Kevin was at Brisbane airport to meet us on our return from Tasmania and take us back home to prepare for Christmas and the New Year. Christmas preparations are similar the world over, they involve shopping, cooking, partying and finding a little magic to make it special for the children - Light shows, animal displays with close encounter opportunities, finding streets that had been extravagantly transformed from mundane houses to elaborate Christmas scene...

Today we left for the long 6-hour drive from Strahan back to Hobart which gave us some different scenery as we passed through the mining town of Queenstown surrounded by dramatic hills and mountains - it was once the world's richest mining town (copper). We drove up a scenic spiralling road which Heather read afterwards has over 90 bends - not her favourite type of driving! Having got used to driving through beautiful rainforest, Queenstown confronted us with...

We arrived in to the harbour-side village of Strahan late afternoon and our first stop was the tourist information centre to find accommodation. Strahan is full of stories from the days of convicts and pioneers toughing it out in Tasmania's wild west. Nearby, is Sarah Island, once a notorious convict prison. We booked tickets to see The Ship that Never Was that evening which tells the true story of the greatest escape of Australian colonial history which w...

We left cradle mountain in fog and drizzle, the drizzle staying with us most of the way. The last 20km was on a gravel road where we didn't see another car. The scenery was again spectacular and the roads were again windy. Today we were heading deeper in to the wilderness to Corinna, a remote historic mining town set in the pristine Tarkine rainforest surrounded by stunning wilderness on the banks of the majestic Pieman river. We had booked a little cotta...

Leaving the North West behind, we headed inland to Cradle Mountain National Park. The weather was grey and drizzly so no great photo opportunities en-route. The same pattern with the drive, windy roads through rainforest, beautiful trees, lots of ferns and everything to very green. On arrival at the National Park we checked in at the visitor centre as we needed a pass for the shuttle bus which takes you in and out of the national park. The roads are too n...