After a few long months of packing, unpacking, getting settled in, lots of work for Steve and so many other things we were pretty excited to take our first "holiday" to Tasmania, or more affectionately known as Tassie to Australians, the week prior to Christmas. While we had hoped to perhaps take one trip outside of Australia before baby #2 arrives, time ticked by too quickly this fall and we found ourselves fighting the clock of approved flying time for me. We were far from disappointed with our choice, Tassie checked all the boxes of what we wanted right now. It presented options to visit city, mountain and beach in a comfortable one week driving trip - check. It was only about a two hour flight from Sydney - check. And it would be a break from the heat - bonus check (Tasmania, while part of Australia, is a separate island south of mainland Australia and thus typically cooler than most of the rest of the country, but it is surprisingly still in fact closer to the equator then it is to Antarctica). So we counted down the days and all celebrated when Steve finished work prior to the holidays, feeling a bit like school children leaving school prior to a holiday or summer break.
It's safe to say only one member of our family was truly excited about our choice of flying times. The 6 am departure time meant an extremely early start to get to the airport but it didn't phase Emma - it only meant one thing, vacation had begun and we would be flying on an airplane! I was more than pleasantly surprised by our "discount airline" experience the whole trip. We flew Jetstar, the discount airline that is affiliated with the more well known Qantas airline. I mentally prepared myself for a similar experience to those encountered in Europe of flying EasyJet and RyanAir, so to say the least my expectations were very very low. Yet, the seamless and relatively quick check-in process, the timely departure and lack of queue waiting to board 30 minutes prior, and nicer planes left me more than happy with our money-saving choice. And on our return trip home I continued to be pleasantly surprised when we arrived very early back at the airport and there was no change fee for us to take the earlier flight home.
As a result of our early departure it meant we had a full days worth of activity when we arrived in the largest city of Hobart, got our luggage, rental car and made our way to the city centre all by about 9 am! The first stop of the day was second breakfast, coffee and then meandering the stalls of the Salamanaca Market. Aside from it being unseasonably warm we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of the market and a wide variety of locally made goods.
Can't remember the last time we had a 9 am nap.
She woke up, had some great Aussie brekkie (otherwise known as breakfast and Australians favorite meal of the day - no doubt I cannot wait for more brekkies out as a family once this baby arrives and I can eat the smoked salmon and poached eggs that seem to be a staple of most breakfast menus) and she was happy camper rocking my new shades while her dad tried to play it cool.
Loved the popular local flowers!
From there our afternoon destination was Mount Wellington, which is about a 30 minute drive west of downtown Hobart. At about 1250 meters elevation it provides nice views over all of greater Hobart and for that matter southeast Tasmania. Emma enjoyed "climbing" the rocks at the top and we all enjoyed the cooler temperatures at the top.
Beautiful views from Mount Wellington over Hobart.
Its safe to say by the time we made our descent we were all more than ready for an early dinner and to find our Airbnb rental for the next two nights. We found a great fish & chips restaurant on the waterfront downtown and Emma ordered what has fast become her favorite local dish - calamari. It seems that Airbnb is quite popular in Australia and with the friendliness of most Australians it will likely be one of our favorite ways to stay when we travel here. So for our first stop we stayed in the guest suite in Miss Catherine's house and Emma quickly made herself at home and lucky for us did a pretty good job being cute and one of the friendliest little house guests around.
All smiles for her calamari!
With a good nights sleep we were all ready for our day trip on Sunday to the Tasman peninsula on the far southeast coast of Tassie. It is about an hour drive from Hobart and home to the Tasman National Park as well as Port Arthur. Port Arthur is one of Australia's most important historical sites as it was a former convict settlement. It was extremely interesting to learn more of the history of some of Britain's hardest of convicted criminals in the mid-1800's. Many had been sent to Australia initially only to re-offend upon arrival and then sent to Port Arthur for further punishment. The location was selected due to its natural security - shark infested waters, surrounding hillside and extreme remoteness. Although Emma didn't fully understand the concept of a prison, it sparked loads of conversation throughout the week about where people go when they're really bad (and may serve as continued motivation for her to be good).
