We were lucky enough to be in Tasmania during the fruit picking season. Because of Tassie’s cooler climate, the fruit picking season is shorter than the rest of the states in Australia and runs from December through to May.

We stopped off at the Sorell Fruit Farm, which is just 25 minutes away from Hobart and is not only a pick-your-own fruit farm, but a restaurant and a fruit wine & liqueur store too.

I believe it was just $5 a box to pick your own berries. You can fill the box up as much as you like, as long as you can close the lid. We got there a bit later in the day, where we thought most of the berries had been taken by other people but there were plenty of big juicy strawberries left!

Above is my mum and brother with boxes of strawberries they picked.

And here is my brother and my dad.

Here’s a list of all the other fruits you can pick! You could spend your whole day there picking fresh fruit to eat! Yummm.

Above is the strawberry, cherry and blueberry liquers they had to offer. Beautiful!

Here’s my brother with a bottle of Honey Ale!

This place had beautiful home made desserts. Here are the cakes, and below were fruit ice cream. *licks lips* 

If you’re not sure whether to buy their jams, you can taste test them. I spent a lot of time tasting each one of their jams a couple of times… Hahaha. The best thing about their jams is that they also had sugar free options which is good for those who are worried about their sugar intake but still were deliciously sweet.

Here are some of the items they had on sale:

Tasmania is full of beautiful scenery. Clear skies, blue water and lush green mountains. Above and below are snaps we took on our way to Port Arthur! Nature is lovely in Australia, and especially in Tassie!

So what’s so special about Port Arthur? I’m sure everybody around the world knows that Australia’s first settlers were British and Irish convicts. But if you didn’t know already, Port Arthur was actually Australia was first colonised. This is where all the convicts stayed and worked and it became Australia’s largest penal station.

Port Arthur is now Australia’s most significant heritage sites and have thus has become one of Australia’s top tourist attractions. As a large open-air museum, you can walk around the large land and feel history come to life. Most buildings are still in tact, but some have unfortunately been destroyed in two large bushfires in the 1990s.

Above is a photo of me standing at what would’ve been the convicts first view of Australia. Lucky, I say! Look at how pretty the mountains are in the background. But just in front of the mountains, are the various buildings such as church, penitentiary, guard tower, policeman’s residence, commandment’s office, etc.

Here’s my brother and I inside one of the buildings.. Hahahaha.

Once you purchase a ticket to enter the Port Arthur Historic Site, you receive a complimentary ticket to sit on the ferry which takes you around to see the other islands. This is the way to get to the POint Puer Boys’ Prison, where three thousand boys, some as young as nine years old stayed and worked.

Most people jump onto this ferry to visit the Isle of the Dead which is a separate island where thousands of burials were made. I was not game enough to visit there, but I sure loved standing in the sun feeling the cool breeze on my skin while riding the ferry!

This is me loving the sun and water!

Here’s a photo of my mum and dad. Cute!

Believe this is one of the guard towers. If you tried to leave the island, you’d be shot from this tower!

You can also walk through the prison (it’s very eerie!) and see what it’s like to live here. Here is a typical prison cell where they slept and worked.

While the buildings for the convicts were so horrible, this is how beautiful the Roman Catholic Chaplain’s house was. Isn’t it stunning!

This is my favourite room in the house, it’s so pink! Love!!!! <3

Here’s me and my brother in the court room where convicts were sentenced.

Doesn’t this bell look real? Well it isn’t! It’s paper!

This is one of the churches at Port Arthur, where you came to repent your sins. Too bad a lot of the building has been destroyed.

While you may have been treated poorly as a convict at Port Harbour, it was well kept. Check out how beautiful it must’ve been to live here!

In all, I recommend visiting the Port Arthur Hertiage site. It is located at the southern end of the Tasman Peninsula, 90 minutes’ drive south-east of Hobart. We spent a whole day here, there are so many things to see and do and we still didn’t get to see everything. There’s so much to experience and learn here, it was great. Make sure you put on your walking shoes though, this place is huge but well worth the whole day visit!

