Australia Part 6 - January 2010

It was now Wednesday morning and we had made an appointment to visit the Hobart Synagogue. It is right downtown next to the main police station.

The shul was founded by a Brit Judah Solomon over 165 years ago. He came to Tasmania when he was sent as a convict for stealing goods in his hometown, leaving his wife and 10 children behind. There is a long and strange tale as to how he ended up founding the shul...you can read all the history at the following site:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080829215011/http://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=143

We had made arrangements to have the shul opened for us by David Clark, who is sort of the President/Gabbai/Guide and KOLBO at the Hobart Shul. 

As per the sign above, the shul is shared by the Reform (Progressive) community and the Orthodox community of Hobart. There is rarely a minyan and David and his wife Penina are the only Shomrei Shabbat in Hobart. In fact, David told us that there are three Shomrei Shabbat families in Tasmania; one other in Launceston, and the third in Queenstown. They all get together for chagim and have their kosher supplies sent in from Melbourne.

The following excerpt is from an article written about the shul in the Australian Jewish News about the time that we visited Hobart.

Much of this enthusiasm is derived from David and Penina Clark. Their house is at the core of Hobart’s Orthodox community. Every Shabbat they open their doors to countless guests who enjoy a meal with them.

They recently bought a double bunk so they could accommodate more visitors.

 Their house has become popular as a haven for Jewish travellers and many young Israelis come to stay with them — they have hosted more than 40 guests in the past three months.

“When another Jew arrives in Tasmania, the excitement of David and Penina is overwhelming,” said Rabbi Gordon.

“Their hospitality is literally like Avraham Avinu.

There are people coming and going from their house all the time and they are literally the centre of Yiddishkeit in Hobart and all of Tasmania.

”Indeed, the Clarks have listed their house in the phone book as an unofficial Jewish community centre.

On Saturday mornings when they’re not at shul they hold improvised services in their house. 

They have an Aron kodesh (holy ark) and a Torah in their dining room and a library containing several hundred Jewish books.

Their home is kosher to the highest standards, despite the absence of kosher shops, and they host simchas for both the Orthodox and Progressive congregations.

Because of the origins of Tasmania being so closely tied to prisons, it is quite understandable that there should be a prisoner's dock in the shul; for when convicts would choose to come and pray! Here are David Clark, Fran, Ruchama and Irving sitting in the Prisoner's Dock!

We left the shul and headed up to the top of Mount Wellington for a bird's eye view of the city. 

We spent the rest of the day strolling the downtown area and the waterfront before heading to the airport for our flight back to Melbourne, where we would spend Shabbat.

We flew to melbourne and checked into the Kimberley Garden Hotel, right in the heart of the Jewish area. It was originally built as a totally kosher hotel and has since been taken over by one of the large chains. It has self catering units and being right next door to Australia's replica of Chabad 770, is in a very convenient location.

We spent the entire day Thursday touring downtown Melbourne which is quite pretty and modern. We went to the Queen Victoria Market, one of the largest markets in Australia, and stocked up on gifts and souvenirs. 

Friday, we shopped and relaxed. 

We had a wonderful Shabbat, davening at the Mizrachi on Friday night and at the Kollel on Shabbat morning. We ate Shabbat lunch at Sara (nee Abramoff) and Moshe Schrek's and had a great meal and great company!

Sunday and Monday were quite interesting days and were a good way to wind down our trip.

We left Sunday morning (after a breakfast at the Famous Glick's Bakery and stocking up on kosher food at Coles for the two day drive) and began our trek along the Great Ocean Drive. It follows the coast for about 200 km on the south coast of Australia and is a very picturesque drive. Unlike the California version, this one occasionally goes right thru little seaside towns and resorts and serves to break up the trip.

We stopped at one of the villages along the way (Appollo Bay)  and slowly made our way to our B & B in Lavers Hill. It was a beautiful home high on a hill overlooking lush rolling hills below.

After checking in and meeting our hosts, we went out to see the Twelve Apostles which are a series of massive limestone pillars that jut our of the ocean off the coast. There are only 7 left as the rest have fallen to erosion. They are quite a sight! 

We returned to the B & B (a gorgeous 15 acre site high in the hills overlooking the rolling plains to the coast) on which the owners have planted thousands of flowering plants...beautifully maintained...and ate dinner there.

At 10 PM, we went with our host into the dark rainforest nearby to see the glowworms. It was like being in the enchanted forest...pitch black with glowing lights all around. It was amazing but sorry....no pictures!

The next morning we went to the Otway Fly which is a walkway erected high above the treetops in the rainforest. Some of these trees are over 150 feet tall and you are literally walking up in the treetops. Beautiful views and magnificent trees. Some are larger than the Douglas Firs in the Westerns States.

We drove back to Melbourne and caught an early dinner at one of the restaurants before heading to the airport for our last internal flight of the trip. The first, btw, that was delayed...but we arrived into Sydney late in the evening 
and checked back in at the famous David hotel. The Davids, Ruth and Ivor have been amazing. They are the example of the highest standards of Hachnasat Orchim. We have felt so at home with them and hopefully have established a long lasting friendship with them. Here we are all practicing for Purim...

