Day 1

On Tuesday 6th our flight was cancelled! Luckly we arrived early at the airport, so we were allocated to a more convienient flight at 9:30am.

We arrived at 11:20am and picked up our car rental, a brand new, sky blue Nissan Micra! Only problem was it was an automatic :( But I loved it anyway :)

We drove to our accommodation 'Waterfront Lodge' where our room was very bright and spacious, then got back in the car to park and explored Hobart city.

Hobart is a small capital filled with historical buildings, we didn't see one multistory. We walked the harbour for a short while and after finding a little information on what we can do in the area we made our way back to our accommodation. Poor Ian was feeling quite poorly (we suspected it was the lasagne) and we were only in Hobart two nights so an early night was needed to make the most of our short stay.

Day 2

Wednesday afternoon we chose to take a 90 min tour of Hobart city inside a red british double decker bus! Hmmm maybe subconsciously we were feeling a little home sick.

We sat on the top floor of the bus at the back and listened to the driver's commentary about the history of the area.

A fact that suprised me was that Hobart is Australia's second driest state capital! I assumed it to be one of the wetest because of it's much cooler temperatures, however on second thoughts the vegetation did appear more yellow in colour.

It wasn't the smoothest of journeys, as the bus bounced up and down the roads, which actually turned out to be part of Hobart's history!

Originally trams used to run along these roads, but because of incidents, such as double decker trams toppling over! The tracks were eventually closed and covered with slabs of concrete, resulting in the uneven road surface! I'm just glad our double decker bus didn't do the same!

Some residential areas in the city have an unusual look about them, where large mansions have much smaller houses built right beside them. According to the driver a lot of the settlers were scientists and surgeons who built mansions that were too large for themselves and believe it or not hired ex convicts as their servants! But because of their bad history, of course the masters of the house were wary of their precious silverware and dishes being stolen, so as a preventative measure they built small homes for the servants to live in. My thoughts were, they probably stole the goods anyway and put them in their own homes!

After the tour we went for a little drive of our own in the Micra. As we explored we found some pretty areas to take photos which included some trees shedding bark, revealing many different colours.

I also had a chance to try and drive around a car park :) Good thing it wasn't a main road! I was terrible! The brakes were so sensitive and because it was an automatic there was no clutch which confused me and I still managed to make it appear to stall! lol!

Last stop was the Botanical gardens where we came across a Japenese Garden to compare with the Chinese one we saw in Sydney. If you don't know us, judging by the amount of gardens we have been to in Oz you would probably think we are keen gardeners!:)

Day 3

We drove to our next accommodation 'Lufra Hotel', further East and made some stops along the way.

Our first stop was a pretty historical village called Richmond. Here we took the time to stretch our legs and feed an over weight white duck in a picturesque setting by an old bridge. When other visitors began to do the same we strolled to the local church 'St John's', which is said to be the oldest catholic church in Australia.

Then afterwards we made our way to Richmond Goal, where convicts used to be imprisoned in tiny cells and spaces for crimes, such as drunkeness and suspicion of theft!

Here we read that there have been sightings of a ghost haunting the bridge, where a gentleman was suspectively pushed off whilst drunk and drowned! I am glad we visited during the day! LOL!

After lunch we drove to a fruit farm where we picked raspberries, blackcurrants, logenberries and the last of the good strawberries :) I also treated myself to a delicious award winning strawberry ice cream MMmmmmm.

We reached our hotel mid afternoon leaving us time to visit Port Arthur, where many other tourists go to see the old convict site. We took a photo from a far and drove to White beach. There we stopped for a short while to take pictures in the cold, but fresh air in a point next to a large piece of drift wood.

Hungry again, Ian not so much as he was still feeling a little poorly, we went for a meal at Fox and Hound.

Full up we went for a short walk not far from our hotel to a point of interest called 'Tesselated pavement'. It was quite cold and slowly getting dark, but well worth seeing! We stood on a natural formation in a large flat rock next to the ocean that looked like man made paving stones. A lovely end to our busy day :)

Day 4

Tasmania is an island the same size as Ireland, filled with unspoiled areas to visit. The Tasmanian people are certainly proud of this and sign post many points of interest along routes to your next destination.

On our way to our accommodation 'Swansea Motor Inn' we visited Tasman Blowhole, Tasman Arch and Devils Kitchen, which you can see photographs of in our album.

We also stepped on the sand at Mayfield Bay and saw 'Spikey bridge', that got it's name because of the spikey appearance created by rocks placed along the top of each side of the walls. The purpose of these bricks is not certain, but one theory is that they were placed there to prevent cattle from climbing over.

