Tasmania - June 25, 2012

And finally we have arrived at our last full day in Tasmania!

After delicious smoked salmon and cheese omelettes for breakfast, we packed up and went to the info centre to check out and get some hot drinks.  The weather looked ominous, and then all of a sudden a full-on blizzard started!  I know I said we were excited for the first few snow squalls, but this one was amazing.  Turns out that they had been closing the road behind us while we drove through the bad weather the night before, so we were lucky to even have arrived.  We stayed and watched the snow accumulate while we drank our coffees, then we brushed off the car, and drove off playing Christmas music.

We soon left the snow, and settled in for a few hours until we drove through Hobart and onto Port Arthur.

Port Arthur is the most famous convict site in Tasmania, and probably all of Australia.  I would tell you more, except I hardly read any of the info signs.  Despite being a history-major in school, I still don't like reading the plaques in museums.  The internet can tell you all you want to know, I'm sure.  Oh, one thing I do remember is that the convicts made all of the bricks for all of these buildings themselves.

The day was pouring rain and really cold, so supposedly it was a good indication of what the convicts had to endure.  Also lots of people say that the site is creepy and ominous, but I think all four of us found it quite beautiful.  The sun did come out ever so briefly for some of these pictures.

Our tickets included at 20-minute cruise in the harbour where we got to see the boys camp and the Isle of the Dead (where they dumped the dead people), but the most exciting part was the picture below.  In this picture, there is nothing between us and Antarctica.

When we were thoroughly drenched with rain, we decided to call it quits for the day.  We drove back to Hobart and checked in at the Somerset Salamanca (same as the first night).  We had a celebratory dinner at Rockwall (a restaurant with great food but random floor to ceiling displays with rocks and ponds behind them), and then an early night in preparation for our 4:30am departure back home to Adelaide the next morning.

Tasmania - June 24, 2012

After a night of listening to the rain on the roof, I got up at 7:30am to read a book and watch the mist leave the surrounding hills.  It was nice to see the property in the daylight, and have a relaxing morning.  We cooked up a breakfast of sausages and eggs from the market, and chatted to the home owners for a few minutes before heading off for the day. 

The third dam of the trip, the Murchison Dam, was actually a tourist stop, so it was cool but lacked the danger of trespassing.

We really didn't have much planned for the day except for driving, so we followed another guidebook suggestion and tried to get to Montezuma Falls.  The signs were very confusing because they said there was a 3-hour walk, but we weren't sure if that was in addition to the long four-wheel-drive track that we had to take first.  The road was ridiculous, and of course when we got to the end of it there was a long hike. 

We didn't do the hike because we had a lot of driving to do, but we (the geologists) did play around in some old mine workings for quite awhile.  Interestingly, from the top we think we actually saw Montezuma Falls.  Go team!

Next, following Fong's advice (from Fiona's B&B) we went to Zeehan in search of a Gem and Mineral shop.  The town was absolutely deserted, and all of the shops except for the local café were closed.  The café itself was pretty funny (see pic below), but nonetheless we managed to get  some hot food and drinks.

If you can't read the sign, it says "Books are not for Sale"

Our guidebook told us there was a Monster Museum in Zeehan with two-headed Tassie babies and the like, so naturally we were intrigued.  When we asked the lady in the café about it she told us that museum had closed down, but that we could probably go see a different museum in a purple house.  When I asked what was in the museum, she gave me the weirdest smile and just said "you'll see".  So of course we went!

Oh. My. Gosh.

Yup, it was a purple house alright!  And this was just the front yard!  It wasn't so much a museum as this woman's house (she didn't live in the crazy part, so we have to give her some credit for that.)  Her and her husband started this "collection" when the town was going to throw out a bunch of historical stuff, and they decided to keep it instead.  And then she said it just kept growing.  Her husband does strange wood carvings, there's a rock collection, a dinosaur toy collection, a seashell collection, a replica of an underground mine, pop bottle/can collection...you get the idea.  I think we were all in shock so we didn't take that many pictures, but it was a major highlight of the day.

I know that everything after that will seem boring, but stay with me.  That was only lunch time!

Our next destination was Queenstown, which we were looking forward to because it actually has working mines.  Let me just say though, it was the most depressing town I have ever seen.  Not only was the town deserted (though to be fair it was a Sunday) but obviously the pollution and the acid rain from the mines had caused the entire landscape to change drastically.  At the start of the original mine it had the world's richest copper-gold deposit, but all we could think was thank goodness we decided not to stay there overnight.

