On my last day in Tasmania, Danielle had to do some work and dropped me off at the harbour in downtown Hobart. I bought a ticket for a ferry and admission to one of Australia's - if not the world's - premiere museums: the Museuem of Old and New Art (MONA). Before the ferry left, I spent about two hours walking around town and visiting the Tasmanian Museum where I learned more about the Tasmanian Tiger.
Hobart Post Office, Tasmania
The Tasmanian Tiger was the island's main predator before the arrival of Europeans. Once Europeans began grazing sheep in Tasmania the Tasmanian tigers were considered a nuisance because of their taste for sheep. The government put a bounty on every Tassie tiger that was killed and before long the only tigers left in existence were caged in zoos. But even that didn't last long and in the early 1900s the last Tassie tiger at the Hobart Zoo died. The tigers have not been seen since and the species is considered all but extinct. I say all but extinct because there is a very very VERY slight possibility that a population of tigers may have survived in the vast wilderness that covers Tasmania's southeast. Expeditions and surveys to find any remaining tigers have returned inconclusive. In the 1930s, after the last zoo tiger died, a biologist went looking for wild tigers and found footprints, but never found any tigers. Some people believe they still exist and sightings are reported but unconfirmed. I'd like to believe that life found a way and that some do exist, eluding humans for nearly a century. I like to believe this because the same story exists with mountain lions of Vermont - the catamount. While reports of them surface every now and then, there is no biological evidence that they still exist. But a few years ago, my Masters supervisor and I were driving to New York and on the rural highways of Vermont a large cat ran across the road in front of us. The cat we saw was definitely a cat, and much larger than a bobcat (which is larger than a housecat - or even a feral cat). To this day, I swear we saw a catamount and because of that I hold high hopes that the Tassie Tiger has cleverly maintained low populations in Tasmania's vast wildernesses.
Mt. Wellington looming above Hobart Harbour
Soon enough, I boarded the ferry from the city centre out along Port Arthur to the museum which is some distance up the River Derwent. The Lonely Planet guide for Australia says that this museum is one that is NOT TO BE MISSED and that it is "a veritable Disneyland for adults." Built right into the sandstone along the waterfront, the huge underground museum is home to a myriad of old and new art pieces including sarcophaguses, Aboriginal Australian art, modern sculpture art, interactive art, and modern paintings. Some of the exhibits I found utterly fascinating like "Kryptos" a dimly lit maze leading to an inner room; along the walls of "Kryptos" are words from the Epic of Gilgamesh in binary code and you get the sense you are entombing yourself as you walk toward the centre. Other pieces I liked included a huge wall of small Aboriginal paintings that fit together to form a much larger mural. There was also a room with a series of lightbulbs overhead. Visitors could take turns holding a handle of sorts which would record the pulse of their heartbeat and the lightbulb directly overhead would begin flashing in sync with your heartbeat. As each new visitor lit their lightbulb, the previous visitor's bulb would move down the line through a room that must have had hundreds of randomly flashing heart beats. But then there was the weird art, like a machine that was designed to replicated exactly the human digestive system. Every day the machine is fed food from the cafeteria and at 2pm the machine poops. Yes. This machine literally poops. It was disgusting and I don't really understand how it is considered art. Nevertheless, the day at MONA was absolutely a day worth the price of admission and I suggest anyone going to Hobart visit the museum because there is something for everyone there!
"Kryptos" at MONA
I took the ferry back into the city and Danielle met me down at the wharf and we walked over to Salamanca Markets, some of the oldest preserved buildings near Hobart's waterfront that now boast the city's best restaurants and shopping venues. We had delicious pizza from Cargo Bar and then stopped a few doors down at Jack Greene for a drink before heading back to her apartment for the night.
The night wasn't quite over yet as a huge full moon rose in the east and I couldn't help but run outside with my camera and try to capture this beautiful setting. We'll call it a mild success as I need a tripod!
The next morning, Danielle drove me out to the airport and I all too quickly found myself on my way back to Sydney. The five days in Tasmania were absolutely stunning with their jaw-dropping scenery, amazing food, wonderful people, cultural experiences, and wildlife encounters. It made working all through my Easter holiday weekend worth it. But, of course, like all of my trips, there is still so much I need to see in Tasmania and I am already planning my next trip back where I'll tackle Launceston, Cradle Mountain, and maybe even hike the Overland Trek! But that has to wait until another time.
Tasmania: Australia's Island State. Go there. You'll love it!
