August 26 – November 9, 2018 / 41°31′S 146°51′E

My head is heavy on my pillow.  Today is the last day of our Tasmania house sit.  Today will be the first “last day” for us.  Tasmania has been a great way to ease into this new lifestyle of ours.  Wow, I guess we are officially International House sitters!! Never in my wildest dreams, would I ever thought this would be my title.

Our time in Westbury, Tasmania has been wonderful. The people are so welcoming and have accepted us as members of their community.  We met so many people that invited us to join them at pubs, dinners, fundraisers and sporting events. We actually had so many invites, we couldn’t accept all of them.  What a great experience.  To learn of local history, customs and traditions. Living vs. visiting.  House sitting completely changes your experience when visiting a new place.

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Our days were filled with walking, walking and more walking.  There is no better way to experience a new country and no better way to completely exhaust two high-energy dogs.  These two boys, Tommy and Bear, had a routine. If we took too long with breakfast, they would sit and stare at us. Those eyes! Bear would not only look at me, but he looked deep inside me. We quickly bonded, and he became my shadow.  Saying goodbye to this old guy is not easy.  Tommy saw Sean as his mate. He liked Sean’s firm, yet gentle companionship. He looked to Sean for direction and always knew he could get the ball kicked across the yard whenever he was outside. Oh, and don’t you dare make any kind of move that would remotely resemble getting in the car…. Tommy would sit behind the Volvo just waiting to jump in whether we were going somewhere or not.

After walking the boys at the Commons (off-leash dog park), we would bring them home, give them a treat and let them rest while we headed out on our own to get in more miles.  Sometimes our days were spent strolling through the small town and ending up walking around the cricket field achieving 6-8 miles.  Once that was just too boring, we headed out on the country roads stretching through farmlands and fields filled with countless sheep.  Every once and awhile we would be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a wallaby or see the pink breast of a cockatoo as it flew by.  If you have never heard of magpies “swooping” …. look it up.  It is like an Edgar Allen Poe novel in real life.

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One of our favorite things about this house sit was that we arrived on the heels of winter and got just a taste of spring as it slowly made its way across Tasmania.  It was cold.  I am not going to say that was fun, but because of the cold days, when we did get a little sunshine and warmer temps, we thoroughly enjoyed it and so did the boys.  Bear would go for a swim whenever the sun peeked through the clouds.  Boy he loves the water.

The green fields and trees reminded me of the Pacific Northwest.  I guess the rain and cold did as well.  But you only had to be outside a few minutes and you quickly realized, you’re not in Washington anymore. The sound of birds. Not robins or blackbirds, but exotic birds I have only seen in the pages of books.  Have you ever heard a kookaburra call?

I will never forget the first one I heard. It’s amazing, loud call echoes through the trees unlike any other sound.  If you close your eyes, it makes you feel like you are deep in an Amazon jungle.  Then you have the different colored cockatoos.  Pink and white.  Black and yellow.  Their amazing feather crest on their heads. What a sight to see.  There were two specific trees we would pass on our walks, that had a flock of cockatoos every evening around sunset.  Seeing them perched high in the branches was just beautiful.

Then there were the beautiful spring flowers. We saw the winter branches transform into a palette of vibrant colors.  Plants and flowers, I have never seen before along with rhododendrons and rose bushes we were accustomed to.   Every day while walking, I would come across a new plant, a new flower or new tree.  Each day was filled with amazing surprises and with each surprise, I realized just how lucky we were to be in that place at that exact moment. I found myself appreciating life more.  It was the little things that made me happy and I found excitement in the pictures I took. Trying to capture all that we were experiencing.

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We are now far from our temporary home in Westbury, Tasmania.  I have found a couple of Bear and Tommy’s hairs in my backpack.  We talk about them often and how much we miss the boys and all the friends we made.  The small community with a big heart.  They wrapped their arms around us, poured us a beer and made us feel like family.

We left a bit of our hearts in Tasmania and I have no doubt we will return……someday.