Tasmania - Freycinet National Park

We spent our last full day of our trip checking out Freycinet National Park. We did the hike up to the lookout for Wineglass Bay which is considered one of the top 10 beautiful beaches in the world. Yeah, it was quite lovely, but I’m awfully partial to the beach just outside my door.

We also checked out Honeymoon Bay which was also quite nice. Eric and I discovered a yellow wattlebird there which decided to try to “play dead” to see if we’d miss it. Once he realized we were onto him, he took off. He sure had interesting “wattles” which are those yellow things hanging from his cheeks.

It wasn’t long before it started getting less nice there because of the rain clouds we could see heading our way. When we felt the chill of the leading edge of the weather front, we decided to move on. We moved on to check out another bay and discovered it was closed. Based on the sign, I guess that weather front was going to be nasty. We found out later that Hobart actually had a tornado so I guess those clouds were packin’.

Since the rain was now getting serious we decided to eat at a little café near the park. We had a lovely conversation with a couple from Western Australia while we mowed through our grub. They were about our age and she was a netballer and was getting ready to go play in a netball tournament in San Diego. I didn’t even know netball was played in the U.S., but apparently they have started up leagues in the last 5 years or so. He had thoroughbred horses although he was quick to volunteer that he had “slow” thoroughbred horses.

We could have sat and chatted with them all day, but we needed to head back to Launceston for a night’s sleep before we got on the plane. Before we knew it we were boarding the plane and heading back to Sydney. That’s the worst part about vacations – they have to end. Now I get to start looking forward to our trip back home for Christmas and with it already being less than a month away, it won’t be long.

Just one last time I’ve got to say it – Tessellated. Hee hee!

Tasmania - Now That is South

After our tour of the Tasmanian east coast, we rolled into a town a little ways from Hobart called Richmond where we would establish our base of operations for the next three days. The town of Richmond is quite small and very historic (not England level historic, but still pretty darn old). Richmond has the oldest bridge in Australia and a lot of old and cool buildings. We were staying in the Richmond Barracks (built in the 1830s) which sounds pretty bereft of amenities, but in fact was an exceptionally nice place to stay. It was more like a home than a hotel as the owners had refurbished the insides into 3 units that felt like a small home. We stayed in the Lady Esther which was a separate two story unit with a second bedroom upstairs.

There weren’t many places to eat in Richmond so we ended up eating the first two nights at the Richmond Arms Hotel (built in 1860) after returning from our days exploits. In an interesting coincidence, Prince Charles and Duchess Camilla visited Richmond and stopped at the Richmond Arms Hotel while we were staying in Richmond. I’m not a “royals watcher”, but I must admit to being tempted to hang around Thursday to get some pictures. When you only have a week in Tasmania, you just can’t do everything so seeing the royals did not get added to my “list”. Besides, I had absolutely nothing appropriate to wear for such a momentous event (grin).

Our first day out of Richmond, we headed to Port Arthur and checked out the convict prison history there. We also saw some stunning coastal scenery and interesting road signs. My favorite scenery was the Tessellated Pavement because I just like saying “tessellated”. One of the signs we saw required driving 45 kph instead of 90 kph for a long, long way from dusk to dawn because, apparently, there were still wild Tasmanian devils in the area. We didn’t see any, but I did “capture” a turbo chook so I still got to cross another critter off my list.

The second day out of Richmond, we decided to head up Mount Wellington next to Hobart. By the time we got to the top, it was pretty chilly and enveloped in a cloud layer that made for tough pictures. The view was spectacular in spite of the clouds. Next we checked out downtown Hobart and after that we headed south as far as we could go. After we got to Southport the road turned to gravel so we decided we’d call it good. We looked real hard out the Southport inlet and just couldn’t see Antarctica – not that we thought we might, but it was fun to imagine anyway and I doubt I’ll ever get as far south as that again.

