Week ending 05-Oct: Tasmania

Michelle left for Tasmania Monday afternoon with two of her uni friends so I had to survive the week solo before joining up with them. They went into Launceston in the north and did a loop on the east coast of the state before getting to Hobart (the largest city in Tassie) Friday morning to get me from the airport. Tasmania, in general, is about as opposite of a large, crowded city as you can get. There was actually a little traffic getting out of Hobart, but once we got into the countryside, other people and other cars were few and far between. We went up to the top of Mt. Wellington, which overlooks the Hobart area to get a view…its up pretty high and a few flakes of snow were actually coming down…it was freezing cold! (which was even more shocking when compared to how warm Sydney was that morning when I left). From there we went out to Mt. Field National Park and did a little hike up into the forest to a couple of waterfalls. We wanted to go deeper into the park to explore a bit more but it was already pretty late in the day and the animals were out in large quantity all over the place so driving on the road became quite challenging to not hit wallabies and other things popping out in front of the car so we decided to turn back so as to not contribute to the roadkill tally. We did have a close call with a wallaby as we were getting close to our destination…the thing was out in the road and completely froze as we were coming towards it before hopping into our path as I was slamming on the brakes (thankfully everyone survived the incident completely unscathed).

After spending the night in Tarraleah in this somewhat random "resort" that kind of had a Dharma Initiative feel about it (a la Lost), we continued north towards Lake St. Clair in the southern end of Cradle Mountain/Lake St. Clair National Park. We had hopes of climbing up a couple of mountains in the park but it was way too early in the season and snows still made the trails impassable towards the top. So instead we did a long hike up to a small lake and then looped back along Lake St. Clair on the way back. The weather was completely schizophrenic, going from dumping rain, to sunny and back repeatedly. (On a sidenote, the one thing that we had shipped over that is still being held by Australian quartantine are my hiking boots…evidently they were caked with dirt so they're either going to be steam cleaned or "destroyed" to make sure some weird bacteria or germ isn't introduced into Australia. So I was unfortunately reduced to hiking in sneakers which held up very poorly to the rainy, wet, marshy conditions). Anyways, the hike was nice and the highlight was at the end when we made a little detour down to what is called "Platypus Bay" where we ended up seeing a platypus swimming through the water right in front of us! There was also the most amazing rainbow that went down into the lake with the strongest colors. Pretty awesome. From that area we drove north towards the Cradle Mountain part of the park, making a few stops for short walks along the way. Michelle also spotted an echidna on the side of the road which is her new favorite animal.

The next morning we got up early and set out on a hike around Dove Lake which is one of the lakes at the base of Cradle Mountain. The weather was again somewhat questionable so the top of the mountain wasn't quite out, but the views were still pretty great. Towards the end of the circuit we went up on a side trail that climbs up pretty high to a viewpoint looking down on a few lakes with the mountain in the distance. It was a straight uphill kind of thing but the views at the top were worth it. As we were about to head back down it started sleeting on us and the wind picked up so it was pretty cold and my sneakers were failing pretty significantly against the elements so it was a cold hike back to the visitor center. From there we went to this reserve for Tasmanian Devils. Tassie Devils have had a huge reduction in population over the recent few years largely due to a disease that is spreading rapidly through the population. There are a few private and government run institutes that are trying to preserve them but the way things are going they're running the risk of going extinct in the near future. It was fascinating to see the devils right there in front of you…we saw a few of them get a bit of wallaby meat and the ensuing fight went on for probably an hour, just a 4 way tug of war over this carcass. They were actually pretty cute little things though and I think are often misrepresented as ferocious nasty things that will attack humans even though its not true. As we were leaving, we could see off in the distance that Cradle Mountain had come completely out of the clouds so we drove back to Dove Lake so we could get the view of the whole mountain below the clouds. From there we drove north to the coast for a complete change of scenery and spent the night in Stanley on the coast in the northwest of the state.

The morning was clear with blue sky (it didn't last long) and we took advantage by hiking up "the Nut" which is a volcanic rock formation that juts out into the water from the coast. After making it back to the car just before a torrential downpour started, we headed back east along the coast. We stopped in rocky cape national park and did a few small walks along the coastline (which was stunning…the color of the water combined with the rocks jutting out was really beautiful). We stopped for lunch in the town of Penguin (no penguins that we could see on the beach though) and then eventually ended up back in Launceston that evening for our flight back to the mainland. It was a great trip…Tassie is quite a beautiful place and I'm glad we made it down there. I like being places where you can drive along the road and not pass another car for literally hours at a time…its quite a change from living in NYC or Sydney!

Link to a bunch of pictures below:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=bqmhkbd.7kp9s5bp&x=0&y=kve2l6&localeid=en_US