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| Welcome to Tasmania (yes, that's a devil) |
What do Tom and Kirstin do to break up the monotony of living on a luxurious sailing yacht? We call it "vacation from vacation". This involves leaving L'ORIENT somewhere and exploring via some other form of transportation.
Truth be told, it's cyclone season here in Oz, so we are contractually obligated to NOT sail north until May 1. But that's fine with us, as our next stop was Tasmania. Tassie (as real Australians call it) lies below 40 degrees South latitude; an area affectionately known by sailors as "the roaring 40s". Being in this part of the world in a sailboat is not our jam, as the wind and waves make it quite dangerous when it's not lethal. I won't bore you with statistics, but if you're interested in what can go wrong in these waters, google 1998 Sydney to Hobart race.
So on to Tasmania. We flew from Brisbane to Hobart (about 2.5 hours) and began our journey. Tasmania has around 500,000 citizens of which about half live in Hobart, the capital. The plan was to circle Tassie roughly counter-clockwise across our 21 days there. February is supposedly the best month of the year to be here so we were prepared to share the road with campers, tour buses and locals. What we didn't expect was the warning at the rental car pickup that the roads would feature a lot of road kill. Wow - they weren't wrong. There is more roadkill of all variety than we have seen anywhere else in our travels. Sadly, it's mostly cute animals (wallabies and wombats). So, with the unexpected objective of not creating any road kill ourselves, the first stop would be Port Arthur.
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| A panorama of Port Arthur in its heyday |
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| Welcome to the big house; main prison building |
Tasmania (and, for that matter, Australia) has an interesting history relative to convicts from the UK, who were sent there between 1780 and 1860. How many? Around 160,000. Australia and especially Tasmania were basically penal colonies during this time, and the history of this period is literally all around you.
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| The Separate Prison (kind of an understatement - this is solitary) |
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| This is where a life of crime gets you in pre-victorian England |
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| Built by the convicts themselves, oddly |
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| Port Arthur's cathedral |
So, first stop? Port Arthur. Think of it as the Leavenworth of the early 1800s. The Australian government and various historical preservation geeks have done a painstaking job of preserving and restoring the penal colony, which is actually more accurately described as a penal city..........the prison, hospital, various workshops, lodging for the administrators. The Separate Prison was particularly startling as it was one of the first uses of psychological punishment in the form of solitary confinement and complete silence. Prisoners were even kept in single cells in the chapel (see me below). We were heavily focused on taking this all in, which really couldn't even be accomplished in the day we explored it.
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| An even worse version of church |
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| The scale of this complex is amazing, given it was built with local products only |
Were there that many serious criminals in the UK at this time? Yes and no. There were for sure SOME hardened rogues sent to Port Arthur. But there was also a children's prison with inmates guilty of pick-pocketing things like a man's scarf. There certainly were some unfortunate London street urchins swept up in this for the crime of just trying to stay alive on the UK's pre industrial age streets. The museum had a particularly difficult to forget display about children doing chimney sweeping by physically going down the flue and becoming stuck. Wish I hadn't read that - and now I am sharing the image with you!
Just in case all of this history wasn't cheery enough, you encounter the other reason most Australians know Port Arthur - it was the scene of Australia's largest mass shooting in 1996. The massacre site, which was the museum's cafe, is a moving memorial and definitely brings home the randomness of life. This event brought about significant gun control laws in Australia that seemed to work until last year's Bondi Beach shooting.
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| Echidna spotting from by porch on stilts |
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| Rugged coastline of Tassie |
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| Natural bridge carved by storms and wave action |
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| Dark turquoise waters and spectacular views |
This peninsula wasn't all doom and gloom though - it has some absolutely spectacular coastal cliffs. I am afraid of heights (fear of heights or fear of falling?) and the Australians do their best to maximize that. Scary outlook on the absolute edge of a sheer drop? Sure and better yet we will put a well constructed platform hanging off it. As we have mentioned in every Australian blog post, the tourist infrastructure here is astonishing and nowhere more so than in Tasmania. The entire state seems to be a national park and in fact 50% of it is protected in some way. That gives it the distinction of having some of the highest percentage of protected land of anywhere on earth. Tasmania is roughly the size of West Virginia but that US state only has 8% of its land protected in some way.
