Oysters, strawberries and stinky cheese - god bless Bruny Island!

Just as Hobart cooled down, we hopped onto the boat to much-raved-about Bruny Island. Massive thanks to Jill for letting us stay on her fabulous property at the tip of the North island, just near Dennes Point. While it has been lovely meeting people at campsites, it was high-time for a period of isolation where the kids can practice their kookaburra calls without disturbing the grey nomads and European couples in Juicy vans. Here we kicked back and appreciated sleeping in the relative luxury of a caravan and shipping container - whilst soaking up the incredible view and watching the light change on the hillside. It was a short stroll down to a wild beach where we collected shells and made excellent cubby houses out of driftwood and fallen trees.

We had been warned that Bruny was an orgy of eating - and so it was. From the cheese factory, to the oysters (god, so good with wasabi - Bill and Kate kept going back but the kids agreed it was like eating snot from a shell...), to the berry farm where we stuffed ourselves with icecream and Sash and Kate picked a bucketload of strawberries (finished before we were back to Dennes Point). We also discovered totem tennis at the Berry Farm cafe - where Bill and Zara squared off and Bill decided that in the name of 'developing the kids hand-eye coordination' we MUST purchase a totem tennis set (duly done despite Kate's protests of 'no more stuff please' - and Kate is almost grudgingly agreeing that it was a good idea - she has even been known to get up an hour before the others to smack the ball around by herself for a while!).

Some beautiful walks on Bruny - Cape Queen Elizabeth was the highlight. The kids were taken with the perfect sand dunes and wild isolated beaches. And so began a tradition of naming places - The Dune of Perfection (Zara) and Slippy Beach (Sash) and so on... Another highlight was the lighthouse on the South island - bunnies galore! (but weirdly the Tasmanians don't seem to have the Victorian hatred of rabbits - perhaps the fear of a fox invasion keeps the rabbit-paranoia at bay?)

Bill went from strength to strength with the squid fishing - with squid in various guises for almost every meal.

Ahhhh Bruny Island. A magnificent week in a magnificent place.