Left`Sydney on Jan. 4. A day cruising before reaching Melbourne. We had planned on going ashore but the weather was not great and, since we had been in Melbourne on our earlier cruise, we gave it a pass and stayed on board. Another day of cruising before arriving in Hobart today. Wandered around the downtown for a few hours. Nice enough little city - great harbour setting - but nothing that particularly stands out. The interesting parts of Tasmania are out ...

We started the day in central Tasmania at Ross, one of the early settlements in Tasmania, and worked our way south along the heritage route. Oatlands has done a great job of preserving many old buildings. At the Wildlife Conservation Centre in Brighton, we finally had some good sitings of the Tasmanian Devil. They have about 20 and have established a breeding program and research facility. On to Hobart and the top of Mt. Wellington (over 1200 metres) for some...

Does this picture look familiar? It is a mural on the wall of a building in Sheffield. The town modeled their mural program on Chemainus. Today we explored the north part of Tasmania. We started at the Bay of Fires near St. Helens where a unique lichen colours the rocks. From there we drove west through forest and agriculture land to Launceston where we viewed the cataract gorge from a 450 meter long chair lift. Next was a visit to the platypus house in Bea...

Quite a day. We got rolling at 7:00am to get a cruise of the Tasmin Peninsula near Port Arthur. This was dubbed an "adventure tour" -- and it was. The boat was powered by 3 X 250 Yamaha outboards and it could fly when required. We cruised down the east coast of the peninsula viewing the fastastic features carved by water and wind. Reaching the south tip and Tasmin Island we were exposed to the west wind and the swells. According to the crew, this was a rela...

Headed to the Melbourne airport this morning, bypassing Melbourne by driving through the Yarra Valley (one of the wine regions of Australia). Our flight to Tasmania was on Jetstar. It truly has earned the reputation of a "budget" airline. The plane was fine, although virtually no service. The terminal experience reminded us of a cattle stockyard. This might be specific to Melbourne since the Sydney terminal experience with Jetstar was better. Oh well, the p...