We made an afternoon stop at what we thought was an information centre - Apple Valley Centre. Here we had the absolute pleasure of meeting the Prince of Scones and his wife at Apple Valley Teahouse. Well, I gotta tell ya, scones were never a big thing to me as they seem so dry and uninteresting BUT, Denis the Prince, is a "KING" in our book. We were introduced to King Island cream and raspberry jam as well as fresh pressed apple cider and never again will I say no to a scone if Denis is by the oven. He also taught us that the valley is not named for the tree.. The tree "HUON" was named for the river.
Our second night took us to Franklin which is a small town in the Huon Valley where we stayed at the Franklin Lodge Bed and Breakfast. Our host and hostess were John Sangster and his daughter Felicity. This was a fabulous treat. The house is beautiful. There are four rooms and each is different. Each has a private bath and charming accents. Rooms have authentic iron post beds and comfy duvets with lots of pillows. Our room had big, thick bath towels, lotions and soaps, fresh flowers and even a carafe of Port. Felicity shared her aviary with us and it was evident that this young lady loves the birds of her country as much as this US tourist.
In the evening we had dinner at the Franklin Grill .. and for the first, and hopefully not the last time, we dined on stripy trumpeter .. a very special fish from Australia. We had to look around at the plates from everyone around us and it took every ounce of control we had to keep a fork from all the other plates. Lynn was so entertained by the fact that the Australians do not automatically serve water at each table. A guest must ask for it and ice in a cold drink is minimal so had a great time teasing our waitress and she played right with him by asking frequently if he wanted more! Oh, those Australians .. never to disappoint .. We do love their playfulness!
