Around the Studio

Blueboat, away.

On Sunday night we returned from an amazing adventure, our Blueboat Christmas Party in Tasmania. It went a little like this…

Our Friday evening arrival saw a treasure hunt for the nearest bottle shop, the establishment of our seating arrangement in the grandma-gold people mover and the discovery of a beautiful beach house that would be our home for the next couple of days.

After a quick look around the house and shotgunning our rooms, it was straight down to the beach with a cold drink (and of course our cameras) in hand. A swim for the brave, a feast of pizzas, star gazing though the telescope and a few games of pool ensured everyone had a sound night’s sleep, listening to the waves rolling in onto the beach.

An early rise (Sanna and Mark even managed to squeeze in a swim) on Saturday morning meant we had plenty of time to have a look around the Salamanca markets before we boarded the ferry bound for MONA…

Wow. I do love a good gallery or museum, but I’ve never spent 7 hours in one and wanted to go straight back the next day. What an amazing experience. We won’t ruin it for you if you haven’t been, and if you have, you’ll know exactly what we’re talking about. So many amazing, challenging and thought provoking pieces to take in.

A mid-MONA intermission occurred spontaneously when we all (almost – Fiona couldn’t draw herself away) happened to appear at the restaurant at the same time… must be the shared love of food. It was great to discuss what we’d seen so far, what shocked us, what we loved, what we hated. Everyone had started at different points in the museum to it was exciting to share our experience and get a glimpse of what was to come.

A 6pm we boarded our return ferry. The people mover transported (big thanks to Mark, the designated driver) a very sleepy bunch of Blueboaters back to the beach house. After a cold drink we were all ready to go again, excitedly preparing for dinner (love of food, again). Our very own master chef Andrew prepared the biggest piece of beef I have ever seen, and Sal whipped up an amazing range of salads (please remember, this is being written by the girl who orders ‘bird n brie, no salad’ on burger Fridays, so, it’s a big call). We all very much enjoyed sitting around the dinner table sharing our thoughts from the day over a delicious dinner with an equally high standard of company.

On Sunday we awoke to a great morning view, a BBQ breakfast of bacon and eggs, fresh fruit with yoghurt and (amazing!) muffins straight from the oven – much needed fuel for the local car boot sale. Diamonds among the rough included a proper yellow raincoat (snagged by Alicia for 50c) and a beautifully illustrated copy of Snow White by Dick Bruna; Iris can’t decide wether the crying gnomes or the happy gnomes are cuter. After about 10 minutes we had made our way around the entirety of the car boot sale and headed back to the beach house.

With LOTS of left over energy from the car boot sale, we decided to take a walk along the beach, around the point and back to the house. Having only packed a pair of platform boots, I planned to walk along the beach in bare feet to where the rocks began, at which point I would turn back. Well well. Iris, who only had a pair of thongs for walking in, and I reached the rocks and decided to take on the challenge. Then we went up the hill, through miles of waist-high wild grass and along a shelly beach (which was one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen). It wasn’t until the house was in sight that Chris had to piggy back me a couple of meters across some prickly weeds.

A lunch of left overs, one last beer by the beach and a good scrub of the sand off our feet meant it was time to head off to the airport and hop on the plane home. We arrived back in Melbourne at 7pm,  and I must admit I did feel a bit of separation anxiety as I walked away from the group after we did our all-hands-in ‘go team’ routine in the arrivals terminal.

Lucky it was back to work right after a good night’s sleep!

A big thanks to Sal and Mark for such an amazing celebration, and to all of the Blueboat team for so many laughs and good times.

Here are just a couple of my photos. Search our hash tag (#BbinTAS) on Instagram to browse the rest of our adventure.