The morning after our night of no-sleep at the Coles Bay YHA, we woke up with some fresh coffee and breakfast at a wonderful new cafe in "downtown" Coles Bay with great panoramic views of the main mountain range of the Freycinet Peninsula. After we refueled our stomachs and the gas tank, we headed back toward Hobart, but turned off toward the town of Port Arthur out on the Tasman Peninsula.
Tessellated Pavement on the Tasman Peninsula coast, Tasmania
Danielle got less sleep than I did the night before and when we reached the area around Eaglehawk Neck - a 100 metre wide isthmus - which has a number of geological sites of interest, she stayed in the car while I walked down to a unique site called the Tessellated Pavement. This rock shelf is exposed along the coast, not much higher than the water level. Hundreds of millions of years ago this location was under a lot of water and only the tiniest of sediments were transported out into the deep ocean. Tasmania was also glaciated at the time and larger rocks and pebbles stuck in iceberg ice floated out to the open ocean and as the ice melted, these larger sediments were dropped down onto the ocean floor. Over time these sediments became rock and various tectonic forces deformed the rock ever so slightly, but enough to crack the rocks, forming joints in three different directions. Today, the rock is exposed to salt weathering and wave action. The rock that is higher than the high-tide level allows salt crystals to grow large enough on the rock surface such that it wears that surface down more quickly than it wears down the joints. This process forms salt pans. Alternatively, the rocks exposed down by the water's edge and below the water's surface is inundated by water so frequently that salt crystals can't grow. Rather, the strong wave action picks up sand and abrades the rock and is funneled along the joints in the rock causing the joints to be more eroded than the rock surface and this creates these loaf-like structures. Both the loaves and the pans are exposed along the Tessellated Pavement and even though it is really a simple geologic site, it was beautifully fascinating.
The Tasman Arch on the Tasman Peninsula
Back in the car we drove across Eaglehawk Neck to the Tasman Arch - a large rock arch formed by wave action forming a cave along the coastal cliffs. Over time the inside of the cave erodes to the point where it is no longer able to support its roof and the ceiling caves in leaving behind the arch over the cave's entrance.
The day was getting on by this point and we were both getting tired. There was no way we were going to make it to Port Arthur, but we were close enough to another awesome destination: The Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park.
While in Australia, I started undertaking a challenge I hadn't expected to take: seeing all of the native Australian wildlife IN THE WILD. I've seen a lot on the mainland including platypus, emu, kangaroos, birds of all kinds, wombats, and echidnas (and I saw kiwis in New Zealand). So while in Tasmania I really wanted to see Tasmanian Devils in the wild. Unfortunately, the Tasmanian devil's populations has drastically dwindled after a contagious facial cancer decimated much of the healthy wild devils. Tasmania is now undertaking drastic measures to preserve healthy Tasmanian devils and save the species from meeting the same fate as the other Tasmanian predator - the Tasmanian tiger which was driven to extinction by European settlers after their arrival. The Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park is playing an active role in preserving the genetic diversity of the healthy Tassie devil population and I figured that spending $35 to see them in the conservation park rather than trying to find one in the wild would be money well-spent. We were not disappointed.
Danielle feeding a kangaroo at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park
near Port Arthur, Tasmania
We arrived at the Tassie Devil Conservation Park shortly before a scheduled feeding time and after paying our fees started walking through the park which also has a small family of kangaroos, a few wallabies, quolls, various birds, and four separate Tassie Devil enclosures. We helped the owner of the park feed the kangaroos for a good ten minutes which was SO fun! The kangaroos just hopped over to your hands, holding your hands with theirs, and nibbling the feed out of your hands. Little joeys hopped around excitedly and nuzzled right up to us!
Tassie devil waking up for feeding time at the Tasmanian Devil
Conservation Park
But then it was time for the Tassie devil feeding and the devils knew it! In the one enclosure, right at feeding time, the two brother devils who were at first sleeping in their dens, became quite active and started chasing each other around the pen, snarling, and play-biting each other's snouts. They were quite vicious, but they were so much fun to watch. But then the devils stopped at the same time and looked at us - the owner had opened the cooler and the devils could smell the fresh wombat meat, which he tossed into the pen and the two brothers started a tag as they wrestled the meat away from one another. We must have spent at least 20 minutes watching the devils put on one of the best little shows for us, continuing the trend, as my friend, Danielle said, of, "Tasmania putting on a show just for me!" Once the devils were fed, they retreated to their dens and fell asleep, so Danielle and I walked around the park once more, saying goodbye to all the other residents before leaving.
