Blogs from Mount Field, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania

We left Hobart and headed up the Derwent Valley where we took the road to the Mount Field National Park. The road went through rural areas where there was a lot of hop orchards similar to the Moutere and Motueka locations at home. On arrival at the Visitor Centre we took a look at the interpretation displays then walked firstly to the Russell Falls. The walk took us through rain forest not unlike New Zealand if you swapped the eucalyptes with beech trees. The tree ferns were similar but fatter and shorter in the trunks. The Russell Falls were really nice, falling from a number of stratigraphic horizontal layers so that the water fanned out on each level. We then walked the Tall Trees track taking us through hugh eucalyptus trees with enormous trunks and rising ... read more

Well - only 11 days since my last entry and SO MUCH has happened. Been to so many beautiful places. Tassie IS what everyone says it is. So unspoilt (mostly) and rugged and ridiculously beautiful. Driving can get a little testy - continuously uphill and downhill. The whole state is mountainous - well, I haven't reached any L_O_N_G plains yet. After Ulverstone we headed west along the north coast to Burnie - where paper mills used to be the mainstay of employment. However with the cessation of logging to a large degree, tourism is probably now the major employer. In fact, I would say tourism is Tassies major industry. Then timber plantations, salmon farming, lobsters and cool climate fruits (berries of all sorts and grapes, also stone fruits). From Burnie to Somerset to Wynyard to Table ... read more

Part 7 Tuesday 16th December 2008 Woke up very cold and wet. It had rained all night. Where was this Aussie summer weather I'd been promised............. Drove to Mount Field National Park, getting supplies in a tiny village called Ouse on the way - tonight was the last supper before heading back to Hobart! On the way to Mount Field we stopped at "Something Wild" wildlife rescue sanctuary which was very exciting!!! We saw Wombats, Roos, Koalas and the fierce little Tasmanian Devils - at last!! Cedric in particular was very excited about this and we were in that park hours!!!! Was great to see all the animals that were actually getting ready to be released back into the wild. They had mostly been found as babies with their roadkill moms - some even still ... read more

From lake St Clair we went to Mt field national park.There we went on a walk and saw more trees and water falls.I met some japanese people and spoke to them in Japanese.We made a wallaby friend that we could pat we named him skipper.Next we went to StrathGordon and saw a big really big dam wall.At the dam wall we saw people abseiling (the biggest free abseiling in the world).We did the creepy crawley walk in the rain forest. After there we went to Fortesque Bay near Port Arthur we went on a SPOOKY ghost tour. It was pretty scarey. And we SAW A GHOST.We saw some baby fairy penguins in thier burrows. The Cadbury's chocolate factory was terrible we had to eat chocolate. We stayed in Hobart with people we met at Mt Field ... read more

Although the heat in the centre of Australia was entirely manageable because of the low humidity, it was great to be greeted with cool, fresh air when we arrived in Tasmania. We enjoyed a relaxing night in town (with a real bed) and headed out the next morning toward Strahan on the west coast, stopping along the way for a few bushwalks. Our first stop was at Mount Field National Park - it lured us with advertisements of waterfalls and tall trees, and it did not disappoint. The main attraction was Russell Falls - a three-tiered, beautiful cascading waterfall. We decided to continue along the track up to the top of Russell Falls where we came upon Horseshoe Falls - not as high, but just as pretty with the sun shining off the green moss on ... read more