Tassie. (Home of the Tasmanian Devil. No resemblance to the cartoon character.)

I can now FINALLY wrap-up the long tale of Christmas, ending with the Tasmania trip Jenny and I took.

Jen and I boarded The Spirit of Tasmania Thursday morning to sail into Devenport from Port Melbourne. Originally we were meant to sail overnight, but because of my broken ankle, Jen pushed back her trip to visit me. Therefore we had to move the Tassie tickets (which I had already booked) and the only seats available were for that morning. No worries though, the ferry was more like a low-grade cruise ship complete with “movie cinema” (5 flat screen tv’s hung on the front wall of a large inner room), a gift shop, a tourism office, a cafeteria and about 4 different bar/lounge areas. Between naps in our lounge recliner chairs, we kept ourselves entertained with Glee the movie and sorting through 100’s of maps at the tourism office. We attempted to find a veggie sandwich for me to eat (who would of thought they would run out of food by 3pm when the ferry was not expected to dock in Tassie until 7ish?) Instead we settled for a beer and bag of chips in one of the lounges while listening to the less than enthusiastic live musicians (a man and woman duet).

The Ferry

No, there were really only 2 of us.

Because we were meant to be on the ferry overnight but since then, plans changed, we had to book a last minute hotel (which ended up being the most expensive night of the whole trip – but you have to roll with the punches.) We landed a bit after 6pm to find out that the last river ferry (the quickest transport from the dock side to the city side of the river) had pulled out at 6pm – in so many words, we were stuck at the docks, with no taxis in sight. Wandering for a bit, we came across a pizza shop where we asked the direction to our hotel. They seemed to have little to no clue where we were talking about (I mean, how big could this city actually be?) The son of this very obviously owned family restaurant spoke up after a minute of awkwardness to inform that the hotel was about a 30 minute walk down the road, up over the large bridge, then back down the road, just on the other side of the river. So in short, we had to go up and around to street we could clearly see from the side of the river we were standing on.

Still in my walking boot, dragging a rolling suitcase and wearing massive movie-star size sunglasses with Jenny by my side carrying an extra-large Vera Bradley tote, sporting her aviators, we started the hike towards the bridge. About half-way down the first stretch of road, I literally blacked out for a minute. Everything went dark and I thought I was going to collapse. I reached out for the fence to our left to keep myself steady. I don’t know if it was the pain in my ankle, or the heat outside amplified by our luggage and many layers of clothing weighing us down. Taking deep breaths and assuring Jenny I was ok, we continued on. Thankfully we ran into a group of girls who (disgustedly) pointed us in the direction to get up onto the bridge. While crossing over the river, we had to switch holding each other’s bags, Jen somehow got her hand caught on the guard rail fence and we got honked at by several drivers. I don’t know what they could have possibly found amusing (other than the fact than everyone else that departed from the ferry had proper backpacking gear, two normal working ankles and weren’t violently sweating while trying to locate their hostel/hotel)! Finally off the bridge and down towards where we just came from, but on the other side of the river, we had to fight the urge to scream at each approaching street sign that we hoped was where our hotel was located, but indeed was not. About an hour and 2miles later, we made it to the front counter (of course after being harassed by the bogans lingering out front). Collapsing onto the bed (Jen and I have a habit of sharing a king size as opposed to two twins – it’s just better that way!) – we pulled ourselves together and headed out into the deserted town of Devenport to find some dinner. Somehow we ended up in the one Chinese restaurant open to enjoy a big bowl of fried rice (I just gave up on caring what I ate, I was just needing any type of food at this point.)



Wineglass Bay



The next morning, thankfully the river ferry was up and running again and after a nice McCafe at Mackers (what Aussies call McDonalds) we bought the $2 trip across from the very nice ferry driver. Locating our surprisingly large rental SUV, we were on the road about an hour later towards Swansea. Tasmania is a fairly small island off the coast of Australia, so driving around the entire East coast was not too much to fit into just a few days. In Swansea we got to see Wineglass Bay (yes, I hiked up to the viewing deck in my boot) – one of the world’s top ten beaches. Because Tassie is mostly made up of National Parks, the majority of our time was gazing at scenery (I know they don’t make the best of pictures – but it was beautiful). Finding our hostel that evening was not too difficult as it was one of the 2 buildings that appeared out of the middle of nowhere. After checking in and gathering a recommendation and “Free drink with purchase coupon” for dinner (which we came to the conclusion later that the owner of the restaurant was the brother of the owner of the hostel) – we left to find this spoken of eating establishment. It was nothing more than a fresh seafood shop with a food counter, but we ordered the fish and chips – and they were delicious! After dinner since there was literally nothing else to see in Swansea besides and “Dolls and Bear” shop and about 2 streets of residential area, we thought it would be nice to see the Seven Mile Beach marked on the map in our Lonely Planet book. Recommendation – NOT WORTH IT. Yes, it’s 7 miles… of road blocked by high sand dunes, shrubs and “Property For Sale” signs. We found an opening in the dunes at one point and drove in to see what the hype was about. It was nice, don’t get me wrong – but, it was a beach. Sand and Water. Right. So back into the car, back to the hostel for an early night to bed (because the movie we attempted to buy and watch on the laptop, curled up on our bunk-bed, failed to load.)  Terrified of what was outside our window in this desolate stretch of wilderness, we fell asleep to the sweet singing of Bon Iver (I told you I don’t like silence!)

