Tasmania

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We left Melbourne on the Sunday 22nd of Feb 2009. We were up nice and early, car mostly packed the night before, down in Port Melbourne before 7am ready to board the Spirit of Tasmania, bound for...Tasmania!! 😊 It was a long journey (9 hours!), and we were both very tired, and slept a lot of it, just on random seats throughout the boat. I also started reading 'The Time Travellers Wife' and so had my nose stuck in that most of the journey 😊 It felt so good to finally see land, and once we got off the boat in Devonport around 7pm, we straight away drove to set up at a caravan park that was right on the beach. We headed into town to find some dinner, but couldn't really find anything to eat, so we had to get Macca's 😊 We had left Melbourne now, and were in basically a country town on a Sunday night! The next morning we got coffee in the town centre, but breakfast was too expensive for us in the coffee shops, so we just ended up getting Macca's and eating it on the rivershore watching the morning boat about to take off from Devonport.

We then started the drive down towards Hobart. We stopped at the Raspberry Farm (so pretty, took a walk around the gardens) and the Cheese Factory (I ate waaaay too much cheese but it was so good!) and passed by the Chocolate Factory because I was just feeling too ill from the cheese 😊 It only took us about 3 hours to get to Hobart, even with us taking our time, because all the little towns were 2km off the main road (a Tasmanian thing we have come to realise) and we couldn't be bothered turning 😊 I had my eye on the map the whole way into Hobart, and to where we were going, and it was amazing when we finally pulled into Hobart, because it really was quite small! And very hilly too. I remember looking at the map trying to figure out where we were, and then realised we had actually driven through the city centre without even realising it 😊 We drove through town, past Sandy Bay Coles (where I had already organised I would work in) and onto the Wrest Point Casino, the first casino in Australia. We had a drink and mini pizza for lunch sitting on the deck looking at the view of the place we had just moved to.

We were hoping to we were moving in straight away to the place that we had organised, but we weren't actually moving till we thought Wednesday (didn't end up being till the Thursday, Wednesday was just signing documents and stuff). So we set up camp at Barilla, about 20 minutes east of Hobart, for the next two nights. On the Tuesday, after having a nice shower and freshening up, we headed into the city to hand out some resumes, and for me to go into Coles and introduce myself. I met Torren, Store manager, Phil, GR manager, and Andrea, Checkout Manager, and managed to get some nightfill hours for the Wednesday night (luckily only 6-10pm nightfill hours here, not like Melbournes 6am shift!)

Life in Hobart went along fairly smoothly. Our plan was to only stay in Hobart for 5 weeks, leaving the weekend of Easter, in time to give Paris back her car (that was when she got her licence back). We very quickly decided though, when we had to leave our place on Hill St earlier then was planned, that we would get a 6 month lease on another place, and save up some money before taking off again. So we signed a 6 month lease on a little 1 bed apartment on Pine St, that was within walking distance to Steve's work (except for the hills that Steve didn't like). Steve went back on the boat to Melbourne to drop off Paris's car, and then flew back, and we bought a cheap little Pintara (much to Ralph's delight) to see us through. Steve managed to secure down two jobs pretty quickly, a fulltime job at Fish 349, and a casual breakfast job at Portabello near the wharf. Unfortunately, the casual job wanted him to do more hours, but he couldn't cos his loyalty was to Fish, so he lost that job in May. I continued to do nights at Coles, and actually managed to get another fulltime job at Vodafone Call Centre in Kingston (about a 10 minute drive south of Hobart) taking the 123 calls. That was on a 6 month contract, so it wouldn't matter if I left when we were planning to.

Of course, plans always change for us. We've decided to stay until New Years now. We moved from Pine in September when the lease was up to a sharehouse on Macquarie with another couple, Sebastian and Leah. However, they then decided to leave Australia when they realised his visa was up (he was German) and they couldn't renew on a couple visa cos they hadn't been together long enough. So we moved from there in with a friend from Steve's work, Ian, at the end of October. We were all really looking forward to it, but didn't end up seeing each other much anyway, because of all our work schedules. Then he got messed around by the other housemate (apparently) who decided she didn't want to resign the lease (and we couldn't cos we were leaving), so we all had to be out as soon as possible. Luckily, we managed to find the perfect place (wish we had found it months ago) in Battery Point, so close to everything, living with two other girls who are so so nice. We moved in at the end of November, and we're paying rent here until the end of January so that we can keep our stuff here while on holiday (Perth and the cruise).

