Internationally Acclaimed Chefs Savour Tasmania

Tetsuya Wakuda will team with three other highly regarded international chefs during Savour Tasmania (27-31 May). Local and visiting epicures will feast through a series of four dinners.

Emmanuel Stroobant of Saint Pierre in Singapore will cook at the acclaimed Henry Jones Art Hotel ($160 per person) on 27 May. Tetsuya’s Taste of Tasmania dinner ($185 per person) will be held at the Meadowbank Estate on 28 May. Two British-based chefs, Shane Osborn (the first Australian to win a Michelin star, head chef at Pied a Terre, London) and Marcus Eaves (head chef at London’s L’Autre Pied, a sister of Pied à Terre) will unleash their combined skills at Marque IV on 29 May ($160 per person). On Saturday 30 May the four chefs will combine their skills at the Henry Jones. The Field to Feast theme will put the spotlight onto the true star of Savour Tasmania – the quality of Tasmanian produce – and temporarily transform the acclaimed waterfront hotel into a high altar for foodies ($220 per person).

Savour Tasmania will include Home Cook Master Classes, as well as a Red Wine Weekend with public tastings at the Long Gallery in Salamanca Place on Saturday 30 May.
www.savourtasmania.com.au

Fly and Cruise Bruny Island

Tasair and Bruny Island Charters have jumped into bed. The Bruny Island by air and sea tour begins at Hobart airport then passes over South Arm and Opossum Bay Iron Pot lighthouse, the point where the Sydney Hobart yachts turn to make their approach to the race’s finish line.

The views are a suitably thrilling intro to Bruny Island Charters, a multi-award winning three-hour eco-adventure cruise where sea caves, seals, dolphins and sea eagles, the bonhomie of the crew and the power of the boats can feature in equal parts. The sea and air trip begins at 9am and finishes around 5pm. It costs $385 per person (minimum two people). Morning tea and lunch are included. The tour runs from October until May each year.
www.tasair.com.au

 

Autumn at Port Arthur

Port Arthur may have been a prison but it was not short of aesthetic. It includes long boulevards of oaks and elm trees. During autumn the reds and golds of the leaves are quite the contrast to the brutality that characterised convict life. In addition to the colours of autumn Port Arthur Port Arthur hosts special events over Easter and the Heritage Festival in May.

During Easter a series of three 20-minute plays– A Boy’s Life, The Man Who Threw a Stone and The Shingle Strike – will each run three times daily from Good Friday to 17 April.

This year the Tasmanian Heritage Festival will celebrate the theme ‘Water: our island's life-force’. The festival will be marked at the Port Arthur Historic Site on Sunday 17 May with two special tours; Port Arthur's Dockyards and Water at Port Arthur.

In colonial Australia, only three dockyards used convict labour to build both the yards and the ships – the Port Arthur Dockyard was one of them, and once the biggest in Van Diemans Land. This special tour delves into the significance of the convict-built ships used during transportation. The tour will be led by Julia Clark, who led the development of the innovative and award-winning interpretation of the Dockyard.

Another tour, led by Port Arthur archeologist Greg Jackman, will explore water as a source of life, power and industry at Port Arthur. It will include the revealing Convict Water Supply Trail. These events are included in the cost of site entry. Family passes from $62 (two adults and up to six children).
www.portarthur.org.au

Makeover on Flinders Island

Ken Stockton and partner Carolyn Dawe took over Healing Dreams in December 2008 and renamed the property Vistas on Trousers Point.

There are 40,000 acres of national park on three sides of the eight deluxe suites. Views to Trousers Point Beach complete the square. The property’s closest neighbours are Mount Strzelecki, Flinders Island's highest peak, and the prolific local wildlife.

The wallabies are an easy going lot and never rush to make judgements about visitors who spend an afternoon in the spa on a viewing deck. Massages are also available here. And for those who need to justify the hours spent with a masseuse or in the spa there is a gym, mountain bikes and fishing gear to play with first.