After a short drive from Spikey Bridge we entered Swansea, named by a man called George Meredith who owned land in Swansea, Wales. We checked in at our accommodation, took our bags from the car and put them in our room. As always we turned on the T.V to check if it was working and not just placed there for decoration, this was when we found out about Ralph!

Ralph was a white Labradoodle dog who lived in the Sawnsea Motor Inn and was introduced to us on a short advert. He was only a puppy in the picture and it stated we could take him for a walk! WOW! Well I was definately not going to pass up that opportunity and went to reception to ask the staff if it was true :) They replied "yes" in a friendly manner and warm smile, like every other Tasmanian we had encountered on our travels.

We picked Ralph up earlier than arranged, partly because we were excited and also because our plans to see Coles Bay and Wineglass Bay in the afternoon were abolished as we realised on route they were too far away. However we did make one last stop in the car before hand, visiting Nine Mile Beach and I even had another attempt at driving down a quiet long road! This time I got the hang of the peddles, but did weave to the side sometimes, which made Ian nervous, lol!

Back at the hotel in one piece we went to reception to pick up Ralph :) The staff called him down and to our surprise he was huge! He had the hair of a Poodle and was the size of a large Labrador, believe it or not, a very cute combination :) and what a lovely personality too!

We walked him for an hour along a beach near by, he was certainly well trained, as he had no lead on, checking back wiith a happy face, making sure we were still following, he even waited if we got too far behind! This was until we managed to undo all the good training he had, had! lol

We thought we'd have a bit of fun and let Ralph chase us up and down the beach, but he got a little over excited and started running into the water! Fair enough, most dogs do love to swim, but he just missed a dead jelly fish and everything was sticking to him on land!

We tried calling him over, but nooooo, he was in charge now, walking us back to the hotel, occasionally wanting to play another game, but at least now he was drying off :)

We reached the hotel and said goodbye to Ralph and apologised to the staff for the mess, but apparently he has come back a lot worse :) Phew! Naughty little Ralph :)

Day 5

We began our journey to Wineglass Bay and Coles Bay for the second time. We wanted to see Wineglass Bay especially as it is meant to be one of the top ten beaches in the world!

When we arrived we purchased our national park pass and found out walking directions and times. The walk was going to be a bit longer than anticipated and was estimated it would take 2 1/2 hours return. Ian wasn't feeling 100% still so we thought we would see how accurate the times were by walking to the Wineglass Bay lookout along the same route, which was predicted to take 1.5 hours return.

After whizzing past many other people, we managed to reach the sign for the lookout in a much shorter time than estimated. It was at that point we decided to carry on and make it our mission to make it there and back in record time!

We continued overtaking people and most of the rocky track was down hill which helped us go further, all we needed to do was try not to twist our ankles.

After a while we could see the ocean through the trees beside us (nature's way of teasing us), we were nearly there! We ran some of the way, leaving behind a steep track for us to climb later on the way back up to the car park. Ready for a quick rest, we finally reached the beach! The sand was white, the sun was glistening on the blue water and to make it all the more better there was a little surprise for us just by some rocks. It was a mummy wollaby with her baby inside her pouch! awww The mummy didn't appear too defensive, allowing people to sit right by her and have their picture taken. Maybe she was just a very proud mother :)

Time was ticking on, so we decided to make our way back. As we began our steep climb, we passed some people we over took previously, so we knew we were still ahead of schedule. It was quite hard work, there was no way we were going to run up the hill! but we were determined to complete our mission.

Our persistance paid off, we had encountered the Wineglass Bay lookout sign again and knew we didn't have much further to go. So we took the time to walk to the lookout and enjoy the view.

Eager to complete the walk we continued on and besides a wrong turn which made it a slightly longer route, we made it in 1 hour and 50 mins!!!!! :)

Proud of our achievement we didn't feel so bad sitting in the car. We drove to Coles Bay, but it we didn't think it was as pretty, so didn't stop.

Next we visited Pyengana cheese factory, where we tried some tasty cheese and had a milkshake each :)

Afterwards we drove to St Columba falls, where we had to walk through a damp rainforest, which had green moss covering the trees. It was only a short distance to the waterfall, we could hear it behind the trees and when it appeared it was directly in front of us! The tallest waterfall in Tasmania! We decided to run the last part of the way back to get some more exercise! lol! We passed other tourists and laughed whilst running, saying out of breath "I wonder what they think we are doing! lol", but eventually it began to rain, so we didn't appear so crazy! :)

After, we found out there was a place called Derby and we had to visit it. It was a former tin mining village and was one of the prettier places we had passed. We posed for photos at the Derby sign and of course Ian was wearing his football shirt. I will never forget a grinning lady cyclist who followed us on the same route everytime we stopped to take photos of anything that had Derby written on it! :)

Finally we drove on winding roads over mountains to eventually reach our accommodation in Launceston, on what was a warm and sunny evening.

