Adventures in Tasmania

I'm back in Brisbane now, Cam and I flew out of Hobart a couple of days ago. I was just getting used to the dry, moderate temperatures of Hobart and now I'm back to being as hot as a potato except sweaty as well. Cam and I got up to loads of trouble for the month and a half we spent in Tasmania and there are way too many adventures I could write about. I'll try to be as concise (which for me probably isn't possible). Cam has been on my back for ages to write some blog entries under the guise that he actually enjoys reading them. To be honest, I think that the real reason is because he wanted me to show off his lightening picture.

When we were in Tassie, Cam's parents let us stay at their place. We were very spoiled and got to enjoy some amazing things; a lot of delicious dinners out, a corporate box at the Hobart Open (international tennis tournament), a trip to Launceston, surfing lessons. They took us to the Taste Festival - a celebration of the 'flavours' of Tasmania featuring a lot of local gourmet food and wine producers, and we got to see the yachts come in to the Hobart harbour at the end of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. I convinced Cam (using my excellent skills of persuasion) to take me all over Tasmania doing outdoorsy things; kayaking, camping, swimming, exploring, bushwalking… too fun.

Tasmania is very small; you can drive from one side to the other in maybe 4 hours. The biggest city is Hobart where Cam's family lives, and the population is about 200,000. It is rugged and beautiful but a lot similar in climate to Canada - which is probably why so few people live here. I think it's quite understandable considering just how many other, warmer options there are in Australia. The island was built and later settled by convicts (England shipped over a lot of convicts to Australia in the early 1800's). The convicts built loads and loads of beautiful sandstone buildings and bridges, most of which are still intact. The day Cam and I flew in from Brisbane (which was over 30 degrees) it was 12 in Hobart. 12 Degrees. In the summer. To be fair it did get warmer… but still.

The fact that Tassie is basically uninhabited means that there are loads of national parks, beautiful sandy beaches, mountains, forests, etc to visit, hike, camp at and swim in. The bad side is that there are lots of bogans (aka Hicks/Hillbillies) and apparently inbreeding if you believe all of the rumours. Apparently there was a Tasmanian guy named Alexander Pearce who lived out in the sticks in the early 1800's and he ate people, as in he was a cannibal. He was originally from England but had been transported to what used to be called Van Diemen's Land as a convict. He escaped from Sarah Island (a secluded island on the West Coast) which is when he started to eat people but he was eventually caught and was hung in 1824. A movie came out last year called "Dying Breed" if you're interested in the story. I'm not big on horror so I gave that one a pass.

Launceston

I fell in love with echidnas in Launceston. We spent a night there in the first week of January - Launceston is the other big city in Tasmania with about 100,000 people. A lot of the original sandstone buildings are still standing so it really gives the city a neat atmosphere. While in Launceston we went to a place called the Platypus House. I don't know if you are familiar the monotreme family, they are egg-laying mammals and include the platypus and echidna. I had never seen an echidna and I thought they were hilarious. They have hedgehog-like spikes, waddle very slowly, and have a long skinny snout with a very long and thin pink tongue which occasionally pops out to lap up food.

Freycinet National Park

We took a day trip up the coast to Freycinet National Park and did a bushwalk to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Beach. I'd been in the winter the last time I went to Tasmania but it's too beautiful not to see again. It was absolutely packed though and in one part of the track a family warned us there were some big (deadly) tiger snakes up ahead. I had my camera out for 20 minutes of trekking, prepared to snap a few shots if we saw one but no such luck - or maybe that means we actually were lucky?

Cricket

I saw my first live cricket game. It was a 20/20 match between Tasmania and New South Wales and we lost horribly. Test Cricket matches can run for 5 days whereas 20/20 matches last for only 3 or 4 hours. The name comes from the fact that each team gets one inning with a maximum of 20 overs. If you don't know what that means I completely understand because it took me ages to figure it out myself. It is good fun to watch though and I would love to see a test match. Aussie's really love their cricket -Boxing Day seems to be synonymous with the Boxing Day Test Match at the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground). I've decided that Ricky Ponting will be my favourite player for several reasons: he is the captain of the Australian Test team, the Australian team is the best in the world, and also he is the only cricket player I can actually recognize.

