So 31st March our alarm goes off at 5.30am to get ready for the start of our travels. We got all our bags and were waiting for the shuttle bus we had booked the day before. The bus didn't come on time which was typical so when Sheens rang up and asked where it was, there was no sign of the booking and apparently we needed tickets, so we then had to go and tickets from a newsagent and then wait for the bus. The bus finally came and we got the airport and checked in with no problems.The weather took a turn for the worse and then the flight was delayed by about 40 minutes. We finally took off and we both slept for the whole journey.

We landed in Hobart and got the shuttle bus to the hostel we were staying at, we dropped our bags off and decided to go the Cadbury's factory. The free chocolate was amazing; except Seems got a bit upset that the children there got more than she did just because of her age. Who puts an age limit on how much of a chocolate fan you are!? The factory was good but we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't walk around the areas where the chocolate is made and packaged, we just watched a DVD about the Tasmanian factory. Of course we obviously then bought a few items from their discounted shop as well, because as you know Easter is only round the corner!!

Most interesting fact we learnt there was that the average Australian eats around 5kg of chocolate a year whereas the Irish and Swiss eat an average of 11kgs each. We feel that Seems eats this much a month!!!

That evening we went back to the hostel had a little rest and decided what to have for dinner. We'd heard that the Indian restaurants in Hobart were meant to be really nice so felt that was a winner. We went just around the corner from where we were staying and had a really yummy meal.

The next morning we were collecting our rental car which was fun. Sheena hasn't driven a car since the beginning of September and that was an automatic so driving the manual was a bit of a change, and seems hasn't driven in about three years so felt really weird being back in the driving seat. At least they drive on the left around here. We went an hour and a half away from Hobart to a place called Port Arthur which is an old prison where all the English convicts came in the 1800's. We did a tour there and then had a little ferry ride around the grounds which was nice.

We had planned on driving straight from there straight to the Freycinet national park that day, but it was getting late and we didn't want to have to drive in the dark especially on winding country roads which we didn't know and that there was just so much roadkill, so we went back and stayed in a Hobart again but in a different hostel.

We had an early morning on Thursday and headed two and a half hours north east of Hobart to the Freycinet national park where we went on a two hour round trip hike through the bush to Wineglass Bay. It wasn't a very strenuous walk going towards the beach area because it was mainly downhill and when we got to the bottom we could see why people went down there, it was so pretty, some people even camp out on it which would be quite nice to see the sunset. Tasmanian weather is a bit strange and one minute its sweltering hot and the next its freezing cold, so when we walked towards the bay it was nice and hot but as soon as we got there the wind was strong and the sky clouded over. Whilst we were down there we saw a few guys playing with a wallaby which was funny. There are signs everywhere that say you shouldn't feed the animals though as obviously it isn't very healthy for them. Though we saw one girl feeding Pringles to a Wallaby in the car park, she probably didn't see the sign that was right next to her.Walking back to the car park from Wineglass Bay was a bit of a mission because we had to walk back up all the steps we had just walked down, let's just say when we got back to the car and sat down again it was good times.

When we left there we decided to stop off in Coles Bay town centre and have a little wander around so when we saw the turning for it and drove another two minutes we had gone through the entire town which consisted of a B&B, a petrol station, a Post Office and a cafe. Apparently as long as it has those few things it can be classed a town centre.

We originally wanted to stay in and around the Coles Bay / Freycinet area but all the hostels there were booked up so the next nearest place we found vacancies was in a place called Bicheno. It was only around 30kms away from the national park so it didn't take us long to get there. We went to the hostel and had a little sit down before our evening activity of going on a penguin hunt which we were very excited about. When we got to the hostel only there was only one other guy there, and after chatting to him for a while we hoped some other people would turn up! A little while later a minibus of about 15 people pulled up, they were doing an organised tour of Tasmania and when we saw the company name we realised it was the same group of people we had met the night before in the hostel in Hobart. Some of them thought we were following them... how weird.

So after dinner we went to the penguin tour meeting point, and after a 10 minute drive we walked down a path and met our guide. He gave us a little introduction about the little penguins which used to be known as the 'fairy penguins' but apparently that isn't politically correct anymore so now they're just known as the little birds. We didn't get many photos of them because as it was night time our cameras would have needed the flash on them to work but if you have the flash on and take a close up photo of a penguin then it can blind them and within a week they die.

We were there for about an hour going to different areas near in the area watching the penguins come up from the water in groups, waddling along because they have no knees. We saw some of them in burrows, which they stay in overnight keeping them warm.

After that we just went back to the hostel and spent the evening playing old school card games like rummy, trumps and some others with some other people that were staying there.

