Tassie

After spending a quiet January 1st in LB’s digs, we packed our bags for the next venture--Tasmania.

It took us an hour to get to the airport on the train; after a short weather delay, we were on our way south. We picked up our Nissan Tiida at the Launceston airport and ventured down the road to find our B&B in town. This was our first experience driving a right-hand drive car since our Peace Corps days in Kenya back in 1969/70 and navigating down the left side of the road did not present any problems except when we had to make a turn: The car went where it was supposed to go, but instead of signaling a turn we were wiping our windshield. At one point I even had the rear wiper doing its thing too! On a right-hand drive car the signal light and windshield-wiper stalks are reversed and it took a day of driving to get used to using the right one.

After checking into the Hillview House, we headed off to find the major natural attraction in Launceston, the Cataract Gorge. After about twenty minutes of walking through some charming neighborhoods, we came to the place where the South Esk River joins the Tamar River in a very impressive gorge. The walk back along river included a suspension bridge and path along the edge of the gorge--very nice. The Star of Siam provided us with a very tasty dinner before we walked back to our lodging.

After a hearty English breakfast, we were on our way to Beauty Point and two interesting attractions: Seahorse World and the Platypus House. Both had very interesting tours that lasted about 40 minutes each; we saw several very active platypuses (cross between a bird, mammal, and reptile) and thousands of seahorses in the seahorse nursery.

We then drove to the tourist town of Bicheno on the east coast and started to look for a place to stay. Bicheno is a small town of 700 souls and 3200 hotel rooms and the during this time of year the “No Vacancy” signs never come down. After trying about a half-a-dozen places, we thought we might be sleeping in the car that night. Soon after returning to one of the hotels to see if they could help us find a place, we were following Bruce Troode to his home overlooking the Tasman Sea. His wife Pam and daughter Shelley made us feel right at home. These are very kind people who like to help out those, like us, who show up in Bicheno at this time of the year without a lodging reservation. When we returned from town after a nice seafood dinner, the Troodes invited us for an after-dinner drink. The conversation flowed and new friendships were made. Thank you, Troodes!!

On Monday we visited beautiful Wine Glass Bay in Freycinet National Park before driving to Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula.

An aside here: the McDonalds in Oz have free wi-fi and that is where we have been stopping to get on-line with our iPhones or laptop. The McCafes here are almost stand alone coffee bars similar to a Starbucks; after buying the token food/drink we settle in and do our internet “business.”

Port Arthur was the site of large penal institution for repeat offenders from England and its colonies in the mid 1800s. It was closed in 1877 and is now one of Tasmania’s most visited tourist attractions. One of the more impressive things we witnessed there were three twenty minute plays dramatizing some of the true prison stories. Very impressive and entertaining.

On Wednesday morning Jet Star flew us back to Sydney where we reorganized for our departure to New Zealand. We had a great farewell dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant with Lady Jane, Lord Brian and Brian’s brother, Piet, and his new wife, Kim. Kim’s mom very kindly took us to the airport on Thursday morning.

Our three weeks in Australia have come to a close; we saw and experienced a lot, but it is a huge country (a continent unto itself) and we only scratched the surface. We hope to return someday to do dig a little deeper.