Hobart

Mount Wellington or Kunanyi is located 20 minutes away from Hobart CBD. After seeing photos by Jane and Leonie and also the film, Lion, I put it at the top of my 'must see' in Hobart.

There are a few bushwalks to the top however I decided to take the easy option and drive up. The drive was a little windy however nothing scary (and this is coming from someone who drives a maximum of 3 times a year!).

Tasmania: Freycinet National Park

This was the only sunny day during my visit and I had chop-and-changed my itinerary so that my visit to Freyicinet National Park coincided with the only nice day.

First stop was Sleepy Bay which was a short walk from the car park.

Tasmania: Historic Villages

Once upon a time, there was a man called Ross (from my former workplace) who I had a crush on and thought was very attractive. He was tall and had a very subtle Scottish accent. Fast forward to a few months later to when I moved over to sit in his area and some conversations later and I soon realised he was a dumb idiot and his attractiveness went to 0. He was comical and was one of those people who used a lot of big words to say nothing. I also found out he had sex in the work stairwell a few years ago. Lol. That was a very long introduction as to why I wanted to visit the historic village of Ross!

Tasmania: Land of the Pie

Grindelwald is a village in Switzerland and also the name of the wizard in the Harry Potter series (I was listening to the final novel during my drives in Tasmania). It is also small town north of Launceston and was developed by a Dutch immigrant in the style of the Swiss village. In all honesty, it was quite random. Almost unncessary. It is a resort these days with mini golf, paddleboats and a giant jumping castle.

Tasmania: Bay of Fires & Little Blue Lake

One of the iconic areas of Tasmania is the Bay of Fires on the east coast. Typically, this area evokes images of white sand, clear waters and rocks with orange lichen. Oh, and a sunny day of course. Sadly, it was another overcast day for me (as were most of the days on my trip). I first drove to St Helens to visit the Peron Sand Dunes.

Tasmania: Tessellated Pavement

After picking up my rental car, the first stop on my Tasmania trip was to the Tessellated Pavement. It is a natural phenomenon which has resulted in numerous rectangle shaped pieces on the rockshelf on the Tasman Peninsula.

Bridestowe Lavender Estate

Lavender is definitely one of my favourite scents and it is attributable to the bushes that my mum had planted in our garden at our childhood home. After my semi-failed visit to a lavender farm in Victoria, I did some research and discovered that the blooms happen between December to early January which perfectly coincided with my trip to Tasmania. Visiting a lavender field has been on my list of places I have wanted to visit and I was reminded of this from Cherie's visit back in August 2015.

Glengarry Bush Maze

During my research, I discovered that there was a bush maze in Glengarry. It is a bit of a novelty and, as I had never participated in one, I thought it would be good to tick it off my Things I've Never Done list. I had planned to take it a little slow that day as my quads were still so sore.

Quick stop to see the opium poppy fields. The farms in Tasmania produce around 50% of the world's (licit) supply!

So pretty!

Waterfalls in Tasmania

The day after Cradle Mountain was painful. The hike to the summit was honestly the hardest hike that I had ever done and it was reflected in how sore my muscles (especially my quads) were. I woke up early from my campground (where I was the only person there...) and drove to one of the tallest waterfalls in Tasmania, Montzeuma Falls. There is a bit of conflicting information about whether or not it is the tallest at a height of 104m. Unlike the previous day, it was a very grey morning and drizzled for most of the drive there. I hadn't done enough research and didn't realise that the walk to and from the carpark would entail a 3 hour return walk. Yikes. Despite how sore I was I ended up walking to the falls, encouraged by the sign that marked the walk as easy. It definitely was easy.

Tasmania: Cradle Mountain

Cradle Mountain is 1545m above sea level and is the fifth highest mountain in Tasmania. There are a few day walks in the national park however I intended to walk to the summit and back. This equated to a 13km hike and recommended time of 6.5hrs.




Christmas Day in Australia

Tasmania: Launceston & Devonport

Launceston was my first stop in Tasmania and I had intended it to be a short visit solely for the purpose of getting groceries for my week long trip. I briefly went to Cataract Gorge however as the weather was sweltering, I only managed to do the short walk to the bridge and back to the main area.

Tasmania, Australia

Tasmania was the last remaining state in Australia that I had not visited. I had been wanting to visit for many years now and back in March, I decided to finally visit during the first week of my office closure from 24th December to 31st December. Sadly, my trip did not go as planned and the map below is where I wanted to go and where I ended up going.

Red is where I did go and the blue is where I was planning on going but sadly didn't make it

So what happened: I got into a little car accident and wasn't able to get another car so I went back home early. I am a little bit bummed considering I hadn't seen the best part of Tasmania (arguably) which is the east coast. That being said, I will write about the places that I managed to visit.