Hi ,
Here I am sitting in the Launceston Airport, Tasmania awaiting my flight back to Melbourne. An overcast, but very still day with a Tassie chill. Easy to live with as a Wellingtonian. What a great place. If it is on your “bucket
list”, then I strongly suggest you try hard to get here. Some amazing architecture on a lot of original turn of the Century (the previous Century) buildings. All looked after immaculately and with pride. And the locals are very friendly, willing to help and ensure your visit is one of great memories.
Friday afternoon was spent at the National Automobile Museum of Tasmania where heaps of Cars and Motorcycles were on display. A particularly cool part was the “Hall of Muscle” featuring a number of Holdens, blue badges and even a few Valiants. Heaps of memorabilia for sale as well.
Saturday was spent touring around the region a bit. I went to Devonport to view the Don River Railway. A twenty minute ride into the local flora and fauna travelling in period carriages from an earlier time in history. I always take my hat off to these organisations, as they too, like our Rugby Club, would not survive without Volunteers.
Saturday night was a Motel in Deloraine – now there is a cold place. No breeze, but really cold. It was at Dinner that evening I met Joey (8), brother Jaeger (12) and Father Dan Cartridge from Geeveston near Hobart. They were in town for a Schoolboys Rugby Tournament. I was taken back a bit, as I thought only NRL and AFL would be in the area. Apparently Rugby is reasonably strong, which is great for Tasmania and
Australia.
Sunday was spent at Symmons Plains Raceway, the original intent of this journey. I spent the day with Errol and Barb whom I met on Friday evening. Both from Invercargill now living in Cromwell. Errol is a Chevy/Holden man and Barb is related to the late Peter Brock – so I figured I was a in
safe territory.
Race 10 on Saturday had Brown, 1st, Heimgartner 2nd and van Gisbergen 3rd (Kiwis 2 & 3) – all in Camaro’s.
Race 11 had Feeney 1st, Koteski 2nd and Brown 3rd – 3 Camaros. Van Gisbergen was involved in an incident and registered a DNF.
Race 12 saw Brown another 1st, Feeney 2nd, Kosteki 3rd and van Gisbergen 4th after qualifying 9th. So that
gave Coca-Cola Racing (Erebus) 1st and 3rd, with Red Bull Ampol Racing 2nd and 4th.
An item of interest to the Purists, is that Greg Murphys’s Son raced in the Porsches with a 2nd, a 4th and a 1st. There were two other
Kiwis doing well in the race; Giltrap and Stitchbury (Son of the late Ashley Stitchbury), names to note for the future.
On our Rugby front, on an atrocious day we had some pretty good results with the Premiers taking out the high flying Upper Hutt Rams. From what I saw there was almost more
umbrellas than people – almost!
The Premier 2’s continued there travel with a win over UH Rams.
The
Colts had a narrow loss to HOBM and the U85’s seem like they left the Rugby Ball at home and scored 87 for none. The Quackers must have been knackered after that ordeal.
Our Reserves had a win over our Pare-Plim Neighbours.
There was some interesting results in Super Rugby. Most Teams performed as you would expect, with a good result from the Highlanders over the Rebels and the Force over the Brumbies. The Canes are getting closer to the Chiefs. I think we will be in the right place come the playoffs.
