Bruny Island

Bruny Island is a piece of the real, raw Tasmania. The island is a 30 km drive south of Hobart and home to seals, penguins, oyster farms and Australia's southern most vineyard. Bruny is made up of the north and south islands that are connected by an isthmus, which I like to think of as a big spit-like natural bridge.



For around $25 you can drive onto the ferry from Kettering and drive onto the island within 15 minutes. This ferry wasn't quite like the one my Contiki bus boarded from Dover, England to Calais, France; it was more a get-on and get-off no frills vessel.

Nevertheless when you first drive onto Bruny Island it could be be mistaken for Any Country Area Australia. Driving along the coastline soon dispels this idea. When we reached The Neck, we climbed up the steep stairs to the lookout which offered spectacular views over the Adventure Bay and Isthmus Bay. A penguin rookery is located nearby in Adventure Bay, drawing tourists to gawk by the side of the road.

Bruny Island is well known for its oysters and you can even buy a half dozen for $12 at the local convenience store.



Driving along Adventure Bay Beach, we passed by Captain Cook's Landing Place. Captain Cook landed there in 1777 and now even the caravan park is named after him.



The winding unsealed road through South Bruny National Park enroute to Cape Bruny lighthouse is an incredibly beautiful drive. We rolled down our windows to breathe in the earthy forest smells, even the light rain couldn't ruin the drive.

Cape Bruny is known for one thing - the lighthouse which was built in 1838 by Tasmanian convicts to forewarn ships of the nearby cliffs. The family operated lighthouse was decommissioned in 1996. I couldn't imagine what life would have been like for the wife of the lighthouse operator who brought up five children there.

Wild rabbits hop around Cape Bruny and on Easter Sunday perhaps it was mildly appropriate to be surrounded by them. As I looked over the sea cliffs, the clouds parted to let in a little sunlight to the right of the lighthouse whilst a rainbow formed over to the left. Breathing in the sea air, I had to savour this special little Tasmanian moment before it disappeared.

Cocoon - A Lovely Little Launceston Shoppe

Oh Launie, your city streets smell like yeast from the James Boag Brewery and your shops are very quaint!

Launceston is a sweet little city that slowly woos you with its Tasmanian charm. I was amazed that Cataract George is so close to the city. It was such a beautiful, tranquil wilderness only minutes away from the city centre.



On my last morning in Launceston I managed to fit in a bit of shopping in the city area. I stumbled across a very quaint shop called Cocoon at 109 George Street.



Cocoon sells a variety of homewares, beauty products, accessories and funky bits and pieces.

I bought a cute bird peg and lipgloss package for Wei and a Black Eyed Susie hairclip and hairtie made from kimono fabric that featured a babushka doll.



The very friendly sales assistant let me know that an online store will soon be available.

In the meantime, Black Eyed Susie has an etsy store which also has more unique accessories (Susie appears to be on a maternity break but will be at Niche Market in Launceston on May 3 and 4).

Vintage Scarves From My Mother's Closet

It's amazing what you'll find in your mother's closet. I've been trying to find the perfect scarf to team with my new Piper Lane Bomber Jacket. I've since changed my mind about buying a new scarf when I discovered my mother's collection of gorgeous scarves, ranging in various patterns and materials.

The scarves date back from the 80's. My favourite is a Hermes-inspired scarf, worn with my new Emma Veall Jersey Dress.

I've been experimenting with various scarf tying techniques. Which way do you like best?

Sunny Day in Hobart Town

It's a sunny Saturday afternoon at Salamanca markets. The smell of frying onion hits you as soon as you enter the marketplace. Locals and tourists alike peruse stalls selling proudly Tasmanian made arts and crafts, produce and souvenirs.

I highly recommend eating a gypsy roll - lamb kebabs with a very unique strawberry chilli sauce. The long line at the stall was enough to convince me that it was worth the wait.

The most interesting thing about Salamanca markets is that it is very Green. There are stalls dedicated to preserving the forests, protecting sharks against shark-fin poaching and the Greens party stall dedicated to several environmental causes. Perhaps its not surprising that Senator Bob Brown's office is located 100 metres away in Murray St Pier.





On this day the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling ship, Steve Irwin, was docked at Mac Wharf 1 with its skull and cross-spear flag flying high.

Many local fish and chips places, like Mures and Fish Frenzy, offer a chance to soak up the afternoon sun for a late lunch or early pre-dinner bite. The beer-battered trevally at Fish Frenzy is absolutely scrumptious! Please note though that if you love a good pineapple fritter the only place that sells these is Flippers - and it is crumbed not battered. We learnt that the hard way...

The Great Tasmanian Road Trip Soundtrack

Before I start blogging about my trip to Tasmania I wanted to share my soundtrack. My brother and I drove over 900km in a little yellow Yaris through big city centres, quaint townships, amazing national parks, over Mount Wellington and down many winding roads. This is the soundtrack to our journey, built on Triple J playlists.

