Day 2

I woke up this morning after a solid 10 hour sleep. The morning was beautiful. It was fairy warm and sunny and I had a nice breakfast with my host Anne as well as her mother, Claire. Their house is on a nice hill in Kingston, just outside of Hobart. Looking out the window there is a lemon tree surrounded by wild roses everywhere. Everything was perfect until the worst thing happened to me….I plugged in my hair straightener and it sizzled and smoked until the red light went out on it! Anyone who knows me well knows that this is my worst nightmare! The voltage converter that I picked up from Canadian Tire prior to leaving failed on me. Oh well, on the flip side Gary got a nice a lesson on hair appliances  while we had to shop for a new one. The sales lady at Cyber Hair got a real kick out of us as Anne took many photos of Gary and I with all the hair products (photos to follow). 

After breakfast Kathryn, Gary and I along with Anne and Kathryn's host Gerry spent the morning at a local newspaper 'Huon News' for a quick tour and photo op for the paper next week. It was very nice to see. Later we ventured an hour south to the Temperate Rain Forest. Some of the Huon Pine trees here are 2500 years old!

For lunch we ate pie at a small cafe and then met up with the Montana GSE team that are also touring here. Surprisingly one of them works as a ski hill equipment supplier that supplies quite a bit of the machinery to Loch Lomand where I ski back home…small world!

I look forward to seeing the rest of the girls tomorrow to hear about their day with host families. Everything is amazing here and everyone is very friendly. The local Rotary clubs have been wonderful with making such a great itinerary for us. Tomorrow morning we do our first presentation to the breakfast club at Salamanica Rotary Club. Wish us well!