Have made some really good friends here. We didn't tend to go out a lot in the first few months, because I was being so concerned about money, but we still had some awesome nights. Our main clubbing crew is Steve's mates from Fish, and then I made really good friends with a guy from Coles and his group of friends, so I tend to see them once a week at some place. We always go the cheap places with them, like the 'Round the Clock' drinks or food (5pm is $5, 6pm is $6 etc), or 'Two for One' drinks, out on a Wednesday night when everything is cheap cos its student night or something. This same group we go travelling with - we went down to the Tasman Peninsula 4 weeks ago to stay at Lucy's parents shack for a couple of nights, and they guided Steve and I around the places down there, and we're going up the east coast this week for a couple of nights to stay at her parents other shack...and we're been waiting for ages to see the coast, so we finally get to see it 😊

Saw snow too!! Was Steve's first time ever, and he loved it, but it was so so cold. First snow was at the end of April, and we were both not prepared for it when we went up the mountain. We learnt the next time we went up with snow, and rugged up.

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Just copied this next bit straight off Fuzzy Travel, just some information that I wrote....I know some may overlap, or the timing might be off becayse I wrote it back in July, but its easier then retyping everything 😊

Ever since we're arrived we've been trying to get days off together so that we can actually tour tassie...we've been seeing more of Tassie then we have of any other state so far. So here are some places we have been touring:

Hobart - Obviously!! Have walked around a few times, been to Cascade Brewery, which is absolutly gorgeous and so so old. There is a place called Salamanca, which is basically a row of really old buildings filled with restaurants and little shops. On Saturdays, the road closes down and they old the famous Salamanca Markets which are absolutly awesome! So much fresh food and goods and stuff. We also went out on a boat called 'wild thing' which drove around the river in front of Hobart, and south down the channel a little, sometimes going really fast and doing circles. We drove down to Kingston one random day just to have fish and chips for lunch on the beach...although it was sunny, it was still cold and not beach weather On our nights off we've been trying to try a lot of the really nice looking restuarants around the area, or even the not so nice ones (ie all you can eat chinese...i felt a little sick at the thought of it, but steve really wanted to go!

Mt Wellington - Been up there twice now. First time we went it was sunny and no clouds in sight and we had the an awesome view over Hobart and the south of Tassie. It was cold and windy though, although definatly not as bad as I thought it would be. The second time we went up was when it snowed for the first time this season. We had a couple of hours between Steve finishing work and me starting work, so we went home and rugged up and headed up the mountain. I honestly didn't think there would be much snow, but once we got to a certain height, we started seeing little bits on the edge of the road. The a little further up it actually started snowing!! We coudn't believe it. By the time we got up to the top carpark it was windy and snowing and cloudy and absolutly FREEZING!!! Steve slid on some black ice when we were parking, and he wasn't even going fast at all! Steve was absolutly loving it though - it was his first time in snow!! We wandered around (well, got blown around) for a few minutes, and played in the snow...i stupidly picked up a snowball without any gloves, and was in pain for the next hour from what I swear was frost bite! I had holes in my shoes as well, so my socks were freezing by the time we got in the car. We didn't stay up there long, probably not even 15 minutes, because we were so so cold. The drive down Steve drove so much slower then when he drove up, because he had realised exactly how slippery black ice was. It was a much nicer drive down, the sun came out and we could actually see the view again, but it was surrounded by a snow covered mountain.

