Many thanks, some cake and a hidden gem

A great many thanks from not only myself, but from the new Mrs Possum to all the well wishers and givers of magnificent advice over what to do and where to go in Tassie – especially the restaurants and little hidden secrets!

As a token of our appreciation, the best we can do is offer you a bit of virtual wedding cake

It was actually hard bringing ourselves to put a knife through such a wonderful piece of artwork (the brides bra and undies sitting on the side of the spa brought much mirth to all).

If anyone is planning to get married on the mid-north coast of NSW anytime soon and is after something a little different as a wedding cake design, drop me a line and I’ll get you in touch with the lovely lady who made ours. She’s good fun and will make just about anything you can imagine.

Tasmania was simply fantastic, with only a single bad experience had (at a hotel that should know better and in a few days time most certainly will) – but what was really surprising is that the bit of Tassie we found the most breathtaking was also a place that is barely advertised – the small little micro settlement of Strathgordon that sits on the shore of Lake Pedder and is a good 70km of winding mountain road to the nearest piece of civilisation.

There’s a hotel of sorts right on the shore line – but what sets it apart is the unusual nature of it, the wonderful staff and what is directly outside the back door. The Hotel actually serves as the bar and restaurant for the literally handful of Hydro Tasmania workers that are up there servicing the Gordon Dam at any given time, so the whole thing seems to be subsidised by Tasmania Hydro to begin with – including the fuel bowsers out the front which have the cheapest petrol in Tasmania. It’s also the only building of any note in the town at all apart from a dozen or so units used to house the staff of the hotel and the Dam workers themselves.

But what makes it magnificent is when you look out the windows of the bar and dining rooms of the hotel and see this:

It’s incredible the way the weather changes every 5 minutes, from rain to fog to bright sunshine – often all trying to happen at the same time. As a result you end up with some of the most spectacular lighting of some really amazing geography.

Again, all taken from the Hotel.

It’s a 15 minute drive up the road to witness the powerful but mixed feelings of walking across the Gordon Dam, there are walking tracks into the National Park all around the place and apparently the trout fishing is brilliant.

And for the pollyjunkies that are reading – the hotel doesn’t make the mistake that so many others do by confusing “getting away from it all” with “complete and utter isolation from the outside world“, so you still have free access to a blistering satellite net connection in the hotel and Austar with Sky Nooz. So after your day of getting away from it all in the lakes and mountain wilderness of Tassie, you can curl up next to the fire with a pint of Wizard Smith ale, watching Sky News and surfing the net while waiting for your marinated wallaby on a char grilled vegetable stack to arrive from the kitchen.

Of all the places we saw in Tassie – this is the one we’ll go back to regularly.

So again, a big thanks to all for the advice and hints and here’s one back for all those that didn’t know about it.

I’ve got a bit of political catching up to do over the next day or so – but can someone please tell me what that idiot Buswell was doing sniffing that chair?