Last night in Hobart

All good things must come to an end or so they say. Tonight is our last night in Tasmania and are going to eat at the Shippies Hotel. This is the pub that the skippers go to when they have finished the Sydney to Hobart Yacht race.

It has lots of character and lots of history. Its a real old sea dogs sort of pub.

We've update the last two posts with pictures now that we found an internet cafe that recognizes our usb drive. Have a good look because there are some breathtaking pictures of cradle mountain and the gordon river area.

We spent last night at Richmond and walked and drove across the oldest bridge in Australia. It was built in 1824 by convict labour.

River cruise and steam train (now with Pixs)

We are in the town of Strahan at the moment and have had 2 great experiences. The first was going on a 150+ year old steam train up to Queenstown. This train had been shut down in the early 1960s and was restored to services in the last 5 years.

It cost them about 34 million dollars to restore the line and it actually took longer to restore the line than it took to make it originally. I guess railway regulations have come a long way since then.

The train went from right on the coast (south west Tasmania) inland along the King river. The gradient was so steep at times that they had to either build a tunnel or use a cog system called the abt system. They decided to use the abt system because they weren't sure how long the train system would run.

Here is a picture of the train and the rainforest we went through on our way to Queenstown.



The train was built to support the copper mines at Queenstown. Queenstown was amazing to see because the town looks like a moonscape. In order to feed the smelters with fuel, they denuded the hills of all trees over a fairly short period of time.

Then, soil erosion took over and not only the top soil was washed away, but also the clay under the topsoil leaving just rocks.

The whole trip took most of our first full day in Strahan. Today, our second full day here was a cruise around Macquarie Harbour, visiting Sarah island and going up the Gordon River.

Here is a picture of the view on the Gordon River. Normally the weather in this area is quite windy but we had an extremely rare calm day, you can see by the reflections in the water.



Sarah Island is the penal colony they ran before they figured out it was cheaper to keep convicts at Port Arthur.

In Macquarie Harbour we say the outlet to the ocean which is called "Hell's Gate" because for the convicts it was a gateway to a dreaded penal settlement on Sarah Island.

We also saw salmon fish farms and had a great time cruising up the Gordon river. This is World Heritage Wilderness area. Evidently, there are 10 criteria to become world heritage listed and an area only has to satisfy one of the 10 criteria. This area satisfies a full 7 of the criteria, there is only one other place (in China) that rates as high. Thank goodness the "tree huggers" saved it from the planned dam in the 80s.

Here is a 2006 "tree hugger". This tree is 800 years old, it is a Huon Pine and she reckoned that any tree that small after 800 years needed a hug to keep it going. These trees only grow a millimetre a year and are found only in two areas of Tasmania.



Another feature of our tassie trip was coming across a tour sponsored by a british bike owners club that included a number of riders from New Zealand and they even let a few BMWs join, here is the coolest one I saw.



We kept running across these bikes on the road, so much to Hilary's disgust, instead of being ambulance chasers we became bike chasers.

The bike above is a 1938 R51, a rare beast indeed and in excellent condition and I couldn't resist adding it to the blog just for you, Davis!

Cradle Mountain ROCKS

WOW

That says it all about Cradle Mountain. Coming to Cradle mountain has been the highlight of the tassie trip so far for both of us.

We arrived too late in the afternoon to do any walking the first day and were met with drizzle and rain the next morning. We ended up going on a small walk and saw the occasional bit of blue sky and decided to do a decent walk.

We first went to crater lake and found it to be a stunningly beautiful walk. The day got rainier towards the latter part of our walk which took us to dove lake. By the time we got to dove lake it was raining all the time. We were fortunate in that the rain (when it was heaviest) was at our back and we had raincoats along so no real problem.

The next day we woke up to crystal clear blue skies and headed off to dove lake again. We were sure surprised when we got there to see that the cradle mountain peak sits right on the far shore of dove lake, the previous day it had been so overcast we hadn't even seen it.

When we realized the cradle mountain peak was so close, I couldn't restrain myself and took off for the summit walk. Hilary was still feeling a bit sore from the previous days walking so she decided to sit at the lake's edge and soak up the tranquility. The following picture is the exact view she had for about 3 hours.



Here is the picture of Dove Lake that I took from the highest point on the summit walk. If you look closely, you can see Hilary on the far shore of the lake soaking up the scenery and waving to me.

Cradle mountain next (and first lot of pictures)

We have spent two great days in Launceston and celebrated St Patricks day with plenty of Guiness. Now we are off to Cradle Mountain.

Here are some pictures of where we have been so far...

