I have to say for the record that if you are going to come to Australia, you must go to Tasmania. I think it is one of those places people cut out rather quickly because they think it is just a tad too far, or a tad too small or just not quite as exciting as say the Gold Coast or the Great Barrier Reef, but I will tell you now... it has been BY FAR my favorite place to visit in Australia. Now, as you've read before, I have had some pretty grand adventures down here and I don't want to cut down any of the places I have been before, but I just want to say that ten fold, this little island that so easily gets over looked was absolutely fabulous. Let me tell you a little bit about why. But forewarned, I do not take any responsibility for future expenditures on your part to ensure travel to this great destination... You are completely responsible for your own actions and any planning or travel expenses you may incur are completely on your shoulders! :)
Now that the legalities are done with, let me start with
Launceston. This is a quaint little town with all the 'big city' department stores and services... yet somehow... it managed to feel like home-small, easy to navigate and incredibly friendly.
The city center was old brick 3 to 5 story buildings with classic facades and wide streets and sidewalks. It actually felt like going down one of the 'blank' movie sets at Universal Studios, just waiting for the next feature film to add their signatures to the blank canvas of buildings and film a great blockbuster movie set in the gold rush era, world war I, or even small town America in the 80's or 90's. The sidewalks aren't covered in advertising and you don't have that overwhelming feeling of commercialism as you walk down the streets.
This was a great start to our 2 week adventure! We had a good look around at Lonnie (as the locals call it) and discovered the Cataract Gorge and First Basin. What a great little retreat and so close to the city center! There is a free public pool with a wading section and a deeper lap section, all set in a nice little protected basin with a natural fresh water reservoir with rocks to jump from, a tea house with a peaceful garden gazebo and short little walks you can take. If the day is too hot, you can always just jump in the water, pool or lake to cool off! One of the best parts of
Launceston was our shopping experience. We were browsing through Myers, which is of very similar quality and style as Macy's/The
Bon Marche, and we had endless staff looking after us and asking if we needed any help. I'll admit, that it was Easter Sunday and the shop was virtually empty, but the staff was so friendly and very helpful when I lost Matt and couldn't find him in the Men's department. Luckily he is tall and I was able track him down!
Next stop was
Devonport. From here we were planning on trying to get to the famous Cradle Mountain, but unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. Not that it was really that bad, but because of the elevation and the quickly changing weather in the region, we opted instead to go for a walk at
Narawyntapu National Park.
Here there was a good 4 hour walk up to Archer's Knob and along the way we saw plenty of
Pademelons and great coastal wet land scenery. There is a very shallow lake that normally would be chock full of birds, but unfortunately, due to recent drought conditions, it was virtually dry.
Still the walk was refreshing and we had a great time climbing up the knob for a great view of the inlet and an endless deserted beach. From here we went to Mole Creek to check out the
Karst National Park Caves. The one hour tour was informative, friendly and I saw Glow Worms for the first time that I remember... though I have been on cave tours when I was younger, and there was probably Glow Worms then... I just don't remember them, at least not to the degree we saw at these caves.
Anyway, it was a great way to spend a drizzly, cold day and we also went on a short excursion to Alum Cliffs. This was a short ten minute walk along a ridge that ended with a grand view of sacred Aboriginal Red Ochre cliffs and a stunning drop off to a river below. Very much worth the detour! And the picture can't even come close to doing it justice..
Next we headed south to Hobart. Hobart was not on either of our lists as a must see because we both felt that it might be a bit drab and just like every other city. But both of us were pleasantly surprised. Other than the awkward one way streets that you could easily learn to deal with over time, it was actually quite nice.
We had a short time in Hobart, but I feel we made the best of it. We first stopped at the Department of Immigration so that I could legally remain in the country since my Visa was about to expire. Then we checked into our little hotel off of Sandy Bay Road which was a very short walking distance to the Casino... Hey hey... my family favorite! So Matt and I had a walk to the casino for some cheap and HUGE eats. Then we watched a little Texas Hold 'Em and then wondered back to our room.
The next morning was an early rise so that we could scale Mt Wellington. It was a steep climb, but well worth the view. As we approached the top, there was some pockets of snow that had fallen the night before, but hadn't melted off yet.
brrrrrr. it was cold, but still very much worth the view! We walked back down the lovely mountain under the Organ Pipes which are the columns of dolerite that are visible from the city. Quite precarious how they are all balanced carefully. This is of course the part of our adventure where I learn that Matt's favorite plants is the bottle bush. I had no idea this was the case until this trip and now I notice the
firery red flowering bush every where we go. It is a native plant and doesn't have any fragrance, but still, it is quite pretty.
