a map of our adventures.
On the night of Nov 1, Amanda and I flew into Launceston. In classic Jetstar fashion, the plane made weird noises and was so rough when we landed that the flight attendant said, “Welcome to Tasmania. We’ve just landed in Launceston, in case you just missed that.” Since we got in late, we went straight to our hostel (which shook every time a truck drove by) to plan for the next day. I made the mistake of calling a tour company at 11pm, thinking they’d have an office with an answering machine, but I think it was the guide’s wife who answered. Oops.
The next morning we rented a car and headed for our first destination: the Marakoopa Cave. As we started driving (through the beautiful landscape of mountains and farms), we spotted signs for a honey farm and decided that spontaneous stops were completely fine on this trip. We pulled over at the honey farm to taste the honey and see some bees going to work. Amanda bought some honey, which was a big deal because we had a big debate about whether or not honey was allowed to cross state lines in Australia (they’re big on their quarantines and food transport regulations here).
We also pulled over to take pictures with a giant statue of a Tasmanian devil. At this point I was convinced that renting a car was the way to go – I’m a little sick of tours and public transport at this point anyway!
We arrived at the sight of the cave in the town of Mole Creek. The reason we went here: glow worms. We had a tour of the cave and all the gorgeous stalactites and stalagmites. They told us the cave was discovered by two boys who explored the cave – by candlelight! – for 4 years before telling anyone else about it. We saw a big Tasmanian cave spider (they can grow up to the size of a dinner plate) and a blind cave spider that is so well adapted to the darkness that it has no eyes at all.
The glow worms were the final part of the tour – they turned off the lights and we looked up at the ceiling to see glowing dots everywhere, kind of like looking at a sky full of stars. The glow worms are really fungus gnats – they glow when they’re young to attract food into their sticky strings. As adults, they don’t have mouths and die after 3-5 days. What a weird creature. Cool to see though. (I didn’t know about glow worm caves until I heard someone talking about seeing them in New Zealand. When I heard they were in Tassie, I decided I had to go.)
After the cave, we continued on our journey to a national park to see Cradle Mountain, probably the most famous thing in Tasmania, besides the devil. Along the way we stopped at a few lookouts to take pictures, so we got to the mountain later in the afternoon. We spied some wallabies in the parking lot, but our ultimate goal for the day was to try and spot a wombat. We did a 2-1/2 hour walk around Dove Lake, with Cradle Mountain as the backdrop (there was still snow up there), looking for wombats all the way. We found some lizards, some birds, and a lot of wombat poop – but no wombats. At the end of the walk, we stuck our feet in the cold cold lake and then got back in the car to head out.
Then, what do you know, but as we’re leaving the park, a wallaby AND a wombat run out infront of the car at the same time! Amanda excitedly parked the car in the middle of the road and hopped out with her camera. The wombat hobbled off the road and turned its butt toward us.
We thought we were lucky then, but when we got back in the car, we found another wombat on the side of the road, one that was willing to just stand there and eat while I took pictures of it. When we pulled in the park’s gas station, there was ANOTHER wombat, which Amanda then chased across the parking lot trying to get pictures. A running, wobbly wombat = one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Unfortunately, this gas station had closed at 5:00 with the rest of the park offices. This was a problem as our rental car came with only half a tank and we stupidly didn’t fill it up when we were still in the city. It was now 6:30 or so, and we were off to find the next gas pump.
On our way, we were discussing how Tasmanian devils are probably rarely spotted in the wild. No more than 30 minutes later, do we both notice a crow picking at some road kill… “Was that…?” We both looked at each other. “IT WAS! DEAD TASSIE DEVIL!” We pulled off into a driveway and ran back to check it out. It’s back was flattened by a vehicle, but it was undoubtedly a Tasmanian devil. No way! We decided that even though it’s dead, it still counts as a wild animal spotting. Yes, we took pictures, but no one else seems to appreciate them as much as we do… wonder why…
We realized we might be in trouble with our gasoline situation when we found out the town we were driving to was hardly more than a trailer park. We headed to Sheffield, which we thought had to be real town because it was a bigger dot on the map, and discussed how if the car died, we’d just have to ask the nearest farmer if they had any fuel.
