The Great Aussie Adventure - Tasmania

The majority of this post will be devoted to Tasmania.  But first the last day in Melbourne and the trip to Tasmania.

Day 15 - The highest priority in the day was Ikea.  Now this may be strange to some of you but both Kirk and Sidney love Ikea.  Sidney loves the play areas and Kirk loves to shop.  Then they top off thier time with a meal in the Ikea Cafe.  And by going to Ikea in Australia, we can say we have been to Ikea on three continents.  By the way, all of the stuff is basically the same, including the food in the cafe.  Sidney got her adventure in small land while Kirk and Kimber looked around.  Then we all went to lunch in the cafe.  The one different item on the menu which we enjoyed was salt and pepper fried squid.  It was very tasty. 

After Ikea, we wanted a Target.  We found quite a large mall with a Target and found a suitable parking space for the camper.  Parking was one major adventure with the camper. Many groceries and other stores had parking garages which were not suitable for a camper.  Or they had the smallest parking lots ever and we had to take up 4 spots.  We enjoyed walking around the mall.  Very civilized.  Target was also pretty standard although the kids clothes were different styles and characters.  Some were really cute.

After that, it was time to return the camper van.  We had to drive through Melbourne to do that.  Fortunately there weren't any problems and we were ahead of the worst afternoon traffic.  We took a taxi to the ferry terminal where we had a couple hour wait until we could board.  We did get to see three ducks being loaded.  These aren't "quack, quack" ducks, but Citroens.  We learned later that someone in Tasmania has a duck fetish and purchased three ducks to add to his colection.  Kimber loves ducks so she enjoyed seeing these. 

We had to wait until a large school group boarded and then we could finally get on the ferry.  The ferry was made in Finland and was pretty standard to the ferries we were used to from Europe.  We had a nice standard room at the front of the vessel.  Four fold down beds and plenty of room (slightly bigger than a closet, but hey it's one night).  We quickly dropped our stuff off and then went to get a meal of Tasmanian cuisine.  We were all really tired though and headed straight for bed after that.  We were more tired the next moring though because it was a rough night at sea crossing the Bass Strait.  The motion wasn't a problem for any of us even though the waves were 6 meters.  However, the waves hitting the ship sounded like metal on metal and were every thirty seconds or so.  It was so loud, only Sidney slept.  Kirk and Kimber didn't sleep at all. Rough night.

Day 16 - Arrived Davenport, Tasmania, exhausted but happy to be in Tasmania.  We picked up our car and headed south.  It was a cool morning and we all needed some hot drinks with our breakfast.  We stopped in Launceston at the city park.  The city park has a large troop of Macquau monkeys on display.  We enjoyed watching them try to warm up also as the sun came up.

After the short stop at the park, we drove over to Cataract George.  We actually enjoyed a nice hour or so of hiking and walking around some nice trails with lovely views there.  Part of our hiking involved walking across a quite safe but swinging bridge.  For those who don't like bridges or heights, you would not have been impressed.  We of course loved it. Sidney also got to do a little "tree hugging" while we were there.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around an old car museum with a surprisingly nice display of cars and motorcyles.  Additionally, they rotate their selection based on various themes.  The museum doens't actually own the cars, but people who live in Tasmania do and loan them on request to the museum.  Kimber, who spent much of her childhood around old cars, found this to be a bit of a trip down memeory lane. 

Lunch was fish and chips on the waterfront watching the cormorants fish.  It was quite warm and sunny and we had a nice time.  After lunch we drove to the east coast of Tasmania.  We stopped for ice cream in a town with logging history (Campbell Town) and tried to find an old water mill but we struck out. Just outside of town though we saw a flock of cockatoos in a field almost like you would see blackbirds in the US. 

We made one more stop to try to find Lost Falls before we reached the coast.  They were lost all right.  Lost in fog.  We very nearly couldn't see them but we enjoyed the short hike and chance to strech our legs.  We also encountered a funny sign to add to our collection of pictures of funny warning signs.

