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Published: January 13th 2007
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24/12/06 - 03/01/07 A taste of Tasmania
Our Xmas and New Year in Tasmania with the nightmare of pre-booking accommodation over the holiday period and not knowing what would be opened and closed. We stayed at Peppers resort in Launceston for Xmas, a swanky apartment overlooking the waterfront. We hit Coles Supermarket on Xmas eve to stock up - more on Lindt chocolates then anything else. Our special bottles of red from the hunter valley went down very nicely over the three days, along with some Tassie blue vein cheese and brie. After wandering the empty streets of town for Christmas Dinner, we stumbled upon an open Thai restaurant. The food was superb and summed up the lifestyle of our previous year. The cataract river gorge was a scenic walk with a small cable car over the river and provided opportunity to walk off some of the rapidly acquiring pounds.
Onto Longford where we stayed in a Nation Trust cottage for a night, with all the local estates named from Hertfordshire estates in the UK, Woolmers, Brickendon etc… Criss-crossing up and down the island we decided to head south for Hobart and the Tasmanian Peninsular before heading North again
to our pre-booked New Year accommodation in St Helens.
En route south, we had to stop for an echidna in the road. I ran over to try and shoo it off the road, so it immediately curled into a ball and stayed put. Only by backing off to give it sufficient space did it decide to move off into the bush in its own time.
We passed the Tasmanian Devil Park and had to go see one of the only native animals that we had yet to spy. Feeding time proved to be quite a vicious affair with the little devils chasing each other around, growling their intent, and playing tug-of-war with the dead mice and scraps.
The famous site of Port Arthur helped while away a few hours. We meandered around the buildings, ruins and cruised around the bay. We failed to feel any supernatural feelings in the cottage where the girl’s ghost is often seen/felt or any sense of deep overwhelming sadness, often described by people as being felt whilst inside the old insane asylum.
We checked off all the costal geographical features of the peninsular - The blowhole, Arch, Devils Kitchen and the
Tessellated Pavement and the (in my opinion) inaptly named, Remarkable Cave. Allegedly the entrance looks like a map of Tasmania. (actually to be fair, it did - a bit) Eaglehawk Neck is a causeway of the peninsular that is only 100 meters wide. As the peninsular housed the penal colony of Port Arthur, this narrow strip of land made an easy line to defend against escaping prisoners (except those escaping by sea in boats, which many did). A Dog Line was set up of snarling, salivating beasts on chains which would bark loudly at any persons approach, thus warning guards of any potential escapes. The line of dogs also extended to incorporate dogs on small platforms out to sea!
We headed back round to Hobart for the ‘Taste of Tasmania’ Food and wine festival and to see some of the Sydney-Hobart yachts arriving. I managed to photograph a non-entry yacht passing through the finishing line! Lots of wine and a fantastic acrobatic show later, we headed up the hill to our apartment. Hobart has rolling hills and any accommodation in town usually involves a steep walk back at the end of the night. It helps if the experience is
numbed with sufficient fermentation.
The journey to St Helens took us up through the towns of Ross and Richmond with famous convict built bridges. One convict received a pardon for his stone sculpture, as the work was so good. Up through Eastern Tasmania the recent fire damage was frighteningly obvious. ‘Saved’ houses stood surrounded by burnt undergrowth. Other properties could be seen burnt out and razed to the ground.
If you ever go to Australia and need a mobile phone, take a Telstra phone. Under no circumstances consider Vodaphone. The shocking signal coverage continued and we had no signal at all from midday on 31st December through to our return to Hobart on 3rd Jan. No communication was possible with friends and family and the much awaited opportunity for us to bask in the celebrations of the New Year 10/11 hours before mainland Europe and the UK.
The Bay of Fires, north of St Helens had beautiful granite boulders, covered in orange algae, like a scene from War of the Worlds (not quite the red weed, I know). We headed down to Bicheno to see the penguins, but they were all too far out on the rock
island of the coast to see without taking a rather expensive tour for the privilege. We saw one clearly on a road sign however!
At Coles bay on the Freycinet Peninsular, we walked to Wineglass Bay and rounded ‘The Hazards’ huge granite outcrops round to Hazards beach. Photos of Wineglass bay always look stunning and we were gutted to have quite an overcast bay and not the clear blue sky and azure water that we had seen pictured. The beach was still beautiful however and well worth the undulating walk. The 11km walk saw us walking up and down on steep stone steps, as well as on beach and through woods. We rested our aching feet at Madge Malloys Restaurant in Coles Bay where the poached calamari and Cajun Flatfish were just perfect.
Our last night in Hobart we found a little wine bar to taste some more Tassie wines, famous for Pinot Noir and Riesling in the slightly cooler Australian climate and then headed to the Republic Bar with nightly music, where Simon Phillips distinctive guitar sound was so good that we bought the CD at the end of his set.
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