We got back to Richmond for our last night in the “barracks” and were sad to realize we had just one day left of our adventure in Tassie. We’d slotted our last day to be in Freycinet National Park on the lower east coast, but the predicted rain just might get in the way. Sure hope not.

Tasmania - East Coast

For our tour of Tasmania’s east coast we headed out “vacation early” from our Launceston base. It was a few hours drive to the coast not including the stops and detours we are prone to succumb to so frequently. We made it to Scottsdale and decided it would be a good idea to stop at an iStore to prevent another 20 km “Walls of Jerusalem” boo boo.

The lady was helpful and annoying at the same time. She insisted on tracing the whole dang route with her pen on the free map as though I was incapable of understanding how to stay on the Tasman Highway from Scottsdale to St. Helens and then another road up to Binalong Bay. Hmmph! To her credit, she did point out that the other possible route had many k’s of gravel roads. Okay, that was good to know and, of course, that was the path the GPS had chosen so we knew we should overrule it.

I’ve begun to notice that we are starting to attribute a “human” personality to the “GPS lady” and we kind of don’t really like her. I guess maybe we are getting tired of being told what to do all the time and don’t appreciate her insistence on getting us back on the “right” track when we get sidetracked, as we often do, from our main objective. I’m sure this is exposing some character defect on our part, but we sometimes take fiendish delight in going any direction other than what she commanded.

A ways out of Scottsdale, while I was most likely still muttering about the pen marks on the map, we decided to take a detour to see the Saint Columba Falls. At 90+ meters (about 295 feet), Saint Columba Falls is one of the tallest waterfalls in Tasmania so we took the turn at Pyengana township and made GPS lady mad (tee hee!).

Out in the middle of nowhere, we encountered a traffic jam. It was a bit unusual to be sure, but they were “mooving” pretty well so it didn’t take long. The falls were terrific and definitely worth the very short (and non-tarrying in spots) hike to see them.

Alert to Mom – we’re being very safe, but it would be good if you’d not look at the next picture, okay?

What can I say, except we didn’t tarry, really.

We had a nice lunch at a small restaurant on the way back to the main drag and on the way to the car, saw the calves chasing the milk trailer in the other direction. It’d be like me and a chocolate cart I’m afraid.

We got to Binalong Bay and then to the road to the Bay of Fires area. It’s a long stretch of beach (miles) where some of the rocks are very red or orange – quite unusual and striking. We explored around that area a while with A.J. making a discovery of a dead sea lion which I decided I didn’t need to see.

We took off from there and headed down the Tasmanian east coast. We enjoyed lots of nice coastal scenery and I began my search for a critter I just added to my list – a Tasmanian native hen. They call them turbo chooks because they can run really, really fast like a roadrunner. They are fairly common, but I was looking for a variety that was photogenic as in one I could capture on the camera as more than just a tiny dot. We got all the way to Hobart to check in for the night and I hadn’t gotten one. Drat! Maybe tomorrow.

Tasmania - Cradle Mountain

Our second day in Tassie was dubbed “Cradle Mountain Day”. We thought we’d head west from Launceston and check out Cradle Mountain which is Tasmania’s 5th tallest mountain. We plugged Cradle Mountain into the inboard GPS and off we went. We drove along happily for an hour or so, saw a sign that said “Walls of Jerusalem” and decided to head that way to check these walls out. When we got to the car park, we discovered the “Walls” were a 3-4 hour hike from there. Oops! Guess we should have stopped at what we call the iStore (information centers plopped all over Australia) before we got so ambitious. At least the scenery was lovely – both times we saw it.

We decided there should be no more detours and got serious about getting to Cradle Mountain. The road wasn’t as cooperative, though. It was all zigs and zags, speed up and slow down, and go up and then down – basically quite unpleasant for the driver. Fortunately for us, we had a very good driver as long as you don’t have him say out loud what direction you’re turning. For some reason, Eric has a tendency to call a left turn a “right turn”. It has to do with a left turn being the “easy” turn here like the right turn is back home. All I know is it makes for some interesting car conversation as I try to figure out what turn he’s “really” talking about.