We also drove into Bicheno to try to see the little penguins who live there but you have to sign up for a tour to see them and the tours don't run in the winter.  We did get to see another blowhole before we drove down to Coles Bay and Freycinet.  Kirk and Sidney picked up 2 dozen oysters at a local marine farm.  The farm uses an honor box when they are closed so we took our oysters from the frig and dropped our money in the box.   We stopped at a small restaurant to pick up some pasta for Kimber and a bottle of wine and had a nice little dinner by the fire at our cottage.  And of course we watched some olympics.

Day 17 - We started the day with an odd breakfast of cereal and cheese.  At this point we are trying to use up things we have bought that we can't take home (mostly cheese and fruit).  Then we packed up and cleaned up the cabin before heading to Freycinet National Park to see Wineglass Bay.  Wineglass Bay is listed consistently as one of the top ten beaches in the world.

Our intention was to hike up to the Wineglass Bay overlook, which was about a 40 minute steep but not overly difficult hike including 330 steps (Kimber counted).  The view from the top was beautiful with red granite mountains and the beach's perfect crescent of white sand.  But we were feeling really good and the day was fantastic so we decided to hike back the longer way around to the car park.  The path down to the beach was more rugged than the path up to the overlook but not anything more difficult than some of the milder Norwegian hikes. 

After a snack on the beach and gathering some sand and shells, we continued our hike around to the Hazards. Not sure of where the name came from but Sidney found the hike slightly hazardous. There was a short section where you walk on a board walk.  It is only a foot or two above the surface and Sidney was looking back at Kimber while walking on this.  About the time Kimber said to not fall off the baord walk, down Sidney went.  Nothing injured and it wasn't even wet.  but we all got a good laugh out of it.  Our total walk that day was 11 kilometers (about 6.5 miles).  Sidney led the way for most of it and there were plenty of good hills.  Including snack stops and veiwing breaks, it was 4.5 hours.  Sidney kept a great pace that had Kirk and Kimber really proud of her.  What an awesome little hiker.

We were greeted by a wallaby in the parking lot before starting the drive to Hobart.  I think she thought the painting for the handicap space looked a bit like her.

We stopped at the lighthouse overlook for a few more great views before we left Freycinet.  On the way to Hobart we stopped at the Spiky Bridge.  The bridge was built by convicts but no one knows why it has all the rock spikes along the sides.

We arrived in Hobart in time for dinner.  After we checked into Custom's House hotel, we walked to the water front and had a two tier seafood dinner and Tasmanian wine at Mures Seafood restaurant for dinner.  The seafood was fantastic and we left stuffed and ready to rest up for our last Australian adventure.

Day 18 - This day starts with a bit of sadness knowing it is the last great adventure in Australia.  Tomorrow we will fly back to Brisbane and the next day back to the US.  So we are intent on making the most of this last glorious day. 

We start the day with a hearty breakfast at the hotel before we head to  he Tasman Island Cruise office to catch our bus to Port Arthur for our cruise and Tasmanian Devil Park visit.  The drive from Hobart to Port Arthur is about an hour and a half and we learn some history and interesting facts from the driver.  We learn some convict history including about an area that is a narrrow bit of land surrounded by water.  this land would have dogs chained at 6 foot intervals and the convicts would be told there were sharks in the water to delude ideas of escape off the souther tip of Tasmania.  We also learned much of the Tasmanian infrastructure including cananls and bridges were dug or built by convicts (by hand!)

We stopped for tea, coffee and muffins at a beautiful recreation area associated with Tasman cruises. One could easily relax away a week here on the beach and with nice walks, fishing and boating. After our small snack, it was time to get kitted out for our adventure.  Tasman Island Cruises provides wind proof oversuits for thier guests.  As usual they are one size fits most.  Most does not inlcude Kimber or Sidney. Kimber and Sidney looked like Oompa-Loompas with Sidney's suit nearly dragging ground in back.  Kimber felt like she was wearing a Norwegian survival suit again.

We boarded our boat, described as the 4 wheel drive of the southern ocean, then started a breathtaking journey.  We passed sandstone formations, sea cliffs and caves.  We even took the boat into some of the caves for amazing views.  We saw a yellow beaked albatross, a tern and a seal in the water.

We then went to the tall dolomite cliffs that formed when Tasmania broke off of Antarctica (no, it was not part of Australia originally).  saw seals, an unusualy cormorant, and a nesting pair of sea eagles. 

