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Thursday 15th - Flew from Canberra to Hobart via Melbourne. Staying with Gen & Jules who I met whilst travelling China, really looking forward to that. Staying in Tas for 10 days, cant wait to explore.Arrived in Hobart just after lunchtime, Gen picked me up from the airport. Lovely to see her. Had a chilled afternoon catching up and then met Jules after work. On Friday Gen drove me up Mount Wellington for views of Hobart and surrounding areas, amazing but blooming cold, 10 degrees cooler top of the mountain. Met up with Jules in the evening and had the most lush fish and chips at a place called Fish Frenzy on the harbour...mmm! Saturday G&J took me to Richmond where they got married and went to taste some wine at the vineyard they had their reception, as most of you know this is one of my fav pastimes...lovely! I arranged a trip around Taz for Sunday for 6 days and met up with the group at 6.30am Sunday morning. There were 21 of us on the bus, all very quiet at that time of the morning!
Travelled up the West Coast and the first night was in the mining town of Tullah in a cosy lakeside chalet. That day we visited Mount Field National Park and Lake St Clair...lots of walking. Second day we walked the Montezuma Falls 10k through the forest good to get some clean fresh air...then went to Henty Sand Dunes for some quad biking, good fun! Popped into Stahan briefly then back to Tullah for the night.
Up early again to drive to the world heritage area of Cradle Mountain National Park where we hiked for 3 hours...great views. Spent the night in Devonport where the Spirit of Tasmania ferry comes in from Melbourne. Fourth day we travelled to Launceston then drove through to the Bay of Fires where we had a couple of hours...this was the best day weather wise, the sun was shining so took the opportunity to have a swim, beautiful beach. Stayed that night in the seaside town of Bicheno, we had our own little house for this, which was fun.
Day 5 we visited the Freycinet National Park and hiked up Mount Amos for spectacular views over Wineglass Bay...the sun was out and sky was blue and I was cream crackered but it was worth it...see pics! That night we stayed at Port Arthur, again in our own little house and I went on a ghost tour for a glimpse inot the historic past of the penal colony which was fun, but not scary!
Day 6 we had the morning to explore Port Arthur at our own leisure and take a boat cruise around the harbour. Again the weather was lovely. As we got to the site early we had the place almost to ourselves for a couple of hours before all the 'tourists' turned up!!
The west coast reminded me a little of NZ's south island...quite rugged, lots of parks and forests, lovely. Travelling down the East Coast was very different to the West Coast. Very dry and a lot of the forests had been damaged due to fire, but the coastline was spectacular. Our guide was fantastic, very knowledgeable about everything and anything.
I missed the end of tour drinks as Gen picked me up Friday evening, I went to her friend's 30th party then back to pack as up very early on Sat to catch flight to Melbourne. I met some nice people, especially Kirsty from the UK who I met up with again in Melbourne as funnily enough she was working in the YHA I was staying in.
Next stop Melbourne Sat 24th March
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