View back on some of Port Arthur's buildings from the surrounding waters that helped to keep the convicts in.
A look down the "separate" prison hallway.
What a unique concept - the church pews in the separate prison. It was constructed with dividers so prisoners could not see each others faces.
Another more typical church on Port Arthur's grounds reminded us of the style of many British and Irish churches.
After spending a fair amount of the day touring the grounds of Port Arthur we made several pit stops in the national park before we headed back to Hobart. Tasman National Park was teeming with rugged coastline and natural rock formations - Emma slept through most of it but managed to wake up for our first of many wildlife sightings of the week, an echidna.
View over the cliffs just before a storm arrived.
The Tasman Arch that has been carved away by the waters underneath over the years.
Echidna sighting!
Come Monday we debated sticking around Hobart and southeast Tasmania a bit longer, but decided instead to head two hours north to the second largest city of Launceston before our making our way to our ultimate destination for the evening - the small town of Sheffield. The drive led us straight through the interior of Tasmania where we saw mostly rugged, dry, grassy rolling hills and half-dead appearing trees. Much of central and east Tasmania are dry, especially during the summer and it was quite apparent during our drive.
Along our drive to Launceston we spotted many strange metal cutouts along the side of the road...
Rugged, dry terrain that is central Tasmania.
While there was not much that really intrigued us about Launceston, we did want to enjoy the afternoon on the outskirts of the city at a place called Cataract Gorge Reserve. A beautiful gorge with a few man made additions like a great pool and fun wildlife, including wild peacocks and our first sighting of a wallaby. It made for a nice afternoon stop and it was just warm enough for some swimming.
View over the pool and swimming hole at Cataract Gorge.
With Emma amply exhausted from swimming, riding the chair lift above the gorge and peacock spotting we made the remaining one hour drive west from Launceston to the small town of Sheffield. We had picked Sheffield to stay for no other reason than it was one of the closest remaining options (45 minutes) we could find a place to stay for our visit to Cradle Mountain National Park on Tuesday. Far from being anything to write home about, evidently it's tourism industry was being revived thanks to an effort to paint murals all over town.
Onwards to Cradle Mountain National Park on Tuesday we were excited to spend a day in the "cold" mountains. The park has gained popularity worldwide for its 65 km, six day Overland bush trek with an estimated 8,000+ people completing the trek each year. While we would like to claim we were three of them, we were not. Instead we enjoyed many other short walks throughout the park for gorgeous views of the famous Cradle Mountain, wombat, wallaby, echidna sightings and a variety of vegetation. The weather turned out to be much less blustery than expected and warmed up nicely.
We saw so many different road signs in regards to the wildlife in Tasmania - literally they have a different one for every type of wildlife you might see - and for good reason since we saw just about every type dead along the side of the road at some point during our trip. However, this is probably our favorite one. Although we were pretty confident it was supposed to be a depiction of a car hitting a kangaroo - every time we saw it it appeared like we should be concerned about a kangaroo picking up the front of our car!
We all needed our photo in front of the lake and Cradle Mountain seen in the distance.
The day started cool, but very quickly warmed up!
Emma makes friends everywhere we go!
Interesting trees and vegetation throughout the park, pretty sure if it had been darker I would have been worried about what might sneak out of these wicked looking trees.
The highlight of our time in the national park without a doubt was the up close and personal encounter with the wombat in the wild whom we just sat and watched for 15 or 20 minutes while he ate and grazed in a bushy area. Such amazing and gentle creatures, they can scurry away pretty quickly if they feel threatened, but this guy had no such intentions. Some might describe him as an oversize rodent, we thought he was pretty cute and lovable.
Scenic boardwalk through the native grasses that the wombats call home.
Don't mind us.
Sometimes you just need to have a good scratch.
In our typical traveling style, by Wednesday it was time to move onto another location in Tasmania so we left Sheffield for the three hour drive to the central east coast and the town of Bicheno. It would be our base for our last two nights to see more wildlife and visit the famed Freycinet National Park.