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| More rugged coastline; not what you think of in the South Pacific |
So, with this beautiful yet occasionally sobering start to our trip.......we headed to the beach to get.........less sober. Bicheno is a fun, seaside area of Tasmania boasting great food, proximity to vineyards and a beach. OK, spoiler alert. Tasmania is in the South Pacific, true. But get "tropical island" stuff out of your imagination. It's summer here. We wore long pants to the beach. Really. Signs dot the road-scape warning of icy conditions in winter. The summer temperatures here ranged from low 50s to high 70s. And it gets cold in winter. We fortunately had absolutely spectacular weather while we were there - two rainy days out of 21. This part of the coast has huge boulders covered in places with a bright orange lichen. They are very striking and a lot of fun to explore.
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| There's actually a walking path painted onto the boulders |
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| Challenging path to the beach |
A visit to Tasmania is essentially a daily routine of national parks, coastline, vineyards, great seafood restaurants, and walks. In Bicheno, we began our hiking adventures for real, striding for what seemed like miles on the enormous boulders and dunes along the coast. We also began seeing critters; like a lot of them. I made a wallaby friend (pictured) as well.
Besides the consistent natural beauty of Tasmania...there's the food. Kirstin and I did a great job shedding the weight gained during our trip to the states - just in time to go to ground zero for yummy seafood. Oysters, lobster rolls, seafood chowder, scallops, smoked trout and salmon - we gave it all a try. We also came across what was one of our top winery discoveries - Mayfield Estate. The wine could have been awful and we would probably have loved this place just for the view but, fortunately, the wine was spectacular.
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| Not a shabby vista for this winery |
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| Wait, where are my Oysters Rockefeller ? |
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| A winery in heaven..... |
Located just south of Bicheno is Freycinet National Park and one of Tasmania's most recognizable spots - Wineglass Bay.
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| Wineglass Bay - only 1000 steps to go |
The east coast of Tasmania is surprisingly dry and even more so now because of an ongoing drought. The hike to Wineglass Bay is no joke and we marveled at walking past a landscape more in keeping with perhaps Arizona than what we imagined Tasmania to look like. After your reach the lookout this hike features a fun 1000 steps down to the beach (and, of course, another 1000 up). While our knees might have disagreed, sitting on that beautiful beach was absolutely worth it.
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| If that boulder moves....... |
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| Icy cold water, even in mid-summer |
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| Start sailing south and next stop Antartica... |
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| More coastal beauty than we've ever seen |
Always in search of a good hike we made a stop at Narawntapu National park which is nicknamed the "Serengeti of Tasmania". Here we expected to see groups of kangaroos and wallabies roaming the park. We did not see a single animal but I got the shock of my life. Being nearly 63 (how did that happen?) the sight of a public restroom on a long hike is much appreciated. I sauntered in to the men's room, opened the toilet bowl, and looked down as my eyes adjusted to the lack of light. Curled around the toilet I was standing in front of was an olive green 3 1/2 ft snake, about 2 inches thick........I leaped back and he uncoiled and headed for the gap in the wall behind the toilet........we were both retreating rapidly. Problem? Behind the men's room is the ladies' bathroom. I waited to hear a scream; can you imagine being seated on a toilet and a 3 1/2 foot snake emerges between your legs ? I heard no scream (thankfully) but got out of there quickly. Footnote- Tasmania has three kinds of snakes; all are very poisonous, as in you are toast if you are bitten and can't get medical care fast.
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| More 1800s architecture - again all built by convict labor |
Next stop Launceston. Being fond of word-play and needing wine drinking limits, we decided that any wine tasting excursion would be declared "over" if we couldn't say Launceston Worcestershire three times quickly. It worked. But then, as we checked into our accommodations......the Mercure Hotel......we were absolutely horrified. Not sure how this happened, but we discovered to our chagrin that this was actually an ugly, low budget motor lodge with no view, no amenities, and no charm. We don't often have epic hotel booking fails but, wow, this was bad.
