AFF Gathering #16 in LST on 13 – 15 October 2023

Added to Calendar: 13-10-23, 14-10-23, 15-10-23

Tulpips NW Tas Oct 18-28.jpg

Launceston has been chosen as the AFF Annual Gathering destination for 2023, occurring over the weekend of the 13 to 15 October. The average temperature range for October is 7ºC – 18.2ºC (November is 9.1ºC to 20.5ºC). The average rainfall is 48mm with 7.5 rainy days. It is Tasmania's second most populous city following Hobart – which held AFF#7 in 2013 – and Australia's 21st most populous overall.

In addition to the usual dinners, planned activities (all subject to confirmation) for Saturday include a visit to the Table Cape tulip farm in full bloom, Ashgrove cheese and/or Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm and/or Anvers chocolate, and a separate wine excursion along the Tamar River, perhaps including the Beaconsfield Mine (disaster) museum. On Sunday, a visit to Cataract Gorge and/or a cruise on the Tamar and if possible, a visit to the National Automobile Museum and the Boags brewery.

Costs are expected to be inline with past AFF Meet-ups, subject to fuel price increases!

However, the organisers have noted that wineries in the area who will take groups of more than 10 are limited. An alternative to the usual style of AFF-organised bus may be an externally-organised paid tour, but this would be more expensive - perhaps $170 including transport, lunch and tastings but this could take a bigger group. Those who may consider themselves 'Platinum' or 'Gold' may wish to express their willingness to pay for the second option if the usual style tour is not possible, to assist with planning.



Please make it known what activities you would be interested in (generally) when indicating attendance, so the organisers can gauge numbers before announcing final plans and itineraries. For example:
  • interested/not interested in alcohol-based activities (vineyard/distillery/brewery),
  • interested/not interested in food based activities (cheese/chocolate/fruit),
  • interested/not interested in general activities (museums/flowers/cruise)., etc.
The usual schedule includes two dinners, a Friday welcome dinner that is more casual and a Saturday "guest speaker" dinner that could be considered more formal. While people generally mingle at both, you may find the space chosen on Saturday makes it harder to do so, but is regarded as the main event as well.

The lead organisers this year are @RooFlyer & @Steady , however they encourage all members local to Launceston (or surrounding areas) to raise their hands on helping coordinate the weekend.

The AFF Leadership Team can provide support in terms of money collection and distribution, and editing this thread as needed. If something needs to be updated, please simply report the post with the update so anyone on the team can action it (starting a conversation only alerts one person).



Links:

Tulips: VDQ Bulbs | Van Diemen Quality Bulbs
Ashgrove: Ashgrove Cheese, Tasmania, Australia
Christmas Hills: Christmas Hills Raspberry Farm Cafe
House of Anvers: https://www.anvers-chocolate.com.au/
Beaconsfield: Beaconsfield Mine & Heritage Centre
National Automobile Museum: N.A.M.T.
 
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Click to expand...
Friday 13 October

Friday Dinner
Drinks and dinner at a Launceston CBD venue. Levee Food Co. Restaurant | Seaport, Launceston
See post #297 for details.

Saturday 14 October

Tamar Valley Wines
Maximum of 24 pax - $120
This will depart about 10:30am, with several pick-up points in the Launceston CBD, and proceed north via coach, first to Jansz, where a sparkling tasting will be available (pay at the venue if you participate), then to Kreglinger Wines at Pipers Brook vineyard for a tasting (included in your registration) and lunch at Nadine’s at Pipers (included). After lunch, proceed to Loria Vines (and ciders) for a tasting (included). Return to Launceston for drop-offs by 5:30pm.
As it’s a wine tour, we have assumed you will want to taste the wines, so have priced as a group, except for the sparkling, where you can opt out of the tasting, at the venue.
The price for this activity is more than for Tulips due to the larger coach and more included activities.

Tulip Farm, cheese and chocolate
Maximum of 10 pax - $95
As early expressions of interest were limited for this excursion, it will be via a minibus driven by one of the organisers with a limit of 10. Preference will be given to those who expressed ‘Platinum’ early on. Numbers above 10 will need to go on the wine tour or miss out.
Pick-up in the Launceston CBD will begin about 8:45am and we will then proceed to Ashgrove Cheese dairy door where you can buy some of their famous cheese and cheesy snacks. Then onward to Communion Brewery at Burnie for lunch; beer drinking not required. The cost is included in your registration and before the day we will ask you for your orders from their ‘small plates’ menu. This is so they can be ready for us, and we won’t be waiting for too long. After lunch, on to the Table Cape Tulip Farm to wander around the fields of tulips in bloom (admission included in your registration). It might be muddy, so please wear appropriate footwear. After inspecting the tulips, we head back to Launceston and if time permits, stop at Anvers chocolate factory and shop, arriving back in Launceston about 5:30pm.

Saturday Dinner
The dinner venue will be Steve's Grill at the Centennial, which has a capacity of 35; 110 Balfour St, Launceston. This is a Launceston CBD ‘grill’ type restaurant.

Our dinner speaker will be Steven Pickering, Head of Commercial at Launceston Airport, which includes aviation network development, car rental and retail. Prior to this role, he was the Aviation executive at Hobart Airport and prior to that had roles with Etihad Airways based in Abu Dhabi, responsible for Commercial Strategy and Planning. Before that he had roles with JetStar and Qantas.
Order off the menu and pay as you go, including drinks – no pre-payment.

