Day 8 – St Helens

We woke up to continental breakfast provided by the resort. This was undoubtedly the most beautiful driving day of the trip. It was also the day where we were greeted with the most gorgeous beach too. It was an hour’s drive from Bicheno to St Helens. The Bay of Fire started from Binalong Bay.

On route to St Helens

At Binalong Bay – the wind was so strong that it was sweeping sand like a sandstorm

We spent an hour exploring 4-5 lookout points at Binalong Bay before driving back to St Helens for lunch. En route back to St Helens, we passed by No. 2 shed Binalong Bay where Lease 65 oyster farm was. There was no cafe, sitting area or tour. However, we still stopped by to buy the oysters which were going at $14 per dozen. We had to add $1 for lemon slices.

 

We ate the oysters at the back of the car.

It was so good that Mr H returned for a second dozen.

We still headed over to St Helens’ Blue Shed for lunch.

Steak

Salmon in strawberry sauce

We also shared a trio gelato dessert before the kids headed to the sea-viewing playground.

 

We returned to cover the full stretch of Bay of Fire via Garden Road. It was too cold, windy and sandy to play with the sand. We headed back towards the resort. We visited the Eureka Farm for its award winning Apricot ice cream during the return journey.

Refreshing ice cream

We returned to the resort at 5pm. The boys played and Z even dropped his toy car into a dead section of the playground. He spent a pretty long while wailing before he sobered up and we could visit the beach right outside the resort.

We had dinner at Sea Life centre again.

This was Z feeding X some Hokey Pokey ice cream

Sea view seats

Post dinner, we staked out for another penguin watch. We saw many penguins (13 of them) heading back together at the same time. 

It was our last night on Tasmania and we had to finish up the fruits, which included this oddly shaped strawberry from Sorell Fruit Farm.

The breakfast hamper pack which the owners prepared for us as we would be checking out at 7am.

Day 7 – Richmond/Sorell/Freycinet/Bicheno

We set off for Richmond at 830am. It was 30min away. Upon reaching Richmond, it was such a little pretty & historic town that it reminded me of Stratford Upon Avon in UK.

The older buildings were in yellow sandstone. We checked out the Richmond Goal and famous Richmond Bridge. Z asked how it was possible that the prisoners could build such a beautiful bridge so long ago.

The Richmond Bridge

The oldest operating Chapel in Australia

After Richmond, we drove over to Sorell fruit farm. It cost $8 for an adult and $3.50 for a child to pick strawberries. Late Oct was the season for strawberries. Had we come later, it would be the season for cherries.

At the strawberry lanes

 

Mr H & X sat out on this because we had a recent strawberry picking experience in Korea and mainly because, X was sleeping

The weather was erratic and rained suddenly. We were done with our picking and returned to the farm. We ordered the waffles with ice cream.

It was so good that X kept asking for more helpings

Merchandise at Sorell Fruit Farm

Interesting sauce… (it cost $14 at Sorell and $8 at Eureka farm!)

Interesting jams such as Tayberry

The quaint fruit farm

We continued the drive to Freycinet Marine Farm. It was a long drive away. The road was winding, long and the lack of coastal scenery made the 2 hours’ drive feel longer than it was. It was pretty winding, so much so that X kept crying. After 15 minutes, I suspected that he was car sick and prepped a plastic bag. I was right. After 10 minutes, he vomited a little and was calmer after that.

We had a late lunch at Freycinet Marine Farm. It was more like a shack but we were happy with the selection.

Fresh oysters ($15), Calamari ($15), Oysters baked in kilpatrick style ($20), Scallops with bread roll ($15)

 

We ended up buying some fresh scallops with the intention of cooking scallops porridge for the boys’ dinner.

Many, many fresh scallops at $11

From lunch, we drove to Freycinet National Park. We decided to skip the 1.5hours return walk to the Wineglass Bay lookout. The weather was erratic and we did not want to be caught in the rain, on steep slopes with 2 kids. The nice folks at the Marine Farm had suggested that we visit Cape Tourville instead.

We checked out Sleepy Bay on the drive up to Cape Tourville.

From the boardwalk at Cape Tourville

It was an easy 15min boardwalk which we took an hour to finish because we were taking photos, admiring the view and going round in circles after X. It was so windy that I thought I would be blown off the boardwalk. I had to keep my hat on so that my hair would not fly in all directions.

It was 530pm when we were done with and drove over to Bicheno’s Diamond Island Resort.

The room was nice and the owners were very hospital

The little owners, Ella & Mia, were very friendly and came by to play with Z too. I liked how open (yet enclosed) the field was and how there was a trampoline with the playground too.

We headed out to Sea Life Centre (5 minutes’ drive) for dinner.

Seafood platter for 1 at $30

Pasta, $20We managed to return in time by 8pm to wait out for the penguins to return to their rookery. We saw 11 penguins before calling it a night. It was simply too freezing to stay outdoors.