First of all, Tasmania is beautiful.

Arriving there reminded me of a giant version of Rarotonga Airport, the views were very similar.

I couchsurfed when I got to Hobart, round a lovely lady's house, Elen. I was arriving late and leaving early so thought it would be the perfect opportunity, as it wouldn't inconvenience her too much and I get to meet locals before spending the week with tourists lol.

I arrived to a lovely vegetable stir-fry and then went to sleep.

Waking up early the next day I got picked up by Jump Tours and met the people that I was about to spend the week with, and more importantly, my birthday! The tour guides name was Andrew, his parents met in Colchester at Essex Uni! Cool aye.

I sat next to a girl called Debbie and we instantly hit it off. We spent the week being known as the 'giggling girls' or the 'laughing ladies'.

I will just copy and paste the itinerary that the tour guide emailed over to us so that you can see what I got up to (waking up before 8am every day! :-O)

DAY ONE:
Depart Hobart Richmond - WALK Pirates Bay - LOOKOUT Tessellated Pavement - WALK Port Arthur - LUNCH Doo Town Devils Kitchen/Waterfall Bay/Tasman Arch - WALK Blowhole - FOOD
Return to Hobart
DAY TWO:
Depart Hobart
Hop fields @ Bushy Park in the Derwent Valley
Russel Falls @ Mt Field National Park - WALK
Lake Meadowbank (Hydro dam) - PHOTO
Tarreleah (Hydro town) - LOOKOUT
Lake St Clair National Park - LUNCH
King William Saddle - PHOTO
Surprise Valley - PHOTO
Donaghys Hill Lookout @ Gordon-Franklin Wild Rivers National Park - WALK
Queenstown - LOOKOUT
Queenstown (copper mining town) - SHOP
Arrive Tullah

DAY THREE:
Depart Tullah
Lake Rosebery (Hydro dam) - PHOTO
Williamsford (former mining town)
Montezuma Falls - WALK
Ocean Beach/Buttongrass plains - LOOKOUT
Strahan - LUNCH
Henty Dunes - JUMPING!
Zeehan - SHOP
Return to Tullah

DAY FOUR:
Depart Tullah
Drive through Vale of Belvoir
Dove Lake or Marions Lookout/Crater Lake/Wombat Pool/Lake Lilla @ Cradle Mountain National Park - WALK
Mt Roland - PHOTO
Sheffield - LUNCH
Mt Roland - PHOTO
Drive through Paradise
41 degrees South Salmon & Ginseng Farm @ Montana
Three Willows vineyard @ Red Hills - WINE TASTING
Arrive Launceston
Cataract Gorge - WALK

DAY FIVE (my birthday!):
Japanese Macaque monkeys @ City Park
Depart Launceston
The Sideling - LOOKOUT
Memorial timber carvings @ Legerwood
Pyengana Dairy @ Pyengana - CHEESE TASTING
Lease 65 Oysters between St Helens and Binalong Bay
Binalong Bay (Bay of Fires) - LUNCH
Cosy Corner North (Bay of Fires) - WALK
St Helens - SHOP
Arrive Bicheno
Penguins @ the Blowhole

DAY SIX:
Whalers Lookout
Blowhole
East Coast Natureworld - ANIMALS
Depart Bicheno
Climb Mt Amos or Wineglass Bay lookout/Honeymoon Bay/Cape Tourville lighthouse and lookout @ Freycinet National Park - LUNCH
Great Oyster Bay - LOOKOUT
Ross
Arrive Hobart So, as you see.. it was a packed week! My birthday was definitely an awesome day, it was the last night of the trip and we got to sit at the blowholes and watch the penguins come in :-) Me and Debbie made hot chocolate/mocha in our flasks and took a pack of Tim Tams for tim tam slams. The night before my birthday I got soooo drunk, I only had 5 drinks too, strange :/ But I got so drunk that I went down stairs and ate my sausage that was supposed to be for lunch the next day. The trip to the kitchen was hilarious, there was a woman staying there who I caught stealing food and drink from the fridges, I made her jump and she ran away. Then apparently went back into the bedroom and started eating the fudge we had treated ourselves too. By this point the room starting spinning and I couldn't walk haha, so I did go to the bathrooms and make myself vomit.. I had to! I could only imagine the hangover other wise! In the morning I went downstairs to the kitchen where everyone was and they were cooking me pancakes for my birthday breakfast :-D I had nutella and Tim Tams, yeah, inside my pancake, yuuummmyy!! They also gave me a bottle of wine that they had bought me the day before at the wine tasting, sneeaakkkyy! :-) Then we went to a cheese tasting where a lady came out with a yummy chocolate brownie with a match in it (they couldn't find a candle lol). In the evening we got to our hostel and then got to the pub for happy hour, $5 pints of beer and free food. Our tour guide Andrew won a chicken too! We then went to watch the penguins come to shore and on the way back (after finally finding our way in the pitch black) my phone started vibrating, which meant only one thing - a wifi spot! Wooo!! We had no wifi for days in Tasmania so me and Debbie sat at a church bench, in the pitch black, on Halloween night, just for free wifi haha. When we got back to the hostel we drank the wine and then we did some investigation work of our own... one of the girls Anette had disappeared into Andrew's room after he had gone to bed, well, we had heard rumours about something going on between them, so Debbie, Thibaut, Lis and I went and did some investigation work to see if we could find out more... I creeped down to Andrew's door (which was on the opposite side of the hostel outside), and the sensor light came on when I was trying to have a sneak, well, I froze, didn't know what to do so just struck a pose like a tree and waited a little while haha. Luckily I didn't get caught (except Andrew and Anette, you know now hey!). I then flung my shoes off and ran back to the hostel where we were staying. We never did find out what was going on with them... naughty! The last day was the best for me, we went and fed kangaroos! It was awesome, we took some hilarious pictures and on the bus back we got some awesome videos haha. We got dropped off back in Hobart where Debbie and I checked into the same hostel. We went out for a few drinks that night but it was pretty boring and the girls wear less than Essex girls (I know right!) and guys are just... eww. There was one man JUMPING around the bar, like a kangaroo. Typical Aussie :P The next day Debbie got a text to say that our flight to Melbourne was delayed by 3 hours, when we called the airport transfer service they said how Tiger Air usually delay before cancelling a flight.. so we called Tiger, got a refund and booked with Jet Star. We just sat around all day drinking coffee and hot chocolate before heading to the airport together for our flight, that did leave on time! :-D Money spent: $992.90: Flight $141.45, Tour $749, Food and drink $63.05, Zoo $16, Fudge $12.90, Alcohol $10.50