Amazingly, we made it the next 15 kilometers to Sheffield, and the first thing we saw was a gas station! I was so excited, I almost hugged the pump. It was an unattended gas station – just a pump and a credit card machine. I put in my Visa – it said my type of card wasn’t accepted. We tried 4 more cards, all but one of which were Visas. It wouldn’t take any of them. Well this was a cruel twist in the plot. We turned onto the main road of town and found a gas station – it had closed at 7:00. We were 45 minutes too late. There were some feelings of despair at this point. Our stuff was back in Launceston, and we wanted to make it back there for the night.
Across the street I saw a man playing with his grandson. I went over to ask him if there were any more petrol stations that were open. He said the other one would be closed. Our options were spend the night in town, drive to the next city (29 km away), or go find the station owner’s house and ask him to open for us. We were going to go with the last one, as it was the most appealing choice (no way were we gonna make it even a few more kms with the gas we had left), but then the man told me he had just bought some fuel for his lawnmower and we could buy it from him. THANK GOD! WE LOVE SHEFFIELD! We pulled the car over into the lot of the Inn, and he and another guy got a tube out of the shed and filled up our car. The adorable grandson tried to be helpful too; it was cute. We thanked them a zillion times and paid them for the fuel and then looked around town to see if anything was open since we hadn’t eaten an actual meal since breakfast. We noticed the barn-like building that said “Ice Cream” on the side looked open – turns out it wasn’t just an ice cream place – it was a Chinese place! We got our food and ate it in a park filled with murals, which the town’s tourist attraction.
It was now dark and we still had a ways to go. Our route home took us up into the mountains on narrow, windy roads. Animals started popping out at us from every direction! Wallaby here, wallaby there! Around every corner, an owl would fly out in front of the vehicle. When we got down off the mountain, we thought we were safe, but a possum ran out in front of the car. It decided to turn around and run under the car. Crunch.
After that eventful day, we decided that we were in love with Tasmania.
The next morning, we explored Launceston a little. It’s Tassie’s 2nd biggest city, but it has a town feel to it. We went to the gorge and walked around a little bit. We left probably around noon, and immediately started looking for stops to make along the way to the east coast and down to Wineglass Bay. Reading the Lonely Planet guide to Tassie, I said, “Oh, too bad we passed Evandale. We could have stopped at the Gourmet Sauce Company to try mustards and jams and strawberry chili sauce.” Really, I was being sarcastic, but as I read it, we saw a sign for Evandale. Amanda said, “Should we?” “Why not!” We pulled off and saw the sign “Sauce Company 300 M”. We sampled some things. I bought jam and she bought mustards for her dad. Later we saw the jams for double the price at a gift shop.
Launceston
While we were driving, Amanda thought she saw a snake. Then we both saw something we didn’t expect to see: ECHIDNA!!!!! Aka: the spiny anteater. We pulled off the road and ran back to find it. It tried to hide in some long grass. What a freakin cute animal. Was not expecting to see one in the wild! I also kept seeing kookaburras everywhere – you know, the bird that sits in the old gum tree in the song – but I kept seeing them on telephone wires, not in gum trees. Disappointing, haha.
Our next stop was the “White Knights,” the tallest white gum trees in the world – up to 93 meters. To get there, we had to take some backroads, which led us from the farmland (there are so many sheep in Tassie. Ok, maybe that’s all of Australia), to forest, to a logging area, to rainforest. We ate our leftover Chinese by a stream and then did the 20 minute walk to the trees. And yes, they were big.
See. Big.
