Moya's Australian Adventure

Hi Gang,

I miss you guys but I am definitely have the trip of a lifetime which I'm sure will never be duplicated. We had a beach day yesterday and when we came back to the house a few of Cawley's friends joined us and we were looking at the Atlas, they wanted to see where I had travelled from. It's really amazing, I couldn't get any further away from Nova Scotia. It would have been the same distance if I had travelled over Europe to Hong Kong, to Sydney to Hobart as it was the way I went via Vancouver! Anyway, I am making the most of the trip but I'll need a vacation once I get home, my sister has me worn out.

Here's what we've been up to lately, I took my neice shopping on Friday, we spent the entire day touring downtown Hobart, it is a gorgeous city, very friendly, not threatening at all. Sooo clean! The buildings are gorgeous, some are very old and historic mixed amongst the new buildings. Peter you'd love it here, so many antique shops and even shops that don't sell antiques have antiques as their counters and display cases. Anyway, it was a very fun day. Saturday the shopping wasn't finished we went to the market here, it's called Salamanca Market and it is very popular, like the market in Halifax but much larger with hundreds of vendors, we walked for 5 hours amongst all the wares, the majority of which are made in Tasmania or grown in Tasmania. I can only say that I would be bringing so much more home if only I had the space!

Salamanca Market is on the waterfront and had so many sights, set amongst the sandstone facades of Hobarts historic warehouses, so many sounds, all the buskers playing through out the vendors, so much food like fresh fruit, organic veggies, crepes, ice creams, coffees and baked goods, the list goes on and on but it definitely highlights Tasmanian art and craft. I noticed the Aussie hats and a lot of wood items, but honestly I kept saying I''ll come back to this booth and by the next booth I had forgotten about the last.

After the market my sister took me to the waterfront where there is an art school and an art hotel (each room features art by a different artist and on Sundays there are tours) we also saw an Aboriginal Gallery with the most amazing Aboriginal Art, many pieces have the story of the art you are looking at described by the artist on the back. Aboriginal Art is really something else and has the price tag to show it, however I could have stayed there for hours looking at it all. We also went to another gallery that had an amazing display, imagine this room full of birds flying amongst you and their perches were electric guitars! The electric guitars were turned on and sounds from every bird landing on the guitars were coming through the amplifiers! As we walked around the display the birds would fly around and land in different spots. I am not doing it justice by trying to explain this but I hope you get the picture.

Today we took a catamaran trip to Peppermint Bay, again a spectacular day, it took about 5 hours and we saw so many things, dolphins, sea eagles feeding very near the boat, Atlantic Salmon farms which they started with Salmon from Nova Scotia, (part of the audio presentation told me that), anyway another incredible day in Tasmania.

I am amongst the academics here in Tasmania, my brother in law is Gustaaf Hallegraeff who has spent 30 years studying microorganisms in the sea he's a prof at the University of Tasmania.
Here's what he does, his research interests 'range from limnological and oceanographic field surveys of phytoplankton populations, taxonomy by light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, to biochemistry of microalgal pigments, lipids and toxins, micropaleontological studies of cysts in sediment cores and molecular genetics of cultured algal strains.' HUH?
Anyway, the reason I'm telling you about Gustaaf is that Sarah Mclaughlin's dad invited Gustaaf to Dalhousie the first time he came to Halifax. Apparently's Sarah's dads speciality was seaweed and Gustaaf's is plankton, the second time Gustaff went to Dal, her dad had retired. Neat huh?
Hope I haven't bored you too much. Take care and I'll keep you posted. By the way they drive on the wrong side of the street down here and I keep trying to get in on the drivers side. They drive like maniacs as well, already 9 fatalities on the highway in the first month of the year!
Lots of love,
Moya