Another of our favorite road signs - future blog to come on interested Aussie abbreviations but so far "speedo" might top the list. While we really didn't think we were going to be pulled over and checked for speedos in our car in 4 km it took us a long time to figure out that speedo was in fact an abbreviation for speedometer and we could monitor it using the kilometer markers on the road, phew!
We arrived by early afternoon (Despite an actual traffic stop that I have to mention here as I still find it pretty funny, Steve likely does not. I don't think Steve passed a single car the entire trip due to the windy roads and still growing accustomed to driving on the left side, instead we got passed countless times. Yet, somehow the one time he went a few kilometers over the speed limit we got pulled over. Lucky for us it was a very friendly Aussie officer and he got nothing more than a gentle reminder to slow down!) so we could spend some time at East Coast Natureworld and round out our wildlife encounters with anything we had yet to see in the wild. The sanctuary is heavily dedicated to research and conservation and we enjoyed our intimate visit with only a few other tourists visiting that afternoon. While we thoroughly enjoyed learning more about wallabies and petting one after our close encounter the day prior, I think feeding the kangaroos and watching the Tasmanian Devil feeding was certainly the highlight.
This emu was pretty friendly, if I was any closer though I think he would have tried to see if my camera was edible.
We enjoyed meeting another wombat - the staff at the sanctuary get to cuddle the young ones daily - just like human children once they turn into teenagers the last thing they want is a cuddle.
With many young joeys in their mothers' pouches we were at first timid to feed the kangaroos with Emma, but we found they must have especially trusted Emma due to her size, and she reciprocated the friendliness. Steve also seemed to have the special knack after he discovered, just like dogs, they seemed to really appreciate a good chin scratch.
This momma gave Emma a good smell before she determined her food was safe.
I think I'm uncomfortable some days, but I really don't know how I'd feel about lanky limbs just hanging out from my stomach...
This smaller guy and Emma were just the right size.
Ah, the chin scratch was so good!
The devil feeding was quite a different experience. It was very clear we should not let our hands get anywhere close to these animals. They rely mostly on their sense of smell, their eyesight is pretty terrible, but with the right winds they can smell an animal (especially a dead one) several kilometers away. So when the keeper banged a kangaroo leg on the opposite side of the enclosure a male devil quickly came running to the general area and after a few seconds of trying to figure out exactly where it was at it's sense of smell led it to the leg right away and once it got ahold of it, it didn't let go. While the male was the first one to make his way to the food the female watched and listened quietly in the background until it decided that it had had enough. With some hissing and squawking she made it well known who was boss. The male hurriedly ran away letting out some high pitched shrieks in an attempt to not gain more scars or lose another clump of fur from its lower back. It didn't take long to see who dominated in the devils relationship. However, realistically in the wild these animals have no relationships. As we learned, they do not hunt or live in packs. They are truly a solitary animal looking to survive on their own. Sadly enough, even in Tasmania (the only place in the world where these animals exist), there are very limited numbers remaining in the wild. These endangered animals are threatened largely due to disease these days.
The male resting before he heard it was lunchtime - looks like he had taken a good beating from his female companion recently.
Here's a look at the feeding and the chasing....
We were enjoying ourselves so much at the animal sanctuary that we stayed until closing time and then found the house we rented near the beach and prepared for our late night out! You'll have to understand that a family traveling with a three year old and pregnant lady don't often stay out for late nights, but we made an exception when we were staying only a mile down the beach from where as many as 1000 little fairy penguins call home.
A pretty good indication penguins live nearby.
These penguins are as small as they come and as adorable as they come too. They are primarily found along the south coast of mainland Australia, in Tasmania and parts of New Zealand. Each night at dusk the adult penguins can be watched coming out of the ocean onto the beach after their long day of fishing at sea that started well before dawn. I had experienced this once before when I visited Phillip Island just south of Melbourne while here in college, but it was so much more fun with Emma along.
So excited to ride the penguin bus!
