Tasmania 2!!!!!!!!!

11.16.10

Well,

Sunday morning came and I got up around 6:15am. The tour we had booked provided us with breakfast so I had a bowl of cereal and a couple pieces of toast with jam. We checked out of the hostel by sliding the keys under the door to reception. The shuttle came and picked us up and again there were five of us. This time the three other people were not a group; one was from France, Lorraine; another from China, Carmen; and the third from the UK, Chris. Our first stop was in the town of Ross. This was a very small town that had a church on every corner and the third oldest bridge in Australia. This bridge was built by two convicts. From there we stopped at a café to grab food for lunch when it was that time. Then we were off to Freycinet (pronounced fray-sin-nay) National Park. This was the home to Wineglass Bay and Hazards Bay. The five of us decided it would be a great idea to see as much of the park as we could in the 4 hours we were there. We saw both bays and got to walk along the beaches plus we saw wild wallabies and tons of nature. It took us about 3 and a half hours to walk the 11km path. We were all exhausted by the time we made it back to the shuttle. We also stopped to see a couple lookouts before heading to Bicheno for the night. In Bicheno, we stayed at the Bicheno Backpackers Hostel. Bicheno was also a very small town; it had one supermarket and a few surf shops. For dinner, Chris, John, and I went to a surf and turf diner, basically the place that was open. After dinner, the three of us chose to go to the penguin rookeries that were in town. At 8:25, we grabbed the shuttle to the rookeries and had an hour tour of the area and saw the Little Penguins, the same kind of penguins I saw in Melbourne with Kirsten, come out of the water, scale the rocks, and waddle their way up to their nests. We also got to see some of the nests that were in man-made, observation burrows. Once that was done, we headed back to the hostel and crashed.

Monday morning was very exciting because we had to meet at 7:45am instead of 7:30am. Again, I had toast with jam. Once we checked out, we headed for some whaling lookouts. We could see the entire town and many beaches surrounding Bicheno. At that point we left Bicheno and stated our journey towards Launceston. On our way, we stopped at a river and watering hole. Then the group split up and John and I went to see a beach while the other three went to see Tasmanian Devils at a wildlife park. The beach was nice, kind of chilly but not bad. We got some good pictures and took about a 1km walk from one car park to the other. Before we reached the second car park, we had to walk through a little stream that was about a foot deep. The water was freezing. But, by the time we got back to the shuttle, our legs had dried off. Then we picked up the rest of our crew and headed to the Bay of Fires. This was another beach but this one had lichen, which is a type of rock. It is orange and made the rocks look like they were on fire. It was pretty neat. We spent about an hour there. After that we went to grab some lunch in St. Helens, the largest city on the east side of Tasmania with a whopping population of 5,000. After that we headed across the state to a cheese factory. They have it set up so people can look into the factory and watch how the cheese is made. We watched that and then went to a cheese tasting. Behind the factory were awesome views of the green hills and pastures along with their collection of cows (and bales).

After that we headed up to St. Columba Falls. The falls are about 90 meters long. The water falls onto a rocky part of the cliff so it is not just one stream falling but it splits in to multiple. After another small hike, we got up close and stood basically at the base of the falls. Then we loaded back into the shuttle and headed up to Ralph Falls. This was where we had the most gorgeous view of anything I have seen while in Australia. The water in these falls fell in one stream along the cliff but that was not the best part. Looking away from the cliff was got to see an eagle’s eye view of the green pastures. Everything was green and all the hills were coated in grass. It was clear enough that we could see out to the bay between Tasmania and Victoria. I was in shock at how beautiful the view was. After getting tons of picture we headed back up to the shuttle to go to Rangarooma. This was another small town. In this town, they had carved trees as memorials to soldiers who fought in the World War I. We then went up to one last look out over the green fields before leaving and getting to Launceston. When we got to Launceston, John and I parted ways with the rest of the group. The other three had booked a five day tour that started on the second day of our three day tour. John and I stayed at the Arthouse Hostel. This was right accords the river from the main part of Launceston. After dropping off our bags we headed into the city for dinner. I was in shock that at 7pm, the entire city was closed down. I understand that everything closes earlier in Australia but I didn’t think it was that early. Luckily we found a Thai place that was still open. For dinner, I had quail. It was really good and really spicy. After dinner we walked back to the hostel and went to bed.

Tuesday morning we slept in until 9. After checking out of the hostel, we headed towards the gorge. The gorge was about a 45 minute walk from the hostel. They had a café, a pool, a suspension bridge, and multiple trails to and from the main lake area. Our walk to the gorge was nice and fairly flat, which was nice, but our walk back was tough. We took a hike that was essentially an upside down v path. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes and then down a steep trail for about 10 minutes. Then we went to grab lunch at a place called “Burgers Got Soul.” This place had the best burgers I have had since I have been here. They still weren’t American burgers, but they were the closest. Then we walked around the city taking pictures. We then got back to the hostel to get a shuttle to the airport. The airport was really small, they had a news store and a coffee shop and the gates. About 10 minutes after we were supposed to board, we found out that the flight crew for our plane was in Melbourne and we had to wait for their flight to arrive before we could take-off. Therefore, our flight was delayed by almost two hours. We finally got back to Brisbane and got our luggage at about 8:30pm. We got back to King’s, got some food, and I went to bed.