Launceston (Laun CES ton - accent on the middle syllable here!)



Two Four Two

Better than my kitchen at home - includes Gaggia espresso machine!

We’ve arrived at Two Four Two, a boutique studio apartment on the southern edge of Launceston, where we will stay one night before heading off to Cradle Mountain National Park, our ultimate “Tassie” destination. This is a very upmarket aerie with so many bottles of wine, champagne and beer in the fridge, there is almost no room for our own food. A previous visitor from Hong Kong wrote in the visitors' book that she had fallen down the stairs, and we can see why; we've encountered similar ones in Amsterdam.

We take advantage of the very generous breakfast basket and eat the eggs and toast for a light meal before watching Tasmanian DVDs, one on the wild places in Tassie and the second on all the delectable food available here. Why are we eating eggs, I ask myself? The in-house alcohol is quite pricey so we consume our own, glasses of Australian Chardonnay.  One of the great discoveries on this trip is that we really enjoy Australian Chardonnays; we tend to avoid the overly oaked varieties available in Canada and the USA. I read somewhere in the travel literature that there is ample farm and pastureland and the island is surrounded by unpolluted waters which accounts for the superb dairy products, wine,  local produce and seafood including scallops, crayfish (lobster), abalone, trumpeter, flatfish and trevalla – the last three are local fish, and we’ve managed to sampled two of the three.

As Canadians we would compare Tasmania to Newfoundland. It’s an isolated island that most Australians have never visited probably because of the “convict stain”.  The hardened recidivists found themselves transported here from England and other parts of Australia. The area has also suffered economically in the past but seems quite prosperous now, hence the  development of the local food and wine industry. Tasmanians are extremely friendly and hospitable as as in the Canadian counterpart, however, unlike “the Rock” the food here is superb. I haven’t been to Newfoundland in many years, but I remember when visiting in the eighties that I had to use condensed milk in my coffee, and I could have purchased canned seal flipper to bring home as a gourmet souvenir. I’m not sure it has changed that much except in St. Johns, and that’s why I haven’t been in a big hurry to visit again though I really want to return to see the sights someday. The weather here can be as unpredictable as Newfoundland too, but we’ve have been extraordinarily lucky. We’ve had some cloudy days, very little rain and a fair amount of sun.

We arrived at about 4 p.m. and after checking in, headed off to Fuller’s Bookstore to see if they have a DVD of Part 2 of The Gourmet Farmer. We’re in luck, they do, and we purchase it along with the European version of The Killing, another show we enjoyed, though we only saw the American version. We don’t know why the Americans had to do a remake setting it in Seattle. They did the same with the Stieg Larsson epics. We’ve pursued the Gourmet Farmer all over Tassie from Cygnet to Bruny Island to Hobart so we’re really chuffed to have met with success at long last. We’ve taken to adopting his signature phrase as we travel Tassie, “How hard can it be?” He says this at the beginning of every show in Part I, and he is talking about learning to be a farmer, he was a restaurant critic and journalist in Sydney. We use the phrase rather profligately whenever events on this trip go our way.

Tant Pour Tant - worth the calories!

The next morning after eating the remains of our “brekkie” basket, we head not very far down the street to Tant Pour Tant for our flat whites. Now this is an exceptional place where we buy a crusty loaf of multigrain and a delicious strawberry pastry to enjoy with our coffees. This place was cited in the book A Guide to Tasting Tasmania by Graeme Phillips  that I use as the definitive reference for ferreting out the best food in Tas. We’re delighted that the cafe is a two minute walk from our hotel. I stock up on groceries at the local supermart, five minutes walk from our hotel, while Duncan searches out a post office where he mails our Qantas claim forms for the unfortunate Grampian hotel expense. Our travel agent sent us a mailing address as Qantas's website refused to accept our email submission stating that claims must go through a travel agent. Some people would just give up after so much red tape,  and I guess that’s what the management is counting upon. We’ll see if our efforts bear any fruit in the form of reimbursement. Comfort Hotels sent an apology but that’s all so far, no refund.