She had been talking for weeks about seeing the penguins and they did not disappoint. We waited quietly for 5 or 10 minutes for them to start coming out of the water and then they appeared just on cue. They would come out in small bunches of 10-20 and huddle in a spot on the beach while they scoped out their path back up into the bushes and their nests. When they felt it was safe they would all start waddling as fast as I expect penguins can waddle right past our feet. As it was breeding season it was at times quite loud as well as the mothers and fathers called out to their young and the babies responded. Most of the families that had quite young babies only sent one adult out to go fishing while the other stayed with the young or sitting on eggs. Yet as the babies got bigger both mother and father would leave them for the day in order to catch enough fish to bring back to share. When we asked our tour guide when do the young ones head out to sea she said it seems like a bit of a tough lesson. The parents simply decide one day that they will not return to the nest that evening. When the young ones realize their parents are not coming back they naturally know that the next morning they must leave with the rest of the colony and go out to sea. As the penguins don't differentiate based on appearance, only voice, they often have no idea of which ones are their parents and vice versa.
Making the brave trek up from the beach as a group.
It goes without saying that our "late night out" was well worth it. The 45 minutes we spent with penguins scurrying around our feet and stopping to sniff some shoes was incredible. Emma did a great job waiting quietly as they walked around. While we couldn't take any photos, the tour company supplied us with a few they had taken as they had appropriate cameras and a few lights that are gentler on the penguins eyes that they have come quite accustomed to over the years.
Some younger ones just waiting for their parents to return.
On Christmas Eve day we awoke to a beautiful day to explore Freycinet National Park. It was yet another completely different experience to have in Tasmania. The park is lined with white sand beaches and gorgeous blue green waters. The park encompasses most of a peninsula that has many great hikes and views up and over all of the bays in the area. We chose to complete the most popular and accessible hike to the Wineglass Bay Lookout.
Full view over Wineglass Bay.
Hidden view a cave showed the green waters all around.
I didn't know if Emma and/or I would be up for the mostly uphill 1.3 km hike, but I told Steve he needed to go regardless. Fortunately all of us had a good day and made it to the top. However, Emma has her father to thank for trucking along with her most of the way up in the hiking backpack so she could take a nap! The views were well worth the effort and we likely spent an hour at the top just soaking it in and becoming acquainted with the resident wallaby!
Happy and well rested at the top!
I think he knew well what most tourists had with them... if only he could have opened the zipper on our bag.
Glad we all made it!
Upon completion of the hike we found one of the last remaining places open near the park for a well deserved late lunch before spending the rest of the afternoon exploring nearby beaches and some short scenic drives along the coast.
Unreal white sand and some great surfing waves.
We decided upon booking the trip and finding cheap airfare on Christmas Day that we would simply just tell Emma that Christmas was the following day (Dec 26). While we had one close call with another girl we met almost blowing our cover and causing Emma some slight confusion as to what night Santa was coming, we otherwise executed our plan seamlessly. So when we woke up on actual Christmas morning, our last morning in Tasmania, we simply played it off that it was only Christmas Eve day to Emma. It was a rather low key day, as we expected with most everywhere being closed, but that is how we had planned it (we had a good memory of a disappointing Christmas Eve back in Dresden, Germany one year and we knew better than to expect anywhere would be open and planned all of our meals accordingly - a most important move for a pregnant woman and three year old). We had about a two hour drive to get us back to the airport in Hobart and nearly the entire drive was along the coast. We made several beach pitstops to play a little in the sand and run around and enjoyed the Bicheno blowhole where the extremely windy weather made for some good waves and shooting water through the rock.
Bicheno blowhole.
So many beaches, so few people.
It was a great trip and although it had never been at the top of my list for places to visit upon moving to Australia, I'm glad we went. Aside from being a very typical, emotionally charged three year old, Emma is great to travel with right now. She may still have some mighty good tantrums and not have a lot of patience for doing things she doesn't want to do, but it is absolutely amazing to watch her soak in so many different experiences and truly start to understand the concept of traveling. It certainly opens our eyes to even more new and different experiences as well. Tassie has a spell cast on the rest of mainland Australia for its ruggedness and doing things a little differently than anywhere else, but a little different can certainly be a lot of good too.
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