On the way back to Hobart, we stopped once more at Eaglehawk Neck. The town of Port Arthur on the Tasman Peninsula was once home to one of the worst convict colonies in Tasmania and the British used the natural defenses of this peninsula - most notably this 100 metre stretch of land - to keep the convicts from escaping. Strung across Eaglehawk Neck was a string of vicious dogs chained up and trained to attack any convicts trying to escape the peninsula by land. The modern Tasmanians are using these natural defenses once again, but instead of using them to keep convicts from getting OFF the peninsula, they will be used to create and protect a healthy area of land, totally cleaned of infected Tasmanian devils. Devils are being completely removed from the peninsula and the healthy ones put in quarantine for two years to ensure they do not have the facial tumors. Once it is certain the Tasman Peninsula is cleared of infected devils, a series of triple-barrier fences and canals will be built and dug to keep infected devils from the newly-disease-free peninsula. With the fences and canals in place, quarantined Tassie devils will be reintroduced to the peninsula and if the Tasmanian efforts are successful, it is quite possible that the Tasmanian devils will be saved from extinction!
We were happy to have experienced the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, and now having crossed the devils off my must-see list, we began the drive back to Hobart where we readily crashed upon arrival at Danielle's apartment, exhausted from our two-day excursion up Tasmania's east coast.
After a quick night in Hobart, my friend, Danielle, and I piled our things into her car and started our drive up the east coast of Tasmania. Our destination was Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park. When I first moved into my current apartment, my flatmate strongly suggested (no, he told me it was a must) that I go to Freycinet National Park because Wineglass Bay was so stunning it was just not to be missed!
Fishing boats in Bicheno Harbour, Tasmania
Well, it took us a few hours to even get close, but we stopped a few times on the west side of Great Oyster Bay (west of the Freycinet Peninsula) for some photo ops and then drove past the Freycinet turn-off, continuing on up to the small seaside town of Bicheno. Not much ever seemed to be going on in Bicheno, but it sure looked like the perfect place for a vacation home. It still boasts a small fishing industry and some of the fishing boats were anchored offshore.
We stretched our legs along the waterfront for a few minutes and I was fascinated by the granite rock exposures along the beach - mostly because they had HUGE orthoclase feldspar mineral crystals - some as big as my finger! The tidal pools between the rocks were filled with little red sea anemones that twisted in the water as the waves came in and out. Bright orange lichens grew on the rocks, though we'd see more impressive lichens later on. We had a bit of fun posing in the dinghies pulled up on the harbour docks but soon headed back to the town and enjoyed a really good little lunch at a pizza cafe called, Pasini's.
Back in the car we drove south and headed down the access road to the small town of Coles Bay and the entry to Freycinet National Park. While many of Australia's national parks are essentially small tracts of land set aside solely for recreation without many stunning or staggering landscapes or ecosystems, Freycinet is different. Like the Blue Mountains, Royal, Uluru, Daintree, and Kakadu National Parks, Freycinet offers a spectacular mountain landscape with a few tall granite peaks with sparse vegetation growing up the slopes. As we turned the corner and the first view of Mt. Amos and Mayson loomed into view, my jaw hit the floor! I could already tell why my flatmate told me this was a park not to be missed!
Freycinet National Park seen from Coles Bay, Tasmania
We checked in to our hostel (the YHA in Coles Bay - which has impressively thin walls with two very loud groups of backpackers partying late through the night - avoid at all costs) and drove to the car park at the base of the trail to Wineglass Bay. It was late in the afternoon and we had limited time before the sun set, so we had to hurry a bit!
My friend Danielle and me at the Wineglass Bay Lookout in
Freycinet National Park, Tasmania
The trail is well-traveled up to the Wineglass Bay lookout and winds its way through large granite boulders and banksia and gum bush. We stopped at the lookout and had amazing views of Wineglass Bay which is an inlet coming in off of the Southern Ocean ending in an impressively wide beach and some of the bluest of blue waters I've ever seen!
Not wanting to miss out on anything Danielle and I continued down the trail to the beach and were greeted by a solitary Bennett's wallaby who was saying hello to any of the beach's visitors, probably looking for food. He was definitely not skittish around people and while wallabies may be antisocial toward other wallabies, this little guy was certainly friendly toward me! I was able to get close enough that we had a little chat and I even took a selfie with my iPhone camera, much to Danielle's entertainment. Soon, the wallaby realised that my camera was not food and immediately became disinterested and hopped off to other hikers.