The next morning we left Bicheno at around 9ish to head towards Cradle Mountain. We were told that it was around 5 hours away from where we were, but because we couldn't find anywhere to stay in that area that wouldn't require us to rent out the whole lodge we decided to stay a couple of hours away in a place called Deloraine. Since arriving in Tasmania we pretty much had no signal on our phones because of the remote places we were visiting and not many places have the internet because of how secluded the areas are, or if they do have it set up it's very expensive to use, so we had just been calling up the day before to book hostels to stay in the next night, but seeing as our phones had no service we couldn't call up and book the YHA in Deloraine and when we finally did get signal the reception was closed until 5pm that day so we decided to just head there and hope that they had vacancies and that somebody would be there to check us in.

When we arrived we noticed how remote the town was and that the hostel was a bit run down from the outside, but to be honest it's a hostel and we couldn't be too fussy because most other places were booked up. So we went inside and a really cute elderly Scottish couple showed us around told us some of the local things to do in and around that area. The weather that day wasn't great so we delayed going to Cradle Mountain until the next day and went to local places instead. First we headed to Elizabeth Town and went to a local Cheese Factory where there was cheese tastings and a production room where we learnt about the cheese making process. Watching it was a little bit gross but when you think of the end product of cheese you realise it's a bit yummy. We got a couple of different flavours to have in our sandwiches for lunch and got back on the road heading for our next stop. A little while later we were in the town of Railton which is known as the place of Topiary. We'd heard that there are over 100 different shapes made out of hedges in this place and Seems got a bit excited because it reminded her of Edward Scissorhands. We had a little walk around the place and saw a fisherman, a train, army men, a cyclist, lots of animals like a giraffe, a crocodile, a bee, an elephant, a lion, a peacock and lots of others. They were really cool to see. Our next and last stop of the day was a place called Anvers where they have a chocolate factory with free tastings and a production room where you can actually see chocolate making in the process. There was also a honey farm on the way back to hostel but neither of us are big honey farms so we decided not to go there.

We got back to hostel around 5pm and had a little sit down and chatted to the Scottish owners (who we though managed the place but found out their son actually ran it and they were just filling in for the day) and a retired couple who were staying there as well. We were glad other people were staying there because we thought we were the only ones but within an hour and a half two Irish guys, two Finnish guys an Australian man and a German girl also turned up which was cool. We ended up chatting to the Irish guys pretty much all evening finding out things to do and see in New Zealand and up the Australian East Coast seeing as they had recently been there.

The next morning we headed to Cradle Mountain and were a bit apprehensive about doing the walks because we had heard that the weather was still bad and that it was all fog and rain, but when we got there it had cleared up and even though it was cold from the wind the sun was shining and we went round the most popular tourist circuit called Dove Lake. It took us about two hours to go round the whole thing which was pretty good and we were happy that it was flat-ish most of the way except one uphill which we were happy coming down again.

We were finished there around 2 o'clock so wanted to find something else to do in the area before heading back to the Deloraine hostel before dark so we went to the Tasmanian Devil park where you can either have a tour of the place with an informative talk and get to touch the devils or later in the evening you can go to feeding sessions, but they were too late in the day for us so we went to the talk held hourly and got to see about 15 devils and we got to touch one as well. The talk was mainly about how prejudiced Australians are about Tasmanian Devils because they think that they are aggressive and scavengers, but that they're not and we all need to change our way of thinking about them, but from watching them interact with one another they do make horrible loud noises and look as if they're attacking each other, but it is apparently them just talking and saying hello. Anyways we got to stroke one, it just felt like a dog and then we left and headed back to the hostel.

When we got there the same couple from the night before were there as well as the Australian man and then and then a father and son came as well as a European couple. We pretty much spent the night sitting by the fire watching English TV programmes like New Tricks and The Bill - how exciting, eating chocolate we still had from Cadburys World and writing this.

We had an early morning on Sunday but it didn't really affect us as the clocks had changed and we got an extra hour in bed - yippee. We drove for about half an hour and arrived in Launceston where we returned the car, dropped our bags off at the hostel and went the search for Cataract Gorge which is basically lots of water and some nature walking. First we went on a chair lift from one end to the other which claims to have the longest single span of any chair lift in the world and is 457 metres long. We walked along the bridge and did a route called the Cataract Walk which took about 15 minutes and finished in the town centre area. Whilst walking around there we realised that the place as at a standstill being a Sunday afternoon nothing was open which was great. So we came back to the hostel and had a fun afternoon of showers, laundry and reading.

The next morning we decided to have a very lazy day, we thought there was a lot more to do in Launceston, but it was very small, so we checked our flight time for the morning and then Sheens got her hair cut as it was a bit over due.Then we mooched about for the rest of the day, went and had some dinner and then headed for the airport. Our flight back was pleasant enough, we got back to our old house and were able to stay there the night instead of a hostel as no-one had moved into our old room which was convenient.