Day 1
My flight from Melbourne was earlier than the others, so I left our crappy hostel at about 6ish and headed to the airport, with plenty of time to get my flight. However, for one reason or another I ended up in the international part of the airport. Alarm bells should’ve started ringing when a security guard looked at my ticket and said “Hmm, that’s new, we’ve never had flights to Hobart through here before!” But for some reason this didn’t seem weird to me. By the time I’d worked it out I was too late fore my flight. I waited in Melbourne airport until the next available flight left several hours later, during which time I met everyone else who did manage to get on to their flights.
So hours later than expected I ended up in Hobart, the capital of Tassie. Not much else happened, except joining the other guys at our hostel.
Day 2
We headed to our rental company (Britz!) to grab our campervans. It was exciting stuff getting hold of them. We had one that slept 4 (but in practice we fitted 5 in there!) and one which slept 3. It was the best way to go around Tassie in my opinion, though renting them was not cheap! Generally Alexis, Tiago, Sophie and Me were in the larger one, with Thomas driving, and Lina and Marco were in the smaller one.
After leaving the hostel we headed West from Hobart. This day was one of the best we had weatherwise; it was actually sunny for most of it! We headed for the Big Tree Reserve, which had (you guessed it!) really big trees. We also saw some beautiful waterfalls in Mount Field National Park. It didn’t take long to realise just how beautiful Tasmania is. You drive round a bend and there’s a breathtaking view awaiting you. We ended up sleeping by a beautiful lake that night.
Day 3
We were woken by heavy rain, but we wouldn’t let the weather dampen (haha!) our spirits. After coffee near a hydroelectric plant, we headed to Lake St Clair, part of the World Heritage Tasmanian Wilderness. There really were no people apart from tourists. 21% of the island is national park! Here we saw the lake, looked out for, but didn’t see any platypussies (:P) and sang Silent Night and other songs in our different languages.
Driving west, we headed into the Franklin-Gordon NP where there were some spectacular views of endless untouched nature, including the aptly named Surprise Valley, Thomas then drove hurtling round tight bends, sending stuff in the back (including people) flying (this was how it usually worked out!) in order to get to Queenstown and get groceries before it was too late. Queenstown was like an old American western town and it felt like we’d stepped into the past. We stayed at a campsite just a bit further north that evening.Day 4
Today we actually woke up early enough (as in only about an hour, not 2.5 after the alarm went off), but it still took us ages to leave, so there was no point in setting the alarm for an earlier time than usual. There was something great about the 5 of us in the big van, just lying there talking about random shit, and listening to Thomas’s excellent music collection. The upstairs bed had hardly any space, I once complained that there was only a few inches to move around up there, to which Thomas replied “you and your fucking inches!” (of course imperial is foreign to my European friends).
We headed today to Cradle Mountain (Cradle Mountain Charlie!), which was simply beautiful, and cold! We walked around Dove Lake, taking in the spectacular scenery and the fresh, crisp air. Near the visitor centre we saw an echidna rummaging through the dirt, and it was completely unconcerned about all the people around it trying to take a photo! Thomas also bought the best stuffed wombat ever: Big Russ!We drove from Cradle Mountain down more windy mountain roads with yet more fantastic scenery, got lost in Launceston for a couple of hours, and then got some advice about where to stay from some locals. Seriously, don’t ask a Tasmanian anything like this. He pointed us down a road in the direction of Wineglass Bay, where he said threw were heaps of rivers we could camp at. This was a lie. There was one ridiculously creepy lake, with dead trees protruding from the surface. It was like a scene from the X Files. On the way as it got dark, there were tons of kangaroos, it was a miracle we didn’t hit one!
Day 5Today was terrible weatherwise. Constant drizzly rain and fog (just like England!), but we still had fun. We headed to Freycinet Peninsula NP. On the way we stopped by a superb blowhole by the beach, and reversed the van straight into a completely obvious tree. We do like to damage vehicles that don’t belong to us (see GOR entry!). Wineglass Bay was beautiful despite the weather, and it actually looks like a wineglass from above. The walk down and up from the bay itself was tough, but we ignored warning signs that we should take water with us! Along the way we had a discussion about cars (:P) before seeing the bay from the bottom.
We once again found ourselves driving in the darkness with nowhere to stay. Luckily at Richmond, near Port Arthur, we found an empty car park, and stayed there for the night.
Day 6
After being awoken by noisy tourists and cars, we continued down to the Tasman peninsula. We saw Pirates Bay and the Devil’s Kitchen, where I started pointing put the oven and fridge before bursting out laughing!
We then got to Port Arthur, where the largest convict prison in Australia existed. Thousands of prisoners sent there from Britain for trivial offences like petty theft lived in cramped conditions and were treated like animals. Despite this depressing story, we were all rather happy and hyper like children. We played in the kids’ playground and rolled down the hill. Maybe it was a reaction to the otherwise depressing place we had visited.
We stayed at another campsite near to Hobart that night, where to deal with water costs, they had installed timed showers!
Day 7
We debated about whether we had enough time to go to a treetop walk and then get the vans back to the airport by 4pm. Luckily we decided to skip the walk an head straight to the hostel. Then came the mammoth task of cleaning out the vans, taking all our crap from "underneath the wood" (:P) and getting petrol. As Britz wanted full tanks, we tried to find a petrol station near to the airport, but despite asking several people, we just couldn’t find the one near there. Thomas was concerned that we wouldn’t reach 1500kms of travel before giving the vans back, but he needn’t have worried. We drove around for 50kms (hence 1550!) unit, we found a petrol station! It was really irritating. When we came to giving the vans back it was hitch free. The funniest thing was when we filled in the report on the crash. Thomas made a point of saying we crashed at night, but I didn’t cotton on! Also, when asked for the address, I simply said “The Blowhole”, at which all this tension erupted into laughter.
We finished the day by going out for a meal.
Day 8
Today was sad for two reasons. The first was that we all had to say goodbye to Sophie, who was travelling to NZ and would not be coming back to Adelaide again. Secondly, we were all leaving Tassie (apart from Alexis who stayed til the 4th). After looking around Hobart we headed to the airport to get our plane back to Adelaide.
Tasmania was amazing, and I’m so glad I went, especially considering that it wasn’t on my list of priorities! Above all it was great to be there with such good company. Thanks guys!
See my Facebook photo albums which go with this entry:
Tasmania
Tasmania 2
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