Today was cold, wet and windy in Northern Tasmania, so activities were limited to food related options.

Our first stop was The Tea Equation just outside of Launceston. The very friendly lady told us it was started by her mother and step-father as a hobby, but has grown faster than they expected. They take genuine Tasmania-grown tea from the Huon Valley and make up various blends. At our hotel, there is a daily compliment of two English Breakfast and two Earl Gray tea bags. I am not a fan of Earl Gray, but the English Breakfast is very nice.

We decided then to go for a drive to Devonport, a bit over 100 km from Launceston. What else is there to do on a day like this? Devonport is the Tasmania terminus of the Spirit of Australia ferry that links Tasmania to the mainland.

Not far from Devonport is Anvers Chocolate Factory. This was started by an immigrant from Belgium in the 19th Century. The picture shows the various types of cacao bean that are used in various stylers of chocolate making, as well as some moulds.

It was lunch time, so we sat down at the cafe there and had a completely chocolate free lunch. I had a toasted turkey and cranberry sandwich, while Margaret had a toasted ham and cheese sandwich. That alone was worth the admission price as they say (admission is free, but you get the idea). Lunch was choc free, but we did buy some merchandise to make sure it was up to required quality standards.

I notice that today is Day 6, and that means we are over half way through our holiday. Tomorrow we move on to St Helens for one night.

Today we managed to buy some scissors. When we went through security at Tamworth Airport, they found not one pair but two pairs of kindy scissors in Margaret’s carry on bag. The security operators thought is was a farce that they had to confiscate them- what would we do with kindy scissors, do some violent decoupage? You would’t believe how many times we have said in the last week, “Scissors would be handy for that.”