1. Scattered Diamonds - Hungry Kids of Hungary

2. Zero - The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

3. The Waitress Song - Seth Sentry

4. Not Fair - Lily Allen

5. You Want History - Kaiser Chiefs

6. The Summer - Josh Pyke

7. So Human - Lady Sovereign

8. No You Girls - Franz Ferdinand

9. Buttons (Remix) - Sia

10. Battle for the Sun - Placebo


The Waitress Song is a beautifully understated narrative by Melbourne MC and triple j unearthed artist Seth Sentry. It won me over on the first listen. Listen to it!

Melbourne Comedy Festival - Good Times Roman

I am a comedy festival virgin so going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival was nice way to be introduced to side-splitting live comedy.

Arj Barker - Original Bits and Pieces

Oh Arj, your use of video footage before your performance to relax the audience and get rid of pre-conceived ideas (eg. ladies comedians are not sleazy) was rather clever. Arj's show had just the right amount of crass mixed with his trademark anger. I like Arj for his laid back Americanisms and yes, he does have a lot of dirty jokes, but all were very funny. My favourite jokes were using fonts to be clear on your tone in a text message - Good Times Roman, Sarcastica, Chill Sans and his views on intimacy in a relationship...which are perhaps too rude to mention.

Arj is also in Flight of the Conchord which I am addicted to at the moment!

Arj's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.



Jason Byrne - The Byrne Supremacy

Byrne is Irish. So that means he's already funny by default. Byrne has an incredible apt for jumping from one idea to another and is all over the stage even rolling on the floor. He takes the absolute piss out of the audience and gets it so right on the money. A lot of his jokes started with "I love Australians because..." "they love Easter only because they get time off to paint their fence". He picked up on subtle body language of audience members and just rolled with it. The best part about Byrne is that his humour is very real and self-deprecating. His high-pitched imitation of the Aussie accent left me saying for days..."Is that it?"

Byrne's performance in the Comedy Festival Gala is below.

Melbourne Daze

The secret is not to have what you want, but want what you have.


Lunch at Orange @ 126 Chapel Street, Windsor





Meeting the dogs on Chapel





Cat in the window surrounded by sexy books



Working on being a model/photographer's assistant





Late light afternoon at Victoria Gardens



Thanks to Ryan for some of the above photos.

V Festival at Melbourne Showgrounds

Footage of the Killers performing Human last night at V Festival


There was no raining on thousands V Festival concert goers parade yesterday at Melbourne Showgrounds. Despite Friday's all day downpours, the skies remained fine whilst international acts like Kaiser Chiefs and the Killers took to the stage. V Festival is a recent addition to the summer music festival scene in Australia catering to a rather mixed demographic of rock, pop and a little bit in between.

Wei and I, and everyone else hopped on the express train to the Showgrounds and were greeted with long lines at bag check so we made it a little late to Duffy's set. Duffy is a 24-year-old Welsh jazz singer whose recent hits Mercy and Rain On Your Parade have been on high rotation on commercial radio. Her sultry voice combined with her overall blonde Brigitte Bardot looks perhaps attracted a lot of the males to her set. Either way her softer ballads were ill-fitted to a festival crowd and would be more suited to a nightclub or lounge. In her black tank top and denim shorts, Duffy teetered around the stage, singing mostly side on to the audience. Her ballads like Stepping Stone, Warwick Avenue led her to confess that she wasn't "relationship obsessed" but found it more compelling to sing about than political issues. She does have an amazing voice live and I would love to see her play in a more subdued setting with an orchestra.





The somewhat random surprise hit of the V Festival was Vanilla Ice. V Festival was determined to break down the stereotype of Vanilla Ice being an uncool one hit wonder and took him to the Virgin Mobile stage at all the concerts. Most of the fans were admittedly embarrassed to be watching Vanilla Ice, but once he hit the stage he won the crowd over with his rapping and short mixes. When he performed Ice Ice Baby, the crowd was dancing and singing at the top of their lungs. What embarrassment?

The Kaiser Chiefs, in the opportune playing period right before the Killers, revved up the crowd with old favourites like Ruby and I Predict a Riot. Frontman Ricky Wilson stood on the railing, held up by a security guard grabbing the back of his jeans and seemed to be on the cusp of crowd surfing. He taunted the audience several times and briskly climbed the ten metre tall scaffolding to get a good look at the crowd. The Kaiser Chiefs set consisted of songs from Off With Their Heads and favourites like Never Miss a Beat and finished off with a rendition of Mark Ronson's Oh My God. An insider reference to Ronson's influence on the latest album perhaps? Interestingly they didn't play Addicted to Drugs - hopefully not for censorship reasons at a festival...




By the time the Killers hit the stage at 8.15pm the crowd was impatient and in high anticipation. Brandon Flowers and the rest of the band delivered a great set, going from song to song without a break and giving the audience what they wanted. Flowers is a suave performer, wearing an-all black suit and waistcoat, he strutted around the stage confidently. He seemed less like the arrogant opinionated muso that the media often plays him out to be. Flowers said few words although confessed that we was having a much better time than the V Festival in Sydney! Crowd favourites included Human, Bones, Mr Brightside and the encore of When You Were Young and Jenny Was a Friend of Mine.






My absolutely favourite moment at an outdoor music festival like V is when an amazing band is onstage at dusk and the sun sets to their performance - in this case Kaiser Chiefs and I Predict a Riot.