After stopping along the way for a roadside echidna, we finally arrived at the entrance to Cradle Mountain National Park and got on the shuttle bus to go into the park. We signed up for the short hike to Glacier Rock and off we went. Glacier Rock is huge and, amazingly, you can walk out on it. (Mom, don’t read the next sentence, please). It’s amazing because there are no guardrails and it’s a long ways down.

We knew the full circuit hike around Dove Lake was 2 hours so decided to continue on. It was all going well until we got past the halfway point. The second half was just chock full of up and down stairs. By the time we got done my knees were not the only joints unhappy with me. I vowed again to get into better shape and not hold Eric and A.J. up so much as they much prefer turbo-hikes. Now I just need to figure out how to do that without my knees knowing.

On the way back on the shuttle bus I found another one of the wild quarry I’ve been searching for – a wombat! No, two, no three wombats! Woohoo! Another critter I can cross off my list. We even saw another one of the “rocks with legs” a bit later; it must have been a wombat convention! It was definitely a happy albeit exhausted drive back to the hotel.

Next up is Tasmania’s east coast.

Tasmania - Crafty Gorgeous Penguins

We left for Tassie (pronounced Tazzie) on Saturday the 3rd. The check-in attendant in Sydney said we were going to the “butt end” of Australia. I have to disagree whole-heartedly with his assessment of Tasmania. It’s more like the version of Australia that is greener and cooler and doesn’t look like it has spent forever struggling to survive.

One of the reasons we picked the week to come that we did was the “world’s biggest craft fair in the southern hemisphere” was scheduled for the first weekend. That meant our first day was craft fair day and so we spent a good portion of Sunday checking it all out. “Wow” is all I have to say.

They had a huge variety of crafts and even blacksmiths there plying their trade in what could only be a really hot, sweaty, and exhausting way of getting anything done. It’s probably a good thing anything I or Eric desired to buy would have to fit in an already pretty full suitcase. Especially since he was slobbering over some of the implements the blacksmiths created and I was secretly desiring some bags. This strange fascination with bags started some time ago, but is getting harder to ignore. I keep wondering if this is something I should be concerned about; you know, the slippery slope to fawning over lace doilies and stuff like that.

We parked at the showgrounds so we had the added benefit of getting to watch sheepherding dogs do their thing in preparation for the sheepherding championships. It was fascinating to watch especially as we got to see the young dogs in training and their “rough edges” which occasionally caused the sheep to bolt for it. It was an interesting slice of life in a place where they’ve got sheep everywhere you turn.

We ended the day with Cataract Gorge in Launceston. It’s a lovely gorge in the midst of the city. We hiked around to the bridge only to find that the way back was full of ups and downs – ups and downs that my knees were decidedly unhappy about participating in. I really hate this aging thing.

Even though the day was over, we had one more stop. For more than two years now, I have been stalking some very particular prey. I’ve seen penguins and wombats, but it has always been at a zoo. That is not the same thing as seeing one in the wild in my book so I have been looking avidly for these critters in the wild.
I’d heard there were penguins that frequented an area not too far from where we live. Heaven knows I have checked that spot a bunch of times with no success whatsoever. So when Eric wanted to know if I was interested in going on a penguin tour, it was clearly a rhetorical question. We drove all the way north to Low Head which is the Bass Strait side of Tasmania and home to a colony of fairy penguins. Oh yeah!

The penguins are out feeding all day and don’t come back in until after dark. The tour people had us stand quietly on the beach and wait. They had special lights for looking since the penguins don’t have eyelids. It wasn’t long before they started trickling in. I could hardly suppress my giggly delight; they are just so darn cute!

We watched them on the beach a bit and then headed to the nearby brush which was their rookery. I was surprised they allowed us to go there. We stood to the side of the path and then waited. They waddled by as they headed to their burrow. It’s a good thing there was no moon or they might have been bothered by the reflection off my ear-to-ear grin. Again, they’re just so darn cute! They’re also really loud. Apparently catching up on the day’s news with your mate is a pretty noisy affair. I could have sat there all night, but the tour didn’t offer it. Dang!

