Journalist Brinley Duggan had teed up an interview with the property manager of The Keep - an exclusive B&B up in the hills of Gould Country, an hour or two past Scottsdale.

We headed off along the Tasman Highway towards Scottsdale in the Hyundai i30, listening to a podcast on Port Arthur by The Examiner journalist Melissa Mobbs. It was very interesting to hear the stories of the first responders.

At the end of the podcast a chap by the name of "Phillip Briggs" got a mention for some work I did copying negatives from The Examiner's archive. But still, misspelled names is not something I should really throw stones about.

We turned off the A3 at Herrick, and then off the bitumen at Pioneer, and rattled through the forests for another half an hour before the steep ascent to The Keep. From a deck we could clearly make out Flinders Island and a windfarm at Cape Portland. I snapped off a few photos while Brin got some words together, and then went outside to get a photo or two with the drone.

Our next stop was at Goulds Country, but from the Keep, the New England Road appeared to degrade very quickly. We were advised to take a more circuitous route along more gravel that would at least be passable.

At St Helens it was fish and chip time, as it is compulsory to have fish whenever there's a road trip to either Bridport or St Helens, and after a short lunch break, it was up into the hills to find a story in Goulds Country.

Brin had no trouble finding someone to talk to and got a couple of interesting angles of life at a slower pace, and from there it was just a matter of enjoying the drive through the mountains back to Launceston.

You can read the finished product here.

- Phillip Biggs, Photographer