【Travel】Barcelona .::The Food::.

The biggest highlight of our short weekend getaway Hobart trip was the Bruny Island.

Here are my tips for those planning a visit:

Start your day early. The one-way driving distance from the Bruny Island ferry terminal to the Cape Bruny Lighthouse on the south end is 90 minutes.
Do not miss a visit to the Get Shucked oyster farm and the Bruny Island Cheese Company.
Wear comfortable shoes for the scenic walks/hiking trails.
Make sure your hired car has the right insurance cover. There are gravel roads throughout the island.
Leave plenty of time for your return ferry. If your car doesn’t fit on the last ferry back, you will have to stay for the night.

We spent a lazy drizzling morning having brunch at Smolt at Salamanca square, and we barely made it to the 1:45pm ferry at Kettering (ferry terminal). No booking is required, just show up at your intended departure time and get ushered to the ferry by the helpful staff. We were lucky to have boarded the top level so we got a better view of the 20-minute ferry ride.

PLAN YOUR RETURN FERRY

We went on a Sunday afternoon. When we got to Kettering at 1:38pm, we were the second car on the top deck (the lower deck was full) for the 1:45pm ferry.

When we got to Bruny Island, we saw a really long queue at the ferry terminal for the ferry ride back… Concerned, we therefore decided to cut our day trip a little shorter by getting back to the ferry terminal about half an hour before the 5:30pm departure time, which we thought would’ve been plenty of time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough…we were also pushed out to the “overflow” area when we got there at 5pm! And the next (and last) ferry was at 7pm…Luckily, we were not in a rush to go anywhere and we had our tablet loaded with movies with us. But still, having to wait 1.5hr for the next (and last) ferry was a bit of a bummer.

Click [here] to see the latest Bruny Island ferry timetable and fares.

Get Shucked Oyster Farm

Ta-da! The Get Shucked oyster farm was one of my most anticipated stops on Bruny Island. Freshly sucked Tasmanian oysters!

A sign with “oyster” in Chinese. Cute handwriting (Google translate?).

The entrance and the outdoor seating area.

There’s a workshop right next to the outdoor dining area. There was no one working there when we visited, but the place looked pretty clean.

There are a few tables and bar seats inside. They also sell various Get Shucked merchandises and oyster related products (e.g. oyster knives, sauces, etc).

Get Shucked is a licensed oyster bar, so if you fancy a glass/bottle of white/cider/beer, you wouldn’t go thirsty.

The only non-oyster options here were their sourdough bread ($4) and hot chips ($6). Here’s a sneak peak of their menu as at (26 October 2014):

In my opinion, fresh oysters are best served naked (without dressing).

Mmm, look at these mouth watering Pacific oysters farmed and cultivated right on the Great Bay at Bruny Island. Definitely a must-have.

What we ordered. Wait…are those mutant oysters on the left!? Haha, they were the “Spring Specials large oysters” that we saw on the blackboard, $3 each.

They are literally as big as an iPhone4S…Surreal. I’d never had oysters that huge before!

Cheers.

Nom….

Honestly, it was a big mouthful and it felt quite weird chewing on an oyster for so long. I much prefer the normal sized ones.

They even have a drive-thru oyster window for a last-minute oyster stop before you leave Bruny Island, how awesome is that.

{Get Shucked}
Website: http://www.getshucked.com.au/

Bruny Island Cheese Company

Mike’s not a cheese eater, so I don’t usually buy cheese home. Luckily, my work colleagues love cheese – I was so happy that I had an excuse to buy some cheese back!

Free cheese tasting. If you love cheese, there is no way that you would walk away without buying any after tasting.

These were the cheeses for sale when I went. They were all beautiful. I particularly loved the Saint (soft, white mould) and Raw Milk C2 (hard, natural rind, raw milk). I also bought a block of Otto (fresh, wrapped in prosciutto), designed to be baked and served gooey and hot. Yum.

Here’s a copy of the menu (as at 26 October 2014). Their names made me grin, how very cute.

They have a dine-in menu on the wall. Although I didn’t get to try it, but I’m sure having a baked Otto here with a glass of red would be amazing!

The dine-in area.

{Bruny Island Cheese Company}
Website: http://www.brunyislandcheese.com.au/

The Neck

I have been looking forward to visiting The Neck ever since we decided to come to Bruny Island. Or should I say, The Neck was the reason why I wanted to come to Bruny Island in the first place.

As you get out of your car, you will see this walkway leading to the beach on the right. The beach is home to local fairy penguins!

Don’t forget these basic penguin watching etiquette. No flash, please!

The end of the walk way looks like this, with “windows” for penguin viewing. They say the best time to visit is at sunset because that’s when the penguins return home. We didn’t get to stay till then since the last ferry was at 7pm and we simply couldn’t make it to the ferry in time with the longer daylight in Aussie Spring.

It would definitely be on my itinerary if I was to stay for a night though.

As you walk out of your car, you will also see a flight of stairs on your left hand side – that’s the lookout for The Neck.

Almost there!

Hello:)

Finally, ladies and gentlemen…I present to you: The Neck. Looking at the isthmus from atop was such a unique sight and it was all the more wonderful with the rugged Adventure Bay waves kept breaking on the beach on the left hand side; and the calm Isthmus Bay water barely moving on the right.

A must-see on Bruny Island.

Happy snap!

Bruny Island Berry Farm

A very welcoming sign.

We actually didn’t buy anything at the Bruny Island Berry Farm so I can’t say much about it. Here are just some photos showing what was on offer on 26 October 2014.

{Bruny Island Berry Farm}
Website: http://www.brunyislandberryfarm.com.au/

Adventure Bay

We didn’t end up walking any trails because of the time and weather. But we did make it to Adventure Bay to have a quick look.

Here’s a quick reference of the driving times for the main tourist attractions (one way) on the island:

Ferry terminal -> Get Shucked: 18 minutes
Ferry terminal -> Bruny Island Cheese Company: 19 minutes (1 minute from Get Shucked)
Ferry terminal -> The Neck: 26 minutes
Ferry terminal -> Bruny Island Berry Farm: 38 minutes
Ferry terminal -> Adventure Bay: 45 minutes
Ferry terminal -> Cape Bruny (Lighthouse): 90 minutes