Seeing penguins in the wild – cross that off the list with a big ol’ grin!

Junk In the Trunk

Life here has pretty much returned to "normal" and, no, I really don't understand normal anymore. I returned to Oz solo a month ago and I'm still wondering how it can feel like I got back last week, but the calendar confirms it has been a month.
As always happens, my luggage weighed more coming back than it did going the other way. That would be all right if it weren't for the extra pounds that weren't inside the suitcase. Ugh!
It's one of those things that happens when you do a lot of visiting over meals and just "have to" frequent all those eating places we love that haven't made it across the ditch. Like Starbucks, Arni's, Frozen Custard, Chik-fil-A, and much to my own amazement - Taco Bell. I've never been a "Taco Hell" fan, but even that sounded good for some reason. I guess things seem better when you can't have them. Did I mention Starbucks?!
I came back from the States alone because Eric decided to stay two more weeks and paint the house. He had his Aussie buddy Andy fly over to help in this project along with the two conscripts living in the house (Ethan and A.J.). The house became a testosterone pit and with all the hard work going on, the beer was flowing pretty freely. As a matter of fact, there was a bottle of beer lurking somewhere in about every picture I saw of the painting project in progress.

The pictures of the completed project are proof that they did a great job and didn't overdo it on the beer front. Even better, no one got hurt and heaven knows our house is a real huge challenge with half of it being three stories. That was a welcome answered prayer.
They have plenty of stories to tell not the least of which is how Andy drew a crowd to him everywhere he went. People were all agog at meeting a real Aussie bloke and Andy is, admittedly, a bit of a character. He and Eric are great "mates" and we are thankful for his and his wife Jan's friendship.
Now we're missing our family and friends back home in the USA. At least we'll get to see most of them at Christmas as we've bought our tickets for the next visit. Now I just need to divest myself of those extra pounds from the last trip before we leave because experience tells me I'll be bringing back some extra junk in my trunk.

THE REALLY GREAT BARRIER REEF

Oh my goodness! Oh my double goodness! Beauty! Brilliant! Sheesh, I can’t find a word awesome enough to describe THE GREAT BARRIER REEF!

It takes almost two hours to get to the reef during which time we were given a typical Aussie breakfast (bacon and egg roll), briefed to death, and given the opportunity to sign up for an introductory dive. I wasn’t so sure about doing the dive, but it was free so you just have to give it a go. Eric and I were assigned to Dive Group 4 which meant we had time to snorkel a little first. I had serious issues with my mask leaking and was still fighting that problem when our group’s number came up. I had enough trepidation about scuba diving that the mask issues just about sent me over the edge. I didn’t want to look like a chicken, er chook, though, so I swallowed down my fear (and some salt water) and took my place.

I let them put all the gear on me and the next thing I know Eric and I were in the water trying desperately to remember all the instructions for clearing the mask and regulator and equalizing – not to mention the hand signals. I think I only retained two of them – "okay" and especially "not okay".

The dive instructor got me down a few feet and I was still gamely clearing my mask of water as best I could. I was starting to think this was maybe doable in spite of the leaky face mask. Quite unfortunately, there was more than one leak. The other leak was my head and some of the instructions were now lost at sea.

Clearing the regulator requires you to take a breath in from the regulator, take the regulator out of your mouth, do a little pbtt like a raspberry, then put it back in your mouth and say “two” really loud and semi-violently through the regulator. Not terribly complicated unless you forget step one and go straight to step two which is that leak I was talking about. Talk about a panic! I did a little pbtt and then realized there was nothing left in the lungs because I hadn’t put anything in them. In that brief moment I went, “uh oh, must breathe in, can’t breathe in, ack!” The ensuing panic included a surface assessment (as in how far is it and can I get there if I bolt for it right now), drowning, not wanting to drown, and then quite belatedly, “oh, put the regulator back in your mouth and breathe you idiot!”