Huon Valley and Beyond - This is the area south of Hobart, past where I work in Kingston. We've travelled down this way a few times. First time we went to Peppermint Bay was for our anniversary back in April, but that was by boat along the D'Entrecasteaux Channel (I had to google how to spell that!! hehe) We then drove down the coast, stopping in Kettering where we hired kayaks and paddled the couple of hours down to Peppermint Bay for a pizza, beer and coffee (and to warm up! we were so cold and wet and knew that we would feel sore the next day). I didn't want to get outa the kayak to stop for a break cos I didn't think that I would get back into the boat!! It was like an episode of the biggest loser - 'come on, just one more push!' haha We then continued to drive down and around the first 'tip'. The day ended with a quick stop in Huonville, we're we left out lights on for maybe 20 minutes, and Steve had to walk to the petrol station down the road to borrow their portable charger

New Norfolk - Had a day trip up to New Norfolk, about 45 mins north then east of Hobart. We went at the best time, because it was Autumn and the leaves were reds and oranges and yellows. We went to feed the fish at the Salmon Farm, watching them jump up in the air once they broke the surface to feed.

Hastings - Sam and her boy Ryan came for a holiday to Tassie in July, so we were able to catch up with them! On the sunday, the day of the Triple J top 50 of the hottest 100, we drove south down towards Hastings. It was a long drive, almost 2 hours, but at the end of the journey was the hastings caves, which were really eerie and felt so far down! there was also thermal springs, which are 28C all year around! We all thought it would be part of the river it came from, but they had actually made up an actual belowground pool, so it was like swimming in a heated pool. But we did swim! Even though it was freezing and we were already wet from the actual rain, we still got in and swum around for a few minutes. On the drive back to Hobart we realised we were all starving, after not really eating lunch (and it was about 5pm now) so we stopped for some hot chippes...and saw our first real looking Tasmania she was very scary looking hehe

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The maps are starting to get annoyed at me for adding so many points 😊 But I want to show where we've been travelling around...

Cradle Mountain - My birthday pressie for Steve was a night away at Cradle Mountain Lodge. We ended up hiring a car for the drive, because we didn't trust that the pintara would make the drive (and it wouldn't of). We ended up leaving around 930 from Hobart and made good time driving up through the middle of Tassie, arriving at the lodge at about 130. We settled into our massive spa suite nestled in the forest, and then made our way down to the main lodge to explore. We sat at the bar and had a drink, and then booked ourselves in for the wine and cheese tasting at 5pm. We then spent the afternoon relaxing in our suite. We locked ourselves out onto our back balcony, and Steve had to bush bash to get to the place next door and ring reception from there phone to drive up another key. After an awesome spa, we made our way down to the wine and cheese tasting, which was held in the wine cellar of the restaurant. We didn't have any food in our stomach (although we had complimentary canapes waiting in our fridge for us) and by the end of the tasting we were both quite drunk. The wines and cheese were absolutely gorgeous! We then headed back to the pub for yummy pub meal dinner and some more drinks. By this stage steve was a 'little' drunk so we went back to our cabin so he could sleep it off a bit. We headed back up to the pub at around 830 where we got some more food and joined in with the Saturday Quiz night they had going...we didn't do very well, but I was very proud of myself for some of the random question I knew...although none of them were because of Vodafone! We woke up early the next morning and headed out just after 8am, walking the 45min King Billy Track before our buffet breakfast. It was such a crisp and sunny morning, as opposed to the cloudy day we'd had before, and the walk was absolutly gorgeous. Most of it was through the greenest rainforest, and then at one point we walked out onto this gorgeous clearing with the morning mist floating in the air. It was so beautiful. We then ate too much of a very yummy buffet breakfast before checking out and heading into the national park towards Cradle Mountain and Dove lake. We were lucky that we didn't have a cloudy day and it was so pretty. We then began the long drive home down the west coast of tassie...it was estimated to take about 6 hours, we took about 7.5, arriving home around 6pm. It was a long drive, but still gorgeous. Steve absolutly loved it, which was lucky cos he was the one driving Its amazing how much the scenery can change! Some times it was like driving through a rainforest, with absolutly gorgeous greenery around us, other times it was bare and rugged.

