Tasmania - Seals, Albatross, Dolphins, Penguins and Tasmanian Devils!

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We just left Tasmania where we spent most of our time in Hobart, but we also hired a car and drove round the island, stopping at Coles Bay, Devonport, Queenstown and New Norfolk.

Whilst in Hobart, we spent time at the Salamanca Market and wandered around the city. It was a nice change from the big cities where everyone has their own agenda (like in London, but not to that extent) like Brisbane, Cairns (even though it's not huge) and Sydney. They almost seem like there is a big divide between the people who work and live there and the tourists who go there to look around. In Hobart it was more like we were actually involved in what normally went on in the city. The Tasmanians are on the whole incredibly friendly and very pleasant.

The most memorable thing we did in Hobart was the day we went out on a day trip which involved an eco-cruise and a stop off in Port Arthur (the famous convict site for those of you who haven't heard of it). We started on the boat, unsure of where we were going as bad weather was coming in, but they gave us all ginger (apparently to prevent nausea and sea sickness) and we started from Pirates Bay and headed south. The boat was just the hull, with a bright yellow inflatable rubber rim and seats, with a roof over some of it! It also had 3 275hp engines on the back, it went pretty quickly! We headed south, close to the coastline and saw the amazing rock formations, the changes in the rock, we nosed into a few sea caves and saw a lot of seaweed! As we headed out, they were right, there was a lot of swell and it started to absolutely chuck it down but other than our faces we didn't get wet as they had given us these really fetching ankle length waterproofs. We were sat at the front of the boat so we were sat on the bit of the boat with the most movement and it was pretty fun, apart from the driving rain. When it stopped tipping it down for a moment, they put a screen up just behind us and whilst we were thinking about moving to the back of the boat to avoid the next inevitable downpour, the people in the row behind us moved into our seats, so we went back and sat behind the screen and had the best seats for the rest of the trip!

We headed south all the way to Tasman Island and saw where the Tasmanian Sea collided with the Pacific and the Southern Oceans - and we had thought that where we were was pretty rough and exposed! We saw plenty of wildlife, we saw a white bellied sea eagle, another sea eagle, lots of albatross (even though they nest 50kms off the south coast normally and you are lucky to see 1 but there were loads!), lots of colonies of male New Zealand fur seals, Australian seals, dozens and dozens of dolphins who came to see who we were and what we were doing, white breasted cormorants Pacific gulls and other gulls!

Later that day we headed to Port Arthur and went on a little cruise there where I saw a couple of little penguins' heads above the waterline but the boat scared them off before Alex had a chance to see them. Port Arthur was interesting though and what the convicts did there was amazing, they built a number of ships every year, made bricks, shoes, woodwork etc. It was also interesting to see how tiny their cells were, even though newspapers, etc described them as spacious and airy (they were about 1.5m by 2.3m!).

Then from Hobart we headed north to Coles Bay, our first night stopover and from there we went to Bicheno and saw dozens of wild fairy penguins making their way up from the sea to their burrows and socialising (chatting lots and loudly!). We also found out that they sleep out at sea, floating on the surface! They also only sleep 5 mins out of every 90, and that they grab in about 10 seconds pieces or else they become shark bait! The penguins wandered up just feet from our feet and one even stopped just in front of me, inches (albeit quite a few) from my feet! On the way back to Coles Bay (it was dark) we saw loads of kangaroos and wallabies by the road, some eyes of something and a wombat! We saw a wild wombat just wombling along the side of the road!! (We like wombats!)

From there we drove inland and up to Launceston where we walked into Cataract Gorge and we crossed a swing bridge that was originally built in 1909 or something silly like that. We then headed up to Devonport and stayed with Betty Fleming (thanks Ann!) who was absolutely lovely and it was a pleasure to meet her. From there we went south round via Zeehan (the most hick town in the world - or so we thought then!) and Strahan to Queenstown. It absolutely chucked it down that day, so although we stopped at most of the scenic lookouts on the way, we saw the pretty views from the car! When we got to Queenstown we thought that was even more hicksville than Zeehan, but we were still wrong! It was the sort of place Alex thought he might get murdered - though obviously that was his imagination running wild! We stayed in the Empire Hotel, which must have been fabulous in its day but now is a little more ramshackle, but has things like a National Heritage staircase which shows you how amazing it must have been in all its glory. From there we headed towards Hobart, stopping at a wildlife Sacntuary called Something Wild where we saw koalas, wombats, quolls, tasmanian devils etc. We got to feed wallabies, watch a platypus just swimming around and I even fed emus, which might have been a mistake - they aren't the most gentle creatures in the world - but they survived and so did I, with no injuries or bruises even though one did try to eat my finger! From there we headed to our last stopover, New Norfolk. New Norfolk takes to Tasmanian hicksville prize. Only 38kms from Hobart, we thought it might be a commuter town or atleast be influenced by Hobart. It was a reasonably sized town, about 6000 inhabitants, of which, most of the ones we saw were really weird! We stayed in the Bush Inn, which again must have been fantastic when it was first built. It had beautiful views, a fireplace in every room and big rooms and lots of them.

From there we headed back to Hobart and returned the car. Wandered around for the afternoon and then flew up here to Melbourne first thing the next morning (yesterday)!

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