Blogs from Hobart, Tasmania, Australia, Oceania - page 4

We continued our journey along the north coast of Tasmania and stopped off in Boat Harbour (the Tasmanians clearly didn't burn too many brain cells when it came to giving places their names!). It had a lovely beach and I paddled in the Bass Strait under the watchful eye of the lifeguard on duty. The Australians really do take safety in the water seriously and lifeguards are present even in the quietest of places. We got petrol, finally, in Wynyard and had a stroll on their lovely beach and used the public exercise equipment just for a laugh rather than to actually get fit. We carried on to a town called Penguin (see what I mean about the names?) where little penguins come ashore and must have done since before the town was formed and named. ... read more

Hello Folks, We hope you enjoyed reading our travelblog posts. We had a lot of fun. During our six months of travelling, we covered all the states and major territories of Australia. We drove more than 30,000 kilometres in the Coaster and the Cruiser (excluding all of the tours which were mostly water based). We took more than 10,000 photos (and most of them were OK!) To cover the trip adequately is difficult but on the blog there are over 150 posts with more than 50,000 words and 1,000 plus photos. We have now rejoined the community of Hobart and have commenced preparing for return to more "normal"? life. There will be another blog coming which will focus exclusively on the birdlife we have seen on our trip but firstly a little break. Cheers Lenny and ... read more

Well the gearbox was fixed* mid January. The guys who fixed it said that somebody had put the main selector in back to front (*oh, there is more to come on this story – in short it is now stuffed and needs to be replaced – July 2015). Well, now that Hakura was mobile the weather in Tassie during January, however, was not good. The first chance for a trip came over the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend when Campbell and Claire were able to joined me. We motored down to the Duckpond in Barnes Bay on the west coast of north Bruny Island. The weather was still and sunny making for a very enjoyable trip. This even included the young ones on another boat in the Duckpond who were listening (and singing ... read more

We hadn't originally planned to visit Tasmania but decided that, as we were so close and everyone we spoke to said how beautiful it was, we should see it for ourselves. We flew from Melbourne to Hobart and spent the first night in a hostel with a view to joining an organized tour the next day for 6 nights. We were picked up at 7.30 by Courtenay from Under Down Under and set off for the west coast. Our first stop en route was the Mt Field National Park, where we did a 45 min Tall Trees Walk through a forest containing of Eucalyptus Regnans - swamp gum trees, which are the tallest trees in Australia and the tallest flowering trees on Earth. We also saw Russell Falls and Horseshoe Falls which were lovely and we ... read more

People at work wanted to see inside the bus. Some of them got the opportunity on the odd occasions when the bus went to work. Of course, there are others who haven't seen the LWB Toyota Coaster up close and personal that may also be interested in the lay-out. So here is the first instalment:... read more