Saturday, April 26, 2008

Tasmania

So cheap one-way flights from Melbourne had us arriving in Hobart, with lovely views of the island and the city as the plane approached. We got accommodation nice and central in the Central City Backpackers and spent the first night just strolling about. Behind the well-known Salamanca Place was a lovely wee village area with period houses in quaint squares and dinky little shops and restaurants - the whole area had a lovely feel to it (although we ate that night in the Ball and Chain, a deservedly famous steakhouse).

Next day we checked out the various car rental places and got lunch at the kinda-famous Mures Seafood restaurant in the harbour (which was very nice, but not amazing). Spent the whole afternoon checking out the state museum, which had fascinating information about Tasmania's notorious persecution of the aboriginals. After getting kicked out of the museum at closing time it was a quick pint in the Old Sydney Hotel bar (actually an Irish bar, but a really nice one - not obviously Irish at all (a bit like the Drunken Poet in Melbourne)).

The next morning we picked up the rental car (our fourth rental of the trip), and headed out towards Port Arthur. Stopping off at a few of the mad coastal formations (such as the Tessellated Pavement, the Devils Kitchen, the Tasman Arch and another blowhole), we arrived at Port Arthur in the late afternoon to discover that it isn't really a town at all, it's just a very large historic site (I never bought a guidebook for Australia, as I never envisioned staying so long). So after a bit of a panicky search for cheap accommodation we got a room in the lovely Fish Lips, run by a lovely Finnish couple (he was the most Finnish-looking dude I've ever seen, straight out of a viking movie or something). Apparently this place used to be a Sea-World-type place with exclusive cabins and seal shows and the like, but now that's all closed down and they just offer accommodation - but the view of the sea and the forests while we had dinner was pure five-star luxury. (For some photos of many of the places we saw in Tasmania from a cool American couple cycling around the world for the past 6 years see here.)

That night we did the Ghost Tour in Port Arthur itself. This was kinda interesting (and Sarah got a couple of good 'frights', i.e. when the guide deliberately kicks a door at the climax of a scary tale told in a pitch black basement). The guide was an out-an-out ghost believer, so it was interesting to hear her personal experiences, and it was good to see many of the historic buildings in Port Arthur (it was a notorious colonial prison back in the 1850's), although I thought the most interesting part of the whole tour was when one of the people on the tour asked about the famous massacre from 1996 (afterwards I read that the Lonely Planet specifically asks tourists not to ask the guides about the incident, probably as it doesn't really make for good P.R.).

36 people were killed and more injured when a local guy went right off the deep end (http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/bryant/index_1.html). Our guide knew him well, having grown up with him in the town, and 8 personal friends of hers were among the dead - so that personal story was genuinely intriguing.

Next morning we stopped at the local Tasmanian Devil Park to see Tassie's most famous resident critter. This was a great place (and we came back the next morning for breakfast), and we were lucky enough to catch the bird show that had just started. The falcon display was incredible, and the ethos of the place as a rescue center for animals was reflected in the fact that all their rehabilitated birds are actually free to leave the center whenever they want (which they often do, but mostly they return within a few days). They had lots of other animals there too, lots of kangaroos and wallabies, wombats, possums, etc.

But certainly the highlight was the Tasmanian Devils themselves. Again we had timed our arrival nicely for their daily feeding time, and it was amazing to watch the cute and cuddly little critters become extremely fierce and aggressive towards each other as they fought over their food. Apparently these guys have the strongest bite of any animal after the great white shark or something (nice short little video here).

Next was a quick stop at the Eagleneck museum which explained the interesting dog-line used as what must be a unique prison escapee barrier. Then it was off to the Freycinet National Park for a spot of hiking. The highlight here is the famous Wineglass Bay, which has a fantastic lookout as you approach. We arrived quite early and so continued on for a full 5 hour hike, heading across the isthmus for a lovely refreshing swim at Hazards Beach.

After a brief stopover in small Bicheno, and an interesting evening of redneck-spotting in the local bar it was on to Launceston. Here we stayed in a central caravan park (Treasure Island), in quite a cozy caravan. It was a drizzly weekend, and so the Boag's brewery was closed and the town's top restaurants (such as the impressive looking Me Wah Chinese restaurant), were fully booked out. So we had to settle for a nice Indian the first night, but did manage to have lunch at Stillwater River Cafe the next day (check out their ever-so-slightly poncy website here!).

From Launceston we headed to Tasmania's best National Park, Cradle Mountain. We only spent one full day there, but still managed to get some major hiking in, and it was definitely amongst the best hiking I've ever done. The weather was great, Cradle mountain itself was mighty impressive, with a smattering of lakes scattered about the place for good measure and gorgeous native forests to round it all off.

From Cradle Mountain we headed over to the East coast and the tiny, but picturesque town of Strahan (watching the seaplane take off). Then it was back to Hobart for a couple more days of fine dining (The Henry Jones Art Hotel, Da Angelo Ristorante), before moving on.

It turned out that all flights up to Sydney for the following week were all mad expensive due to it being Australia day (which I'd never heard of!), and in the end it actually worked out much cheaper to fly back to Melbourne with Tiger Airways, who thankfully had just opened a new route (which the travel agent never told me about - I just stumbled across it on the Internet). But going back via Melbourne also meant I'd get a chance to have a look at the software system for Sally. It also turned out that Enda was going to be away on business while Tracy was visiting her family in Brisbane, so we'd be able to crash in Enda's place again. So although it meant spending even longer again in Oz (the original one-year time limit on this trip now beginning to look seriously restrictive!), that's what we decided to do, and we heading back to Melbourne.