Cradle Mountain-Lake Sinclair National Park

Cam and I went on a hiking trip to a place called Cradle Mountain - it is stunning and reminds me of the Rocky Mountain. I did feel a bit homesick. It's a fair drive from Hobart so we brought a tent and booked out a campsite. When we finally arrived and tried to set up our tent (in the freezing rain) we realised that Cam had forgotten the tent pegs - I take absolutely no responsibility. We ended up folding down the back seats of the car and sleeping in the trunk. The hike itself was lovely if a bit cold and wet. Apparently Cam didn't think warm/waterproof clothes would be necessary so he had to buy a plastic poncho. I saw echidnas and wombats on the drive up.

Surfing

I've gotten a bit better at surfing and I can finally catch a wave and stand which is exciting for me because it took ages. Cam's dad is big on surfing so I got him to coach me. To put it bluntly I basically sucked for most of the time. The fact that I couldn't stand up was embarrassing enough, but even worse were all of the little kids that were way beyond me, absolutely destroying whatever pride I had left.

No, the wooden surfboard in the photo is not mine though I wish it was. Phil's friend made it (the guy we went to Marrawah with). Loads of people always stopped to have a chat with Phil about the board - it really is pretty gorgeous close up. Considering it cost more than my return plane ticket I figure it's a bit out of my league, and also with my current surf skills I would probably destroy it.

We went to the local surf beach, Clifton, quite often over the holidays. The waves were generally pretty tame but on a couple of occasions they got a bit scary.Wave size doesn't translate well into photos because they end up looking much smaller than they really are. It makes me appreciate all those pictures of the pro surfers because the waves they're riding in photos must be absolutely massive in real life.

Marrawah Surf Trip

Phil and his surfing mate invited Cam and I to join them on a surf trip to Marrawah for the Australia Day weekend. I'd never heard of Marrawah before but apparently it's a pretty good surf spot though a bit out of the way (i.e. northwest tip of Tassie). Personally I was hoping for the little ripple waves that look like white foam because that's more my skill level. Obviously everyone else was hoping for something a bit more substantial. We camped (we had tent poles this time), went swimming and surfing, and toasted marshmallows.

Road kill

Tasmania has a lot wilderness and not a lot of people, ergo Tasmanian roads are filled with dead animals. To be honest I find it a bit excessive. Driving to Mt. Field National Park was the worst; there was not a stretch of road where you didn't see dead…animals? Maybe, but I couldn't tell what a lot of them were. Apparently a lot of people that come to Tasmania comment on the abundance of road kill so I am not making itup. However, there is one positive benefit to the abundance of expired animals… I can now say I've seen most of the animals found in Tasmania IN THEIR NATURAL HABITAT. I am one of the select few who have seen some of the rarest Tasmanian animals in the wild. And how many people do you know that can say they've actually seen a Tasmanian Devil in the wild? Very few. On the surf trip at Marrawah Cam and I spotted one on the side of the road. Cam said he was road kill but obviously he was just sleeping. And what a better spot for a nocturnal animal to sleep! He just has to wake up in the evening and he gets first pick of the road kill. I told Cam this but he wasn't having any of it.

In terms of living animals, we actually did end up seeing quite a few rare ones including a couple of wombats and a whole lot of echidnas - my favourite! Sadly they move incredibly slowly and it's painful to see them crossing the road because you are just praying that a car doesn't whip around the corner in the minutes it takes for the little thing to get to the other side. Seeing as how I have a particular soft spot for these monotremes, I was pretty excited that we got to see five in the wild, and none of them were even dead!

Cameron's Lightening Photo

On New Year's Eve Cam and I sat in a park on a hill overlooking the city and Mt. Wellington so that we could watch the fireworks display. Not the midnight one, we watched the 'kiddie' ones at 9:00pm - we're boring like that. It was very stormy and soon enough while we were waiting for the fireworks a huge thunderstorm developed. It started behind Mt. Wellington but soon there was lightening in every direction. The fork lightening was pretty spectacular so Cam spent the entire time trying to capture it on camera, and he missed the entire firework display. We spent the rest of the night in total darkness because the storm took the power out.