Final Snapshots from Tasmania

To pick up my very drawn out story... we left St. Helens on Sunday morning and set off to the Bay of Fires before heading to Launceston. Now when you plan our trip to Tasmania there are certain things which people rave about seeing. On the East coast it is Freycinet National Park and the Bay of Fires. We'd already made the loop through Freycinet so the Bay of Fires was our next thing to look forward to.

Now it's called Bay of Fire because there is a kind of algae/fungus/stuff that grows on the rocks that stains them orange. And they are really stained - I was walking around bare foot and it didn't come off on my feet.

Anyways, we were very much looking forward to some awesome scenery. Now maybe we were tired or jaded but we weren't all that impressed. We found a lookout point and snapped some pictures and were set to take off. However I will say that I do enjoy these pictures the most of all from the trip. :)

The orange rocks

Yes it was a bit cold but and windy but it was still nice
The beaches were great

We took the opportunity to take advantage of the beach when it was empty

After taking in the scenery we left to go to Launceston. We were looking forward to an easy country drive... little did we know it would be all two lane roads and about a hours worth of hair pin turns up and down the steep hills - and I wish I was joking on the amount of this kind of driving it was. There were points at which I seriously felt like I was getting dizzy from during back and forth down the road.

While the driving wasn't exactly the best, the views were spectacular.

View from the top of one of the hills I was talking about

The country side

Ok, so this is a random one... this was an information center at one of the very small towns which is very environmentally conscious

Once we got to Launceston we were happy to return to the land of nice restaurants and civilisation. After getting lunch by the water we went up to the Cataracts Gorge. This is an area where the Tamar River comes down to the ocean and was damned to create some recreational areas back in the 20's. The area was very awesome. There is an outdoor lap pool, an exquisite lawn area, and some decent hikes. Now we still were a bit over the hiking so we took the easy paths, but it was still a great thing to see.

I also learned something while we were at Cataracts Gorge. There was a Tasmanian Tiger which used to roam the area. However, like with many rare species, it was hunted into extinction and can't be found anywhere.

View of the lawn and swimming pool

The valley goes like this for as far as we could see - pretty spectacular

A painting of the Tasmanian Tiger

The city of Launceston did offer more civilisation than we were used to, however there wasn't enough to warrant too much of description. So I will close this series of posts.

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. :)

Tasmania was Gorgeous!! :)

Last weekend I treated myself to a well earned vacation and went to Tasmania with a friend. Our initial plan was to spend the first night in Maria Island, the next at Freycinet National Park, then the Bay of Fires. I have a ton of pictures and think this is the perfect opportunity to do some proper posts so I'll be breaking this up into the different days.

Thursday Night - Friday

Weather forecast: Sunny on Friday with rain developing on Saturday and Sunday

I arrived in Hobart at about 7:45 PM and was off to dinner with my friend Marieke who arrived earlier in the week. We headed to Salamanca Market which is an area right down by the water with a whole bunch of nice restaurants and pubs for dinner. The weather was a brisk type evening which was perfect for walking around and checking things out.

After a nice dinner and quick stroll we set the NavMan for Swansea and away we went. The road wasn't very impressive given the dark night, however we managed to find the city after about an hour or so of driving. When we finally got to Swansea we began to realise just how small town Tasmania is... the main road had one phone booth, a bakery, a church, a Yield sign, and a fire station - and no hotel to be found. So we were at a bit of a loss as to where our hotel was. Luckily there was the phone booth as all cell phone coverage ended about 10 minutes outside Hobart. :)

When we finally were checked into the hotel (around 10PM) - after calling the night clerk to open the lobby to give us our key - we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the room. For $100 AUD we had a queen bed, two twins, microwave, fridge, dining room set, and a renovated bathroom. Compared to the local surrounds this place was a gem. As Friday's plan was to hike on Maria island we had an early night.

Friday morning we were off to the ferry after a quick stop at the bakery. Our hopes were that the town simply seemed smaller at night... however we were wrong. The bakery was the only place open for breakfast and the ferry that left at 9:00 AM didn't come back until 5:00 PM, and the island has no food and no roads... Given this new knowledge we decided to skip Maria Island for another (more well equipped and prepared) trip and head up to Freycinet National Park a day early (especially given the weather forecast).

