The start to my Tasmania trip began in Perth’s airport where my original 1AM flight (it was the only flight available!) was delayed until around 3AM. Even though we were given $8 food and drink vouchers by the airline which had to be spent at the airport (I was able to buy breakfast for the next morning), I was very tired and cranky by the time I got onto my flight. I did not realize that it was only a little over 2 hours before we would be landing in Melbourne where we had a layover for 3 1/2 hours before flying into Hobart, the capital of Tasmania.
Unlike all airlines in America and probably everywhere else in the world, JetStar (Australia’s equivalent of Southwest Airlines, although not as good) does not check your bags through to your destination. Rather, you have to retrieve your bags during your layover and re-check them through to your final stop. After not getting much sleep on the flight to Melbourne, I somehow managed to get my bag but found out that we could not check-in our bags to the Hobart flight until 2 hours before departure!
Jack and I took this opportunity to take a nap on benches outside the baggage check area and we were given weird looks by passersby and security. We woke up when we could check-in our bags and continued on from Melbourne to Hobart. This part of the flight was only an hour, and even though I slept the entire flight, I was still exhausted and out of it when we landed in Hobart.
When we exited the gate at Hobart, we were greeted by a beagle sniffer dog who checks for fruit from other Australian states. They are really strict about bringing food from one state to another, and they fine you if you do. I had a few apples in my bag that I was able to throw out before getting caught - phew!
From the airport, we took a guess after looking at a list of hostels and asked to be taken to the one we chose. We had been warned that the hostels in Hobart were not great, so we were a little wary about our selection. The room we ended up getting was tiny and had 6 bunk beds crammed into it, and they were all taken once we arrived. We were still really tired after sleeping only a few interrupted hours on the flights, but we wanted to make it to the Salamanca Markets before they closed at 3PM. The markets are only open on Saturday, and they sell fresh vegetables, fruit, and souvenirs for cheaper than can be found elsewhere.
After spending a little time at the markets, we headed back to our hostel to take a nap and did not end up waking up until dinnertime. We were not too worried about missing out on anything, because we still had 2 more days in Hobart.
One thing to know if you are ever planning on going to Hobart - you should definitely make dinner reservations on weekend nights. Our first night was a Saturday night, and we seriously went to about 12 restaurants and were turned away by every single one because they were fully booked. We ended up eating at a pub, which served ramen (random, I know) and then went to go check out the other hostels in Hobart.
We ended up booking our other 2 nights in Hobart at a place called Montgomery’s Private Hotel and YHA. The Lonely Planet guide said it was the safe and conservative choice - it was definitely the most clean of the options we visited, even though it was the most expensive. There is a pub connected to Montgomery’s with karaoke, where I watched my first AFL game! AFL=Aussie Rules Football League which is a really popular sport in Melbourne that involves dribbling, kicking, and points are scored by kicking the ball through poles at the end of an oval-shaped field. It was very confusing for me at first, but I think I am starting to understand the rules!
On our second day in Hobart, we decided to do a walking tour of the city. Hobart is a very interesting city - like all other major cities in Australia, it is right on the coast. You can actually buy fresh fish straight from the docks and they cook it for you (we did this for lunch). There was a really cute part of town called Battery Point, and it overlooked the rest of the city.
When we finished the walking tour, it had started to rain, so we decided to go to the casino (it was actually the first in Australia!). I did not win again and have decided that maybe I should stop going to casinos on rainy days...
That night was the season premiere of a popular show here called “Underbelly.” It is in its third season and based on true events that either happened in Melbourne or Sydney. In a way, it is the real-life version of the HBO series, “The Sopranos” and features murders, drug deals and the like. This season focuses on an area in Sydney called King’s Cross (where we had gone out when I was there), and it was really interesting to see the things that happened there in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s.
For the third (and final) day in Hobart, we did a brewery tour of Cascade, which is a local beer in Tasmania. It is actually the oldest brewery in Australia, and it was interesting to walk through the factory and we got some samples at the end. The mascot of the brewery is a Tasmanian Tiger, which is actually believed to be extinct. No one has record of seeing any for many years, but we were still hopeful that we would be lucky (ha!).
From Hobart, we rented a car for a week to drive around the entire island of Tasmania. And yes, that means I learned how to drive on the opposite side of the road and car (check it off the to-do list!). We also rented camping equipment, because as I said before tourism has not made its stamp on Tasmania in a big way yet and camping is the only option in a lot of places.
We began our Tazzy (what Australians nickname Tasmania) road trip by driving up the east coast, stopping to go wine tasting along the way before making it to Freycinet National Park where the famous Wineglass Bay beach is located. It is one of the most photogenic beaches in the world, and it is really beautiful. We hiked for nearly 2 hours down to the beach and back up. We were lucky because the weather was perfect and we got some great pictures of the clear, blue water.
