Category Archives: Cars

More wine tasting on Day 5, this time to Goaty Hill, a winery which was suggested to us the previous day.

Lovely vineyard but I didn’t personally like the taste of their wines.

We dropped in to the Tamar Ridge winery next door, a much larger winery with a much more humble wine tasting room but this guy knew his wines and damn the wines were good. We bought boxes full at this place.

One of many painted cows at the Ashgrove Cheese factory.

Cheese!

We bought a whole lot of tasting packs, most of us agreed their wasabi cheese was the winner.

Despite being full on cheese we still made it to etc. cafe for a pie. We spotted this in the car park.

Suga and I at a raspberry farm, which was our next stop.

And our last stop was the House of Anvers chocolate factory. At this stage we were jst too full to enjoy the chocolate on offer haha.

Later that night i was suggested that we try Tasmania’s best Chinese Restaurant, which had won awards for the land’s best wine list.

Flaming bombe alaska.

Being Chinese. Christina and I had reservations about how good the food was going to be. What made it even trickier was that we settled for the banquet, and as we expected, they served up food aimed primarily at an Australian audience. Using fresh Tasmanian ingredients but cooking them with some traditional Chinese flavours. I could see what they were trying to do but in my books they failed miserably (overcooking the scallops and salmon was a real shame). In any case we had a blast and lots of laughs (as well as great wine!).

Velo wines run by a guy who was a former cycling Olympian and Tour de France competitor.

Nath wasn’t up for checking out the Targa so he headed out for a drive on his own. Turns out some vineyards in the Tamar region were very close to our hotel so we thought we’d check a few of them out before heading out to catch the Targa.

10am wine testing smashed me hard haha. Bought a few wines here to take home.

Moores Hill vineyard was next, recommended by the guy at Velo.

Upon entry we were greeted by an old weimaraner male. Suga went straight for the belly rub…

…which absolutely wasted him and put him into some sort of trance.

Haha!

Funny guy.

Spotted this painting inside, it turns out it’s the painting used on their wine labels.

The late harvest riesling was the pick of the bunch, like sweet nectar, we bought a box!

MX-5 hanging the tail out on the Longford street course.

Cam captured every car on film.

We got the best possible spot facing 2 consecutive corners to watch the Longford street course which saw cars rip it up over a very tight 2km run through town streets. Right at the front but we failed to bring folding seats, or shade (massive sunnie marks on our faces after this day!). It was pretty obvious some guys were out there just to have fun. Beeping horns and waving hands for the spectators and letting the tail hang right out for lots of oohs and aahhhs. As expected, the fast guys were so composed they made the 2 corners look easy, slow and baby butt smooth.

Chris.

Spotted this Daytona at Chris and Cam’s hotel carpark.

Suga parked up next to one of my many dream cars.

Later that night we hit the Pizza Pub.

Much belly laughter was had once more haha.

Christina was pronouncing “Launceston” in a funny Asian accent which cracked us up for the whole trip (lots of “an dennnn”‘s over the CB’s too haha).

On day 3 we headed to the small town of Sheffield to watch some Targa action. Christina spotted this cute alpaca on the side of the road and had to have a cuddle!

New Polo GTI – it turns out that Lilydale was a lunch stop for all competitors so we spent the day there just checking out all the cars in the competition. Hearing and seeing these cars up close was an awesome experience.

Race spec Porsche roadster.

How nice are these wheels?! I’ve love some for my Golf.

APR Golf R sporting some crazy retro graphics. Dean (driver) was nice enough to take a time out and chat to the boys.

All caged up inside.

New RAYS VR.G2 wheels on this Audi TT. So much quality JDM performance gear everywhere, even on the European cars.

Rotary powered NB. Had to be heard.

Just Jap 400R.

Donut King R35.

Pressure was on these guys to win once again. Hearing this car launch off the next leg of the race sent a shiver down my spine.

Glenny’s factory backed RX8.

We followed some cars after lunch to the start of their next leg. This STI had to be pushed to start.

Tasmania’s a pretty place. All you have to do is look up and away to see spectacular views like this.

Not wanting to miss out on all the action Captain Nath took us to some more twisties.

Locals shot this sign up!

Again, beautiful views.

Mr. Wombat. On the way back to the hotels we spotted a huge Tasmanian Devil statue on the side of the road. We thought we’d check it out.

Pretty side on.

Hillarious front on! – There were heaps of Kangaroos. All very friendly.

Spotted Quoll.

The keeper brought out little Maggie, a baby wombat and Christina fell in love.

So did Cam – for the next few days, many more Cam and Maggie jokes ensued.

Random shot of Chris’s sexy headlights.

Chris and Cam – later that night we headed to Hallams for quality Tasmanian Seafood.

Jason and Nath.

Suga and I. Every night was similar – great company, great wine and food, random Porsche guys (most of the time wearing their cashmere jumpers around their shoulders for that Porsche look) and much belly laughter!

Mornay FTW.

Again, so full, bursting at the seams!