Now I went to Tasmania without any preconceived notions or ideas - my friend had done the research and most of the planning and for all intensive purposes I was tagging along. However I was very surprised at the sheer beauty of this little island. In the blink of an eye it goes from farms with grazing sheep, to gorgeous beaches with the bluest water I've seen in a very long time or possibly ever, to rugged mountains which reminded me the rock formations in Arizona.

Freycinet is known for Wine Glass bay which is a gorgeous beach which is only accessible by foot or boat. So given we forgot to pack our boat we hiked in. :) Here are some of the pictures from our hike.

Marieke and I in the obligatory self portrait

The view from the sand

One of the inland lakes

Beach walk to Hazards Beach

Of all the places we stayed, Swansea was probably the smallest town, however it offered the best nigh life... so to add a bit of a cliff hanger I'll save that bit for the next post.

And I thought it was hot in January...

I'm not sure if it's made the news in the states, however Monday was the hottest night in 13 years. Yes I said 13 years!!!!!

Now add to that the humidity, lack of air conditioning, lack of bug screens (which means I get unwanted visitors at night), and you have a very unpleasant and restless nights sleep. :(

The upswing is that I'm going to Tasmania tomorrow evening and the high is 50F which will be much better than the heat we've been having. As always I'll take lots of pictures, and try to post the narratives.

My appologies on not posting the names of the cockatoos - however I've been working long hours and haven't been able to interact with them much. Call me old fashioned but I want their names to come to me from them. :)

Any who... it's a cool night and I'm off to try to get a good nights sleep.

My new "Pets" and your challenge :)

When I moved into my new apartment/flat, it was very apparent that there is a different set of local wildlife, and more particularly birds. Being close to the harbour there are a number of different local birds, but the most popular ones are the cockatoos and laurakeets. Apparently, the last person in my room was feeding the laurakeets and had a local group which would come by often.

However, I've managed to attract bigger and better birds. There are a couple of cockatoos which have realised I keep sunflower seeds and will feed them if they come. They're extremely smart and a bit greedy, but not many people can say they have 'wild' birds as pets which will eat out of their hands. I say 'wild' because they are very socialised living in Sydney.

My challenge to you is to help me come up with names for them. :) Please comment on what names you think I should call them and my flatmate and I will choose from the lot. There may be a prize for whoever the makes the chosen suggestion.

Our two friends telling us they want food

One bird...

Two birds...

Now Rachelle (my flatmate) and I were becoming a bit suspicious as the birds were very greedy and seemed to ALWAYS be around... but tonight it all became clear. There are two sets of birds which come around!! Shortly after this picture the dominant pair proceeded to scare the others away and eat both sets of food I put out.

Three and four!!

Today I fought the ocean....

... and it won. :(

But I will not be discouraged and am taking this as a challenge for tomorrow. The weather for tomorrow's swim is not much better than today so I'm hoping this will scare many 4,500 people who are registered to swim. Today, however was meant to be a easy swim to simply get out in the water and move around a bit.

The swells were meant to be 8 ft today with rainy weather - tomorrow is meant to be only 6ft with the same weather. Fortunately (or so I'm told) the swells will be coming from the south so the beach we are swimming from will be sheltered. This is key because I typically end up having trouble in the massive waves coming into the beach and thrashing me around like a rag doll. Here are some pictures of the waves I attempted to swim in... hopefully the ocean isn't as pissed off tomorrow!

The View of North Bondi

South Bondi

Straight on... those waves look smaller than they actually are

Weekend of Fun - Part 2

So after my long weekend of swimming, relaxing, and cleaning - I had tickets to go to a show for the Sydney Festival. Sydney Festival is essentially a month long music, arts, and theatre extravaganza all throughout Sydney. Some of the shows are mystical/magical, some are new takes on old shows, and some are just concerts. I've never been too into the art scene, but my old flatmate is so she had her eye on a couple of shows. One of which was this hip hop group called the Tom Tom Crew. Her description to me was that they were a percussion and acrobatics group which had received rave reviews.

I went into the show open minded but was not expecting anything too fantastic. I was wrong - it was amazing!!

So the group is made up of 6 people (7 but one was injured for our show). One guy is a DJ, another a specialist in percussion instruments of any form, three acrobats, and an amazing (and very cute) beet boxer named Tom Thumb. The show was truly awesome. From the beginning they had everyone involved and engaged with the performance. Tom Thumb was exceptional and was able to use his voice in ways which you wouldn't think possible.

Needless to say this was a very good end to a long weekend and was topped off with some exceptional Thai food and a bottle of wine. :)