The first is the air walk in the huon valley. Click on the photo and you'll (hopefully) see that it is Hilary waving at the end of the suspended bridge. This is a really brave move by Hilary, she normally has a much stronger fear of heights.



The next is the hospital where Jessica was born.



Here are some gravestones we saw at port arthur. These were dated from the 1840s. Everything was really OLD.



This is the lodge where we stayed for the first two nights of our holiday in Hobart.



Here is the bank building where Hilary worked in 1986.



Here is a picture of the convict era ruins at port arthur.



This is a bridge built by a couple of convict stone masons who were emancipated when they finished the bridge. This was at the town of Ross. This is one of the oldest bridges in Australia.



Next is the sunday school building we stayed at in Ross. This even had real tombstones out the back. When I went to sleep I was listening to every creak in the place wondering if it was a ghost.



Here are the orange rocks that the bay of fires gets its name from. This picture was taken at Binalong Bay.

Bicheno to Launceston

We spent a couple of days in the Bicheno area which is on the east coast. Bicheno was a very sleepy town and the shoreline was covered in very rocky beaches, not much sand. The rocks are stunny with a red ochre colouring with some of the red / orange (maybe all of it) made up of a lichen / mossy plant.

We were surprised at how calm the ocean was, not really anything you'd call a swell. The last morning when we left there were some decent waves rolling in but before that nothing.

We drove up to St Helens and saw a great historical display of old motorbikes, there was even a 500cc NSU on display. Got lots of great pictures. Also went to place called something like Benelong bay. Very huge rocks there.

After that, we drove to Launceston. Launceston, like Hobart, has many historical buildings and is quite beautiful. Had a great feed and a few pints of Guiness at an English pub last night, we are off to cataract gorge today.

Having a great holiday and a nice break from work. :-)

Ross, Campbell Town and the midlands

After Port Arthur we went through Richmond and ended up staying at a small town called Ross. Ross is the site of a "female factory" which was a convict women's prison from the 1800s. Thankfully this one was only in operation for about six years. People in those times did it very hard.

We stayed in an old sunday school building in Ross. It was well kept and still had a little pew for the children. The organ was also intact and there were real tombstones in the back yard. When I went to sleep that night I was nervously listening to every creak and sound but still no ghosts.

We sent a care parcel to Jessica from the quaint old post office in Ross. Just outside Ross is a famous bridge built by a couple of convict stonemasons who were emancipated after the bridge was finished. It is a spectactular bridge and is still used for traffic.

In Campbell town there is a similar bridge but it is made of just red brick. It was built in the 1800s and has never had any major repairs even though the main highway between Hobart and Launceston runs over it and hundreds of thousands of cars / trucks go over it every year. The stone masons of their day certainly knew what they were doing.

Now we are off to the east coast and Launceston for the weekend.

Port Arthur here we come (well, we went)

After Hobart we took off for Port Arthur.

Tasmania has many historical buildings and sites throughout and the prison ruins at Port Arthur would be the most famous. We took the guided walk as well as wandering around the sites ourselves. We also went on the island cemetery tour and saw the site of Australia's first boys prison. That night we took the ghost tour but it wasn't really all that scarey after all. The ghosts were probably scared of us more than the other way around.

Tasmania is currently very dry, in the middle of a drought so the green rolling hills we expected were all brown and dry. Nonetheless still very enjoyable. Hilary keeps dragging me (not really) into lots of antique shops.

Froze our arse off on Mt Wellington

Well... we got to Hobart and went straight up to Mount Wellington before it got dark. Didn't stay there long, it was FREEZING!!! We both struggled in the cold and very very windy conditions. My ears started hurting as well. We did have warm sweaters on but that was it and it wasn't enough. I'd forgotten what it was like to be cold. What a contrast to the hot summer conditions we left behind in Brisbane.

We stayed 2 nights in Hobart and really enjoyed it. The "lodge" we stayed at was built in the 1800s and was in wonderful condition. The lodge was a short walk to the centre of Hobart and we took pictures of the old bank where Hilary worked and of the hospital where Jessica was born.

The centre of Hobart is really beautiful with the harbour and docks being the main attraction. We had some great fish and chips as well as seafood chowder and were only a short distance from where the yachts finish up on the Sydney to Hobart race.

Off to see the island today

Hi Guys

We are off to Tasmania today. The weather in Brisbane has been stinking hot and muggy for months now and I can hardly wait for the cold weather. Looked at the forecast for Tassie and it is about as cold as Brisbane gets in the winter so I think I'm in for a shock.

It is exciting to be going on this holiday, I've never seen Tasmania and it has been many years since Hilary was there. I'm looking forward to seeing the town where Jessica was born as well as the forests and wilderness areas in Tasmania, especially cradle mountain.

Tony