G'day!!

Well Tasmania was amazing- SO beautiful, fresh air. lush vegetation, alpine mountains, lakes and waterfalls, and so much wildlife!!! LOVED IT.

We started off in Hobart the capital, a town rather than city. Explored the harbour, ate fish and chips, the surprisingly good museum, Mount Wellington and the famous Salamanca market. Watched the footy grand final (St Kilda were robbed!) in our hotel Prince of Wales and were filmed for Tassy TV! Lovely place.

Our wee rental car, FifiSox took us down the Tasman peninsula into beautiful coastal rock formations and to the historic site of Port Arthur where hundreds of convicts were sent to "Van Diemon's Land", avoided the ghost tour though!

We visited many Tasmanian devils (LOVE THEM!!) and learned how they are protecting what is left of the species from the facial tumour disease. Watched them being fed too which was entertaining!! At the second place, we even saw a baby one- so cute!!

Up in the national park we stayed in a GORGEOUS little log cabin called Buttongrass, completely secluded in the woods in the Cradle valley. The first night was stormy and wiped out the power to most of Northern Tasmania so we set up the candles and the wood fire and made do with the romance!! So cosy we honestly didn't want to leave. Outside the stars were shining and the possoms were playing!!! Saw wombats right outside too!!!

We did drag ourselves out though to hike some of the walks. We ended up with 2 lovely sunny days to do so which was extremely lucky. I think at this point the photos speak for themselves- just glorious!!! Thanks to Fiona at work I had some decent hiking boots!!

We travelled back via the Platypus house (the only animal we didn't encounter in the wild) to learn more about these amazing creatures. Also a drive through some of the North of the island and a wee town Sheffield with a Scottish scone shop complete with bagpipes!! Got the Spirit of Tasmania ferry back to the mainland...bit of seasickness but the cabin with porthole did help a lot!! And that was that.

A very short summary of our adventure there, I'm sure Stephen will add his own ramblings soon! So there you go number one fan- enjoy the photos and the Butters-spotting!!

Love to everyone back home, remember to sponsor me and Stephen for our races next weekend!! (please)

L x