Tasmania!!!!!

11.13.10

Well,

John and I left King’s at the dark and early hour of 3:30am on Friday. I stayed up all night because it was not worth trying to sleep and then not being able to sleep on the planes. We arrived at the airport by 4:30am and got through checking and security before 5. Our flight left at 5:30am. I was surprised at how many people were actually on a flight that early. We had a 2 hour layover in the Canberra airport. The airport was the least exciting airport I have ever been to. They had like one coffee shop, a news agency, and gates. The gates didn’t really have sufficient seating so I sat on the floor. Then from Canberra we flew in to Hobart. I was unaware that Tasmania was a quarantined island and no produce was allowed in or out of the island. They had dogs sniffing to find the food. We finally got to Central City Backpackers hostel at about 1pm. Tasmania is 1 hour ahead of Brisbane due to daylight savings not being observed in Queensland. We had a privet room for the two which is a whole lot nicer than sharing a four bed room with strangers. It was tiny but good. That afternoon, we both took a nap to catch up on sleep. That evening we walked around Hobart to get our bearings. It was threatening rain but there was nothing more than a sprinkle. We managed to miss both breakfast and lunch and so only had dinner. We ate at a dumpling restaurant. I had some awesome wonton noodle soup. After dinner we returned to our room and played some cards before going to bed.

We checked out the hostel Saturday morning at 7am and went to wait for our tour shuttle to arrive. We got picked up at 7:20am. We found out that there were going to be five of us total on the tour but the driver did not know where the other three were getting picked up from and took me and John to the Saturday market near the wharf until he found out. After about a half hour, we found the other group and were heading on our way. Our first stop was in Richmond at a bakery and also saw the oldest bridge in Australia; it was built in 1823. From there we headed to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at lookout point and got awesome views of the coast. We also saw the Tasman Arch. This is a natural arch caused by erosion of the soft stone due to the tide rising. We arrived at Port Arthur at about 11:15am. Port Arthur, also considered “Hell on Earth” is a decommission prison. To be sent to Port Arthur, first you had to commit a crime in England, be sentenced to transportation (being sent to Australia) and then be convicted of more crimes while in Australia. Unlike most prisons, this one had no perimeter fence due to the natural vegetation around it that prevented criminal from escaping. We spent three hours there and had both a harbor tour and a walking tour. This is also where we had lunch. From there we went to so more scenic lookouts and saw another archway but it was more of a cave. After that we headed to the Tasmania Devil Conservation Park. We saw Tasmanian devils, kangaroos (with Joeys in their pouches), a bird show, and other various animals. From there we headed back into Hobart. Our tour included accommodations so we stayed a different hostel, Montgomery’s and had a family room to ourselves. This hostel was a bit nicer then Central city but was much noisier. Luckily we had a corner room but it was sitting right over a bar and the bar was blasting music. We somehow managed to sleep through it.