the Bridestowe Lavender Estate

One of the highlights of our short Tassie gateway was the visit to the Bridestowe Lavender Estate.  

Upon arrival at the Hertz help desk, the most humiliated thing happened: Bertrand found his driver licence has JUST EXPIRED on that day and I didn't have the full licence at that time (and even not now).  It was a weekend which made renewing the licence impossible ,  and we had to face the fact that we were unable to drive to the Lavender farm by ourselves..

When we arrived at the hotel we asked the concierge hoping to find if there is any group tours to the Lavender farm, and not surprisingly , we were told there was no other way to get there except we have our own transport, But fortunately the concierge gave us someone's business card, saying that he could drop us wherever we want and he charges cheaper than a taxi. 

So our self driving tour became a private guided tour. 

Our local guide was an old, tall gentleman who owns a luxury car rental business. Driving through the way to the Lavender estate he told us many of the best kept secrets , such as ' the Cradle mountain only has one clear day out of a week'..(and now you know it too!)

After 40 minutes' cows and sheep watching along the hilly road , we finally got to see the beautiful sights I had been wishing to see for months. Spanning over 260 acres of lavender fields, it is the largest lavender farm in the southern hemisphere. Clouds blanked the sky, which is a bit disappointing. But half an hour later the sun peek out to say hello , enabled me to capture some of the beautiful pictures.. Lavenders  were in their full bloom in January but we only saw a few tourists coming from interstate. And this is why we love here, the less touched land.

So now you know where my facebook profile picture come from !

The shop offers a great range of lavender products, from lavender oil to scented soap.

And here are the  iconic lavender teddy bears staring at me, so I bought two home. Nowadays you can hardly buy these bears ever since the Taiwanese pop star Show Luo's tourism campaign for Tasmania became famous and, after another celebrity showed off this bear in Weibo, it became the most popular souvenir from Tasmania.  Believe it or not, they were sold out almost everywhere.. 

And yes, please make sure you have an ice cream break - I don't normally eat lavender-flavoured things but the lavender ice cream here has definitely perked me up..

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