I am a lover of zoos! I love cute animals! And I love being able to pet and be near cute animals! While looking at the Tasmanian tourist guide, my brother and I decided that it was an absolute must that we check out Bonorong Wildlife Park. I’ve been to a wildlife park at Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, so I knew I would love this too. We got to see so many Aussie wildlife, and of course – the Tasmanian Devil!

We didn’t get to see some animals, because a lot of them were nocturnal and were sleeping during the day :( But we still managed to take A LOT of photos. So please bare me! I’ve posted a lot of photos but trust me they’re worth looking at!

I’ll start with me feeding a kangaroo (above and below is me)! Aren’t they just ADORABLE!!!!!!!

It’s undeniable that Mr. Wombat is also a cutie!

Here’s a peacock! They are just beautiful.

And……. KOALAS!!!!!!!!! CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!

The lady was cleaning the Koala cage and then took the baby one out for us to have a closer look and be able to touch the little guy. He was so soft!! Awwwww..

Here’s my dad feeding a kangaroo! Look how cute they are upclose! Look how cute!

Here’s the famous Tasmanian devil…. They look nasty!

Here’s a parrot.

And a cockatoo!

Wallabies! Hehehehe..

They’re so tiny!

Here’s a lazy old kangaroo. Looks like a much older one… Still very cute :)

Here’s an ugly emu… They bob their heads a lot, it was so hard to take this photo!!!

Here’s a kangaroo with a joey in its pouch! THIS IS THE MOST ADORABLE THING EVER!!!!!!!!!!

My brother and I watched the joey climb in and out of the pouch and sleep. Awwwww :) :)

We also came across an orphaned kangaroo joey. Please read the story below, it’s sad :( But I’m glad they’re keeping her safe and sound in a simulated pouch. <3

Can you tell that I just LOVED this park? LOVEEEEEEEEE. I always say you can’t go to Australia without seeing the wildlife! I adore them <3

While we were still cruising down the East Cost of Tasmania, we stopped by at a vinyard. Because Tasmania has a cooler climate than the rest of Australia, their wines are distinctly different than in the rest of the country and primarily produces Pinot noir, Chardonnay and Riesling with some smaller plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon blanc.

I was pleasantly surprised by the Riesling that they had to offer, and snapped that up quick!

Beautiful photos of the grapes and the vinyard are below.

In light of ANZAC Day, I decided to make ANZAC biscuits (or biccies!). I’ve grown up loving ANZAC biscuits (and not just because ANZAC Day is my birthday) but because they are truly delicious!

They are popular in Australia and New Zealand, being made out of rolled oats, flour, coconut, sugar, butter, golden syrup, bicarbonate of soda and boiling water.

I’ve been asked numerous amount of times why these biscuits are called ANZAC Biscuits and I have to be honest, I did not know. I did know however that ANZAC stands for the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps and ANZAC Day is a national day that we hold in honourary memory of them.

Upon some internet research, I found that the biscuits were sent by wives to soldiers abroad because they were worried about the nutrition of their husbands, and also the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation. These biccies can stand up to months unrefrigerated!

What I love even more about these biccies is that they are extremely easy to make with very little ingredients. I used this recipe I found online. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1 cup rolled oats
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup plain flour
1 cup sugar
125g (4oz) butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon water

Preheat oven to 300F (150C)

Mix oats, flour, sugar and coconut together.
Melt syrup and butter together.
Mix soda with boiling water and add to melted butter and syrup.
Add to dry ingredients.
Place 1 tablespoonfuls of mixture on greased tray (allow room for spreading).
Bake for 20 minutes.
Loosen while warm, cool on trays.

While we were driving around Tassie, just after we passed Swansea on the way to Hobart we dropped by at Kate’s Berry Farm which is known for their cool climate berries. There are handcrafted chocolates, jams, sauces and jellies  - all made from Kate’s home grown fruit.

