Ponds about 10km out of New Norfolk and walk around the large of the ponds and along part of the adjoining River Plenty, then had lunch in the cafe called Pancakes by the Pond which offers an excellent range of both savoury and sweet pancakes, plus burgers. 
We then walked around the remaining ponds and along the more of the river, but this time we feed the fish to film the mad scramble for food. The ponds contain rainbow trout, brown trout, albino trout and Atlantic salmon as the original salmon farm experiment didn’t work but they retained the name. They now produce trout to supply the highland lakes and rivers of both Australia and New Zealand. The park surrounding the ponds is very well manicured and creates a very relaxed, calming effect.
21st November 2010
We visited the largest Antiques and collectables that we have ever come across, not because we are into antiques but because it is advertise on TV and the building appeared interesting. There are at least three other antiques establishments in town so where does it all come from.
The one we visited also claims to be a museum but there is no entry fee which is not normal for a museum, however there was some museum like articles but no written history with it as it was all for sale. This included several restored English motor bikes with two 650cc Triumphs, two 650cc BSAs from the early 1950s and an earlier 500cc Vincent. They all had aluminium mudguards, which were not original equipment for any of those models, and one BSA had Siamese exhaust pipes which is also a bit non-standard, but had a rev counter implying it is a sports version. If that is the case, why does it have sit up type handlebars rather than lowered sports handlebars? However, they looked good but the $32000 price will ensure they retain custody of them for a long time. The rest of the items resembling junk consisted of furniture, crockery, books, stereo amplifiers, farm equipment, pictures, etc in no orderly fashion but covered a huge area inside this building.
Outside was a display of “cars of interest” which included a Mercedes, a Lotus Esprit, another sports car with no name but Italian designed; both of which had rear engines and required a shoehorn to get in to, and a few other sedans plus a few ancient relics and “bring and buy” stalls with the usual contents of peoples garages that they think everybody else needs. Down the road was the usual Sunday market which also offered a collection of junk, cheap jewellery and clothing, but no vegetables. 24th November 2010
The Patrol had to go into Nissan for its 90000km service so we took the opportunity whilst in Hobart to use the courtesy car and drive up to the upper level of the Queens Domain for view of the city.
This proved almost useless as the trees have been allowed to thrive and block out the view unless you walk out to the tree line, but there are no defined paths for those so you have to walk through long grass. It had rained all night and was still showery so the walk in long, wet grass didn’t happen. However, we get to see the low cloud around the mountains. We drove back into the CBD and parked by the Museum and walked through the city centre for some retail excitement but were passed off for a walk up Elizabeth Street to succeed in our mission. On the way back to the car we stopped for an Alfresco lunch in the city Mall, as we had Foxy with us, and then went to Parliament house but the tours are at very specific times which didn’t fit in with our timing.
We also walked to the harbour to have a look at the two anti-whaling ships that are alongside restocking in readiness to do battle with the Japanese whaling ships again. The third ship, a tri-hull is on it's way from Fremantle to join them We eventually returned the courtesy car and collected our Patrol and returned home.28th November 2010
We met Stu and Be at the Salmon Ponds for lunch to celebrate Barry’s birthday with some friends, and they fit the requirements perfectly. It had rained nearly all day yesterday and through most of the night so the water in the ponds was rather stirred up and muddy which spoilt the view of the fish, and the water level in the river had turned it into a torrent where it had been rippling over the rocks. The changes from last weekend were quite dramatic but the meal was just as reliably good and the company were great. On the way back to the caravan park we led them into the town for a short tour and then into the park for a final drink before they left for home. The weather when we arrived at the Salmon Ponds change from dubious to pleasantly warm which made it easier to tour the gardens and ponds.
We went into Hobart to do the tour of Parliament house which was interesting but quite small, and then walked around the gardens attached to the area and photographed the various monuments. On our way home we drove round to see Stu and Be to pick up some mail and celebrated Barry’s again before returning to New Norfolk. 30th November 2010
We took a drive through the local tiny village of Lachlan, which lived up to the tiny bit but was quite pretty and then continued on over the bridge to explore the other side of the river and in particular, have a look at the golf club, The area out here was suburban for a kilometre or so and then very rural with blocks that looked good but beyond what we would know what to do with The Golf Club looks really good and challenging, and also allows us to take Foxy round with us, so it will be given the benefit of our presence in the very near future.
1st December 2010
We drove into Glenorchy to the shopping centre to have a link removed from the bracelet on Barry’s watch and also hoped it had a Kmart but it didn’t. It also didn’t have an eye clinic for Merry to get some new glasses. We found an eye clinic in Moonah that suited our needs, and a Kmart in New Town which didn’t have what we wanted but Bunnings did, so we achieved everything we set out to do.
No comments:
Post a Comment