Tasmania 30/01/08 - 12/02/08
Tasmania is a tiny island of australia, so tiny that I didn't have a phone signal most of the time. In the short time that we were there we hired a car and covered most of the east coast. The highlights in each place were...
HOBART
Walked all the way to the brewery in the rain, hoping to do a tour... only to realise that we had to have long trousers and full shoes on... oops! So we went to the pub instead (kind of the same thing!). Walked up Kelly's steps to battery point and along sandy bay road to sandy bay which was pretty nice. Found a few cheap happy hours (and waited outside until they had started) live bands and met up with Brett (our ex-housemates boyfriend)'s mates who took us out on our last night here and told us all bretty's secrets. As a result we both had horrendous hangovers the next day when we went to Salamance market and then to pick up the hire car, so after a drive up Mount Wellington we headed south...
STRATHBLANE (DOVER) / HASTINGS
Spent a night in a really cool eco lodge made up of loads of lovely log cabins by a really beautiful lake, where there was an aboriginal midden site. we even had a whole cabin (usually a dorm for 6) to ourselves as they were quiet. The next morning we headed to Hastings caves and took the guided tour around the huge caves which was well worth the $22. We also went on the short walks around the visitors centre here to see the hot and cold springs, etc (really weird where they meet - one hand warm and one cold) and ate some fantastic food from the visitors centre (the biggest sandwiches I have ever seen!). On the way to Richmond we also stopped at the famous (well lonely planet mentioned it...) BIG TREE... which as the name suggested was just a big tree. It really wasn't exciting to look at, but provided me and Mel with hours of entertainment that it could be classed as a tourist attraction!!!
RICHMOND
Stayed in a Caravan & Cabin park at Richmond which was really nice and relaxing, but as we had the luxury of a tv we just spent the night like zombie's in front of it. The next morning we had a look at the Richmond Bridge and then moved on...
PORT ARTHUR / EAGLE-HAWK NECK
Went to see several blowholes, the 'tesselated pavement' a natural formation of kind of square rocks in a grid which the lady who ran the backpackers seemed really excited by... but realy it was just rocks, the tasmanian devil park... they're so cute and kind of look like cuddly black teddy's... but can also rip you to shreds with their claws then eat you. The park entrance was pretty steep and we saw cheaper places further north... but the money went towards saving them from dying out and looking after them so I guess I'll let them off. Plus we alo found a chocolate & heritage museum which was free entry and then tastings... yum!
Port Arthur historic site was so pretty tat it was hard to remember that it was once a prison where all the naughty brits (along with some others were sent). You get a guided tour which was really good and also get a ferry ride around the isle of the dead (as the name suggests... the island where all the dead convicts were buried). My mum had asked me to try and look up some crim her nd her cousin have found in their family tree, but I had no such luck... although I did find several entries for the name 'Mason' a dodgy lot we are! ....although there was also a Mason's bay (very pretty) which I doubt was named after a crim! The ghost tour that Port Arthur do on a night comes highly recommended by the people we stayed with... but we didnt do it in the end. We stayed at (the only) backpackers in Eagle´Hak Neck which was a 4 bed self contained unit with a worm toilet... mel was fascinated!
SWANSEA
For once we managed to take the weather with us and brought the first bit of rain tassie had seen in weeks with us, so we didn't really get to see much of Swansea... although I have it on good authority that the pub (I think there's only one) is nice. We however stayed in a holiday cabin at jubilee beach with our electric blankets like little old grannies. I loved it!
BICHENO
Again it rained... so this time we sought refuge in the pub, where we were the only females... and the only people drinking pints (it was a very small town!)... we knew it was time to leave when a group of people asked us if we wanted to go with them to their house to drink beer and play music... we suspected that the music in question could have been a banjo and guitar race and as it was all a bit too deliverance for me to handle we had fish and chips instead... nom nom nom!
ST HELENS
Funniest moment was when we spent ages tring to work out what season it was here (autum) as the trees looked all golden brown and autumn-y and it reminded us of home... it was only later that we realised the colouring was more to do with bush fires, d'oh! We went to the cheese factory where mel sampled some of their finest and to the 'pub in the Paddock' famous for it#s drinking pig... rspca anyone?
LAUNCESTON
Managed to time it right to be here for 'Festivale' a great 3-day festival in City Park celebrating tasmania's food and wine. We spent a day there watching some great entertainment and of course sampling food and wine from as many stalls as possible!
Started off our stay in a rubbish hostel which was mid-renovation, kept having freezing showers and was completely ant-infested.... yay! But after meeting up with friends of a friend Dave & Wade they insisted we ditch the hostel and stay with them and it was heaven!!! They picked us up the morning we met them and took us on a roadtrip to cradle mountain and had even packed us up with an Esky full of assorted beers, girly drinks and softies... bless them! We saw loads of native animals in the wild (not just road kill) and after visiting the boatsheds we even got to pose for a pic with Dave and his lovely turquoise jocks! We also went to cataract gorge... but the pants didn't make an appearance there!
The guys tried to treat us to chinese one night but we were stuffed, so instead they did us an aussie barbie the next night which was lovely and they even dropped us off at the airport for our flight to Perth!