Additionally, there is a lighthouse on Tasman Island.  Operation of the light house used to require enough people to fill two 6 bedroom houses.  Families lived there and they had gardens and animals.  Trnasportation to the island was by boat. From the boat you threw things (groceries, clothing, etc) into a large basket and then got in with your kids possibly.  The a pulley system took your basket up to a landing point where you moved everything to a nearly vertical railroad for the rest of the ride.  And this happend in all seasons.  The lighthouse is now unmanned and maintenance personel arrive by helicopter.  Can you imagine the adventure of living on the island?



After the lighthouse we headed into "rough water".  This was a breeze.  We had the nicest 1 to 3 meter seas.  There are only a few days a year that calm.  Sometimes in rough weather the waves break over the 30 meter cliffs.  We also spotted some shy albatrosses in this area and enjoyed seeing the water crash to shore and go through blow holes even in the calm seas. 

Once we re-entered calm water back towards Port Arthur, we saw the Island of the Dead.  Over 1000 convict bodies are buried on this very small island.  All the kids, including Sidney, had the opportunity to drive the boat (with speed and power) around the bay before we docked. 

The weather was quite warm for Tasmanian winter but we were still glad to have the suits and were all a bit chilled once we got off the boat.  We had a nice soup and sandwich lunch at the penal colony museum before we headed to the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park.

Fortunately for us and especially Sidney, the park was very quiet.  I think when we arrived we were the only visitors.  We started by visiting the kangaroos, wombats, and wallabies for feeding time.  We didn't think this would be very exciting though as by now we had fed all of the above several times.  However, there was a park attendant who provided a lot of great information on the dynamics of the group of animals they have.  The largest kangaroo ate first followed by smaller kangaroos. Then came the wallabies and last the wombats.  There was a definate order to who ate first and this was the first time we had seen that.  Additionally there were the geese.  The geese ran the show.  There were two pairs.  One pair had active chicks running around and it didn't bother mom and dad in the slightest to chase, peck and yell at any one of the kangaroos.  The other pair had either smaller chicks or eggs and only one participated in the bossing of the roos.  It was hysterical and goes to confirm why Kimber avoids geese at all costs when running.  Mean birds!



After the roo feeding, we went to the devil feeding.  The two devils getting fed received the torso of a wallaby, bones and all.  Only one devil will eat a small catch like this at a time.  The lady devil won the prize and started first after a great deal of wallaby tug of war and growling and snarling.  They are "devils" at dinner.  She just crunched right through the bones.  They can exhibit huge amounts of force from their jaws. 






Here is the important part about the devils though, and why we had to go to a conservation park to see them.  They have become endangered.  They have developed a facial cancer that is transmittable.  The cancer is transmitted when they go about their "discussions" (the growling and snarling and nipping) over dinner.  The tumors that develop affect the devils ability to survive in the wild.  Therefore, parks and zoos are trying to maintain a population of cancer-free devils.  And you generally won't see any devils outside of the parks and zoos. 

After devil feeding we took in the bird show.  Show is a slight stretch.  Only two of the five birds could fly.  The first bird was the tawny frogmouth.  He has only part of one wing so he sits in the same place day and night eating what flies by quite happily.  We were able to pet him and he was very soft.  We also met a peregrine falcon who was missing an entire wing.  We had a cockatoo who danced and a parrot who would (in theory) fly to get a penny from your hand.  However he had a problem with Sidney's and Kimber's hair. He would land on their head rather than arm and then scratch them trying to balance.  Sidney was not keen on this.  The final brown hawk could fly and would fly in between peoples legs if they were standing on the ground. that was the greatest excitment in the whole show.  Oh well.

We ended our visit to the park by visitng the quolls.  We never knew such a creature existed.  We had not seen them in any zoo in Australia.  These are small carnivorous marsupials that are smaller than a possum. They are quite cute being gray with white spots on thier back and snoozing happily in thier tree.  However, when dinner (another section of wallaby) arrives, it is chaos.  They will jump off of tree branches or rocks to hang by their teeth from a bit of food until they get a peice off.  It was at least entertaining. 

