Back to Australia. This is what greeted us as when we emerged from the big boat. Melbourne. Good trip home.

Reflections on Tasmania:

• In the words of Juan Antonio Samaranch: Best. Holiday. Ever.
• The people aren’t that weird
• Not all the women have mullets
• Everyone waits for the little green man to appear before crossing the street. Row thinks that it’s because people aren’t in a hurry.
• It may be because of their isolation from the rest of humanity, but Tasmanians are very proud. They think that they’ve got something pretty good that the rest of Australia are missing out on. They may not be too far from the truth!
• More people follow the Aussie Rules football than follow Jesus
• Pray for more churches and ministries that will proclaim Jesus: who died for our sins, was buried, was raised from the dead and then appeared. (1 Cor 15:3-6)

Have you missed our Tassie Tour Journal? Check it out here:

• Tassie Tour Journal Day 1
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 2
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 3
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 4
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 5
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 6
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 7
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 8
• Tassie Tour Journal Day 9

Dave + Row. April 07.

ps – we didn’t really sleep in the lifeboat – but the seas were pretty rough…
pps – thanks for joining us on our adventure (what was your favourite day of our holiday???)

Last day in Tasmania. Spent the day in the car. Buying some birthday presents. Eating. This lunch was fantastic. French stick. Cheese. Cascade Ginger Beer and Apple stuff. Killing time in Devonport waiting for the boat. (Coffee freaks – no Starbucks… so we had a coffee that you guys may have approved of!)

We noticed this sign that said there was only one lifeboat. So when we heard the Captain say that the seas had officially got rough and crazy, and having seen the movie about the ‘unsinkable’ Titanic, we decided to sleep IN the lifeboat. Not comfortable. But reassuring.

We left Hobart with some lovely coffee. Shout out to all my coffee snob friends and family (esp Andy M and Guthers… EDIT: + Michelle)

Ross is this little town about 76kms out of Launceston. Quaint. Used to have a women’s prison during the convict days. PS. I heart Row.

Launceston. We’re pretty much over the tourist thing. Went for a walk down some gorge. Water was ugly. Air was nice.

Worst meal of Tassie? Chinese from the food hall in Launceston. Don’t ever, ever, ever, ever buy Chinese from food court… it’s been sitting there all day… what were you thinking David!! Dessert was good. Pancakes. Yum. Here’s a free add for some businesses on Charles Street.

“We preach Christ crucified.” Saw this on a church over the road from the food hall. It made up for the bad meal. Do you know Jesus? Read more here

Today is ANZAC day. Watched the 11am march through the main drag of Hobart. Thankful for sacrifice of Australians. Thankful most of all for Jesus’ sacrifice (1 John 4:10).

Port Arthur. Expensive. Worth it. Tour was great. We’ve enjoyed checking out Heritage buildings, learning about Convicts and becoming better acquainted with 19th Century ‘Justice’. Moved by reflecting on the events of 28th April 1996.

I heart Hobart. Launceston was next on the itinerary. But… we are staying in Hobart one more night. Yes. We’ve taken a stack of Hobart building pics. Here’s a few. 300 was the movie of choice for Wednesday night. Dave: I liked that movie. Row: Why? Dave: The violence. Did you like the movie? Row: Yes. Dave: Why? Row: The violence.

Fantastic sleep-in this morning. (Mental note: don’t get used to them!) Mt Wellington is tall. Mt Wellington is colder the higher you get. Mt Wellington is great. (That was a Haiku if you stretch the rules to 6 syllables/ 12 syllables/ 6 syllables.)

Last Friday I said that there’s no traffic in Tasmania. Now that we’re staying in Hobart – there is some traffic – but not much. It only takes 10 minutes to get right out of the city into Sticksville. That’s pretty cool. Lunch was yum at Home House Winery.

Dinner was yum back in Hobart.

TV sucks. It’s been fun watching a bit each night, but we’re glad we don’t own a TV. A Current Affairs and Today Tonight are funny. I’m not sure they are supposed to be comedic. Laugh. ABC is by far the best channel on Australian TV. We’ve seen some interesting docos and stuff. Hobart is brilliant by night. Don’t get stuck in front of TV. Enjoyed coffee and dessert at Maldini’s at Salamanca. We were the only 20 somethings without trendy mullets.

We had a delicious breakfast before leaving on our road trip from Strahan to Hobart. Row was disappointed that she had to see her breakfast for a second time. The road was crazy crazy zigzaggy for about 100kms of the 260km journey. Good fun!

Shout out to THE GIDEONS! Everywhere we go they have placed Bibles. Thank God for THE GIDEONS – and pray that God would be pleased to bring people from death to life as they read these Bibles.

Salamanca is Hobart’s version of The Rocks – Trendy Heritage Zone.

Took some sweet snaps in Hobart tonight. GUESSING COMPETITION: What is the name of the above church?

Day 4 = Boat day. Cruising in the World Heritage Area on Gordon River.

‘Hell’s Gates’ (top right) is where Macquarie Harbour meets the Ocean. The worst convicts were sent to Sarah Island (inside Macquarie Harbour) between 1822 and 1833. The conditions were harsh and many convicts considered it worse than a death sentence. I do think that these ‘Hell’s Gates’ aren’t in line with what Jesus says in Matthew 7:13-14.

The tour on Sarah Island was very good. The Salmon for lunch was even better.

