Hobart, Tasmania (Spring Break pt.1)

Hello Hobart, it's nice to finally meet you!

After I attended my last class on Thursday, September 21st, I was officially on mid semester break! I knew I was going to have a lot of fun on this trip, since there were a lot of places I really wanted to see: Tasmania, Melbourne and Byron Bay. This week was long awaited, since I planned the whole trip back in July. I left campus, quickly got back to my apartment, packed my suitcase and headed to the airport on Friday morning to catch my first flight to Hobart, Tasmania.



Though I wish I stayed longer, I spent five days exploring the city of Hobart and the surrounding National Parks. When I arrived in Hobart, I instantly fell in love with the small city. It was so refreshing walking by the piers, smelling fish and chips in the air, and taking lots of pictures of the town. One view from the pier was of the boats in the marina with mountains in the background, and another view was of the city buildings with Mt. Wellington in the background. One boat I saw was this massive orange boat called the Aurora Australis, which is used for expeditions to Antarctica! For lunch I had stir fry noodles. I sat by the pier as I fought off the pesky seagulls who wanted my food. The town was a bit quiet, a peaceful quiet, but when I walked over the Salamanca Square, the noise crescendoed with laughter and chatter, since that's were many bars and wineries are located. After walking around the city, I thought it was a great time to get a beer! I went to Cascade Brewing, Australia's oldest operating Brewery, which is a quick drive just outside the city center. As I got there, a beer pouring contest was happening, and I got to join in too! The rules were: 1. pour the beer from the tap and 2. have a thumb nail's length amount of foam at the top for the grand prize of bragging rights. Sounds easy, right? But it was quite difficult (well, for me) to do. My beer had way to much foam to not be considered for the final round, but on the bright side I got a free beer out of the deal! I poured a Cascade IPA and later I ordered the Cascade Lager, both very delicious beers! Later that night I went back into town and went to a fish and chips dive called Flippers. I really like fish and chips these days --it's such a good meal! I walked back to my hostel as it started to rain (the weather forecast even called for rain the whole week, although spoiler alert: it did not rain besides this instant), to get ready for my first tour the following day. Also I met my roommates, Livi and James who are from the USA and are on a study abroad semester in Brisbane as well! It was really cool meeting and talking to them!

Bruny Island

Today I woke up bright and early to get ready for my tour to Bruny Island. While planning this tour, I saw really cool pictures of this island on Instagram, and I had to go there too! Bruny Island is a 30 minute drive south of Hobart, where we then had to take a ferry to get there too. Walking along the pier by the ferry station, I met Lena, who was also on my tour. She's from Germany and lived in Perth for a few months. Together we took lots of pictures of the the boats, floating in the marina with the mountains and morning fog in the background. After the ferry ride and got to the island, the first stop on the tour was one of Australia's oldest lighthouse. This lighthouse was built by the convicts in the 1800's. The surrounding views of the hills and the bay was spectacular!

 


The second stop on the tour was a hike in Adventure Bay! The tour guide took us to a very muddy trail, where I slipped and fell in mud, but it was worth it in the end because the destination was very picturesque with the green trees and colorful rocks hoping out in front of a grey clouded background was a sight worth seeing! Actually the whole day was overcast and it looked like it was about to rain, but thankfully it didn't!

 

The last stop on the tour, the guide took us to a cheese factory/winery, one of the only wineries on the island. I enjoyed trying all of the different cheeses and talking to the other people on my tour. The tour was about to end, but we still had time before the ferry was scheduled to pick us up. We took a detour to another spot on the island to take pictures. I was so tired, cold and covered in mud, but I'm glad I saw this beautiful scenery of the island. Sometimes pictures do not do the actual sight justice, but take my word, it was beautiful and worth seeing. On the ferry ride leaving the island, I saw a couple hawks flying and a whale! Also, it just occurred to me that this is the farthest south I've ever been and the closest I've been to Antarctica (well besides when I'm in Queenstown, New Zealand. stay tuned)! What a spectacular first day in Tasmania!

 

Tasman Peninsula

Let me give you some background information for how I planned my day at the Tasman Peninsula:
Back in March, my friend Priya and I went to the Bloomington (Indiana) Banff Film festival together. This festival features films about traveling, hiking, nature, climbing, outdoor sports, etc. One film in particular was about a man who tried to climb the Totem Pole (a scary looking cliff) in Tasmania, to which the first attempt he fell and was paralyzed on one side of his body. About twenty years later he successfully climbed it, only using his working arm and leg. Wow! I was so impressed with his grit and redemption that I had to see this rock formation in person. At that time I knew I was going to Australia, but I didn't know if I would be able to actually go there and see it.

