Headed off for the country market back in Evandale to pass some time. Where else do you find fresh cherry pie and see people walking around with big bunches of Waratahs. Would so love to have taken some home 🤷🏼‍♀️

Then another stunning scenic country drive past mountains, rolling green hills, huge trees with their first bright green buds of springtime, vineyards and blossom laden fruit trees to Joseph Chromy winery for lunch. Since the friend I had stayed in Tassie to see was in hospital, I had decided to come anyway… alone. Not something I usually do (yes I usually eat alone but not in a lovely restaurant) but I had been looking forward to this and thought what the heck!

Do you dine alone? I think it’s something I should perhaps do more often when there is somewhere I want to go and have no one to go with.

Josef Chromy Wines cellar door and restaurant is a stunning location to experience Tasmanian wines and fine cuisine made with fresh local produce. Acclaimed as one of Australia’s top 10, the cellar door is housed in the original 1880s homestead. They even do fun experiences like making your own sparkling wine. I want to do that next time.

I was a little early so wandered their stunning gardens until my booking time. Set among old English gardens and stands of 100-year-old oak trees, and overlooking a picturesque daffodil lined lake, winery and a 61-hectare vineyard (bare now but would be beautiful when in season). The sounds of frogs and birdsong filled the air.

I had a sumptuous lunch of tiger prawns, soft polenta, lemon, chilli, bottarga (whatever that is) and crispy sage. It was heavenly!!! Then wood grilled octopus, saffron excabeche (whatever that is), radicchio, zucchini ghanoush and preserved fruit with pink ling. Again amazing. Awesome last meal before returning our hire car and heading to the airport. Time to go home and back to reality 😂

Lutruwita/Tasmania… I am so sad to leave. Perhaps one of the most spectacular places in the world… picture perfect! Green and wild spaces linked by heritage streetscapes and thoughtful adaptions. Culture takes many forms and this part of the world has made life’s simple pleasures an art. Here the farm-gate is the local store, nature is the playground and the cellar never runs dry. Yay for Tassie wine!!!

Farewell lush green corners of paradise… picture perfect white sand beaches and open endless blue horizons… orange lichen covered boulders and snow capped mountains… breath taking ancient forests… flowing waterfalls and blue lakes… to the most amazing blossoms, camellias, magnolias, rhododendrons, daffodils and tulips that I could have imagined possible. Farewell to some of the freshest air on the planet… to the places that make you feel like you’re the first person to leave a footprint… to National parks filled with wonders and seaside towns filled with welcome. A gourmet food bowl bursting with the best local wine and produce straight from the source… farm stalls flanked by rich red soils and lobsters plucked straight from the ocean. Lush. Bountiful. Welcoming. Untamed. Generosity and token dairy cows come standard… as do cute, cuddly and curious wildlife.

It doesn’t really matter whether you love trekking into the wilds, sipping on a crisp Riesling or venturing deep into an underground museum, Tassie has something for you.

We take home so many wonderful pictures (those from our cameras and those in our minds that were impossible to capture) and so many wonderful memories shared between friends… and inevitably a few extra pounds.

Tasmania… until we meet again