On Saturday morning, we wandered around the
Salamanca Markets near the water front and enjoyed some live Peruvian music while watching the market goers scramble for cover when a light shower passed through. From Hobart we headed east and then south to the Tasman peninsula where the world famous site of Port Arthur is located. Staying at Eagle Hawk Neck we were just across the dog line from where one of the worlds most famous gaol (jail) was located. Thousands of prisoners were shipped to "Van
Diemans" land to serve out their sentences.
Before heading to the historic site, Matt and I took the
Sealife Experience
eco tour. This was a fun 4 hour adventure on an open boat with a guide and the driver pointing out the endless wonders of the sea.
I think I was the only person to deny taking sea sick tablets... don't worry, I didn't live to regret it, my tummy handled the rough seas just fine. :) We explored the Tasman Peninsula from the water including Tasman's Arch, Devil's Kitchen, Waterfall Bay, the Totem Poll and Cape
Hauy, Cape Pillar and Tasman Island. They stopped over in a private little cove for some local cheese, wine and dips. The cove was beautiful and very picturesque. The boat had an underwater camera that they would put down every so often so we could see what creatures and plant life were hiding beneath the surface. It really is a whole
nother world under the shallows. At Tasman
Island, we saw hundreds of Australian Fur Seals. These males come from the warmer northern waters while the females stay up along the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast feasting and raising their pups. The males make the short trek to the north for breeding season and then come back down to the cooler waters to live it up in their bachelor pad. It really did smell like a bachelor pad too... the rocks are stained white from the birds and the seals. Pee-Yew!! Because I had the camera, I was up moving from side to side on the boat near where the bow had some protection glass,
while Matt stayed seated towards the back where the sides were open. Even though the pictures don't really show how rough the waters were that day, we did have a pretty rough day on the water, with really gusty winds and some pretty choppy waves.
Unfortunately for Matthew, he got a big spray of sea water that cleared the rest of the folks out of their seats, and Matt just stayed there and got drenched... He never once complained about getting wet, though he did complain about me taking a picture of him afterwards... :)
Overall, the tour was worth every penny. Just hope for slightly better weather, though I think it kept the numbers down and we only had 10 people on the tour with us... made it very easy to move around the boat and get great pictures without having to jostle around everyone else.
After the tour we headed to Port Arthur. It was a very ponderous place to visit. The landscape is so beautiful now, but as you enter the site you are given a playing card with an actual prisoner who was sent to Van
Diemans Land to serve their sentence. You then follow the path of this
prisoners life as he arrived at Port Arthur and learn what their conviction was, what tasks were assigned to them to carry out and what their living conditions were, what they ate, where the slept, etc. As you follow their path you learn about their chance of survival and if they had families back in England. It gets very serious as you find that your prisoner, your Ace of Spades, dies after serving only 8 years of their life sentence from a disease the runs rampant through the gaol. Also, the tragic story from 1996 when a single man killed 35 people in and around Port Arthur, still lingers in the air. The Cafe where he did most of the killing, has been converted to an area for quiet reflection in very good taste. Fortunately, authorities were able to capture and convict the murderer. This is the leading cause to the incredibly strict gun laws here in Australia. I found that most Aussies who remember the event were so deeply affected that 12 years later, they still will not talk about that day. As an outsider looking in, it is a very tragic story and my heart goes out to not only the victims and their families from that day, but to the people of this country that have been so affected by its occurrence.
After the Eco Tour and Port Arthur, we did some serious hiking at Cape
Raol and Cape
Hauy. Both hikes were fairly long and had some good climbing stints in them, but were
definitely worth it. The views and seascapes we enjoyed can't be done justice by my humble writing skills and even the camera fails to take in the true
grandeur of these places. At Cape
Raol, the cliffs of dolerite columns and wind protective scrub brush were the
hightlights of the day. Cape
Hauy,
besides seeing the Totem Pole from above, had the added bonus of my first live look at an
Echidna. He/She really had no interest in us what-so-ever and just went about it's scrounging the cracks of rocks for bugs to eat. After my initial startle (I had no idea what it was at first!) it was quite interesting to watch the little forager dig and snuff his way around. His feet look like they are attached backwards (the back feet that is) and watching him dig under the rocks it makes perfect sense why his feet would be attached backwards... but you have to see it in action to really appreciate it.
