Tex had to travel to give training again, and this time it is in the beautiful Tasmania. He was to go to Launceston, the 2nd biggest city there, after Hobart. I thought it was too good a place to miss (although I was very concern about the notorious chilling wind) and Tex thought that we should come along too since Tasmania is not one of his frequent travel places.
We left home at 6.30am to the airport. Poor Ashley just got out of bed and was carried straight into the cab. She must have been confused. This smart mummy dressed her in her outing clothes the night before so that I didn't have to worry about dressing her and get all kelam-kabut. We had McD (the Aussies call it Macca, short for McDonald cafe) at the airport foodcourt and then it was time to board. Ashley was the perfect baby throughout the flight. She slept! Muahahaha....I was so happy to be able to sit back and relax for once. When we almost reached Tassie, ice flakes formed on the plane's window. That showed how cold the air was. But the sight of the island took my breath away. It was just so beautiful. Once again I was awestrucked by how beautiful and green Australia is. After checking into the hotel and lunch, daddy left us for work and thus began the adventures of Ashley and her cute mama ;-P.
Launceston is a small city, so we decided to do things slowly. We started the day with a walk to the City Park. There was a very old working radio station cum museum at the entrance gate and I thought to myself, I might as well go in to have a look. Well, I am sure antique collectors would have loved the place. The collection of old radio, old broadcasting technology, gramaphone, antennas etc were quite impressive. Oh, there was a 170 years old wisteria tree too. All it cost me was a coin donation because the museum was taken care by volunteers. Then I took Ashley to look at snow monkeys from Japan. She understand alot of things now and by showing her real animals helped her relate better to her books. There was a fernery, statues, structures, a floor chess, a duck pond and some Victorian structures all around the park. We took a ride on the park's train for AUD2. The driver was very friendly and he tried to shake Ashley's hands. Well, the closest he got was to get her to touch the train's head. Next I let her play at the playground and miggle with other kids. She had fun climbing onto toy train, going down the slippery dip and ride on the bouncy wombat.
Opposite the park was the National Automobile museum. Ashley loves cars and trains so I gave it a go. Well, she fell asleep halfway there so I ended up doing a quick browse of the museum's shop and got her a toy police car. Then I crossed over to the otherside of the river to look at the old tram station and Queen Victoria's Art Gallery and Museum. Launceston doesn't have train service because the roads were too small and the area was well, 20 minutes into driving and you are out of the town. It was getting dark and Tex was on his way back to the hotel so that's all for Day 1.
No comments:
Post a Comment