We decided to see Tasmania in winter 2005 We enjoy the cold and we certainly got cold. We had a great trip and it proved to be the first of many Tassie trips.
Awoke to find a light frost on the ground. It still wasn’t cold though. We did a final check of the vehicle before heading to the airport and heading home. Our flight took off on time at 12:15pm
We had a good flight back and then had a 1hr 45min wait for our bus to the Sunshine Coast. The bus dropped us off just about at the door of the resort. We were home at just after 6:00pm
Awoke to another mild morning, we have now given up on the off chance that it is cold in Tasmania. We have decided it is a ploy to keep the Queenslanders away!!
We headed up to Richmond. Richmond is a lovely historic town that was one of the first settlements of the new colony. Consequently, it has many historic buildings and, of course, the famous “Old Bridge” which was built by convicts in 1834. We stopped at the Richmond Bakery and had another scallop pie!! This time instead of being curried, the scallops were in a creamy garlic and white wine sauce. YUM
After Richmond, we headed to the Barrilla caravan Park. We went here again because of its close proximity to the airport. We gave the van a good clean, packed our bags and had wood fired pizza at the caravan park’s own restaurant.
We got up and had a lovely shower in the 5-star bathroom that are Heimat Chalets Ensuite Sites. We then headed toward Hobart and pulled into the Treasure Island Caravan Park at Berridale.
The lady at the Bus Information centre in Hobart had told us that this was the best park to stay in for ease of bus access to the city. She was right! The bus stop was right at the driveway of the caravan park on both sides of the road. We caught the 10:30am bus to Hobart and wandered around looking at the city.
We had lunch in a nice little café overlooking the harbour. We also went to the Maritime Museum and it was very interesting. We got the 3:30pm bus from the city back to Berridale, arriving at 4:00pm. Crossing the road to get to the caravan park was a little challenging, as it was pretty well peak hour.
Hobart has a Day Rover Ticket that allowed us all day travel on the Metro Bus for $4.20 each. Today was a little colder and foggy all day, but no wind so we were able to stay quite warm. We got a little bit of rain in the city but all in all, it was a nice day.
Temps: Heimat – 5ºc 6:30am
Hobart –
10ºc at 11:30pm
Hobart – 7ºc at 3:30pm
Weather: Overcast and foggy all day with a light shower at lunchtime.
Got up this morning and wandered over to the beach. Snug is a pretty little town on the banks of North West Bay. The caravan park is very nice. They are adding extra self-contained cabins and are in the process of totally upgrading the camp kitchen and have recently upgraded the amenities block.
From Snug we headed north to Kingston and the Australian Antarctic Head Quarters. This was marked on our map as a destination, but we could not see anything “touristy”. It is a very large complex and, judging by the number of cars in the carpark, employs quite a lot of people.
We headed into Hobart and out to the Mt Field National Park and Russell Falls. On the way, we noticed a sign for CADBURY!!! So of course, we detoured! $12.50 each for the factory tour and all you can eat chocolate! Then they gave us more chocolate to take home!
Back on the road to Mt Field National Park. We stopped off at the Salmon Ponds. This is the oldest Trout and Salmon Hatchery in Australia beginning in 1861. It was fun to see the large Rainbow Trout and Atlantic Salmon and feed them. Rainbow Trout were quite aggressive and jumped all over each other to get the fish pellets we had bought. We had lunch at the Salmon Ponds “Pancakes at the Ponds” restaurant. YUM!!!
From here we headed to Mt Field National Park. The road passed through massive Hop plantations. Hops obviously are deciduous, as there was no green anywhere. There were signs saying that Hop fields are restricted areas and that all visitors must report to the office before entering. Heaven help that someone might steal some hops and brew their own beer and not pay any government taxes!!!
We arrived at Mt Field National Park visitor centre and did the short 10 minute walk to the Russell Falls. The track to the falls goes through a wet rainforest that is almost totally covered in moss. On the track to the falls, we saw a group of girls looking into a creek. They heard us coming and told us “Shhh, there is a platypus” We all watched the little platypus for a while frolicking in the water. We continued along the track to the falls and came across a HUGE fallen tree. It was so big we could stand inside the hollow trunk. The group of girls were taking photos and I offered to take a picture of all four of them in the fallen log.
Further along we came to the falls. The Russell Falls are a really nice wide ribbon of water that cascades over three tiers of cliff face. Again we were lucky with the weather, we drove to Mt Field under heavy cloud cover, finished our walk and got back to the car and drove off as it just started spitting.
We drove back through New Norfolk and looked around the town. It is a fairly large town centre and is a nice place with everything you need. From New Norfolk we went back to Heimat Chalets, where we had stayed on Day 1.
Temps: Snug – 9ºc at
7:00am
Hobart – 9ºc at 10:00am
Heimat – 7ºc at 7:00pm
Weather: Overcast with just a few sprinkles of rain.
We discovered how deeply Mick slept as, when he got out of bed, he found our dozen eggs!! There were none broken, not even the box was squashed. We have been putting our eggs tucked up under the doona to stop them from sliding around and getting broken. (They won’t fit in the fridge.)
I got ready to have my shower and headed up to the shower block, and encountered Electronically Timed Showers!!! www.showertimer.com You had to get ready and then press the button to get 7 minutes of water. The box beeped each minute and then gave a countdown for the last 100 seconds. When it shut the water off, it counted down 60 seconds before it would reactivate the water. Where was this product when the kids were living at home!!! 7 minutes was more than enough time to have a good shower, including washing my hair.
We hit the road and headed into Hobart on the way to Huonville and the Tahune Airwalk. We stopped at Franklin and toured the Wooden Boat School. The students here are taught the skills of how to build wooden boats and earn a fully accredited Diploma of Wooden Boat Building. Once completed, the students are employed by shipyards around Australia as specialised craftsmen. Many of them specialise in quality boats that are fitted out in high quality timbers.
Further south we reached the town of Geeveston and the Forestry Centre. You could spend a lot more time here than we had. The centre chronicles the past and future forestry industry in Tasmania, and how the forestry department uses the timber and the products produced from it.
We purchased our tickets for the Tahune Airwalk and travelled the 27kms through the southern forest to reach it. The Tahune Airwalk (www.forestrytas.com.au) is a great walk that is high up in the forest canopy. The airwalk itself is 620m long and is a high sided metal walkway. It is accessed via an easy track and 112 steps.
On the way to Tahune Airwalk, we stopped off at “The Big Tree”. This is one of the tallest trees in Australia. At 87 meters tall it was a most impressive sight.
After Tahune we headed back to the town of Geeveston and Huonville and travelled down the east side of the Huon River to Cygnet and around to Snug on the east coast. The coastline here was very pretty, with lots of little coves and streams. We came to the little town of Snug at about 4:00pm and set up for the night.
Temps: Barilla
– 2ºc at 7:30pm
Weather: Warm and sunny until about 3:00pm then
lightly overcast.