We drove through the town to a lookout over a flooded, abandoned open-pit mine called Iron Blow.  It was pretty neat, but super depressing.  The broken baby stroller half-way down the pile of rubble didn't help.

And like I said, the acid had caused everything to die and it turned all of the rocks at the higher elevations a sick shade of yellow.

It was cold, raining, and getting dark, so we left as soon as we possibly could.  Just outside of town, though, away from the depressing vibe, we crossed a bridge and saw this beautiful view.  It's definitely my favourite picture of the entire trip.

After a 2-hour drive in the dark, through snow, and watching out for various creatures dodging across the road (with strange names like Pade Melons, Quolls, and Opossums) we finally arrived in Tarraleah.  I know we said that Zeehan was abandoned, but we were actually the only people in Tarraleah other than the bartender.  Tarraleah used to be a town, but then a family bought it in 2005 and turned it into a resort.  No one actually lives there, and we were the only guests at the resort.  We rented an awesome cottage, and I think it was the best one of the trip.  It had a wood burning fireplace AND electric blankets!

We had a nice dinner at the pub, then we went back to the house to open some Tassie wine and enjoy our much-needed fireplace.  And yes, we all brought our Uggs on the trip.

Tasmania - June 23, 2012

View of Launceston from our B&B.

The morning we woke up in Launceston, I "somehow" managed to set my alarm wrong (possibly had something to do with the drinking), so we rushed in to meet Justin and Kelsey for breakfast.  Our host was Fong, and he made a delicious breakfast of eggs, roasted tomatoes, and some fancy bacon spirals.  He also told us that there was a local market going on, so of course we decided to go there and stock up on lunch and dinner supplies.  The market was really awesome, and we got everything we were looking for (including an early morning wine tasting).

To continue our stroll around the block, we walked by the famous Boages brewery, and then to the local park to see the Japanese Macaque Monkey enclosure.  It was actually really cool!  Of course my "friends" threatened to leave me there "with my people" more than once after the cave incident from the day before, but somehow we all made it out together.

On the way back to our car we did some window shopping, and eagerly anticipated the French patisserie that the guide book raved about.  Yet again we were let down, and they only had 2 croissants that we could buy.  Good thing Fong fed us a big breakfast!  By 11am we were back on the road, driving west towards Cradle Mountain.

Along the very windy road through the mountains we passed many rainbows, which should have been a clue of the weather to come.

They also threatened to leave me on this bridge while I was taking the picture.  Maybe it's me?

We also made our second unauthorized dam stop, which the geologists loved.  I also managed to track a very colourful bird, so there was something for everyone!

This is Ryan and I "sneaking"/walking in slow motion...

Again, not at all staged.

As we approached Cradle Mountain, and the weather got worse and worse, our excitement mounted.  We had our fingers crossed that we would see some snow, and we were not disappointed!  It was hilarious to see kids running around in snow pants making snowmen and snowballs, but if we were dressed for it we probably would have too.  After much debate, we decided to do a 1.5 hour walk around Dove Lake.  It was snowing/raining pretty badly and it was only 2 degrees, but we drove a long way and we had to do something while we were there.  Unfortunately we didn't get much of a view of Cradle Mountain, but I think we were more excited about the snow anyway.

The best view we got of Cradle Mountain.

We were all in need of some food and a warm drink after the hike, so we decided to snoop in the Cradle Mountain Lodge for some lunch.  We looked into staying at the lodge, but it was way overpriced so we decided not to.  It was fun to go in and see it though.  Of course the geos found a map in there, so I warmed up by the fireplace while they investigated.

After our 4pm "lunch" we did our final hour of driving for the day to Kentisbury Country House, where we spent the night.  We had to be careful not to hit a Rex-a-Roo on the way though.

The house was way more awesome than we expected, except we really wanted it to have a fireplace and it didn't.  Instead there was a fire-like heater, which didn't really do the job.  Still, the property was beautiful and we had a really enjoyable evening.  We also rented the whole house, so it was very peaceful.

For dinner that night we cooked up a delicious fish, steak, and salad feast with all of our fresh produce from the market, then cozied up to some good old wine and conversation to end off a fantastically busy day.