Our last day in Sydney was really relaxing. We walked the length of Oxford Street (one of the main drags) and then Fran and I drove down to Bondi Beach. It was quite cold with humongous waves, so we just sat in the car with the windows rolled down and enjoyed the refreshing breezes while Fran read and I caught a quick nap.

We ended our trip with a visit to one of the local eateries where we had grilled lambchops (awesome).

We got up this morning at 5 AM and were at the airport at 6:15 AM. Ruchama and Irving caught their flight to Hong Kong (on their way to Israel) and we waited another hour till our first flight of the day to Auckland NZ.

We expected to go into Auckland during our 6 hour layover, but were cautioned by the Air NZ people here that there is a horrendous rush hour at that time and therefore what seemed like a 6 hour window was really no more than a couple at best. So we stayed here and we are bored to death. We have looked at all the stores and we played bananagrams and ate alot of fruit and veggies but there is not much else to do...so I am off to take a shower and try to refresh myself.

Our next flight to Vancouver (13 hour leg) leaves in couple of hours and then we have a 3 and a half hour  layover in Vancouver till our flight to Toronto to arrive home at about 11:30 PM. All in all, from the time we left the David's home in Sydney, that will be about 33 hours...no jetlag for us tonight....(we hope).

All the best ...see you all in Toronto or in Israel

It's been a great trip...

Fran and David

Australia Part 5 - January 2010

Here is what we have done since Friday night

We davened at the Central Synagogue in Bondi (Sydney) on Friday night...it is a "very" modern Orthodox place, magnificent $12 million dollar building,  chazzan and choir, with a Chabad rabbi (I do not think that there is any shul in Sydney with anything other than a Chabad Rabbi). There was a bat mitzvah at the shul and the bat mitzvah girl spoke from the pulpit. All in all it was quote entertaining. 

Our hosts had a guest for dinner, a rov from Israel (complete with bekeshe and shteimrl ) who turned out to be related to me from England. He was quite a colorful character and we had a long delicious dinner with zemirot and diverei Torah till nearly midnight. 

In the am we devened at the sefaradi synagogue with our hosts (again a chabad rabbi) and the sistet of the rov turned out to be Chai Cohen's daughter in law. 

Again our hosts had guests and we enjoyed a long lunch, forgoing our regular nap and running right into Mincha. 

On Sunday morning we went to the Jewish museum. The section on Sydney Jewry was most interesting and the guided tour of the holocaust section by a survivor was definitely worth the price of admission. 

We then went down to the markets and took a quick look at the Queen Victoria Building which is one of the unique old buildings in Sydney. 

We took our hosts out to Katzy's, one of the famous kosher restaurants in Sydney. 

Early Monday morning we left for our 6 AM flight to Hobart in Tasmania. 

Tasmania is one of the states of Australia; it is an island off the southern coast. It is perhaps most famous as the place where Britain sent its criminals to be forgotten! And so, there are many families in Australia today who proudly trace their heritage back to their ancestor who arrived by boat as a prisoner.  

When we landed they had these cute dogs who were sniffing our luggage for undeclared food....whenever he would find a suspicious bag, he would simply place his paw on the bag until his handler reacted.

When we arrived, we still had not davened, so we found a little park and proceeded to daven outdoors. 

It was not far from the Cadbury plant which has many kosher products, so we took the tour and bought some chocolate for our stay in Tasmania. 

On the way up north, we hit a traffic jam but it was unlike any traffic jam that we had ever seen. A sheep herder was moving his flock of 4000 sheep up the road. But the only way he could do it was by having them move on the road. 

We drove north to hike to Liffey falls which is accessed by driving for many miles on a gravel road. As luck would have it, we ended up with a flat tire on the way and we changed it at a scenic viewpoint half way up a mountaintop. 

We arrived at Liffey Falls and it was breathtaking....

When we made our way away from Liffey Falls, we called to our hosts (another B & B) for the night and were told that we had not confirmed for that night. So on the spot we rented a place near the town of Deloraine. Look at the right side of the pic...guess there were Jews here before us!

It turned to be a beautiful 2 bedroom wooden cabin with all the modern facilities that we could have asked for...the lady even baked us fresh muffins that we were forced to give away. We had a delicious chicken dinner....

This morning we stopped into local stalagmite caves where we saw the ferocious Tasmanian Devil...but only pictures...not the real thing:-)

From there, we drove to Devil's Gullet, a short hike to an area high on a mountaintop where you have an awesome panoramic view of the entire area.  

We continued on to Sheffield, a town that features awesome murals painted on countless homes and businesses in the town. It was quite amazing!!!

On the way back to Hobart, we passed this amazing wood sculpture in a park...made from a growing tree trunk....

We then headed back toward Hobart, and found our amazing house that we had rented for the night and watched the sunset from our wrap around porch...an end to a long and amazing day.

So that catches you up till tonight

Hope you are all well

All the best

Fran and David