Tassie!
Trip Start
Feb 05, 2006
1
9
32
Trip End
Sep 04, 2006
Tasmania, Australia
Monday, April 10, 2006
I spent this past week (April 3-8) traveling through Tasmania with 3 cool English dudes! Let me introduce you to them: Neil was my roommate at the Greenhouse Backpackers "way back when"... when I first arrived in Oz. You should see this guy dance, it's awesome. He is traveling with Lewis - English dude #2 - who is a laid back guy who likes the Manchester United soccer team almost as much as Casey likes the Red Sox! Their friend is Stewart - English dude #3. I first met him at the Launceston airport when we arrived in Tassie - he's got a sweet Ipod mix, including Michael Jackson and West Side Story.
So, we all arrived in Launceston, Tasmania on Monday the 3rd. We had just about enough time to check into our campsite, set up the tent and get some food at the "hotel" across the street... Good food - I had some chicken mushroom fettucini that was so yummy I ate the whole bowl - which is good because we pretty much only ate gingernut biscuits for the entire next day until we arrived at Cradle Mountain! Back to Launceston - we slept in the tent.. it rained all night, but it was a good time. Next morning, Tuesday, we ate some breakfast at a milkbar in town, picked up our rental car and made our way into town. We hiked down Cataract Gorge, which was an incredibly nice walk. Throughout the hike, we found some random peacocks, took a chairlift over the gorge, Lewis and I competed in "how high can I go on the swing". Then we hiked the Zig Zag trail back to Kings Bridge and got in the car to begin driving to Cradle Mountain.
As we were driving we read in the Lonely Planet that we'd be passing through some pretty interesting cave country, so we booked it (nice driving, Neil) through the winding roads and virtually deserted small towns to Marakoopa Caves (awesome name, I know!) where we saw one of the biggest populations of glow worms in Tassie. We also met up with some crazy cave spiders - Mom you'd love them! Eventually we got back in the car and found Cradle Mountain National Park/World Heritage Site. It hadn't stopped raining all day, so we decided camping would not be the best option per se, so instead we found "cosy cabins" YHA site and stayed in a cosy bunk house for $20 a night! It was indeed cosy, as the name would suggest. And, although we were enjoying it, we decided to take the car up to the Cradle Mountain Lodge and pretend to be staying there so we could sit in the "Guest Only Lounge" which included a roaring fireplace, dark wooden walls, a chess board and, most importantly, comfortable seating. Cosier.
Wednesday morning we got up and, noticing the rain, decided to go for a stroll down into the park. The rangers (?) told us that the weather would only be deteriorating, so we might as well get a walk in that morning. Fair enough - hiking in freezing rain would be better than snow right? Thank goodness for my cozy hiking socks that I found at Target and the big red poncho I found for $2 on Carlisle Street. Quite stunning, I know! After about an hour of hiking, I was soaked to the bone (cotton pants aren't the best for hiking in the rain, obviously). We took a quick look at Dove Lake and Glacier Rock and made our way back to the lodge. After warming up, we went back to Cradle Mountain Lodge, ate some food, and eventually spent the night playing Rummy and chess by the fire, drinking lots of hot chocolate and mochas.
Thursday morning we woke up, found ourselves some breakfast and packed up the car in a hail storm! The weather that day was insane - every five minutes it changed from hail to sleet to rain to wind to blue sky... the weather changes didn't help the fact that we were driving once again through winding mountain roads! Hairpin turns like I've never seen before!! Halfway through the day we found ourselves in "A Crazy Old Mining Town" -- Queenstown, on the west coast on Tassie. I have to agree that it was crazy. But, we had some great views from the mountains looking down on the town and also from an unintentional detour in the southern direction! Although we drove all day Thursday, we had a good time - there's something about just driving all day that involves zero pressure. It was nice. We ate a lot of cookies/biscuits!
After arriving in Hobart Thursday night, we found a camp site that had a bunk room for something ridiculous like $65 a night - and we had a double bed, bunk beds and a futon in the room, as well as a fridge, tv and tea kettle! After eating some dinner there we went to a crazy local bar with a few odd tassie blokes (can I pull off that phrase? I think not..). It still hadn't stopped raining.
Friday was "Explore Hobart in the Rain Day". I couldn't believe the weather. Seriously. But, what can you do. Hobart is pretty neat - it's a port city, and is actually in the shadow of Mount Wellington. So, after tooling around the city for a bit, walking down through the Salamanca Market Place, we took the car to the top of Mount Wellington. Coldest weather ever. I think we made it up to the summit just before the police started to shut down the mountain due to unsafe weather conditions. This little girl dropped her hat off over the railing and I thought I was going to fall off the mountain getting it back for her! Take a look at the pictures and you'll see just how cold it was!!
Friday night we just tooled around Hobart, experiencing the "night life" -- a few bars here and there, some local punks, the usual. I got to drive home, which is awesome - Driving on the left hand side of the road is a different experience..
So, despite the weather, Tassie is a swell place and I highly recommend strolling about the island. This week I am back to work... until Friday when 8 of us are taking off for Easter weekend to experience the Great Ocean Road for 3 days. I'll write again after that trip...!
