Day 13: Bruny Island

I'm sorry, when I saw it I couldn't resist.

We just missed the ferry that takes you out to Bruny Island so, with an hour and a half to wait, we started exploring ‘the channel’ as it’s called.  We found a great park and the kids started having a great time—except L who was being a total pill.  Inspiration filled me and I swooped him up and asked if he’d like some alone Mama time.  The grin that split his face was priceless!  We walked over a bridge and up the beach—we probably walked about a mile when all was said and done and know what?  The kid was an angel the rest of the day.  Good traveling tip for those of you with kids!  Sometimes, you just need some solo time with Mama!

Another fun travel tip is find a post office!  Postal workers around the world are a quirky bunch and they’re usually filled with character!  The little town of Woodbridge, (Yup, we found Woodbridge!  But we didn't meet Taylor Dosey :(   Tassy is no different.  We met Kelly—she collects postcards from around the world.  She was super nice, gave us a not-yet-published guide to Woodbridge and she had a used book corner in her office selling novels for $1.  The kids were ecstatic to get new reading material!  Even é jumped right into his book and spent most of the drive immersed in his new story.

Who remembers this from Elementary School?!  About 50% of the public toilets have these instead of toilet paper.  I've started carrying a roll around with me just in case.  And soap.  We found a tiny 1 oz bottle of hand sanitizer for $5.00!

We almost missed the second boat because we were having such a good time in Woodbridge.  I think I’ve come to realize and accept that no matter where we are, we’re going to find something awesome and be totally entertained.

Bruny did not disappoint.  First thing we noticed were all the eucalyptus trees. Now I’m sure we’ve seen plenty before, but this is the first time we realized what we were looking at.  The lady on the ferry let us know that if we were coming back after dark, we needed to take care as there would be lots of animals on the road.  At the mention of animals, the kids immediately started looking for their first sighting of kangaroos and koalas.  Thus the eucalyptus epiphany.
 

Instead what we found was Joe.  He works at the cheese company.  So this guy, I don’t recall his name, wanted to learn how to make cheese.  So he got online about 11 years ago and started learning.  This is what that obsession became. 

The cheeses ranged from really yummy to down right disgusting but the bread! Oh be still my heart the bread!  Baked in an outdoor brick oven, crisp on the outside, tender and soft on the inside—I could have eaten a whole loaf all by myself!  It was even still warm!  Worth every cent we paid…and it was a pretty penny at that!  $8.50 a loaf!

WARNING:  Political Rant about to commence!

So everywhere we go we chat with people.  At the grocery store, at the book store, walking down the street…whatever we’re doing, wherever we’re going, we talk to people.  The first night in Tassy the checker at the grocery store asked what’s different here than at home. 

“The price of food!” was my response.  “Everything here is so expensive!”

That was all the motivation the gentleman behind the counter needed to start a rant of his own.  The government, he explained, decided that all workers needed to make ‘a living wage.’  The average McDonald’s employee here makes $22.50/hour.  He proceeded to curse the ‘idiots in office’ for not having the foresight to realize that upping the wages would simply lead to upping the prices of everything else.  You can’t inflate half a balloon.  You inflate the wages, you inflate the price of goods and services.  So now, Australia is the second most expensive place to live in the world and their tourism industry is tanking because it simply costs too much to come here.

I have had this conversation with more than one person a day since being here.  Everyone feels the same way—raising the minimum wage was the worst mistake the government made.

Rant over.

After trying the cheeses, watching the cheese be made, learning that the outer husk of the cheese is the natural mold that grows on something when left out for weeks and months and years (eeewwww!!) seeing an old time cheese mixer and cheese wheel, we made our way farther down Bruny to the isthmus.  

An Isthmus is a narrow neck of land connecting two larger land masses.  ‘The Neck’ as it’s known here, is SUPER narrow and it totally freaked me out.  One lane that’s supposed to be two, I don’t know what we would have done had another car been coming the opposite way.  No guard rails to keep you from flying off into the ocean should anything go awry.  No safety anything at all.  One big wave and you're whale fodder!  Too COOL!!! 

  We were headed for the southernmost tip, the light house—but once again we got distracted.  I needed a 20 minute power nap (too much daylight driving for this night owl!) and the kids were starving so we pulled into a camp site and the kids picnicked on the beach while I snoozed.  Cody found a walking track he wanted to try out so, when I joined the group, away we went.  It was supposed to be just a quick, half an hour jaunt through the rain forest.  Um, no. We ended up on a 3 mile hike.  It was awesome, don’t get me wrong.  But if you ever wonder why we protest so loudly when Cody suggests ‘a quick little walk’, this is why.

We got back to the car just at dusk, meaning we missed seeing the fairy penguins come in from the ocean to the beach L  I hate realizing that we can’t see everything.  There’s just too much—but it’s just so fun!

Okay, quick spiritual moment.  On the hike, ∞ was worried that π was getting us lost.  We didn’t have any signal so maps wouldn’t work but then we tried sports tracker.  Anyone who hasn’t downloaded sports tracker totally should.  When nothing else works, sports tracker always does.  I don’t know how, it just does.  On world view, we could even find the tree we were standing by—it was rather uniquely shaped. 

Confirmation from the map didn’t calm her enough.  She needed more and she suggested we pray.  So we gathered around and she voiced the prayer. 

“Dear Heavenly Father,” she began…and instantly the spirit was so strong that tears came to her eyes.  We all felt it.  Warm, comforting waves washed over all of us, and ∞ was rendered speechless.  “Help us to know we’re going the right way,” π prompted.  

Speech restored ∞ offered a very short prayer asking for comfort and safety and direction and thanking Him for His spirit and closed the prayer.

The hike changed after that.  It was incredible.  We talked about the change, glorying in the knowledge that our Heavenly Father is aware of us, that He loves us and that He is always there for us, even on a seldom used rainforest trail in the middle of nowhere on an island almost in Antarctica. 

Like most nights of this trip the kids were asleep before we got back to the cabins. L actually fell asleep while getting a piggy back from K.  She wrapped him in her hoodie and carried him like a Koala.  Such sweet kids!  A few of them woke up enough to eat some noodles before going back to sleep but most skipped dinner—again.  We’ve taken to eating really large breakfasts and snacking a lot on fruits and veggies during the day since we’re too tired to eat by the night. 

A very good day indeed.