After the quolls, we took the bus back to Hobart.  We were truly exhausted and a little sad.  We ate at Mures again but downstairs.  It was still very good.  Then we headed for bed (except for Kirk, who popped down to the hotel pub for a couple of the local Tazzie brews!).

The next morning we did have time to visit the Cadbury chocolate factory.  This was the second Cadbury factory in the world and the first outside of the UK.  We picked up some treats that they make thier including Freddie Frogs and Caramel Koalas.  Some of these went int the treat bags for Sidney's birthday.

After that we flew to Brisbane and spent the night.  The next morning we were back at the airport and headed for home. We arrived home at 3 am Thurday morning completely exhausted.  Then we all fought jet lag for days. Kimber even had the worst jet lag she has ever had. 


We are now fully recovered and back in the groove.  Back to work and school. 

The Great Aussie Adventure Part 2

Here begins part II of our adventure in Australia. 

Day 8 - This would turn out to be one of the best of our days in Australia.  We started the day walking through the Sydney botanical gardens getting views of the harbor and opera house. The weather was lovely and even in the winter, the gardens were lovely and lively.  So lively apparently that a number of trees had a metal collar to protect them from the climbing critters who want to eat them. 

After our stroll through the gardens, we took a ferry over to the part of Sydney with the aquarium.  The aquarium was nice but pretty standard until we got to the sharks.  The treat there was seeing the nurse shark receive a vitamin shot.  It took a team of two divers in the tank and two spotters standing under that tank in the tunnel walkway to accomplish this task.  The first diver inserted the syringe but the shark wasn't interested in hanging around so it swam off with the syringe still in its back.  Fortunately the shark made a wide circle back to the second diver who finsihed the shot and recovered the syringe.  It was all very entertaining to see the nurse shark getting nursed, a shark with a syringe in its back and the excitement of the caretakers until they recovered the syringe.

Also at the aquarium, Kimber was able to spend a long time observing the very active platypus.  The exhibit was quite nice, and the platypus was very active in swimming and burrowing around for worms.

We still had lots of time in the afternoon and an all day pass on public transportation in Sydney so we decided to take a ferry to Cockatoo Island and see what was out there.  We had heard it was just some old buildings but that the ride out to there was nice.

What an incredible find!  Cockatoo Island was a former convict prison, industrial school for girls, and major dockyard and shipbuildng facility.  Submarines and large ships were refurbished and maintained there until 1992.  In the mid-nineties, the facilities were closed and a number of buildings demolished.  But much remains and is being restored and has been made available to the public. We spent several hours walking around the island looking at old buildings and equipment.  There has been a huge effort to describe what each building was used for and the equipment still present.  There are several well designed self guided tours you can do as well. 

But we were in for even more of a treat.  Sydney was holding thier Biennale of Sydney and the venue was Cockatoo Island.  The biennale is Australia's larget contempory visual arts event.  The venue of old buildings and equipment made an amazing background for some incredible contemporary art.  There were interactive exhibits, amazing large exhibits which took up entire rooms of these buildings, and very simple but interesting exhibits.  It was amazing and we stayed until nearly dark.

Dinner that night was pies, including the kangaroo pie.  We'd stopped on the way into Sydney at a place called Fredo's pies (which was mentioned in one of the travel guides) and picked six from the selection of over forty types in the case.  We also want looking for and saw bushy-tailed possums after dark and got buzzed by an owl walking home. 

Day 9 - We started the day with a big breakfast of ham and hash browns.  Afterwards, Kimber cleaned up and started the pack-up while Kirk and Sidney did a little walk around the park.  They saw some ducklings they had seen a day or two earlier, as well as several cockatoos.  Seems like the further south you go, the more cockatoos you see.  On the way back to the camper, we stopped where a lady was feeding some loraceets and some of them landed on Sidney's head.

We departed Sydney after a bit of a relaxing morning and headed to Canberra.  It was a nice mountain drive across the Dividing Range, but Kirk had to fight the wind a lot of the way.  As we got close, we stopped at a winery near a lake that is situated on a fault line.  The lake apparently fills and runs dry depending on seismic activity, and while it had been several feet deep just a couple of decades ago, it is a dry plain now.