Day 6

Another day of driving and our first stop was a pretty place called Deloraine. Like Richmond there was a bridge and the sun was shining on the water, it was very peaceful, only this time we didn't feed any ducks.

Afterwards we visited Chudleigh Farm and I tried some very unusual Indian style honey! Flavours such as chicken korma were available, I had mixed opinions about them. Both Ian and I tried some honey ice cream! I chose vanilla and Ian chose chocolate, mine was a little too honey-flavoured for my liking.

Not far from the farm we toured Marakoopa Cave, it started at 3pm and lasted an hour. The cave was apparently discovered by some teenage boys and they kept it a secret for some years, later buying land after leaving school and telling people they would be using it for cattle and eventually opened it up for tourists.

When we entered the cave, it was at a constant 11 oC, I wore my funky black coat and Ian wore his fluorescent Derby t-shirt, which helped me find him in the dark:)

A lady guided us around with a torch, and the help of fitted lights in sections. She pointed out beautiful natural formations and told us many facts about them.

There were two main highlights to the tour, one was a section called the Cathedral, this was because parts of it resembled /represented features in or related to a Cathedral, such as organ pipes. The last main highlight was certainly the most memorable for me. Our eyes had adjusted to the dark which enabled us to see one of mother natures magical creations. We looked up at the ceiling of the cave and there they were, twinkeling like stars, lots and lots of Glow worms!

On the way back to the hotel we made a couple more stops. We drove through somewhere called Sheffield where they had painted murals on the walls of their buildings to attract tourists. Then we passed through Railton, where we saw a collection of complete and still growing topiary of people and animals in the resident's gardens. Which all quite proudly stated what a fantastic community they live in.

Day 7

After a quick gym session we made our way to Cradle Mountain, a must see in Tasmania.

When we arrived we discovered there were several different walks we could go on and decided on a three hour trek.

We began our walk along a man made wooden path, surrounded by a mass of open space. The sun was shining, it was a beautiful day, so peaceful and hardly anyone around. We were very lucky, as the weather is known to be very unpredictable.

After a short while we entered an area surrounded by trees, including a waterfall. Upon leaving the sheltered spot, the scenery changed dramatically, to our right there were mountains and a lake.

We proceeded walking and reached the level of the water at a picturesque point, the water had a golden earthy tone in shallow sections, there was a small old shed sitting right at the edge and the view of the rocky mountains was straight ahead.

The path had changed to stone steps and small lose rocks. We were now climbing above water level , some of it was quite tough! The view was like something I would expect to see in New Zealand. The path eventually became only loose stones and sometimes the direction we should be going in was not obvious.

Once we had reached the top, a family were already there, in their hiking gear, looking quite proud. A girl in her twenties offered to take our photo for us and off they went on their adventure, whilst we took silly pictures of each other pretending to hang off the edge of a rock.

On our way down, we took a different route back to the car and saw what was called Wombat Lake. It was beautiful, we could see those earthy tones in the glistening water again and interesting shaped branches, but no Wombats. Judging by the path we could tell this route was not used much, as it was slightly overgrown.

We arrived back at the start of the walk and this time there was a special addition. There were Wobats dotted about, we could hear them munching away at the grass as though they hadn't eaten for weeks! They were very cute and looked very cuddly :) A couple of them were right next to the path and didn't seem at all bothered that we were there.

At the end of the day, back in Launceston we went for a meal in an Italian restaurant. I brought my own pasta and was presented with a delicious spicy dish! It was worth every penny Mmmmm

Day 8

At 10 am we flew to Melbourne, thankfully this was quite a pleasant journey compared to previous experiences, smooth and only lasted 1 hour.

When we arrived in Melbourne, it was very hot! 37oC!!!!! We were staying in an area called Richmond, in a hostel owned by an elderly man, which was decorated in a hippy style :)

We got on the bus to St Kilda as Ian wanted to see the beach, but because of the heat, I insisted on sitting in the shade while Ian laid on the sand. This didn't go to plan, as other people had the same idea as me, so we scrapped that and bought an ice lolly each instead:)