Thankfully the early morning came quickly and we piled back into the car and continued our way down to Hobart. We were continually amazed by the ever changing scenery – from forest to desert to farmland to lakes to mountains. Literally we felt like we were driving across the US, but in a mere fraction of the time. Arriving in Hobart, we located our hostel and headed to the #1 recommended attraction – the Salamanca Market. It was quite amusing to walk around and enjoy what every market is typically brimming with – fresh produce, food stalls, jewelry, knick-knacks, artwork, performers and Alpacas?

Hungry for lunch, we headed down towards the docks and were immediately pulled into the restaurant boasting the sign “Free glass of wine with lunch purchase.” It was right over the water and had a full menu of deliciously fresh seafood. Topping off our lunch with gelato from one of the food boats (think food truck, but lined up on the water), we headed back to the car to head to Cascade Brewery.



The brewery was built in 1824 and was still using the original building for the production facilities. Opposite stood a modern building housing the breweries’ museum, tasting room and gift shop and gardens. Apparently, every Saturday there are at least two weddings booked on the premises – and after walking around the gardens, we could see why- they were gorgeous! Settling down at a picnic table with our tasting trays, we tried Cascade’s range of ciders and beers, “Made from the fresh mountain waters of Tasmania” (that’s their advertisement tagline – and to clear up any confusion, Aussies pronounce it “add-vurt-iz-mint”).

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the city and relaxing at Lark Distillery. That evening we got to experience Hobart’s nightlife (which was really happening, surprisingly – as in young people appeared out of nowhere once the sun went down and we had a blast!)

The next morning, waking up in just barely enough time to throw on some clothes in time for check-out, we were back in the car to head back North toward Launceston. We took the route that ran between Aurther’s Lake and The Great Lake, again – pretty cool to see – not much happening, but beautiful scenery. Winding our way up and through the lake country, down and around some mountains and then out across farmland – we literally were rapidly moving through every type of geography you can think of – it was gorgeous to see. Arriving in Launceston, we checked into the hostel and headed north toward the Tamar Valley. There was a self-guided tour (which was not very well marked) of several vineyards along the way to the most northern tip of the island. We stopped at a few vineyards for a tasting, they were all nice, and the cellar door workers were lovely people. Tourism apparently is at an all-time low right now, so it was fairly quite at each place. One of the cellar doors had a restaurant attached, but they had not served food in months due to the lack of traffic. I’m sure the owners were happy to see anyone coming through. Driving back into town, we took a look around the city square (about 4 square blocks total) and then out to the gorge – which once again, was nice to look at, to say that we had seen it – check it off the list). Our last stop was the north point lighthouse, home of an evening penguin walk. Instead of paying $60 for the “guided tour” – we opted to hike down from the lighthouse to the edge of the water where the penguins were roosting on rocks out in the water. Trying to get as close as possible, climbing over large rocks in my boot added just a fraction of difficulty to the climbing process – but we made it.

Penguins!

 A few pictures later, we were off, back towards town to find some dinner – we were starving! Stop 1 was a recommendation from our Lonely Planet book – we made it all the way there, parked and while trying to locate the front door of this old flour mill turned waterfront restaurant, we figured out they were only open until lunch time on Sundays. Disappointed and even hungrier, we opted for choice #2, a different, family-owned water front restaurant that thankfully was not too far from the first stop. Fortunately, we snagged the last table available (because apparently it’s a really popular restaurant and bookings are normally essential.) I had fresh, local salmon (here Tasmania is known for their salmon) and Jenny had mussels. I’m always 100% happy to support the local, fresh food when I visit places (unlike our first night at the Chinese place!) We left to head back to Melbourne the next day – the trip back was more filled with book-reading and sleeping, as the end of most trips are. I had to head back to work the next day and Jenny was off to Sydney.

Taking time off to travel around places like Tasmania makes living here that much, especially when friends are there to go with you. This past weekend, we had a fabulous time at Golden Plains. Sitting around one of the nights, we all starting talking about when you were 10 years old-ish, what you thought your life would be like by the time you were in your mid to late 20’s. I never would have thought I would be in Australia, exploring places like Tasmania (I didn’t even know where Tasmania was – or that it was an actual place, with actual Tasmanian Devils living there! They aren’t very cute creatures…) But regardless of where I did see myself (prob married because back then, I thought 24 was soo old and that I would of course be married by that age) – I wouldn’t take back where I am at now for anything. I believe this is easily becoming the recurring theme throughout my posts – and I am just happy to share my stories with you all.