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| Cataract Gorge |
Launceston has two things to recommend it - some fantastic on the water seafood restaurants and the Cataract Gorge. Cataract Gorge has great hiking, oddly the world's longest single span chairlift and a swimming pool. We happened upon the pool on a day when it actually reached 80 degrees and eagerly donned our swimsuits. Big mistake - while it seemed like half of Launceston was hanging out around the pool very few were in it and we found out why - a non heated pool filled with Gorge water is like doing a polar plunge. It felt good to lounge in the sun for a while but our five minute "swim" was about all we could stand.
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| Community pool on a hot day- empty due to the 58 degree water |
So we wrapped up Launceston quickly and moved to the "much more like it" Tamar Ridge Winery Treehouse. If you come to Tamar Valley this is where to stay - beautiful mini-villas on stilts with private balconies overlooking the Tamar Valley.
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| This is more our style |
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| The site of happy hour and critter spotting |
At Tamar, we enjoyed sunsets on our porch, sipping from our expanding cache of Tasmanian wine and watching echidnas, wallabies, and a wide variety of birds. Talk about going from the outhouse to the White House.........Tamar quickly washed away all memory of the Mercure and we continued.
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| Tamar is just stunning |
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| Marion's Winery - the first in Tasmania |
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| A winery with a view - what could be better? |
From Tamar we went to the quaint village of Stanley, where we had booked accommodations at the post office. Literally. "Stamps of Stanley" is a fun hotel that has repurposed a vintage post office into three delightful hotel suites.
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| A first - staying at a Post Office |
Stanley is a small coastal village with absolutely great hiking, breathtaking views, and turquoise water (don't get excited; remember? super cold water). Lots of hiking......and a chair lift up "The Nut".
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| "The Nut": Not sure of the origin of the name, perhaps The Rock was already taken |
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| The chairlift was thankfully not too elevated |
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| I sense another long beach walk ahead |
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| How did we end up in England? |
Echidnas are the not so snuggly relatives of porcupines. Embedded in their shaggy coat are very sharp barbs which are apparently no fun to come in contact with. Echidnas seem to have no known enemies in terms of predators. For this reason, they are completely oblivious to humans and really everything else. During a hike, a single echidna blocked the progress of two hiking groups (11 people in total) because it saw no reason to get off the hiking path until it was ready.
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| Echidnas - distinctly not snuggly |
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| Cemetery with a view in Stanley |
The other big draw here are fairy penguins. The Australians again over-perform - the penguins come out of the ocean and head to their nests at dusk so tourists gather on a raised platform that is lit with red lights so as not to disturb the penguins. Before you walk out on to this platform there is a volunteer who tells you about the penguins and lays down the law about light from phones or cameras.
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| The most people we have seen all day in Stanley - waiting for penguins |
It was unnecessarily windy and cold the night we went so we saw two penguins make their way incredibly slowly to an eager group of fifty tourists. Time to call it a night.
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| The first two penguins of the night (bottom left) |
Kirstin and I are probably not as adventurous as we should be with wine. Tasmania allowed us to sample wines we don't often sample, like Pinot Gris (not Grigio), Arneis, Tempranillo, and others. When visiting vineyards in the US, we've seldom purchased more than two to three bottles. Here we found that we were liking (enough to actually purchase) four or more bottles of Tasmanian wine. Fortunately for us, domestic Australian flights allow you to have wine in carry on or checked luggage, so we didn't face the issue of doing the consumption math relating to our planned departure.
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| Cradle Mountain, yes Kirstin is going to make me go to the top here also. |
On to Cradle Mountain - an absolutely iconic place in Tasmania but we were told that it was highly unlikely that we would see the top of the mountain due to cloud cover and fog. We arrived on an absolutely perfect day after a 2.5 hour drive from Stanley and eagerly walked over to catch the bus that takes you from the tourist center to the hiking.
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| Alpine Lakes |
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| Crater Lake - so thankful for this weather |
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| Never far from a waterfall in Tasmania |
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| Crater Lake boathouse |
Big problem - for some reason at the height of tourist season they have chosen this week to repair the road so there is no bus after 2:30pm. You miss the last bus and you have a four hour hike back to the visitor center. We did a three hour hike in two hours and 15 minutes and arrived at the bus stop to catch the last bus with 15 minutes to spare. Tired and a bit frustrated with the time pressure but so lucky to have had perfect conditions.