When we finally reached our turn to head down the coast, we saw that it was May Pole Day in the town of St Marys. Did we stop? Of course. As we watched the kids untangle the ribbon on the pole, one guy asked “Can we get some of the big kids to help the little kids?” and motioned to me to help some kid. I didn’t know what I was doing! By the time I actually looked up and saw the over-under pattern of the ribbons, the little kid was doing just fine on his own. Amanda and I took some pictures and got out of there instead of staying to enjoy the kebabs and the fiddler.
Since our stops turned the 2-1/2 hour drive into a 5 hour adventure, we decided not to go to Wineglass Bay that day (it was cloudy and icky anyway) and went to our hostel in the town of Bicheno. (Of its pronunciation, which we kept screwing up, Amanda said: “It’s like ‘bishop’, with a C-H…. E-N-O.”) Cute town! Right on the shore, no traffic lights. The town is known for its fairy penguin tours, but the guy at the hostel told us about a picnic table, where if we waited around 8pm, we might get to see a few penguins. We got dinner (I had a chicken burger. Since I discovered that Australians put pineapple on their chicken biggers, I’ve been in love), and we ate on the rocky shore looking over the town. We then started on our walk over to the penguin picnic table, taking about an hour to get there, walking over the rocks and boulders along the water.
We reached a spot called the “blowhole” where the water crashed through a hole in the rocks and shot up. We saw a picnic table near here but thought it must be the wrong one. No way would the penguins come up this far from the water, or so we thought. Unable to find the path we had been following, we decided to follow the road to the next beach. Walking towards the road, I saw something out of the corner of my eye – the butt of a penguin disappeared under a rock! I signaled to Amanda and we sat by the rock waiting for the little penguin to come out. He did and stood there looking at us. SO CUTE!! After a few minutes, we decided to walk down and try to find the next beach and see if there were more penguins there.
As we climbed over the rocks and crevices, I spotted a penguin swimming in the water between two rocks. It was pretty dark at this point and getting hard to see. We stopped and sat on a rock, looking towards the water. Sure enough, Amanda spotted the white bellies of a group of penguins exiting the water. I counted 14. They formed two rows, waiting for their whole group to be ready to go. Then all together, they waddled up the rocks. When they came to a ledge, they stopped, waited for everyone, and all slid down the ledge together. Then they continued in their lines. They were coming closer to us. One penguin suddenly turned and bolted for the water, but the others continued on their journey. Pretty much ADORABLE.
We were sitting out on the rocks in the dark and it started to rain. We figured it would be smart to leave before the weather got worse. We climbed up and slid down rocks, trying to make our way back the road, and we realized that we were surrounded by penguins. A group of 8 there, another 5 over there. And then the ones we couldn’t see – they were screeching and making the weirdest noises in the bushes. We found out later that they live in their on land burrows at night and just go into the water during the day to find food. I would guess we saw about 40 penguins. We made it back to the road without falling into any crevices or pools of water. A successful night, for sure.
The next morning, we headed towards Wineglass Bay, which was only about another 30 minutes drive. Wineglass is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in the word, but by land the only way to get there is to hike. It was probably about a 40 minute hike just to the lookout – and perfect timing, the sun decided to grace us with its presence. Amanda decided that she wanted to walk down the beach… which was fine until we had to walk back UP the mountain. And of course it decided to rain on us at this point too. But that’s alright.
Overall we walked for 2 or 2-1/2 hours. We didn’t think this put us behind, but after a lunch stop in Swansea which took a lot longer than we expected and a back road route which, we got to Port Arthur at 4:00. (By the way, we had another echidna sighting.)
Port Arthur is a penal settlement. Back when Australia was the place to send Britain’s convicts, Port Arthur was the place to send convicts who committed more crimes on mainland Australia. When we got to Port Arthur, the guy told us we could pay less if we went in after 4:30, although all tours and boat rides will have stopped by then. That was fine by us, although it would have been really nice to get there early enough to do everything.