Anyway, we spent the next week driving our way up the east coast stopping along the way to catch some awesome views. We did a short hike at Wineglass Bay in the
Freycinet National Park. I thought the view was pretty good and that the area was really nice, but Matt had such high expectations
(Wineglass Bay is the most photographed place in Tasmania, plus one of the biggest 'advertising' stints Tourism Tasmania promote) from seeing and hearing about it so much, he couldn't help but be a little disappointed. Besides, it was the first time that we really had to 'share' our space with other tourists. We had done some really cool hikes so far only seeing one or two other groups of people that this hike up to the lookout seemed a little like the start of a big race where people are jostling all around and getting themselves all hyped up. Okay, it wasn't really that crowded, but after the space and emptiness we had been experiencing it did feel a little overwhelming to be surrounded by people again... But, I thought it was beautiful and I enjoyed the hike.
We came back via Hazards Beach and this was a little more remote and empty so Matt settled down pretty well after we left the hustle and bustle of the Wineglass Bay side. Threatening clouds began moving in so we did have to hustle a little bit to get back to the car before a storm rolled in. Luckily, we escaped with only a few drops of rain. Nothing too bad. We stayed at a nice little Bed & Breakfast, self-contained cottage, in
Bicheno. It was really quaint and lovely, except for the little black scorpion that I found in the blanket I was using to cuddle up before we watched a movie... It made me jump straight up and stand on a chair until Matt trapped it with some paper and an upside down glass and 'removed' the critter to the great outdoors... I had a hard time sleeping after that and had to strip apart my bed looking for hiding scorpions in the covers before going to sleep for the night.
From
Bicheno, we travelled to a little known Douglas-
Apsley National Park. This park is filled with boulder lined rivers and crystal clear blue green waterholes. We didn't spend much time here, as a recent fire had caused some trail closures, but the little bit we saw, definitely put Douglas-
Apsley on our most do next time list! We then headed to St Helen's after stopping off at St
Columba Falls and Ralph Falls. We also visited the largest White Gum Tree as we stopped off for a cool visit to the White Knights in
Evercreech National Park. These tall trees were bravely saved from deforestation by a forester who was well beyond his time in conservation methods. He noticed the trees and thought them strangely tall, but had to do some serious investigation to confirm that they were unusually tall for their breed. Luckily, he was able to protect them from the loggers and now the area is natural
rain forest pocket surrounded by working state land that is farmed regularly for wood and paper production. Matt and I had a very interesting time navigating to these areas because the maps of this region aren't very up to date or accurate as constant logging changes the routes of travel often. Luckily, my sense of direction and magnetic field in my head was able to help us reach our destinations.
At St. Helens we finally got some beach time. We had one almost nice day where the sun was trying really hard to warm things up for us, but my Seattle/Spokane bones said it was warm enough and we spent a day lazing in the sun on the whitest sand I have ever seen. We even braved the water for a little while, though it was cold when we got out as there was a strong breeze coming off the water!
On our last day we drove to Leggs Tor which is the second highest peak in Tasmania and did a wet, cold hike up to the peak. From there we could see the ski lifts for the snow fields (ski resorts) and then we hurried back down to the car as we had to get our way back to Launceston, find a gas station and get to the airport before our early evening flight. Overall, it was a fantastic trip and I can't express enough how, in all our adventures, barely scratched the surface of things to discover in Tasmania. We, for one, didn't even make it to the West Coast side, where the mining history is deep and there is a whole corner of this island state that is only accessible by hiking in and camping overnight. Also, we would like to head towards Cradle Mountain region and some of the little islands off the coast line that are nature preserves to see some of the avian wildlife. So, like I disclosed before, don't try and come after me for financial reimbursement when you decide to travel to Tasmania and it costs you a pretty penny (based on current fuel prices-this is most likely to occur!)... You can just live vicariously through me and my mini-adventure... but it is too hard to do justice to all that little island state has to offer... it is truly a place one must see to believe. Sorry this post took me so long to get up and online. I've been working on it for months, so I hope it was worth the wait!
Ciao, Alison