Portrait of a Bennett's Wallaby on the beach at Wineglass Bay in
Freycinet National Park, Tasmania
Danielle sat on the beach while I explored the coarse-sandy shores. A fishing boat was anchored not far offshore but was soon greeted by what we think was a police boat, likely wondering what a fishing boat was doing in protected National Park waters.
The rocks along the bay here were covered with the brilliantly-orange lichens we saw in Bicheno, and maybe it was the setting sun, but they seemed to be much more vivid in colour here! The sun was going down and we started back toward the car before it got too dark, and with perfect timing too, because as we neared the lookout the setting sun illuminated the clouds and rocks, almost setting them on fire! It was one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen, even by Australian standards! I can't tell if I've just become really good at taking photos of sunsets, or if Australia's sunsets are just always stunning, but it was just beautiful and I think my photos turned out quite nicely.
Sunset over Great Oyster Bay from Freycinet National Park (Yep, was really this red!)
Before heading back into Coles Bay we took a little drive up to Cape Tourville Lighthouse. It was now almost pitch black out and the moon was beginning to rise. The lighthouse is positioned on top of large bluffs overlooking the Southern Ocean and the winds started to pick up, making our walk around the lighthouse pretty chilly! I set up my camera a few times to try and get good nighttime photos of the lighthouse and coast, but without a tripod it was hard to keep the camera still while the shutter remained open long enough to get a decent exposure. The photos turned out pretty clear considering Danielle and I couldn't see each other even though we were only a few metres apart!
It was a perfect way to end a perfect day along Tasmania's east coast and we headed back into town for a dinner and drink at the pub before barely getting any sleep at the hostel. Yeah, while I recommend staying in Coles Bay, you're better off camping than trying to get any sleep at the hostel. But having such an amazing experience with the sunset and the wallaby easily made up for it!
I woke up early in the morning at the YHA in Strahan, packed up my things, and loaded my bags into my rental car, and drove down to the Esplanade in the town centre for my first (and only) ANZAC Day Dawn Service. The Australia and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) was the first organised armed services of both countries and were first deployed in World War I at the Battle of Gallipoli which was an effort by the Allies to capture Constantinople and thus monitor/block all sea trade to Russia (thanks, Wikipedia). What I did not have to look up, though, was that the battle was not successful for the Allied Forces and many Australians and New Zealanders lost their lives. ANZAC Day memorialises this Battle as well as all other military excursions that the two countries have been involved in since. It's essentially the Australian and New Zealand version of Memorial Day. Traditional services are held at dawn throughout Australia, and Strahan was no exception. I stopped in at the coffee shop among the 60 or so townspeople who were up early for the service. Soon, the townspeople formed a procession 3-across and walked over to an obelisk in ANZAC Park across the street (while I, and any other tourists, just wandered en masse). There was a nice little service with some prayers being read, a poem by a local high schooler, and some words from the town's mayor - all of which was constantly interrupted by a hoarde of geese, ducks, and seagulls in the park behind us, so it was kind of hard to hear. Then the mayor tried playing a recording of tradtional ANZAC music on a portable CD player, but couldn't get it to play. After about five minutes, the young high schooler who read the poem stepped up to help the elderly mayor. Thinking a young person would have the CD player going in no time, it surprised me when after another five minutes passed and the music hadn't started. It was then I realised how unique my age is: the mayor was maybe too old to be familiar with CD players and the high schooler was so used to iPods and mp3 players that she also didn't know how to work it! They eventually realised that if they put the CD player on solid ground, it would play just fine. The service soon ended and most everyone headed into the local hotel (pub) for breky and a coffee and rum mixture. I settled for coffee (plain) and a sandwich from the cafe next door.
It was a very bleak, grey, and drizzly morning, but I'd booked a ticket on the Gordon River Cruise (highly recommended by tour guides). Strahan is nestled in a little cove off of Macquarie Harbour, Australia's second largest harbour next to Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay, and fed by the Gordon River, which extends up into the vast wilderness of southwest Tasmania. I booked the trip for three reasons. Firstly, not having much time to hike into many of the wilderness areas of Tasmania, I thought this would be a fantastic way to "get into" the wild (yes, even if it is aboard a luxury catamaran). Secondly, it also stopped at the famous Sarah Island - one of Tasmania's most feared convict colonies out on a tiny island in the middle of the harbour - and I wasn't sure if I'd get to learn anything about Tasmania's harsh convict history during the rest of my trip. Thirdly, it included lunch!