From Wineglass Bay, we continued north to the Bay of Fires which is a string of beaches that are characterized by the orange rocks. This area was actually named the Bay of Fires, because when explorers first found it, there were Aborigine fires lining the beaches. We parked at one of the beaches and climbed over the orange rocks for some amazing views.
Besides Hobart, the other main town in Tasmania is Launceston, where we spent a night. Other than our first few nights in Hobart, “Lonnie” would be the only other place where we would stay in a hostel. Every other night we camped. In Launceston, we could have done another brewery tour of Boag’s Draught (the other local beer of Tasmania). Instead, we decided to hike Cataract Gorge for gorgeous views overlooking the city. In fact, we went on at least one hike each day - usually more.
On one of our hikes (in the small town of Sheffield) to a place called Kimberley’s Lookout, we had to stop halfway and turn back when we crossed paths with a snake. We took pictures of the snake and showed the man at the visitor’s center who confirmed that yes, it was a tiger snake and yes, they are very poisonous. Good thing we turned back!
After Launceston, we went to the Cradle Mountain National Park in central Tasmania and did a hike around Dove Lake. The morning that we set out to do this hike was foggy, and even though we could barely see the mountain peaks through the fog, the 2-hour hike around Dove Lake was very picturesque.
From Cradle Mountain, there is a 6-day walk called the Overland Track to the southern part of the National Park called Lake St. Clair. Since we did not have enough time to actually do the 6-day hike, we drove our car around to Lake St. Clair. On the drive to Lake St. Clair, I saw my first wombat in the wild! I also hit an animal with the rental car (ah!) that Jack swears was a Tasmanian Devil (I don’t think so!), and we saw a quoll in the wild which we incorrectly thought was a Tasmanian Devil...
Before we could drive to Lake St. Clair from Cradle Mountain, we had to stop in the town of Strahan which is the only major town on the west coast of Tasmania. In the town of Strahan, Jack and I became obsessed with spotting a platypus in the wild, and we spent hours looking in all of the creeks and lakes with no luck! We also went on a hike at Lake St. Clair to a place called Platypus Bay, but we still did not see any. The best times to see platypi (is that the plural of platypus?) is either at dawn or dusk.
Next, we went to Mount Field National Park which is home to Russell Falls, one of the many waterfalls in Tasmania (but probably the most well-known.) At dusk, we went on yet another hike to look for a platypus, and we finally saw one! We watched it swim downstream for about 10 minutes, and it was an incredible sight!
The following day, we drove a little out of our way to do the Tahune Forest Airwalk which is actually a series a bridges that were built among the tall eucalyptus trees in the middle of the forest. These eucalyptus trees can grow to be around 90 meters, which is only second to the redwood trees in California. The Airwalk was a little scary, but I am glad that we did it. There were signs posted everywhere about an older man who had gone missing from the Airwalk in the beginning of March. I do not understand how he had gotten lost from his tour group, because all of the bridges have high sides. Wouldn’t someone notice if he fell over and into the water? Anyway, no one has seen any sign of him since...
After completing the Tahune Forest Airwalk (without getting lost), we drove our rental car onto a ferry for the 15-minute ride over to Bruny Island. There was a beautiful sunset that night, and we spotted fairy penguins just after dark on the beach! The next morning, we did an awesome 2 1/2 hour hike called the Fluted Cape (which is 272m above sea level) overlooking some dangerous looking cliffs and beautiful, turquoise water. We also spotted some white wallabies before taking the ferry back to Tasmania!
To recap on all of the animals I have seen in the wild, please see below:
- kangaroo (x 20-30)
- koala (x 15ish)
- emu (x 15ish)
- wallaby (x more than 1,000)
- fairy penguin (x 10ish)
- echidna (x 1)
- dolphin (x 10ish)
- wombat (x 1)
- quoll (x 1)
- platypus (x 1)
- white wallaby (x 2)
For our final day in Tasmania, we were back in Hobart and we visited the Cadbury factory where all of the Cadbury chocolate sold in Australia is produced. We tasted a lot of different chocolate and learned that Cadbury actually invented chocolate as we know it (or at least that is what they told us...)
The one disappointing thing about Tasmania is that we never saw a Tasmanian Devil in the wild. They are currently inflicted with a facial tumor disease and are nearing extinction. For the most part, they can only be spotted in the northwest corner of Tasmania which is basically the only part of the state that we skipped. Some scientists on mainland Australia have started a sanctuary where they are breeding healthy Tasmanian Devils. When the infected population dies, the plan is to release the healthy ones into the wild so that they do not actually go extinct.
From Tasmania, I am flying back to Melbourne for 6 days and then heading back to Sydney when Humme comes to Australia! Jack is headed for New Zealand and then South Africa for the World Cup. We had such a great trip traveling across the entire country from Sydney to Perth and then spending 10 days in Australia’s “Natural State,” Tasmania.
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