The area is actually really beautiful. It’s weird to think that it was a prison when you’re looking over a nice harbour. Most of the buildings are gone thanks to bush fires, and many of the remaining ones are most destroyed. It was really cool though. We toured the asylum, the chapel, the church, the hospital (built on a hill to catch “healthful breezes”), the penitentiary (originally a flourmill powered by a convict-driven treadmill), some cottages, and the gardens. Australia’s convict history is always kind of amusing: although you occasionally find crimes like “assault with an axe,” it’s more likely that the people sent here stole fruit or something equally minor.
We left before dark and headed to Hobart. Had fantastic pizza in the town of Sorell (a big deal, as most of the Americans think most Australian pizza skimps on the sauce).
After our three days of “nature,” it was time to spend some time in the state capital, Hobart. First thing in the morning, we made our way to the Cascade Brewery and got booked for the first tour. It was fantastic! Cascade is the oldest brewery in Australia, as well as the oldest still-running industry. The building was originally a sawmill, but while the guy who started it was sitting in jail, he decided that Tassie needed some good alcohol. We got to wear super sexy neon vests and safety glasses during our tour, and our tour guide was amazing. Plus, I didn’t know exactly how beer was made or what makes one beer different from another, so it was really interesting. At the end of the tour, we got 3 samples of beers, apple ciders, or fruit syrups. I talked to some Tassie local who was excited that we were from PA because he did a tour in Europe with a Pennsylvanian couple. He told me that three swimming days in a row in Tassie means the summer weather is going well, haha. We could have spent all afternoon relaxing in their gardens, but it was time to head off to tour #2…
Amanda & I in front of the brewery
… at the Cadbury chocolate factory! We were excited for this one because they actually take you inside the REAL factory unlike at Hershey, haha. The rest of our tour group was a biker gang (ok, maybe they were a club, not a gang), and they were a bit rowdy. Amanda and I thought it was hilarious, but our tour guide was not so amused. She spent most of the tour telling us what we CAN’T do in the factory and what we’re not allowed to see, thanks to tour groups breaking the rules in the past. I think we learned more about management’s gripes with tour groups than about how chocolate is made. It was still cool to see inside though… like Willy Wonka, minus the Oompa Loompas. I learned one machine can wrap 700 little candy bars in one minute. And 800,000 is the magic number as that is the maximum amount of chocolate blocks produced in one day, as well as the most bottles of beer bottled in one day at Cascade! They also gave us a whole box of little chocolate at the end, so that was sweet. I just wish we’d had a different tour guide.
When we left Cadbury, we pulled into a winery that we were driving by. We did a tasting and it was incredibly awkward since we had no idea what we were doing. The guy had to explain everything from “Now you’re supposed to finish your wine or dump it in the barrel because I’m not supposed to approach you until your glass is empty” to “In a wine cellar you’re expected to buy; if you pay for your tasting, you’re not as obligated.” He was nice enough, but Amanda and I still felt weird. Then he started quizzing us on what flavors we could taste and whether the wine was dry or sweet. Did I think the wine tasted like leather? I have no idea, but that’s what he told me I might taste.
The rest of the evening, we wandered around the city, checked out some historic buildings, and got dinner. We headed to bed early as we had to get up to catch our flight at 4am. Turns out the other girl in our room was actually a guy who snored like crazy. We got our revenge at 4am because both our beds and the floor boards squeaked. So ha!
Tassie was the perfect 'last hurrah' to my Australian adventures. I had originally planned to spend a day and a half in Sydney to do museums and shopping and a beach, but I was feeling sick and ready to go home. I spent a few hours there though. It was Melbourne Cup day, the biggest horse race in Oz, “the race that stops a nation,” and everyone in the city was dressed up, the women with their big hats and feathers in their hair. It was fun to people watch.
More photos from Tassie?
http://gmu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2106575&l=17ede&id=15600311
PS -
Check these out from the beach on Tuesday:
