My very good friend Molly came over for a visit back in October 2008. We had an amazing time exploring Sydney & then continuing our journey on to Tasmania. Tazzy is about a 2-hour flight South of Australia...for those of you that weren't sure & it is a state of Australia. The only thing separating mainland Australia from Tazzy is the *Bass Strait - which is reputedly one of the roughest bodies of water in the world, mainly due to its shallow depth of about 60m.
*So we thought it would be a good idea take an overnight boat trip across the Bass Strait to end of our time in Tazzy...we will come back to this*
As we were planning our travels around Tazzy; we discussed whether we should book hotels/backpacker locations along the way or if we should get a campervan and have our home with us...we could then stay in any location we wanted each night. We decided that we liked the idea of having the freedom to go as far as we wanted each day & to stop in any location our heart's desired at the end of the day. So we arrived to the airport & we were excited to go & pick up our new friend and home for the next 7-days! By the way, we didn't have any idea which direction we were planning to go when we left the airport. So we picked up our little campervan; pretty quickly decided whether we should head East or West to begin our journey; and we were off to the bottle shop & grocery store in no time. We had decided to stay in Port Arthur our first night; so we were
Day of Arrival:
We stopped in to the Pembroke Hotel for lunch (was very 'fancy') had some wedges; went to Woolworths for some food & bottle shop to stock up on booz!
Stayed at Garden Point our 1st night - really nice, secluded campervan site. We had wild animals running around & Molly was scared :-)
Day One:
Port Arthur - stop at Eaglehawk views; Tasman Arch & went on the Port Arthur ghost tour that evening at 9pm. We were assigned by the guide to be the torch bearers & we had a bit of a scare towards the end of the tour when we were in the jail checking out the old prisoner cells.
Day Two:
Eco cruise outside of Port Arthur - saw dophins; albatross birds; seals & amazing scenery
Lunch at Tyler's & we then began our journey to Bicheno (through Swansea) where I had the worst chai latte of my life.
Bicheno - stayed at the Sea View camper park; where we met a very sweet old couple that were travelling around Tazzy in their campervan...which looked about 20-years older than they were. We had dinner at the sea side bar & grill; and then went to find some penguins. We were a bit sad when we arrived because the penguin tour was sold out for the evening. So we had to make our own tour. We couldn't have been any luckier...as we walked on to the beach we started to hear some very strange noises. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by penguins...it was amazing; we were able to see heaps of them in their natural environment!
Day Three:
Up at 8am - lounged around outside & we had an issue with a seagull & a banana!
Visitor's centre visit with old man; latte & hot chocolate at cafe. Lunch at Wineglass bay in campervan where we had a wallaby try to hop in our van with us...we had a chance to pet our sweet wallaby friend & have a little dance in the car park to James Brown. We went on a hike in Wineglass Bay & it was tough! We decided to hike all the way down in to the bay; just next to the water & it was really special as we were the only ones on the beach...so we had a little photo shoot - here are a few of the shots!
Day Four:
Up early so we could get an early start on the road - we stopped and had breakfast at Yannie's. Then on our way to the Bay of Fires....made a pit stop at Angazzi's restaurant to try some wine. Darren helped us out!! We bought a bottle of the Pinot Noir -- it was delicious!
Hobart is Tasmania's capital city. It has a population of 200,000 & it surrounds the Derwent Estuary, the 2nd deepest natural port in the world.