I must admit I was pretty spooked at this point. I found out later Eric did the very same thing (forget step one) although his description of his predicament didn’t seem quite as panicked as mine. Our dive instructor took us down soon after that. I’m really not sure how she thought I was okay to go as my wild eyes had to be a dead giveaway that I was not teeming with confidence (now there’s a classic Aussie understatement for ya!).

She had to pretty much pull me (and Eric, too) down as we both seemed to start floating upwards whenever she let go. Apparently she’s done a lot of dives with people who are just one small step from losing every ounce of courage they’ve mustered. That meant she was willing to hold my hand just about the whole time – what can I say, nine meters down is a long way!

After I finally realized I probably wasn’t going to die, I managed to start enjoying the totally amazing view down there! Such awesome critters, completely amazing coral, ridiculously sized clams, and a husband who had his wetsuit halfway zipped down. What?!

Now that was a puzzle. No bling had appeared around his neck so I was pretty confident that being 9 meters down hadn’t suddenly caused a mid-life crisis. It wasn’t exactly hot down there so it couldn’t be that. I realized I was going to have to abandon solving this oddity as I just didn’t have the spare capacity to think on it. Funny how breathing, clearing one’s mask, and equalizing your ears can be pretty doggone all-consuming thoughts at that depth.

We got to dive for about 15 minutes and in that time we saw so much stuff it was just plain overwhelming. Truth be told, I was a little relieved to be back at the surface because even though I was starting to relax a bit, I was still pretty wrung out from the beginning terrors. They had us climb out of the water and I was stunned at how heavy that tank was on my back. I struggled up the 3 or 4 steps and was dang thankful I had just enough strength to make it. Then the guy pointed up the next set of stairs and said, “Go on up there and they’ll take the equipment off”. For a brief moment, I thought I was going to have to play the charming Granny card and get some help because I wasn’t sure I had it in me to get up that next flight. But I knew the self-recriminations later would not be pleasant so I did it (yes, it was feebly slow and pathetic, but I’ll mentally rewrite that part later).

As it turns out, Eric was not having a mid-life crisis or hot flashes (that would be my department anyway), he just had a wetsuit zipper that was determined to unzip itself at any and every opportunity. We got to snorkel the rest of the afternoon and see even more way cool fish and reef until I had prune fingers to the max. I thought that was going to be my only temporary souvenir, but I discovered later the leaking problems had started long before I got in the water. Missing putting the sunscreen on the back of your legs is really a bad idea.

Next on the agenda is seeing crocs. I don’t think I’ll be swimming for that experience.

Home, Home, and Home

It blows my mind to realize I haven't posted anything for a year. I'm not even sure why I stopped except I started thinking the oddities of life here were becoming less strange and remarkable.

I noticed just recently that driving on the left side is now normal as in the other night I had a dream and in that dream I was driving on the left side of the road. I admit that freaked me out a bit when I remembered it later. I'm also finding I have to think hard now to remember which way to write a date (it's done 22/7/12 here). I mistakenly signed a U.S. medical claim form with the Aussie version the other day. Fortunately I caught it before I sent it off or I'm sure they'd have rejected it (heaven knows they use any excuse to deny a claim).

Those are confusing things of the head; I'm now finding I have another situation going on with my heart. Australia has become home. But, Seattle is home, and frankly, Indiana has never stopped being home. So, in just a short while I'm leaving home to go home, then visit home, next head back home, and finally return home. I guess I could describe it best by saying my heart is confusing my head by thinking of everything as home, but it is what it is.

I'll miss my Aussie family terribly while we're gone, but I so can't wait to see my stateside family! I can't believe it has been a year since I've touched U.S. soil and in just a week I'll get to do just that. Best of all will be to give a huge hug to my family! And my friends! And the dog!

I'm looking forward to having a chat to you all soon and spending time with the other best people in the world. See you soon!