CONGRATS to yourself young lady!! Can't wait to meet Max in September.

Thanks everyone, he is of course, georgeous and his sister and brothers are loving him (a little too much!!!). C x

Just another HUGE CONGRATS from me!!!


So happy for you that little Max is here ....love to you all , isn't it fab with a housefull of kids I cannot believe how fast the first few months go ...Heidi is 8 months already xxx

Take Care

Zoe x

Hi All, Signed with a different Estate Agent this morning....so hopefully our house will be on rightmove.co.uk early next week.... Cannot believe how much properties are being advertised / sold for compared to this time last year! But i guess things were getting crazy with property prices and that a big drop was always going to happen!

Keep your fingerscrossed for us...we want to get to Tas this year!

take care all
Cathy

hi!!
are there good job possibilities for engineers in Tasmania? - industries/mines/factories etc?

Is it expensive to go over to Oz continent for holidays?

cheers

Hi Cathy

Wishing you lots of luck with the new estate agent, hope you get that quick sale

I know what you mean about property prices, over the last 10 years they have just climbed up and up and that was not going to last forever but I hope that theywill start to level out now and no more dropping!

Sam

Hi there

Not really sure about the job opportunities, I know there is some mining work in Tas but don't know much about it really, hopefully someone who knows more will come along to help!

Going to the mainland is not too expensive, although it does add up if you are a family. There are lots of cheap deals with Virgin Blue and Jetstar who frequently have sales, you can get to Melbourne for about $40 if you take advantage of the sales, flying further to Perth or Cairns will obviously cost much more.

Hope that helps

Sam

There are some big mines up at Burnie and Beaconsfield. And there are a couple of ore mines up north too. I'm not too sure about job opportunities though, but a lot of the jobs are word of mouth. It would be worth you coming for a visit and visiting the companies for yourself and getting your CV splashed about. I think there is an online mines news website, but I don't know what it's called you may have to do a bit of searching on the internet, it might give you a few websites or contact numbers.
My other half is a Diesel Fitter and was offered a job in a gold mine just outside Melbourne and offered to pay for flights and accommodation, but we had only just arrived and he didn't want to leave me on my own. It was really good money too. We have a friend who worked as a welder in a mine in WA, but it was really hot and you were expected to work 12 hour shifts, it was really hard work and you were expected to work extra hours. Although the money was really good. A lot of the local single Tassie guys have gone to the WA worked in the gold mines for 3 years solid and earned enough money to buy a house out right. So if your single it's great.

Good luck Cathy, I hope you get to Tassie this year.

Hi
I have just booked flights from Brisbane to Hobart first week in March.
I arrive in Feb from Scotland and have been keen to see Tasmania for ages.
Plan to hire a car and see as much as possible, only have 1 week.
Any reccommendations for 'must do's and 'sees' would be appreciated.
Also, any reasonable car hire co's, as this is very much a budget trip for myself and daughter.
Cheers Alison

Try not to book your car hire from the airport, they slap on extra tax to your bill. If you can get a taxi and ask him to take you to a car hire place in town, he may know someone that does cheap car hire. Tassie is very little and you'll find that if you ask someone will know someone that can do it cheaper! Failing that get the taxi to take you straight to your hotel and speak to the hotel staff about hiring a car. You might want to head into Hobart for the first day and have a look around therefore saving you a day's car hire. I would definately arrange a trip up to Mt.Wellington if you can see the top, if not don't bother as you will not see anything. Then take your car up the east coast taking in all the little towns on the way up to the north of the Island, then make your way across to Cradle Mountain, it's totally breathtaking, you can't come to Tas without visiting Cradle Mountain. You can then make your way back down to Hobart on the west coast taking in the lovely places on the way back. I would advise you to book your accommodation in Hobart for when you arrive and the day before you leave, as it can get very booked up. The rest you should be able to get accommodation, except maybe Cradle mountain, it can be really busy during Feb. So you may want to phone ahead.

After saying all that I'm now thinking that you might not be able to do all that in 1 week! I guess you'll just have to miss some stuff out, it's a real shame you only have one week, there is sooo much to see and do. What ever route you choose you will definitely enjoy your stay.

thanks Sam we're not expecting a stampede of viewers - but fingerscrossed we'll get some interest! x

Thanks Kerry! if it's meant to be hopefully it'll be this year! x

We booked our hire car online and picked it up at the airport and it was very competitive price wise (although as it was over a year ago so i'm not sure if prices have gone up). The people we used were doing special deals at the time - and we got a free upgrade on our car.... so it might be worth the original poster just checking out the car hire firms available at the airport anyway - and then comparing them to any local firms....Sometimes for the sake of a few dollars it can be a lot more convenient to just get the car and get going straight away. But i'm also sure some of the local firms would "drop off" a car for collection at the airport - that's what the firm we used when in Perth did for us.

Here's some useful sites just to get an idea of possible costs :-

www.drivenow.com.au/hobart

www.airportrentacar.com.au

www.rentforless.com.au

the one we used ourselves only in Tasmania was :-

www.thrifty.com.au


Good luck with planning your trip - we didn't see anywhere near what we hoped we would do - we ran out of time... If i had a week to travel around again though i would definitely try to go to the North of the Island and see some of the East Coast..and like Kerry said - a trip to Cradle Mountain would be a big highlight...

Cathy

Wow everyone has lot's of news!!

Kerry, glad things are progressing nicely with the pregnancy, any hint on the sex of the twins yet? You probably wouldn't tell us anyway

Corrinne, congrats on new baby Max!! What a tribe you have now.

Sammy, what a nightmare moving house was for you. Hope it's all settled now.

Travelbug, hope you get a quick sale on your house.

To Everyone a Happy New Year.