Tasmaina - "Looking for that map of Tassie"
Down to explore 'Van Diemens Land' the very bottom of Australia. I decided to leave on Christmas day, for the reason that flights were significantly cheaper if I did so. Nothing planned, nothing booked, no idea, it is business as usual for me on the road..
25th December - Xmas Day
Christmas Day, I got up nice and early for my flight from Sydney to Hobart via Melbourne. It was easy enough getting in to a backpackers in the middle of town and I arrived in without any hassles at all. The temperature was much cooler than recent weeks in Sydney and there was even a splattering of rain as the airport shuttle dropped me off in the city centre. I can see why many people think that Tasmania is like New Zealand - the climate (on first appearances anyway) seems to be very similar to that of Wellington, and it certainly has a different feel to any other place that I have been in around Australia. I will think about this more and see if I can come up with some better reasoning later...
After getting settled in, I wandered around the very deserted town centre looking for something to do. Unfortunately it seems that the only thing that is open on the 25th of December here is the airport and this internet cafe. After wandering around Battery Point, the wharf area and seeing some of the older buildings in town it started to become very clear that I was going to have to resign myself to finding a place to sit - preferably a bar - and while away the day. The problem is that there are no bars open either. Not a very auspicious start to my exploration of the other side of the Bass strait.
Sunday 29th December
After getting over the whole 'lack of open businesses' problems, I managed to get myself up Mt Wellington - the large bit of rock overlooking Hobart, and have a look at the view that this provides. I had a good look around the centre of town before settling in to watch the Boxing Day test on tele. The cricket over, I went out to have a look at the cities nightlife with a bloke I met in the hostel and met a couple of my brothers mates who were over for Xmas also. We had a great time wandering from bar to bar along Salamanca Square.
The next day I headed up to Launceston, where I went for a walk in the Cataract Gorge, and watched Australia's richest cycle race. The stars on show included this year's Tour de France winner, Robbie McEwan. I met a bloke from the north of England who, after living in Tassie for 35 or so years, reckoned it was the best place on Earth. On the warm barmy evening with a huge crowd out entheusiastically supporting the cyclists, I could see why I loved it so much. Launceston especially has a great vibe for a small town and is quite pretty.
Launceston done, I headed on the first day of a two day tour down the west coast the next morning. We went through to Queenstown via Cradle Mountain where we did a walk around Dove lake and enjoyed the World Heritage Park status of the area. After that we stopped in Straun for a very nice seafood meal from one of the many cafes that are perched on the Gorden river's edge but not before having a climb up a massive sand dune and jumping running and falling down it.
Thursday 2nd January 2003
After crawling out of bed, stumbling down to breakfast and getting on the bus, we started out towards Hobart. The first stop was the Nelson falls which involved a short bush walk through some flora that looked very similar to that of southern New Zealand. In this area, the Eucalyptus trees and Warratah bushes common in our previous walks had been replaced with Murtle (a kind of beech tree) and tree ferns. After getting back on the bus we continued through the National Park, stopping briefly for lunch before getting back on the road towards the Hunter Falls information centre where we stopped for another bush walk that took in a variety of Eucalypts that are the world's tallest flowering plants - one in particular was 89m tall. After that we saw both the Hunter and Horse Shoe falls before returning to the bus and the continuation of the trip to Hobart where we arrived at around 7:00pm. While I had been away from town, the local food and wine festival 'Taste of Tassie' had begun its week long exposition of the best of local cusine, mostly comprising of a large variety of seafood which was all pretty damn nice and was complemented well by the local vinyards stalls. As you might imagine I sampled all the wonderful food and wine I could and managed to stagger out of the festival (after it closed) and continue the drinking theme of the evening at the local Irish bar.
The previous night's revelry was still causing me some distress the next day when I once again staggered out of bed in the late morning managing to only achieve eating a salad roll for breakfast/lunch before getting on a day trip to the old convict settlement of Port Arthur. Our guide, Christina was energetic and enthusiastic and soon the nine of us on the trip were chatting away to each other. Our first stop of the day was above Eagleneck Head where we saw how the gaolers at Port Arthur used the geography 'a natural prison' to stop convicts escaping. After this we walked accross the Tessalated Pavement, an incredible rock formation where the sea has created what looks like a paved cobblestone beach. We continued on, stopping briefly at a little village called Doo town where all the houses are have 'Doo' in their name. Names ranged from Doo-Me to Love me Doo. The icecream shop near where we parked was called 'Doo-Licious'. Its also probably the only town that was named after the names of its houses. There we stopped and saw the Tasman arch and Blowhole rock formations, and hopped back in the bus for a short trip before a walk to Waterfall Bay past a number of other interesting and sometimes spectacular costal rock formations. After the walk, we stopped at the remarkable cave (which wasnt really that remarkable!) and continued to Port Arthur.
Port Arthur was a settlement that housed convicts who had been transported to Australia, and had offended again. Often the first offence would have been something as menial as stealing a handkerchief, but nonetheless prisoners would have to endure an incredible hardship in the colony that housed up to 1600 people during its peak time. There was a prision there called the silent prison that had only a small hole for light in each cell and where prisoners were not allowed to speak at all or make any noise. Not surprisingly many of them went insane, which prompted the builing of a lunatic asylm next door. After looking around the grounds and through the remains of the buildings - most of which have been badly damaged by bushfires after the settlement was vacated at the end of the 1800's, we went on a ghost tour of the area by night. It was informative and entertaining but I was getting tired (despite my duties as a lantern bearer for the group) and after a long day, I slept through the entire trip back to Hobart. I did try and go out for a drink after I got back, but in true Tassie style, everything was closed by 1:00am.
My last day in Tassie (New Years Eve) led me once again to the Taste of Tassie, where I wandered down with the intention of having lunch with a couple of Kiwi girls that I had met at the hostel that morning. They sneakily tricked me into having a beer, and I had to jog back to the hostel to get my things in order to catch the shuttle to the airport for my flight back to Sydney after having four!
The trip back to Sydney went fast enough and I got off the train from the airport and ran straight to the hotel where some friends had got a room and had been partying for most of the afternoon. After a quick shower and a couple of drinks, we all headed to a warehouse on Miller Street Wharf (in front of the harbour bridge) for Mobile Home where Roger Sanchez and Basement Jaxx were headlining. The fireworks at midnight were fantastic, and after many hours of dancing we returned to the hotel where I collected my stuff and after a brief stop at home (waiting for the pub to open) spent the last day of my holiday at my local on the North Shore, the Oaks.