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Published: November 20th 2008
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Hobart sunset Tasmania is beautiful. I am extremely glad that I made the trip down before I leave Australia, most travelers and locals never do. Tasmania is an island state of Australia. It boasts the cleanest water and air in the entire world. (Mom, I really do think you could drink tap water for once.)
I flew into Hobart, the capital city, Thursday, November 13. I took this trip by myself, but it never really felt like I was alone. Through a networking group online I met Claire, a local to Hobart and stayed with her the three days I spent there. She introduced me to some of her friends and we watched a movie, got pizza and went out for some drinks. Claire came with me to the Salamanca markets that happen every Saturday. We had good fun together.
During the day I did my own things. I wanted to go to the Cadbury chocolate factory but I was the only that booked the particular cruise up there so it was cancelled on me. I heard though that Cadbury stopped touring their factory so I wasn’t that upset. I took a different cruise up the Derwent River and went to the Morilla
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Monks or something, praying in the park winery for a full range of tastings. Since its cool climate, they specialize in Pinot Noir in Tasmania, my favorite! I also learned a bit about making whiskey at the Lark Distillery and had some tastings of whiskey as well as their signature pepperberry vodka and gin.
I left Hobart on a two day tour up the east coast of Tassie. I ended up in a tour because bus lines in Tassie do not run on weekends and I thought being in a group would be more fun than traveling completely alone. The only negative I have about this UnderDownUnder tour was the dreadful tour guide who called himself Dutchy. He mostly discouraged much of the group from exploring and being overly adventurous. He says he didn’t mean to, he was only trying to cater to the wide abilities of the group and practice safety. But he didn’t chose words very carefully and he always sounded negative. Moving on from the negative, we drove through a tiny historic town of Ross and had a look around. We drove about an 1.25 hours between every stop. Next, we made our way to Wineglass Bay; said to be Australia’s most photogenic beach.
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Brooke St Pier I did get some great shots. After Wineglass Bay we ended the day in Bicheno; home to fairy penguins. While most people on the tour paid extra to go on a penguin tour, Claire whom I stayed with in Hobart told me not to pay to see penguins ‘cause you can see them anyway. So three of us headed to the beach when it got dark and we did get to see penguins on our own, and I think the little adventure was much more fun than a tour. Before dark though, I got to see Tasmanian devils, kangaroos, snakes, wombats and more at NatureWorld, a conservation park.
The next morning, Monday, we started out early and drove almost all the way up to the North East corner of Tasmania to the Bay of Fires. The Bay of Fires has been rated the #1 destination spot by lonely planet 2009. It was a very pretty beach and rainforest area. The sun was warm but the water was cold enough to make your skin tingle. I went for a swim anyway as a challenge to reach a rock island just off shore. It was worth it. After leaving Bay of
Fires we took our lunch and walked into the St Columba Falls. A 90 meter waterfall in the rainforest. Of course I climbed some rocks and played around in the forest like a six year old because that’s what makes life fun.
By random chance when I started this tour, a girl that lives near me in Sydney was on the bus. So I spent the rest of my time in Tassie with her(Elizabeth). The world’s largest independent owned lavender farm is in Nabowla, Tasmania so we stopped and had a look around there. Unfortunately the plants do not bloom until December, but everything still smelt of lavender anyway. P.S. I don’t really like the smell of lavender. The tour ended then in Launceston. Tuesday morning I went and toured the Boag’s brewery which concluded with a tasting of 4 of their beers and cheese pairings.
I’m not sure how this got to be so long, I simply just started writing and what do you know. The Cataract Gorge was a must see place in Launceston so Elizabeth and I took an evening walk to it. Before leaving to the airport I had a relaxing fish & chips
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This boat cruises the southern pacific ocean trying to catch the illeagal whale hunters. meal that was at a restaurant right on the river. Now I am back in Sydney for uni finals and in two weeks I leave out to Hawaii!!!
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