We woke up to a chilly, overcast and drizzly morning. Luckily, the weather cleared swiftly and we were slapping on the SPF30! Hobart weather is almost as unpredictable as Melbourne’s. We started the day with a visit to the Sunday Market at the Hobart Showground. Dean managed to find us an awesome folding camping table. Yay, we needed one of those! After that, we drove into central Hobart to check out the city. We started off at the famous Salamanca Place, a lovely terrace with Australian colonial architecture that houses a number of restaurants, bars, art galleries and beautiful craft shops. It’s definitely the art hub of the city and has a lovely vibe. Just a stone’s throw from there is the marina, from where we took a cruise around the bay. Back on land, we ... read more

It was time to explore the lovely Cradle Mountain / Lake St Clair National Park. We decided to take the ferry Cynthia Bay to Echo Point and then do the 3.5 hour hike back to the camping ground. You could’ve knocked us over with a feather when we realised our $70 ferry ride took all of 15 minutes! Come on guys, make the beautiful Tassie outdoors more accessible! On our hike back through woodland and rainforest, we came across the native woolly tea tree, an echidna, a wallaby… and many mosquitoes! We very much hoped to see a platypus too, but perhaps better luck next time. It was a lovely, peaceful hike with a lunch break on the lakeshore. At about 200m, Lake St Clair is the deepest natural lake in Australia.... read more

What a lovely sunny morning! After a leisurely start, we climbed the Nut. It is a 152m high volcanic table-top formation that is about 13 million years old. It was a very steep, but only 15 minute, climb to the top. We walked the 2km circuit which boasts impressive views of the coast, village and surrounding countryside. We took the chairlift back down before heading down to Stanley Wharf where Dean did a bit of fishing.Alas, no bites today… We drove a substantial distance in the afternoon, all the way to Rosebery where we intended to stay the night. This mining village didn’t feel particularly safe, with everyone driving by in utes staring at the strangers, so we found a small rest area outside the village to park our van. Out came the sandalwood sticks as ... read more

Day one has arrived!!!After several days of early mornings, late nights, lugging furniture out of the flat and making trips to the storage facility, we are sleep deprived and exhausted… but there’s a sense of excitement as we say a fond farewell to our St Kilda flat (sweet home for three great years) and drive down the road to Port Melbourne to board the Spirit of Tasmania for the nine hour journey across the Bass Strait. Our storage room is filled to the brim (as we closed the roller door, it skimmed past the washing machine with half an inch to spare), and our van is set up beautifully (thanks so much for your work on the kitchen and shelves, Gwany) and our odometer marks 208,000 km as our starting point. What will it read upon ... read more

In the morning, we visited Hot Water Beach and enjoyed sitting around in the termal water pools. We couldn't leave without paying a visit to the fantastic Moko Artspace which sells art/sculpure/jewellery etc by local artists. We gave a couple of German hitchhikers a ride back to Hahei (90% of the travellers we met are from Germany!) before taking the ferry over to Whitianga. This lovely little town is full of quirky shops and cafés, so we spent most of the afternoon exploring. Later, we visited Cook's Beach and North Beach - but it was a bit too cold to swim in the sea!... read more