Monday
As Guilia had to work it was off with Simon and Alison for us. They picked us up at 10 am and we headed off to New Norfolk, where the first place they took us to was the old lunatic asylum, we weren't too sure whether they were trying to tell us something or not! However the asylum turned out to be a very early barracks building and we were able to walk around the judge's house as well, where we saw the oldest vine in Australia, supposedly. Since seeing that one I have been told of two others that lay claim to that particular honour.
After a brief tour we were off to the salmon ponds , which is where the first salmon and trout ova were brought to Australia, there is a charming little museum there of fishing memorabilia. We had lunch in the pancake restaurant with Romy who joined us there and a jolly time was had by all.
After lunch we headed to Redlands on whose estate the salmon ponds had been built. I forgot to mention the five kilometres of irrigation channels dug entirely by convicts. Redlands was a house and estate built by the illegitimate son of George the third . The house and garden were charming and the garden I particular was full of European species. The great highlight of the day was that we saw four duck billed platypus in the wild. Two in the river Plenty at the salmon ponds and two in the frog pond at Redlands.
Rosemarie was more than highly delighted.
The bakery at Redlands is the oldest convict built bakery in Australia and normally they use it to produce about fourteen loaves a day. However, as our luck would have it it was shut for the day due to fire restrictions. There is in fact a very serious fire just outside Hobart at Molesworth.
Redlands is also becoming a distillery and we were lucky enough to get a two minute tour of the distillery just before we left to head home.
On the way home were taken to see a church and two orphanages built by Governor Arthur for the convicts which used to overlook the government farm. All in all quite a sad place as children were taken there at the age of three separated from their mothers.
Simon and Alison had invited us back to their place for an evening barbecue and several other members of the choir joined us for what was a great evening. Quite a bit of the conversation dwelt on how many Platypus  people had seen in the wild and four seemed to be a very high number. Rosemarie was clearly able to claim bragging rights.
As the evening drew on our luggage was transferred to Rob's car and he took us to our new digs back in the same road where a previous host had lived. A great day full of history, politics and friendship.