Blow Hole!

Well This has been an amazing trip. I am sitting in an Internet cafe in Hobart waiting to catch the airport shuttle to take me to catch a flight back to Melbourne. It has been an amazing time in Tasmania. I hope I can get it all out before the shuttle bus comes.

On Thursday I woke up to rain. I didn't mind except that I didn't have an umbrella or rain coat. I went to one of the cheap shops and found an umbrella for $3.00. Well it lasted about an hour. I was so frustrated that I went and bought a nice rain coat. I figured I would need it the whole time in Tassie and I'm sure it is bound to rain over the next year while I am in Aussie. So I spend the day touring the city of Hobart and booking a few tours to take. The thing with Tasmania is that most of the good sights are within an hours drive of Hobart. Unless you rent a car you public transport doesn't take you to all the good sights. It is reasonably priced to take tours because most supply a lunch and know the best places to see and get pictures. I booked three tours while I was here. After discovering some of Hobart I went back to the hostel in the evening to decide what else to do that day. One of my new roommates was from Germany and she asked if I wanted to go for supper with her and the other Canadian she had met. Of course, I said sure. I then met up with Lynn who is from Winnipeg. She has been in Melbourne for the last 4 months working as a substitute teacher. She takes trips on the weekends and will travel over the summer holidays. It was so nice to meet someone who knew exactly where I was coming from. We went for supper and then walked around Hobart more. We ended the night early because I didn't want to go to the local pub with the German girl. She was upset with me because I didn't want to go. I didn't care.

On Friday I took a tour with Tasman Island cruises. They picked me up at the information centre which was only 2 blocks from my hostel. We rode in a big coach bus down near Port Arthur. I met a woman on the bus named Mary from Melbourne. Her husband is here on business so she decided to take some tours. The bus was also full of older people who were on a cruise. There was a cruise ship in the harbour so tons of them on all the tours. We stopped in the morning about 10:30am for our morning tea. I had a snack since it sounded like we wouldn't have lunch until late in the afternoon. From there we picked up a few more passengers and we got onto a boat. Everyone got a rain coat to wear. I didn't need one since I had my lovely new one. I also was dressed very warm since I knew we would be out in the cold water. They started the tour by handing out ginger tablets for seasickness. I am glad I took them just to ease my nervous stomach. Then our boat toured around the Tasman peninsula. It was gorgeous!! The pictures I took do not describe the beauty I saw. The water was so blueish green and the cliffs were amazing. There were tunnels and rocks in strange formations. We saw this rock called the candle stick. It is one that many rock climbers try. You have to hike out there then, camp out. It takes about 2 days to climb. We then went to the Tasman Island. On the way we saw 2 different types of seals. An Australian seal and a New Zealand seal. The difference is in the way they walk. We also saw this bird, I can't remember the name of it, that has an eleven foot wing span. It was huge. Then we saw these little birds on the cliffs that looked like penguins but they weren't. Once we got to Tasman Island there were two other boats around there. They had told our boat that there was 3 humpback whales in the bay. I was worried I wouldn't spot it since I didn't know what I was really looking for. Well I saw them all. I got a few pictures, but it was difficult to catch them since they only skim the surface. The sight of them was breathtaking. Little prairie girl from Manitoba is seeing whales show off in the ocean. There will never be anyway to describe how cool it was. Once we watched the whales for about half an hour we went back to the harbour and went for lunch. I made friends with a nice couple from Melbourne who were just visiting Hobart for the weekend. There plan is to retire here since they love it so much. After lunch we got on the bus and went back to Hobart. On the way they wanted to know all about snow and Canada in general. I informed them they were missing out on perogies, clamato juice and tim hortons. They said they were willing to give that up because they didn't like the idea of the cold winters. We arrived back at the information centre in Hobart about 4pm. It was raining very hard. I then met up with Lynn for supper. She had a long day hiking at Wineglass bay.

