Thursday the 17th of January 2019
Myself, Jo Byrnes, Denise Mc Masters and Ange Wilson
Left Mt Martha at 8am for another bucket list item to be ticked off!
Ian our driver picked us up and our first stop for coffee
Before the drive to the airport for our 11:15am Jetstar flight to Launceston. Security then our first sip for the day! Bottle no 1 Chandon pink Bubbles $78 bucks airport prices!
Arrived in Launceston around 12:30 and found a shuttle bus to drop us off at the Penny Royal inn our hotel for the night. As the room wasn’t quite ready yet we dumped our bags at the reception and headed off for lunch at the nearby Penny Royal cafe. Bottle number 2 for the day Josef Chromy bubbles and really nice shared food.
Jo having no concierge to deliver her case, what the!
After lunch we put our bags in the room and headed off first to check out Launceston CBD, as Ange had memories of cute shops. Next was a walk back to Cataract Gorge for a stunning walk along the cliff top from our hotel. 
I mentioned to the girls I had read there would be peacocks at the Gorge and that I was looking forward to seeing them. So the next person walking from the opposite direction Jo asked-
“Have you seen any Peacocks?? The girls replied ah no, but I have seen a feather! ” this soon became the joke of the weekend, as when we got to the gorge cafe there was Peacocks 🦚 everywhere, in the trees, on the roof, walking around all over the place, how anyone didn’t see one was a mystery! 
Coffee and cake at the very pretty cafe, surrounded by hydrangeas, then off for a walk up to the lookout. Over the suspension bridge, 
and into the car park where Carolyn met us and took us for a tour around her home town. We checked out all the beautiful homes and picked up a few supplies, before she dropped us off to our hotel to get ready for dinner.
7pm dinner booked across the road at Stillwater, bottle no 3 bubbles Janz (not as good as the Josef Chromy) . Which was lovely, we all had seafood, Sushimi followed by snapper, Denise and Ang had the trevally all enjoyed our meals. We headed off over the road to bed, Big day! (In a secret life I’d like to be a good blogger!)
Friday 18th of January
Day one of our Taking Shape adventure tour! Breakfast at the hotel pub cafe, a trip to the lollie shop and then picked up by Jess our tour guide. A quick stop at the airport for a couple more girls, then our first stop for the day Legerwood, to see the tree carvings dedicated to the war hero’s of the town. 
Morning tea and then back on the road to the blue lake for a quick photo stop
Next stop Eddystone point for our first look at The Bay of fires, Lunch then a walk up to the lighthouse and a short walk to the beach.
Arrived at the accommodation Icena farm around 5ish, checked into our house the Bandicoot on the hill seperate to the others.
Dinner and back to our house for a chat with our new roomies.
Saturday 19th of January 
Early breakfast before causing an uproar from on bus positioning! And onto our amazing walk from The Gardens of the Bay of fires. 
Lunch on the beach half way through at a beautiful spot, wraps and fruit.
Onwards as the dear nurses decided ahead of time we should leave. This half was a tad hard due to so many rocks – story later.
18km later the walk finished at –
Back at our accommodation showers and champagne before tea.
Dinner then after a wine game, guessing the wine style, price and region a bit of fun. Other Jo on the trip asked about the next day “is there going to be any Fucking Rocks cause if there is I need a Blueberry Superdopper! So funny the way she said it.
Walked back up to our house in the dark, with jo insisting on a torch 🔦 looking for pot holes, lots of laughs about the day and night.
Sunday 20th of January
Easy start again breakfast at 7am, as we left by 8;30 for our first walk up Mt William for some gorgeous views over the national park. 
Morning tea as on fruit after, followed by another walk to Stumpy’s bay.
A swim for some then lunch, salad and wraps followed by the third walk of the day along the absolute stunning Cobblers rocks then through the bush track back to Stumpy’s bay. The funny thing today was a couple of blokes on the beach nude and going for it was sprung by 20 walkers, they took off like a rocket! We have seen no one walking for two days so these guys really had bad luck.
Back on the bus for the farm, another 17 km done today. Showers then a lovely happy hour sipping on Clover Hill champagne on our verandah, watched by cows. Another great day!
Dinner delicious apricot chicken healthy style and sticky date, bit quieter tonight. Jamie our new friend entertained us of his stories on his ivf sperm collection efforts, so funny again. We have been really lucky with our room mates, Jamie and Bec young couple from Packenham, Sandra from Woodend and Shae from Traralgon.
Monday 21st of January
Time to pack to leave the farm and head home😒, leaving by 8:30am. First stop on the journey back to Launceston is Bridport a lovely beachside town up the top of Tassie. We quickly found the best coffee in town and a quick check out of the shopping strip. Next was a walk around the historic trail which again was really picturesque!
Back on the bus to our wine tasting and picnic lunch stop at Janz, 
very special and a little sad as the trip was coming to an end. So many great people we have chatted to, and hopefully we will see again.
Next funny moment Jo coming into Janz see’s the Piper Brook winery sign, disappointed we where not going there as she really likes that champagne 🍾 so much better than Janz. So asks Jess our tour guide can we go there, Jess arranges things and we can for 15min. So a speed wine tasting and Jo realises she’s confused the French Piper Heidsieck champagne with the Tassie Piper Brooks, just another Josy moment! Still we enjoyed the quick Piper Brooks wines, and bean bags under the trees.
Arriving at Launceston airport around 4pm for our 5:30pm flight home. Back in Melbourne and our driver Ian was waiting for us with a bottle of Prosecco, so here we go again! A fair amount of crazy conversations on our ride home from a fun girls trip away.