Ken is a chef and together the couple runs Vistas Cafe during the day. Come evening Ken rustles up the toque blanche for Chappell's Restaurant which traffics intimate fine dining and views of Mount Chappell Island. House specials include a $49 three-course set menu and a $70 six-course degustation menu.

Much of the food comes with local flavour. Organic fruit and vegies are grown on the property. The lamb is from down the road. The seafood comes from the preposterously rich clean and blue waters seen from all the suites.

An introductory rate of $145 per night per suite (for two people) including continental breakfast is running until Easter (2009). The price includes use of all facilities and a welcome drink and fruit plate in the room. After Easter the rates is$185 per night with breakfast.

A Produce Day is held from 9am-1pm on Sundays. Local foods as well as the works of the island’s artists are for sale.
www.vistasontrouserspoint.com.au  

Tassie’s Cheese Monopoly
Tasmania’s cheese-makers maintained their monopoly on top honours at the annual Australian Grand Dairy Awards in February when Heidi Farm’s gruyere was judged Grand Champion Cheese for the second time. No cheese from outside Tasmania has won the top prize since the awards were initiated in 1999.
Previous Grand Champion cheeses have been: 2007, Heidi Farm Raclette; 2006, King Island Dairy Black Label double brie; 2005, Heidi Farm Raclette; and in 2004, King Island Dairy Endeavour Blue.

Bay of Fires Workshops
In 2009 the award-winning Bay of Fires Lodge will, for the first time, open for the entire year. As part of this the lodge will host various accommodation and workshop packages.

From 21-24 May a four-day Yoga and Meditation workshop will be hosted by respected Sydney based yogini Muriel Corcoran. The workshop includes daily classes in yoga and meditation, three nights’ accommodation, return transfers between Launceston and the Bay of Fires Lodge and all meals and beverages – including Tasmanian wines at dinner. It costs $1200 per person.

For course two, acclaimed Australian photographer Grenville Turner will lead a Landscape and Documentary Photography course from 28-31 May. While participants will be based at the Lodge this course will also allow for close up encounters with the natural beauty of north eastern Tasmania. The photography workshop costs $1200 per person for 3 days and includes:

• Instruction from Turner
• 3 night’s accommodation at Bay of Fires Lodge
• Return transfers between Launceston and Bay of Fires Lodge
• All meals and beverages (including an allocation of Tasmanian wines at dinner)
• National Park Pass
• Use of a Gore-tex jacket during your stay

www.anthology.travel

Fruit Pickers’ Huts Transformed
Visitors to the Huon Valley south of Hobart shouldn’t need a new reason to visit the Hartzview Vineyard. The property including a three bedroom homestead and views to the Hartz Mountains are as fetching as the cafe’s floor to ceiling windows and its menu (The $19 Harztview Vineyard platter consists of freshly made dips, cured meats, relish, Tasmanian smoked salmon, marinated olives,fetta, olive pest served on a garden salad with tangy honey-mustard dressing, freshly made bread and crackers).

But the restoration of seven historic fruit-pickers' huts at the Harztview Vineyard has recently been completed.The property might now grow pinot noir grapes but it produced small fruits in the earlier part of the 1900s.

The oldest timber hut dates to the 1920s. The youngest of them were built in the 1940s. Known as the fruit pickers’ village they were temporary homes for not only pickers but also Italian prisoners of war who were also drafted in to pick fruit.

The site also includes a meat shed, wash house and packing shed dating from the 1920s and the huts have been listed by the Tasmanian Heritage Council. Owners of Hartzview, Anthea and Rob Patterson, will develop an interpretive trail for the Tasmanian Heritage Council listed huts (The huts line a 19th-century convict-built road between Cygnet and Woodbridge). In the meantime visitors to the vineyard are welcome to wander through a free self-guided walk. The huts were re-opened in February (2009).
www.hartzview.com.au

New Penguin Tour
Hundreds of little penguins do their thing at sunset on one of the Tasman Peninsula’s best beaches near Pirates Bay. Listen to the calls of penguins by night and watch as they amble into their burrows to feed their hungry chicks. The informative guided tour costs: $20 for adults, $12.50 for children (4-16) and $60 for a family (2 adults and up to 3 children). Tours depart every evening but are subject to weather conditions and minimum numbers.
www.sealife.com.au

April Fun in Targa

Targa Tasmania is described as the world’s largest tarmac rally. In 2009 the 18th Targa Tasmania (28 April – 3 May) has again attracted a head-turning field of modern and classic cars.

