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

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.

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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).

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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.

 

[support]

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.

 

[support]

Attendees

#	Username​	Arrival date/time​	Flight #​	Accommodation​	Wine Tour​	Tulip tour​	Departure date/time​	Flight #​
1	RooFlyer	Friday pm	car	Sebel	no	Yes	Monday am	car
2	Steady	Friday pm	car	Grand Chancellor	Yes	no	Sunday pm	car
3	straitman	Friday 1555	VA1368	Sebel	Yes	no	Monday 1420	QF1548
4	Sue Oz	Friday 1555	VA1368	Sebel	no	Yes	Monday 1420	QF1548
5	Fifa	Friday 1340	QF1547	Mercure	no	Yes	Monday am	bus
6	Mr Fifa	Friday 1340	QF1547	Mercure	no	Yes	Monday am	bus
7	doug_westcott	Friday 0935	VA1362	Sebel	Yes	no	Monday 1245	VA1367
8	Bindibuys	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	no	Yes	Monday	QF1562
9	Congewai	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	Yes	no	Monday	QF1562
10	serfty	Friday 1555	VA1368	Mercure	Lunch	no	Sunday 1635	VA1373
11	jumpjam	Friday 1555	VA1368	Grand Chancellor	no	Yes	Sunday 1635	VA1373
12	Jacques Vert	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	Yes	no	Thursday pm	QF1548
13	Gem56	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	Yes	no	Thursday pm	QF1548
14	zig	Monday 9 Oct	QF2281	Sebel	Yes	no	Monday am	VA1365
15	Netty	Thursday	QF1545	Sebel	no	Yes	Monday 1420	QF1548
16	Netty +1	Thursday	QF1545	Sebel	no	Yes	Monday 1240	QF1548
17	WilsonM	Friday 1220	QF1563	Sebel	Yes	no	Sunday 1550	VA1093
18	Boxo	Friday 1340	QF1547	Grand Chancellor	no	Yes	Sunday 1300	Bus
19	Matt_01	Friday 1340	QF1547	Sebel	Yes	No	Sunday 1535	QF2290
20	Major	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	Yes	No	Monday 1015	VA1365
21	Major +1	Friday 1220	QF1563	Grand Chancellor	Yes	No	Monday 1015	VA1365
22	Gwilli1	Friday 1220	QF1563	Sebel	Yes	No	Sunday 1420	QF1548
23	Bundy Bear	Friday		Mercure	Lunch	No	Saturday 1635	VA1373
24	Mattg	Friday 1555	VA1368	Sebel	Yes	No	Sunday 1635	VA1373
25	Admin	Friday 935	VA1362	Sebel	Yes	No	Sunday 1015	VA1365
26	Admin +1	Friday 935	VA1362	Sebel	Yes	No	Sunday 1015	VA1365
27	sprucegoose	Friday 1555	VA1368	Sebel	Yes	No
28	Flyrner	Friday 1515	QF2289	Grand Chancellor	Yes	No	Sunday 1240	QF1562
29	PrezRegan	Friday 1340	QF1547	Mercure	Yes	No	Sunday 1420	QF1548
30	QF WP	Friday 2105	QF1545	Mercure	Yes	No	Sunday 2110	VA1644
31	Ade	Friday 1015	QF1511	Best Western Plus	Yes	No	Monday 1535	QF2290
32	Kileskus	Saturday 1110	VA1544	Mercure	No	No	Sunday 2015	VA1509
33	CaptJCool	Thursday 1110	VA1544		No	yes	TBA
34	tinkybelle	Saturday	QF	Silo			TBA
35	tinkybelle+1	Saturday	QF	Silo			TBA
36	meMEme			Local	Yes	No

Tulip 10 of 10
Wine 21 of 24

Updated to post 262

 

[kpc]

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.

 

[QF WP]

I'm interested and hoping to rope along Mrs QF WP as well. Interested in everything, certainly the first 5 links shown above

 

[Mattg]

Looks like fun if I'm in Australia at the time

 

[Doug_Westcott]

Interested and in the diary to attend (platinum subject to unexpected events). More interested in food and alcohol events, but would attend whatever is planned.

 

[gwilli1]

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

 

[RooFlyer]

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

 

[Jacques Vert]

Gem56 and I are NB for this one; we will be somewhere in Europe but will be sure to have a glass or two and pretend we are there.

 

[Hvr]

I'm currently booked to fly BCN-HND via HEL on 10 Oct so probably a regretful apology.

 

[ellen10]

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.

 

[AIRwin]

From the not too distant past:

 

[Fifa]

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.

 

[CaptJCool]

Pencil this in for me. It’ll be a side for a visit to see my brother before or after

 

[tuapekastar]

Definitely interested.

 

[drron]

Sadly we will miss this one. On the Saturday we will be in Hiroshima.

 

[Ade]

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.

 

[JohnK]

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.

 

[QF WP]

@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