Christine and Bradley came for a week at the end of July, and as well as showing them around Hobart, we did a road trip up to Launceston (which we hadn't seen yet either...). From there we were meant to head back to Hobart, but found out that Ralph was suprising us all, flying into Launceston Airport. So we had to delay, and drove up to Devonport, and a little Scottish looking town called Sheffield. There was also this 'theme park' of mazes that we had lots of fun running around, and a miniture town was there as well. We spent the night in Devonport, and then met Ralph in Perth, TAS (my idea, thought that was pretty clever) for breakfast. Christine had no idea that he was going to be there, and it was an awesome surprise for her. We drove back via the east coast, coming out at Swansea.

Another roadtrip we did was the beginning of November with our 'crew' (as I know call then) 😊 It was to Lucy's parents beach house in Taranna. We spent two night down there, Steve and I arriving around midnight on the Sunday night because we both had to work late, and then staying the next night too. It was such perfect timing, because that Monday was the hottest day we've had since we got here, at 35C!! So we all got up the next morning, and did a trip around the loop, all crammed into two cars. We stopped off a bit at Port Arthur, which was eerie but not as good as I thought it would be. We then drove to Fortescue Beach, which was about 10 mins down a gravel road, and was so gorgeous! Steve and I both went swimming (which means I've swam at the beach in every state), but the water had tiny jellyfish in it...they weren't poisonous, but still made it squigy! 😊 The next day everyone guided Steve and I on the way home, showing us the sights just out of Eaglehawk Neck.

We just got back from a trip up the east of of Tassie with Lucy and Soph (a couple of other girls joined us for dinner one night - they were up there visiting family). Lucy has a house up there that her dad and brother normally live in, but they were away at sea for work, so we all crashed there for two nights. We left early Wednesday morning at 8am with Soph so we could do the touristy stuff on the way up to Scamander, about 3 hours north of Hobart and where the house was. We stopped in Sorell for a much needed coffee at Banjos, where we noticed a misprint in the paper, went to BWS and managed to get 4 cartons of imported beer (corona and peroni) for $100!! Was so good! Stocked up on some food, and continued up to Winglass Bay, which was our next stop. It was such a nice day, and we were lucky to actually get views, and not have it cloudy. And it was absolutly gorgeous from the lockout at Wineglass Bay. The plan was to walk down the to bay, but as we decided not to go any further then the lookout - the sun was out, it was actually quite warm, and we were low on water. And just slack 😊 But the view was absolutly worth it. We stopped at Friendlies Beach on the way back up from Wineglass, and had our first beer of the day. Was such a life, sitting on the pristine white beach with blue water, sun on us...was so so nice. We arrived in Scamander around 430, and headed to St Helens with Lucy to buy some dinner. Two other girls met us for a BBQ feast dinner, and then we headed across the road to the beach to watch the sunset. Up early the next morning, and out the door just after 10am, the 4 of us in Steve's 4WD and headed up the coast, driving on mostly gravel tracks, toward Eddystone Point and the north side of the Bay of Fires. It was so so windy but still a nice day. And we could see how Bay of Fires is in the top 10 beaches of the world. We then headed inland towards Pyengana and the Pub in the Paddock (where you can actually feed this massive pig 'Princess' beer) and St Columba Falls. We then headed towards the coast and went to Cozy's Corner, the beach on the south side of Bay of Fires. By now the sun was out, it was a sheltered beach so it wasn't windy, and it was just absolutely gorgeous. We tried to squid at St Helens, but because of the wind we didn't catch anything, so we headed back home. Lucy then brought Steve through the bushes behind her house (I was sitting in the back trying to get used to 4WD'ing). We then had a lazy night of drinking our beer, watching a movie, and playing interactive Spicks and Specks (which was hilarious cos we didn't know anything, and we couldn't sing very well for the 'Substitute' bit. Up early on Friday morning at 545am to leave straight away, because Steve had to start work at 10am. Was a scary drive where I slept, and every time I woke up I checked that Steve was still awake 😊

So that is the stories of our travel so far in Tassie...

So we're flying out of Tassie in 2 weeks and 4 days 😊 can't wait!

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