Gourmet Tour of Bruny Island

Sunday, 29 November 

Kettering Harbour

Kettering Harbour

We met our guide Fran and the small group of gourmands at 8AM at the offices of Pennicott Wilderness Journeys. We were ten in total, driving 30 minutes to Kettering where we caught the Bruny Island Ferry that “roped off” at 9AM to cross the D’Entrecasteaux Channel, a smooth 20 minute crossing.

Our first stop, after driving through brilliant green pastoral and sheep-dotted countryside with nary a habitation in sight, was the Bruny Island Cheese Company where we sat beneath eucalyptus trees and sampled four artisan cheeses and wood-fired bread. Bruny Island Cheese Company is owned and operated by Nick Haddow who, after almost ten years of making cheese elsewhere around the world, settled on Bruny Island in southern Tasmania. Nick believes “passionately in the old way of making and maturing cheese.”

Bruny Island Cheese Company

Our palates whetted, we next stopped at Get Shucked Oyster farm. Overlooking the oyster leases in Great Bay, we slurped succulent oysters that were harvested less than an hour prior to our arrival. Talk about fresh! While most oysters are raised in tidal waters, these spend their entire lives (14 months) underwater – very sweet indeed!  

On to the Bruny Island Berry Farm for morning tea – very civilized! While we had to tread with care to avoid stepping in wallaby poop, we did not see any of the famed white wallabies. We did see their very cute brown cousins, however. Then, after dipping our toes in the Tasman Sea (“bloody cold!”), we went to lunch at Bruny Island Premium Wines – the southern-most vineyard in Australia.

Tasman Sea

Ned had the lamb lunch (we walked past the lambies whose cousins contributed…) while I had the salmon, harvested from one of the twelve salmon farms in the waters surrounding Bruny Island. After lunch, we visited the HIBA Fudge Factory. Note: This fudge is made with cream rather than with canned condensed milk. Needing to burn off at least a few calories, we trudged up the 239 steps to Truganini Lookout.

Penguins are the Fairy Penguins 

 Last stop on our tour was the Bruny Island House of Whiskey, a specialty bar featuring Tasmanian single malt whiskeys, including the Trapper’s Hut that we tasted and the Lark that we had purchased yesterday. One of the fellows in our group paid AUD30 for a mere shot of the award winning Blue Label Sullivan’s Cove that won best in the world. He said it was well worth the price, although he did not shell out the AUD550 for a bottle...