On Saturday I went to the local market with Kirsten, my German roommate. We had breakfast there and walked the whole market in about an hour. She had to catch a flight back to Melbourne that day so she went back to the hostel to collect her things. I also had to change rooms in the hostel. Once I had done that I went for a walk to check out the Tasmania museum. While I was there I ran into Lynn and her friends from Vancouver, Ariel and her brother whose name I can't remember. We left the museum and decided to walk to the botanical gardens. Ariel's brother was hung over from the night before so he decided to stay back. The three of us walked to check out the view. It was nice, but sort of a long walk to get there. We then came back and went for lunch at a fish and chip restaurant. While sitting waiting for our meal I noticed a sign saying you could get a ride on the tall ship for $15.00 for 1 1/2 hours. We checked to see if we could get on. We were lucky enough to be the last ones on and we just finished our lunch in time. The ship was amazing and they had 35 people on as well as the crew of 6. We sailed all over the harbour. It was cold, but still really great. Ariel got to help out with some of the sailing tasks. I also pulled a few ropes. All in all it was a great experience for $15.00. After that I went back to my room to warm up. I then met a girl from England. Her and I and another girl from Germany went for supper. We ended up talking for a long while that night. It was very cold so we just went back to the hostel since I had to be up early the next morning.

On Sunday I was picked up by my tour guide first. I took a tour of Mount Fields national park. We started off by picking up other passengers. One being Ulricka, the German from the night before and the others included Lynn and Ariel. The tour guide was very interested to know where I was from in Canada. He even had a map so we could point out where we live. The rest of the day he questioned us about Canada. We first took a hike to a waterfall, then to the top of it. Since I am not in very good shape I was hoping that would be the last hike of the day. Once we got to the top we went to another waterfall. They were both very beautiful. On the way we told him about how if you are hiking in the Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba you would need to wear a bell to ward off bears. He said he preferred deadly snakes. After that we drove to the top of Mount Fields. It was a whole different vegetation up there. The air was also a lot crisper and cleaner. We hiked around a lake and it was stunning. Ulrika commented on the fresh hair and Nathan, our guide said it is some of the purest air in the world. When the air travels around the world the only places in touches coming west or east is Argentina. So it travels all the way across the ocean before it hits Tasmania which makes it very fresh. Also they get southerly winds that come straight from Antarctica. You can imagine how cold they are. After that hike we went to check out the tall trees. I stood beside the second tallest tree in the world. It is 101 metres tall. You can just imagine the size of the tree trunk on that thing. The tallest one is in California in the redwood forest. After that we stopped for lunch. While eating our guide was informed that he couldn't take us to Mount Wellington because it was closed due to a marathon going on. They were supposed to be finished in the afternoon but got delayed and we wouldn't have time to go. He decided to plan for somewhere else to go while we stopped to see the animals. We got to watch the Tasmanian devils eat. It is quiet the sight. They are vicious little things that look like big rats. We then saw some kangaroos and wallabies. We didn't see the platypus unfortunately. They didn't show up in the stream. We also saw a wombat and a koala. The whole place was really cool. Wombats are very cute!! After that Nathan took us to a different lookout on the other side of Hobart so we could see Mount Wellington in the back ground. He also took us to seven mile beach. It was way to cold to swim but still it was nice to see. That concluded our tour. I just went back to my hostel and had supper while I relaxed. I was very tired.

On Monday I was picked up with Ulrika at 7:45 to go to a tour of Port Arthur. We ended up stopping at various sights along the way. Most of which I had seen before in the last few tours. We arrived at Port Arthur just after lunch. It is an old prison for the convicts sent from England in the 1800s. I was a bit disappointed since most of it was in ruins. There was also a tragedy there in 1996. A young man went there and just randomly started shooting people. He killed 35 people in all. He is now in the maximum security prison in Hobart. We are instructed by our tour guide not to ask any of the employees about it since they will not talk about it. The building it started in was stripped down and there is a memorial garden there now. It was very erie. We also took a harbour cruise so we could understand how Port Arthur survived as a maritime community. After that we came back to Hobart. Claudette, one of the other passengers and I decided to go to fish and chips right after the tour. A few others from the tour decided to join us. We just all sat and talked about or travels and what was the best to see. I was feeling really tired so I went back to my room about 7:30. I decided to write out some post cards and could tell my vision was getting blurry. I finished and immediately got into bed since I knew this was a sign of a migraine coming on. It was full blown in less than an hour from that. I ended up sleeping most of the night with ear plugs so I could actually sleep. The night was awful with my uncomfortable bed and terrible headache. I woke early this morning I tried to get some fresh air to clear my head. I got a coffee and went for a walk. I feel a bit better but plan to sleep on the plane back to Melbourne. Well I hope you all enjoyed my tales of Tasmania. Sorry it was so long. I will put pictures up soon.
Until next time,
Cindy