The winery was a bit weird.  It was run by a seemingly dysfunctional family that bickered most of the time we were there.  The wine was good, and we did end up buying a bottle, but the best part was that Sidney got a fudge cupcake and we all warmed ourselves beside a nice fireplace.

We left the winery and headed on to our campsite, which was located just outside Canberra.  We checked in, then took our bus into town to buy groceries, being sure to visit the fruit and veg market, bakery, butcher and bottle shop (Kimber gets her wine, Kirk gets his beer) before going into the Woolworth's for regular groceries.  We got sausages some meat and pastry pinwheels made from lamb, beef and chicken (separate, not together) at the butcher.  The bakery yielded bacon and cheese buns (similar to the pizza buns we used to get in Norway, but with bacon and cheese instead), and little pizzas.  Sidney also got a bacon, cheese and pickle roll that sounded interesting.

We went back to camp, and after dinner did laundry before turning in for the night.

Day 10 - We started with the Science Museum in Canberra.  We have been to science museums on several other trips in other countries, so it was actually kind of nice to go into one that was all in English.  It provided a much clearer understanding of some of the displays.  The museum was very interactive.

One of the exhibits was called Free Fall, which was basically a 30 foot slide designed so that the first several feel actually have you free falling.  You put on a jumpsuit, then climb stairs to the top where you scoot over the edge while hanging on to a bar.  You hang in mid air, then let go, falling until the angle of the slide meets you and you end up sliding to the bottom.  It is really weird, but fun.  This was Kimber doing her free fall.

There was also a "collision" show with a museum staffer named Svea (who is originally from Sweden.)  She was quite a character, and was able to teach science to the audience members in a fun and interactive was, though her sense of humor was a little goofy.

After the science museum, we walked into a very stiff wind across and around the lake to the National Museum of Australia.  It was filled with lots of exhibits on Australian settlement and convict history, aboriginal arts and modern history.  The exhibits were nicely done, and the introduction to the museum itself was a treat.  It was called CIRCA, and was a film displayed in a rotating theater that gave you an overview of the museum in a relaxing and entertaining way.  We also too part in a science for kids portion where we "designed" our own spaceships on a computer, then got to watch them fly around an animated world in a 3-d film.

We walked back to our camper after a few hours at the museum and drove around the Parliament building and saw a few more sites in Canberra.  It wasn't and exciting city, but is understandably mostly a government center, but it was certainly more easy to navigate and drive around than most country capitals.  There were also a lot of traffic circles and city circles.

Dinner back at the park was sausages, brussel sprouts and very spicy potatoes.  More Olympics, then bed.

Day 11 - Drove out of Canberra and toward the coast again.  The mountains run right down to the coast, and our last little bit before reaching the coast followed a pretty river that fed into the sea at Bateman's Bay.  There was a little park just off the road with a nice playground right on the river, so we pulled in for some leg-stretching.  Kimber went for a run while Sidney played, and Kirk fixed a picnic lunch of cheeses, crackers, salami and fruits.  We ate outside on a picnic table, then got back on the road to find our next stop.  We were looking for a cheese factory mentioned in one of the guide books, but couldn't locate it.  Tried another place and couldn't find it either.  Then tried to find an aboriginal heritage area, but it was closed.  We finally went to Bega, which had a really nice cheese heritage center across from the factory.  We walked through the museum and gift shop, then tasted several cheeses, including some that made them famous as an export product.  We also had some ice cream made from their dairy milk.  We bought a rather large block of their sharpest cheese, which was delicious.

We then headed on to Pambula, where we decided on a whim to stay.  The park was probably the best of the whole trip.  During their summer months, they have up to 2000 people staying in their over 400 campsites and cabins.  Most are kids.  However, there were probably only 75-100 there when we stopped in, and we had a great campsite just over the dunes from the beach.  The camp had a bouncy pillow, miniature golf, three trampolines, outdoor pool, heated indoor pool, three wheeled bikes, playroom, organized kids' events, nice showers and camp kitchens, and was huge.  There were kangaroos roaming all over it at will.  The beach was also amazing!  We watched the sunset cast beautiful colors across the sky as gentle waves came ashore and Sidney played in the sand.