There was an audience of 50+ oldies on hand in the arvo for a pantomime, ‘The Ship that never was’. As two of the youngest members of the audience (and therefore at a lower risk of heart attack) Row and I were both involved in the drama. Good times. The 1 hour show told the story of the last ship (Frederick) built on Sarah Island. The 10 convicts who built the boat stole it and fled to Chile. Fascinating story. You’ll have to go to find out how the story ends (or look it up on Wikipedia).

Self portrait # 37. “Goodbye” to Cradle Mountain.

But had one more walk… before driving to Strahan.

Staying in a cottage in Strahan for 2 nights. Dinner in town. Good damper. Fantastic steak. Worst carpet in Tasmania.

For a long time I have made jokes about Tasmanians having 3 arms. Confirmation: it’s true. From the moment we woke up on The Spirit of Tasmania this morning – we saw nothing but weird people. Odd people. Nutty people. They must have been in hiding last night and only came into light when we pulled into the shores of Devonport. Mullets are indeed a fashionable item on women down here.

First stop. Penguin: A town that allegedly has a Penguin population of 3000. The penguins here look more like seagulls. The only normal looking penguins weren’t normal at all – they were made of plastic and one was twice the size of Row! The town of Penguin has a problem with scooters riding skateboards.

Sign 1: Wrong. The best water in Australia comes straight out of the taps here in Tasmania!
Sign 2: Wrong. It’s a trick
Sign 3: Wrong. Beware of Tasmanian Devils – yes. Beware of Tasmanian Tigers – maybe. Beware of Traffic – definitely not! There is no traffic… maybe that’s why there is a need to beware – there isn’t much – so beware it might come out of nowhere?
Sign 4: Wrong. No ice today (wait a month of two…)

We went for a great walk around Dove Lake below Cradle Mountain. Magnificent! Best. Bushwalk. Ever. It’s difficult to look at such a marvellous creation without seeing the handiwork of a Creator. The Chateau that we stayed at was very nice – good Devonshire Tea (coffee) and a great Art Exhibition. Most of the exhibits were photos from Tasmania. Favourite photo: a bear too smart for a salmon.

Holidays. Sweet holidays. Hope you enjoy our Tassie Tour Journal.

Early start. Too early. The time of day when only heretics are on TV. One of the best things about staying at Row’s parents place is being able to steal some ‘Up & Go’ from the fridge. It wasn’t enough – so coffee at Sutton Forrest was necessary.

Early lunch in Albury. Best building? The train station. On our way into Melbourne we noticed this unfinished blue fence – no wonder Sydney is a better place!

We spent 3 hours in St Kilda while we waited to board the Spirit of Tasmania. Good coffee on St Kilda Pier. There were lots of fishing rods cast into the ocean without fishermen attending them – where were the fishermen? Maybe Mark 1:16-18??? The Spirit of Tasmania was lots of fun. There were some confusing signs onboard. A prize for the best interpretation of the above sign…

Listen to Episode 50 here.

(h/t Josh)

Just watched Baz L's Romeo + Juliet.  Only the 2nd time I've seen it (1st time was when it came out 10 years ago).  Brilliant story (good job William).  Brilliant movie.

I haven’t posted one of these for a while… so here goes:

• eternal weight
• weight of glory
• an eternal weight of glory
• j. david miers
• eternal weight of glory blogspot
• dave miers
• easter acronym finished
• tim keller good friday podcast
• jtv hillsong
• al stewart mp3 anglican
• itunes post-modern ironic rock
• eternal weight of glory dave
• cannane hillsong
• talks for youth for easter
• frank retief christian fundamental
• top ten reasons to believe in the resurrection
• matt mcgill sports instructional
• eternal weight of glory blogspot
• erina high porn
• rowena and dave
• desire to be accepted
• eternal weight of glory blogspot
• of brokenness and buddies
• blogspot renewed ‘had a great convention’ meeting
• glory david
• dave miers
• brokenness and buddies
• christian response to second life virtual world
• myspace youth ministry is excited about what’s
• happening in 2007
• tuesday pink shirt proclaiming they’re jesus
• dave miers blogspot
• the rebulation blog
• ryan ferguson recites hebrews 9 and 10 mp3
• frank retief
• how a man lost 15kgs of weight in six months
• emo punk ministry
• gothics punk new zealand photos
• tassie christians
• eternalweightofglory
• eternal weight of glory blogspot
• katie noonan hallelujah
• eternalweightofglory
• best church website
• katie noonan hallelujah
• emo nemo shirt
• skype rhett
• ryan ferguson hebrews
• crystal cylinders surf culture
• ultracet
• dave miers blog
• church benediction
• bakehouse cafe erina mike mccarthy
• david miers
• sam chan preaching listen
• eternal weight glory
• david miers-blog
• katie noonan hallelujah
• how to ministers to emos
• matcham youtube
• xanax
• david miers

The above photo is from phat07 – if you went – what was your highlight?

From here

Would love you to pray for our camp PHAT.  Pray that non-Christian teenagers would be brought from death to life and that Christian teenagers would be matured in Jesus.  I'm speaking on 1 Thessalonians in the morning to the year 7-9s and part 2 of an Idolatry series at the night time combined session for yr7-12s.  Peaceout.

Discovered these dudes last week.  We might do some of their gear on PHAT this week…

Compelling