The desserts cafe offers freshly baked hot scones accompanied by a selection of Kate’s own jams and freshly whipped pure cream, hot crisp Belgium waffles with a luscious compote of poached berries and rich creamy ice cream, Kate’s fabulous fruit pies made from both her own berries and fresh local fruit when in season, in season berries with cream and ice cream, gluten free scones pies and other treats all made in her own kitchens. Also available are mellow espresso coffees, a selection of rich hot chocolate, fine leaf teas in heated china teapots, and milk shakes made with Kate’s own fruit and ice cream.

Check out the photos below to see some of the chocolates and icecream (which we couldn’t resist getting.. and it was extremely good!!)

Here’s a cute pic of my mummy & daddy:

I don’t know why, but Tasmania has really beautiful gardens. Flowers are just flourishing everywhere!

Perhaps they get better rainfall than we do in Victoria or just a better climate? Or perhaps they just love gardening more??

While I’m unsure if all of the above are correct, I do know that the flowers are too beautiful not to just walk past by. I had to take photos of them all while walking on the street! Haha!

Enjoy! :)

After arriving at Devonport, Tasmania by the Spirit of Tasmania we set on our journey to Hobart by driving down the East Coast. It really was beautiful to see the ocean crashing onto coast and the soft sand.

Having heard of the beautiful scenery at Coles Bay and Wine Glass Bay, we took a little detour down Freycinet Peninsula. On the way down, there’s a little shop known as Freycinet Marine Farm with fresh oysters, muscles and lobsters. What makes places such as these in Tasmania so special is that they are located where cool clean water is. Their website states:

“We have no other industries in the area except some forests, vineyards and farms, our water is pure and therefore so are our oysters, we need to neither depurate nor scrub our product before it leaves the farm, it comes straight from the leases to your plate. In fact you can taste the clean waters of Tasmania’s east coast with every oyster that passes your palate.”

As we drove in, we saw the most humongous sunflowers we have ever seen! They’re so beautiful, we had to take photos!

Then we ordered some oysters and muscles. Don’t they look exquisite!

When I was in Australia, my Aunty from Malaysia also visited us from Chinese New Year. She said she wanted to visit Tasmania, so on a very last minute trip we decided to book our tickets and make our way there on the Spirit of Tasmania. We purchased overnight tickets for the next day.

Even though we’ve been in Melbourne my whole life, my whole family had never been to Tasmania! So it was exciting for all of us. This is a photo of us boarding the Spirit of Tasmania with our car. You have to drive up the ramp and onto the ship.

Here’s a really nice photo of the Melbourne cityscape, the view from the Spirit of Tasmania.

Here’s Daddy, Mummy, me and Aunty on the ship!

We managed to get a nice view of the sunset that evening.

There was a theatre on board so we all watched a movie and then head to bed. It was so rocky that we all couldn’t sleep. I really didn’t think the trip would be that rocky but lucky we didn’t get sea sick.

In all, I recommend the night trip! As soon as we woke up, we were already there!

The next morning we drove all the way down Tasmania’s east coast. Here’s us stopping by at a very calm and peaceful beach.

There were wild berries there which people were picking to eat. I had some myself and they were surprisingly good!

We then made our way to Coles Bay and it had really nice view of the mountains by the bay.

Photo credits: Berwick Leader

During January of last year, there a fire blazed through Churchill Park/Police Paddocks in Endeavour Hills/Rowville. The CFA had sent 30 fire trucks, two aircraft and 115 firefighters to the control the fire (shown in the photo above and the video below).

It was pretty scary considering that Endeavour Hills has been my home town for the majority of my life. Bushlands is very much apart of where we live, let alone the rest of Australia. On some occasions, it was nice to have a family barbeque at the park. It’s lovely to be surrounded by beautiful trees. It’s sad to know that it’s all been destroyed.

Below are some photos I took of what it looks like one year after the fire. You can see some regrowth of the grass the trees, but most of it is still branches are still blackened. I’m hopeful that one day it’ll be back to what I remember it to be.

While Churchill Park was reasonably contained, the bushfires that ripped across Victoria was devastating. Hundreds of homes, let alone lives were lost. Australia will never forget what we now know as Black Saturday – our most tragic natural disaster in history.