Targa Tasmania was first held in 1992 and every year an impressive stable of vehicles, from 1920s classics to the latest offerings from the world’s premier performance car manufacturers take to the city, coastal and mountain roads of Tassie.

But Targa Tasmania produces more than just thrills for competitors. The people of the state have also become enamoured with this iconic tourist event. For many, this event is not a competition as much as a cavalcade of motoring history.

This year’s Targa begins with a prologue at George Town on 28 April. The event proper commences in Launceston on April 29. The first four days are based out of Australia’s third oldest city. Then Targa zings to the west coast for an overnight stop at the harbour-side village of Strahan. The final day competitors wend through mountains and forests to Hobart.
www.targa.org.au

TasVacations is the official accommodation provider for Targa Tasmania: www.tasvacations.com

Antarctic Midwinter Festival
The 9th Antarctic Midwinter Festival (19 - 28 June) in Hobart extols the historical and living links between Tasmania and Antarctica. A ten-day program of exhibitions, tours, social events, lectures and displays explores the world of science and exploration in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean.  With the assistance of the Australian Antarctic Division, Antarctic Tasmania, The CSIRO, the Centre for Cooperative Research at the University of Tasmania the festival brings a breath of ice and ocean to Australia’s Antarctic port city, Hobart.

Popular events include:

• The Huskies Picnic in St David’s Park – Antarctic sled racing and live entertainment in one of Hobart’s most grand heritage parks – Saturday, 20 June
• The Longest Night Film Festival at the State Cinema – featuring the Tasmanian debut of Warner Herzog’s ‘Encounters at the End of the World’ and Anne Aghion’s  ‘Ice People’.  19-28 June

Almost all festival events are free.  Pre-booking is not required, though tickets for the Longest Night Film Festival do sell quickly and bookings are advised.
www.antarctic-tasmania.info

Two Autumn Short Break Packages:

Two nights at Old Cable Station Colonial Retreat from $258* per person
Package includes: Two nights at the Old Cable Station in Stanley (with ensuite room); two days car hire*; a three-course gourmet dinner at Cable Station restaurant and continental breakfast daily.
This ‘edge of the world’ Cable Station Retreat was built in 1935 and has views of Bass Strait.

*conditions apply, subject to availability. Price is based on low season per person - twin share, and land content only. ^Car hire is based on economy manual; rate is all inclusive, full conditions available on request. Valid for travel until 31.08.09. Valid for sale until 29.08.09. More information

Three nights at Huon Bush Retreats from $461* per person
Package includes; three nights at Huon Bush Retreats - Huonville (studio self-catering eco cabin); three days car hire*; full breakfast hamper daily; one gourmet dinner platter for two; one bottle of Tasmanian wine; Huon Valley Food Trail booklet and a  two-course lunch at Home Hill Winery including wine tasting.
Huon Bush Retreats is just 50 minutes’ drive from Hobart. The Huon Valley is home to cool-climate vineyards and niche food producers.

*conditions apply, subject to availability. Price is based on low season per person - twin share, and land content only. Valid for travel until 31.08.09. ^Car hire is based on economy manual; rate is all inclusive, full conditions available on request. Valid for sale until 29.08.09. More information

 

Media Contact:
Sonia Rendigs at Media Moguls: (03) 9836 2167
sonia@mediamoguls.com.au

Download: High-resolution images from Tourism Tasmania's Visual Library.

Check the Events Tasmania website for upcoming events:
www.eventstasmania.com

For further information:
travelmedia.tourismtasmania.com.au
www.discovertasmania.com