Sunday 15 October

Sunday morning is unstructured; depending on what the group wants to do, we can lead around some of the sights in Launceston and/or people can do their own thing. Boags run popular tours of their brewery in downtown Launceston at 11am, 1pm and 3pm on Sunday. You may like to make your own reservation. The National Automobile Museum of Tasmania, located at Inveresk, not far from the CBD is open 10am-4pm on Sunday.

Click HERE to register

Make sure you "submit" the registration form as otherwise the organisers will not know you are coming!

On the last page are the bank deposit details. Note them before submitting the form as they then disappear.

The same bank account has been in use since AFF 12 and is jointly overseen by @support and @JessicaTam.
 
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Attendees

#
Username​
Arrival date/time​
Flight #​
Accommodation​
Wine Tour​
Tulip tour​
Departure date/time​
Flight #​
1RooFlyerFriday pmcarSebelnoYesMonday amcar
2SteadyFriday pmcarGrand ChancellorYesnoSunday pmcar
3straitmanFriday 1555VA1368SebelYesnoMonday 1420QF1548
4Sue OzFriday 1555VA1368SebelnoYesMonday 1420QF1548
5FifaFriday 1340QF1547MercurenoYesMonday ambus
6Mr FifaFriday 1340QF1547MercurenoYesMonday ambus
7doug_westcottFriday 0935VA1362SebelYesnoMonday 1245VA1367
8BindibuysFriday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellornoYesMondayQF1562
9CongewaiFriday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellorYesnoMondayQF1562
10serftyFriday 1555VA1368MercureLunchnoSunday 1635VA1373
11jumpjamFriday 1555VA1368Grand ChancellornoYesSunday 1635VA1373
12Jacques VertFriday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellorYesnoThursday pmQF1548
13Gem56Friday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellorYesnoThursday pmQF1548
14zigMonday 9 OctQF2281SebelYesnoMonday amVA1365
15NettyThursdayQF1545SebelnoYesMonday 1420QF1548
16Netty +1ThursdayQF1545SebelnoYesMonday 1240QF1548
17WilsonMFriday 1220QF1563SebelYesnoSunday 1550VA1093
18BoxoFriday 1340QF1547Grand ChancellornoYesSunday 1300Bus
19Matt_01Friday 1340QF1547SebelYesNoSunday 1535QF2290
20MajorFriday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellorYesNoMonday 1015VA1365
21Major +1Friday 1220QF1563Grand ChancellorYesNoMonday 1015VA1365
22Gwilli1Friday 1220QF1563SebelYesNoSunday 1420QF1548
23Bundy BearFridayMercureLunchNoSaturday 1635VA1373
24MattgFriday 1555VA1368SebelYesNoSunday 1635VA1373
25AdminFriday 935VA1362SebelYesNoSunday 1015VA1365
26Admin +1Friday 935VA1362SebelYesNoSunday 1015VA1365
27sprucegooseFriday 1555VA1368SebelYesNo
28FlyrnerFriday 1515QF2289Grand ChancellorYesNoSunday 1240QF1562
29PrezReganFriday 1340QF1547MercureYesNoSunday 1420QF1548
30QF WPFriday 2105QF1545MercureYesNoSunday 2110VA1644
31AdeFriday 1015QF1511Best Western PlusYesNoMonday 1535QF2290
32KileskusSaturday 1110VA1544MercureNoNoSunday 2015VA1509
33CaptJCoolThursday 1110VA1544NoyesTBA
34tinkybelleSaturdayQFSiloTBA
35tinkybelle+1SaturdayQFSiloTBA
36meMEmeLocalYesNo
Tulip 10 of 10
Wine 21 of 24

Updated to post 262
 
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Will try and squeeze this WE in before our trip to Africa a week later. :)

interested in food based activities (cheese/chocolate/fruit)
interested in general activities (museums/flowers/cruise)., etc.
 
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Definitely keen for this one .
  • interested in alcohol-based activities (vineyard/distillery/brewery),
  • interested in food based activities (cheese/chocolate/fruit),
  • interested/not interested in general activities specifically a cruise
 
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Wine tourists, please let us know if you would consider the higher cost wine tour option, or not, if we can’t get enough venues for the regular tour. We don't mind yes or no - it will help us plan what people want to do.

Also acknowledging @BCons and @Sulzerman for planning / advice input :)
 
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I am interested in attending and hopefully dates will work out for me and +1. I am interested in all activities other than the automobile museum.
Not sure on the higher cost wine tour.
 
I'm keen to attend along with my +1.
  • interested/not interested in food based activities (cheese/chocolate/fruit),
  • interested/not interested in general activities (museums/flowers/cruise)., etc.
 
I'd like to register as Gold for now. I have not been to any AFF gatherings before, hopefully I can make this one.

  • interested in alcohol-based activities (vineyard/distillery/brewery),
  • interested in food-based activities (cheese/chocolate/fruit),
  • not interested in general activities (museums/flowers/cruise)., etc.
 
I think it'd be nice for wife to visit Tasmania so interested but too far out to predict if there'll be lockdowns or not at the time.
 
@JohnK, to the best of my knowledge, Australia (including Tasmania) don't have lockdowns any more - just isolation for those with COVID. The Government realise without admitting the damage already done.

Mrs QF WP is very excited about the possibility of visiting Tasmania twice in 2023
 

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