September 2

Wednesday 2 September

Today was a drive and enjoy the scenery day. We set off through Lauderdale and down to Clifton Beach which is a beautiful quiet and almost secluded little area. The beach went from one outcrop of rocks to another and the rocky areas were filled with beautiful shells.

From there we ventured further around past South Arm and into Opossum Bay. This area was gorgeous. Stunning views with a handful of homes right on the waterfront and built into the hill. Again, just a little quiet sleepy little area but very beautiful. I seem to say that word a lot ~ beautiful, but sometimes there are not enough other words to describe it.

We stopped at a lookout at South Arm on the way back where there were views of the ocean, mountains, an island and some light houses.

From there we headed back to Richmond. We decided we wanted to go back on a weekday when more of the place was open and it was definitely worth the effort. It’s a great little area and is rich in history. We saw a model of Hobart in the 1820’s which was really interesting. About half a dozen of the buildings still stand today. So much work has gone into the model, it’s very well done.

We went through a shop that had everything made from timber, some gorgeous stuff in there. Richmond has a number of gorgeous old buildings. On the way out of Richmond, there is a place called Puddleduck Winery. I love the colours they’ve used in their little shop (purple & lime green) and their background is great. Just a little winery that was started off part time after work hours by a couple and it was 6 yrs before it was producing wine. They still hadn’t found a name for their winery and were sitting near their pond sipping some of their unnamed wine one afternoon watching the ducks play in the water. It was while they were watching the ducks that his wife came up with the name Puddleduck, so they emailed a friend with the name and by morning she’d come up with a logo for them. So a few years on, their business has grown but it’s still a very small winery and they only sell from their little shop. We bought a bottle of Sav Blanc for Loraine and a bottle of grape juice for us.

While we were there, the guy mentioned that the road up to the top of Mt Wellington was open so we decided to go back up for a look see. Talk about amazing. And cold!! They’ve had some good snowfall up there and the view was spectacular. We had fun playing in the snow and Bob made a little snowman to sit near the windscreen of our car. He almost made it right back down the mountain too.

Back into town, a quick stop at the internet café to download emails onto the laptop and grab a couple of things we needed for dinner, then back to our apartment. Another good day.