The camp was so nice, we decided that night we would stay an extra night there.  We had a dinner of several different leftovers from our other meals, and Sidney told us she would make her "schedule of activities" for the next day in the morning.  Oh, and since we haven't shown you the camper van yet, here it is.

Day 12 - Kirk got up to watch the sunrise over the Tasman Sea this morning.  The water was very calm and the beach was very clean and empty.  Only a few people out as far as you could see, which was about 4 miles.  The sand was very soft and white.  There were some loraceets and other birds out, but the roos were still sleeping.  Sidney and Kimber got up, and then it was the usual morning of coffee, breakfast and the Olympic recap from the night before.  We walked the camp a little bit, then Sidney and Kimber took turns on the trampoline, with Kimber actually completing several flips (mostly.)  Sidney then went off to kid's camp for a couple of hours while Kirk and Kimber packed a few things and caught up on some email.

We picked Sidney up from Kid's Camp, then had a nice lunch and walked up to the river mouth, where clear turquoise water flows into the sea and there are very pretty protected beaches.  It was a nice little walk, and here you see Kimber walking up the beach a little.

After getting back Sidney and Kirk spent some time on the beach making sandcastles while Kimber walked up the beach for a few miles.  We then all went to the heated indoor pool for the afternoon before having our dinner of the meat and filo pastry pinwheels which were super.

We spent some time and enjoyed watching the kangaroos.  They were very entertaining and somewhat social.  It was really funny watching on mother and joey in particular.  He was quite large and on the edge of wearing out his welcome in the pouch.  He would climb in and out at will, and hang his head out to eat grass while his mother bent down to eat.  He was so big that her pouch nearly dragged the ground when he was in it.  He would also box at her if she tried to push him away, and he would run through the herd like crazy just to burn off energy.

It was a nice relaxing day, and we could certainly see why this would be a popular vacation destination for Australian families!

Day 13 - This was a long day of driving, and the weather wasn't very cooperative.  We drove into Victoria from New South Wales.  We stopped in to see a museum in Orbost but it was closed.  We were able to spend a little time at a park with a playground though, and all stretched our legs before a light lunch in the camper.  There were some signs in the park that mentioned some of the aboriginal stories of the tribes in the area, as well as some of the birds that were specific to this lower part of Australia.

We drove through the Snowy River area, which is the location made famous in the 1982 film "The Man from Snowy River" and its 1988 sequel.  The film was based on a poem by an Australian poet that was written in 1898, before Australia actually became an independent nation.  It would have been an interesting area to investigate a little further, but the weather was turning pretty sour.

We drove through an area that has been affected by a forest fire less than a year ago.  The odd thing is that the trees were very tall, but has all sprouted lots of small, leafy branches all along their trunks.  Maybe to compensate and gain more energy for recovery?

We got to our campsite and set up the camper in a pouring cold rain and wind.  Unfortunately, the forecast called for more of the same the next day.

Day 14 - Drove in to Melbourne and found a campsite on the southeast side of the suburbs.  It ws more of a retirement village that true caravan park, as most of the sites were cabins or permanently placed caravans.  There were only 6 actual campervan sites in the park.

There was a small cafe and store that made nice, simple homemade food, and we got lunch before heading into Melbourne on the train.  It was a bit of a walk to the train station in the rain and wind, but an easy ride into the main train station downtown after we got there.  The main train station was also a very nice building.

After getting into Melbourne, we caught the free tourist bus that takes you all over the city, pointing out major sites along the way.  It was a great way to get a really good, quick tour of Melbourne from the comfort of a dry bus, and it was free.  Our driver was also very impressive maneuvering the bus through the crowded streets of Melbourne without incident.

We took the train back out to our caravan park, noting along the way that the waves coming into the beach seemed quite large and rough due to the weather.  This did not bode well for our ferry crossing over the Bass Strait between Melbourne and Tasmania.

We got back to the campground and picked up hot drinks from the cafe, then went and had dinner before finishing up our pack-up of the camper for turn in the next day.

This is the end of part two of the Great Aussie Adventure.  The next post, part three, will be the last, and will cover Tasmania and our return trip home.  Stay tuned!