Tasmania Part II

So to pick up where I left off... Friday night Marieke and I headed to what was the only open pub in the little town we were staying in or at least the only one which looked 'safe' enough to go into... or so we thought. It only took about 15 minutes for one of the natives to become curious about these foreign things invading on their territory. (Now I will pause here to let you know most of the other people traveling around were in motor homes and close to or well past retirement age.) We were going fine, and he was kind enough to answer all our questions about the idiosyncrasies of Tasmania... until he pulled out the Nazi comment. To which my German travel companion gave him the bird and informed him that it was time for him to leave.

He did sulk back later on in the night and made amends, however that was the first and not the only spark to fly that night. As the night continued more of the natives became curious and realised the foreigners wouldn't bit and began to come chat. However give it is Autumn (not fall) here it was getting cold and we eventually decided to move inside. No more than 5 minutes of moving inside one of the guy proceeds to get in a fist fight with someone else, is kicked out, the police called and all seemed like a usual occurrence! Marieke and I took this as our queue to go back to the hotel.

I'm not sure if you can read this, but to give a perspective on how small this town was the sign at the school yard said that "John Dick with repair swings Saturday March 6th"

One of the interesting things was the small beers they served

So moving onto what we were really in Tasmania for - seeing the country. :) Saturday we drove up to St. Helens and given the weather was rainy and overcast we decided to head inland and check out a couple of water falls and a 'major' dairy farm. The dairy farm was the must see spot in the area, so we were excited to get there and check it out. For those who have traveled the states, this would be more of a cozy farm type place. The food was okay, the service was poor, but the scenery was lovely and they did have a cheese cake to die for! :)

After finishing up at the dairy farm we headed on to a couple of water falls in the area. Given it had been raining they were spectacular and a great choice.

The view from the dairy farm

The first of the two water falls - St Columba Falls - this was by far the better of the two

This is Halls Falls, which was more of a brook type thing

This is me, just before I slipped and fell - luckily I saved myself and only got my foot wet

Now we were hoping for an improvement in our hotel, as the place the first night was essentially a small mobile home with a very hard queen bed. The hotel in St. Helens was definitely an improvement in the overall quality - however I think their interior design was done in the 70s as the carpet was a funky (and I mean funky) orange/brown/yellow swirl type design and the halls, rooms, and everything had this amazing wood paneling. It put me in a very Saturday Night Fever mood and I couldn't resist the cheesy picture. :)