Tasmania In Short

Well, we are home and unpacked and back at work and Tasmania seems like a far away memory !  OK that may be a little melodramatic and the memory of Tasmania is not that far away but going back to work yesterday, sure made the end of our holiday more of a reality !!!!!

We had a great time in Tasmania.  After staying the night in Launceston and driving through town and some of the suburbs, I said to A that it reminded me of the poor cousin of Australia.  It looked quite run down, the lovely old buildings looked like they could do with lots of maintenance on them.  We could not believe the number of homes for sale - through out the whole of Tasmania - lots and lots and lots.  The only place we saw some really nice looking houses was in Hobart.

We drove a total of 3,525kms in 16 days.  Our itinerary turned out to be this :
Day 1 - Gold Coast - Melbourne - Launceston
Day 2 - Launceston - Cradle Mountain
Day 3 - Cradle Mountain - Strahan
Day 4 - Strahan (cruise on the Gordon River with a stop off at Sarah Island)
Day 5 - Strahan - Hobart
Day 6 - Hobart (Salamanca Markets)
Day 7 - Hobart (MONA and all the way through the Huon Trail to most southerly road in Australia)
Day 8 - Hobart (town and Cascade Brewery)
Day 9 - Hobart - Port Arthur
Day 10 - Port Arthur - Swansea
Day 11 - Swansea - Freycinet
Day 12 - Freycinet - Deloraine (via St Helens)
Day 13 - Deloraine - Port Sorell (via Great Lake and Bothwell)
Day 14 - Port Sorell - Cradle Mountain (via the north west coast as far as Stanley and The Nut)
Day 15 - Cradle Mountain
Day 16 - Cradle Mountain - Launceston (via Great Lake - again !)
Day 17 - Launceston
Day 18 - Launceston - Melbourne - Gold Coast

We had booked accommodation as far as Hobart and then just looked each day at how far we would get to see where we should look for accommodation.  Unfortunately, A cannot relax and do nothing so if we got as far as we planned by early afternoon, he would 'suggest' we go further !!!  We would generally find somewhere to sleep about 5-6pm, and then we would be off to see whatever we could see before we lost all light for the day !  While I loved every minute (OK - maybe not actually every single minute - but certainly most of the minutes we were away), it was very tiring to be living in and out of suitcases / hotels / driving and in and out the car going to see the sights and try not to miss out on anything that we came across.

Some of the high-lights of our time there :

Seeing the snow on Cradle Mountain (just a pity it rained, washing it all away !!)

The scenery - some of the most amazing scenery I have seen in our country and very similar to NZ (there were daffodils and crocuses all over the place)

Driving in the snow on the way from Cradle Mountain to Strahan

Standing in the snow on Mt Wellington (sadly it melted before it hit the ground)

 

The climb up to be able to look down on Wineglass Bay

Seeing the tiny little lambs frolicking in the paddocks
 

 

Seeing wombats IRL

 

 

Cataract Gorge was in full flow and looked amazing

 

 

Lunch at The Hungry Wombat - the best burger I have ever tasted (and not because I was hungry !!)
 

Salamanca Place (where they hold the markets every Saturday)

The beautiful sandstone buildings - especially in Hobart

 

Staying at Blake's Manor - so quaint

Seeing the Great Lake

 

We were absolutely amazed at how many places we went to where we had to pay for parking - I began to feel like it was a real money making racket !!!  In Campbell Town - a little town on the east coast - there were 2P parking restrictions - I bet there aren't that many people wanting to park there so why restrict the time that they can park there ?  I just didn't get it.

I will be posting a more detailed blog of our time in Tasmania and will let you know once that has been done.  In the meantime I am joining in with Jess from Essentially Jess for #IBOT.

Have the best week and take care !

TFTD : Be miserable.  Or motivate yourself.  Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice - Wayne Dyer