The cruise left the docks in Strahan and immediately headed out toward the entrance to the harbour where we passed a few different lighthouses while passing through Hell's Gate. The convicts called the entrance to Macquarie Harbour Hell's Gate because of its isolation and hardships they knew they'd endure on Sarah Island as well as the fact that even though the surrounding area is beautiful, attempted escape almost certainly would lead to death either by British soldiers or the treacherous nature of the environment. Hell's Gate is only a few tens of metres wide and is very shallow, so not too many large vessels can enter the harbour. Also because of the shallow and narrow entrance, it takes ebb tides more time to push their way into the harbour. In fact, the upper few metres of the harbour's water is freshwater supplied from the surrounding rivers and stained brown with tannin because the narrow entrance to the harbour makes it more difficult for the tides to flush out the harbour!
Lighthouse at Hell's Gate, the entrance to Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania
This has an added benefit to the local fishermen. Salmon and trout were introduced to Australia from Great Britain and because they require a certain balance of fresh and salt water, Macquarie Harbour is the perfect place for fish farms, of which there are many.
The boat turned around outside Hell's Gates, not wanting to get battered by the huge ocean waves, wind, and rain and went back into the harbour toward the opposite end where the Gordon River flows into it. As soon as we neared the entrance to the river, the water became much calmer and though it was still rainy and gray the trip became a bit more relaxed. We traveled up the river a few kilometres and learned about the native Huon Pines which grow in the area. Convicts at Sarah Island predominantly built ships out of the Huon Pine because the pine's pitch contained an oil which prevented worms from boring into the wood. Logging of the Huon Pines was so intense that all operations have since been halted and the species protected. Now, only National Park officials can remove Huon pine wood from the forests, and even then, it can only be wood from fallen trees. No Huon pines can be cut down.
Mouth of the Gordon River, flowing into Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania
We got off the boat and had a little walk on a boardwalk through the rainforest, which was very very rainy and allowed us to get up close with the Huon pines and a number of little mud chimneys built by crabs excavating down into it. Back on the boat, though, a buffet lunch was served with some of the freshest salmon you could hope for and local Tassie apples. Delicious!
The rain had stopped momentarily as we approached Sarah Island, home to one of the worst convict settlements in Tasmania, reserved only for those who repeated offense after arriving to Australia. The island is fraught with stories of cruelty, backstabbing, coercion, treachery, and violence I cannot even begin to recount the tales we heard. But the end of Sarah Island came with the installation of a commandant who had previously been a ship builder with no experience of managing convicts. But as soon as he started his post at the island, the violence decreased, the escape attempts stopped, and productivity increased immensely. It turns out that when you give convicts special things they want like alcohol and dignified sleeping quarters, you could get in return a very productive work force. But after news of fair treatment toward the convicts at Sarah Island reached the higher-ups in the British military, the settlement was shut down.
Convict settlement ruins on Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania
Having spent enough time outside on the boat, I stayed inside the rest of the way back to the wharf. Arriving shortly after 2pm in Strahan, I rushed to get to my car because I knew I had very limited hours of daylight remaining and a very long way to go to get back to Hobart for the night! But as luck would have it, the rain started back up as soon as I got back in my car. Not just a drizzle, but one of the most blinding, white-out deluges I've ever driven through. I put my trust in the little car and its tires and just started heading down the road trying not to slow down through the very rough driving conditions where rain was flowing down the road and around corners. My wipers, though on at the highest setting, couldn't keep up with the rain. I bought petrol in Queenstown and then started my ascent into the mountains.
The change from the day before in the mining area, where all the hills had been stripped of vegetation and soil was unbelievable. Every single crevasse or nook between hills was GUSHING with unbelievably voluminous waterfalls! With nowhere for the rain to seep into, it just collected and rushed downhill!! The rain continued as I got up into the mountains, and though I was making good time, I was surely driving a little too dangerously for the conditions. But finally, a few hours later, as I came closer to Lake St. Clair, the rain let up as the weather was held back on the western side of Tasmania by the highly elevated mountains. While still wet, the rest of the drive was fairly smooth and pleasant and I made it back to the Hobart airport to drop of my rental car only about an hour after the sun went down.