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| Some inexplicably timed roadwork necessitated our speed hike |
From Stanley, it was on to another small seaside village.......Strahan. We kept making attempts to chill out on the beach - virtually everywhere that had a beach. But alas, the cold wind, sand-storms, horseflies, you name it kept driving us away. Tasmania's beaches are for the hard-core "I don't care if the water is 55 degrees" types; not us.
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| View from our Strahan villa |
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| The metropolis of Strahan |
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| Another windswept beach; we tried to brave the 60 degree temps and 30 knot winds but gave up quickly |
So we decided that our preferred way to travel - a boat - might be the best way to see this part of Tasmania. This tour boat gets around at 28 knots (our boat maybe does 6) so the day moved at a boating speed we are not used to.
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| Good to be a passenger sometimes |
The rivers and waterways are gorgeous on the west side of Tasmania - very green and dense. Yet the one thing that unites the East and West Coast of Tasmania is convict history. The folks who got sent to Sarah Island were really in trouble - how the British even found this tiny island was a mystery to us. This place was known as the harshest convict station in Australia and operated from 1822-33. It is not preserved like Port Arthur so walking around among the ruins is kind of a creepy experience.
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| Very scary ocean approach; crazy currents, rocks and breaking waves |
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| Oh to have conditions like this when sailing |
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| Sarah Island - ruins of the penitentiary |
The drive from the Southwest mining area of Tasmania to Hobart really drove home the point that Tassie is almost completely wild. The two small "cities", Hobart and Launceston, have a combined population of 350,000 people in an area the size of West Virginia. The rest of it is basically mountains, vineyards, beach.........a lot of open space. The roads can be challenging, although how would I know ?.......Kirstin again did all the driving. She's the unquestioned master of being able to drive on the left and obey all traffic and speed regulations.
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| View over a former goldmine |
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| Another example of fine Australian infrastructure |
So we have seen mountains, cliffs, farms and beaches - one thing missing. A cave! Of course Kirstin found one - Hastings Cave which also has a thermal pool. I am lukewarm on caves but at this point in the trip very excited about a heated pool. The cave was pretty incredible, but I learned that thermal does not mean heated. It was also not the place to be on a Sunday when every Hobart family with kids thought it would be great to go to the pool.
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| Trying to forget I am 130 feet underground |
We mentioned that Tasmania features a tremendous amount of roadkill. Animals lucky enough to be merely injured by speeding Utes (utility trucks) end up at the Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary and Hospital. They take 20,000 phone calls a year reporting injured animals and send out a network of volunteers to pick up the animals and bring them here. After treatment they try to release most back into the wild. A few that can't be put back are viewable in the Sanctuary. We saw several adult wombats in the wild at Cradle Mountain but the baby wombat here was definitely a treat.
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| Baby Wombat |
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| Kangaroo friends - they know who has the food |
On to Hobart - we are now in the big city. Australians we had spoken to about Hobart about didn't recommend a visit to the Botanical Garden (although it is very nice) or a boat ride.
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| Hobart Waterfront |
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| Also featured more jellyfish than I have ever seen in one place |
You have to go to MONA they said. Turns out MONA is the private museum of a Hobart boy made good (or maybe not). The owner is a guy named David Walsh who made a fortune as a professional gambler and mathematician using statistical betting strategies in casinos and sports betting. Interesting background and a museum with a lot of attitude.
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| Aptly called "Fat Car" |
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| Indoor Fireworks - Kirstin is in heaven |
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| Outdoor art works too |
MONA stands for Museum of Old and New Art but really most of it is very modern art and installations. Truly some jaw dropping stuff. We took a high speed museum catamaran out to the museum and then spent five hours there walking out a little dazed. Like drinking from a fire-hose.
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| Dripping red oil on a turning disk - creative and kind of mesmerizing |
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| Real boulder on real glass - bending from the weight |
How did three weeks here go so fast? Kirstin is already scheming on when we could go back. Go to Tasmania - you won't regret it. Next stop for us - The Outback.