Flash forward 6 months and a week before I left for Tasmania, I realized I still had an extra day to do another activity, and I still really wanted to see the totem pole. I quickly booked a tour/cruise, taking the last seat.

The tour bus drove us to Port Arthur, which is on the Tasman Peninsula, where we boarded our "cruise." I wouldn't call this a cruise, a better name would be "small cramped dinghy that'll move faster than the speed of light boat tour." The boat moved so fast and the waters were so rough that the tour guides passed out seasickness tablets. Me, knowing how I am with boats, refused the tablet, to which the guides asked again, thinking I didn't hear them. I know what I'm about, haha! I sat next to girl named Binan and hung out with her for the day. She's from a city near Hangzhou (a city I have been when I was in China a couple years ago) and we talked a lot about China, food, and traveling! But during the tour, we didn't talk too much, the winds were too loud and we were too focused on taking pictures.

So the tour started near Port Arthur and went around the peninsula going north to end up in Eaglehawk Neck. We explored the different cliffs, caves that were in the cliffs, and nearby islands. Maybe I like rocks and cliffs a little too much, but I was in awe the whole time. I could try to describe what I saw, but instead here are some pictures I took during the tour:

 

 


The wind whipped my face, the boat dramatically rocked back and forth that water kept coming in the boat. I've been on rollercoasters before and this boat cruise was the most thrilling thing I've ever experienced thus far. Continuing on with the tour, I was anxious to see the totem pole! When will we get there... When will we get there...

   

And there it was, the rock climber's dream to climb. I was telling Binan about the film I saw and she thought it was cool too. I did not hold the excitement in, like people were giving me looks like "Chill girl, its a rock." I felt like I was giving a tour to the tour guides, since I knew so much about these rocks! So the first picture is the Totem Pole and the second, bigger rock is called the Candle Stick. You can really see how scary the totem pole is for rock climbers, with smooth sides and literally nothing to grab on to. I just thought it was so cool to see something in person that you've seen in films/pictures/references made, like going to San Francisco to see the Golden Gate Bridge, or visiting the Sydney Opera House in Australia. Seeing things like this make the trip a little more special and meaningful.
The tour was nearing the end, and we saw more cliffs and a cute rock that looks like the profile of a dog. I thought this was just adorable!

This tour took 3 hours, but it only felt like three seconds. Time flies when you're having fun! When we reached Eaglehawk Neck, the bus drove us back to Port Arthur to eat lunch and explore the old convict village. Binan and I ate lunch together and walked all over Port Arthur taking pictures of the old architecture and the old prison where the convicts were held.

 

 

I am so thrilled I was able to book this tour, to see the beautiful nature and historical landmarks that make up a little section of Australia. The word that kept popping up in my wind was "Wow!" I am stunned by the beauty of Tasmania, and I'm glad I made a new friend! Later that night I met up with Livi and James to grab dinner together. We talked about our days and showed each other the cool pictures we took. They told me they are going on a 6 day trip to explore all of Tasmania (that sounds so cool!) and that this was their last night in Hobart. I wished them to have an amazing and safe trip, and hopefully we can meet up in Brisbane together!

Freycinet National Park

The people I talk to think I'm crazy for taking so many tours in a short amount of time, but hey, I need to see as much as I can while I'm here. I'll catch up on sleep later, now is the time for exploring! Today I explored Freycinet National Park, which is 3 hours north of Hobart; we had a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. I did catch up on my sleep on the bus ride there, thankfully. I was fully rested and ready to hike to see a beautiful view of Wineglass Bay. My tour guide, David, told us about the different theories about why it's called "Wineglass." The first theory, and kind of obvious is that the bay looks just like the rim of a wineglass. The second theory is that this bay was notorious for whaler hunters to catch whales, and its said there was so much blood when hunting the whales that the water turned a red wine color. But today the bay is a clear deep blue great for picture taking! The hike up was a bit exhausting, because a couple of the ladies on the tour wanted to talk to me while hiking, and I was out of breath the whole time. This hike took about an hour and a half to complete,

The second stop was at Cole's Bay where we took another, less exhausting hike. We didn't have to hike too far this time to get great views of the bay! This bay is also known as the WOW look out:

 

WOW amirite?!

As we were walking back to the car park, we saw a wallaby with her Joey (Tribbiani! any FRIENDS Fans out there?). They posed very nicely when I took their picture. She sniffed my hand and hopped away! Man, that was just way too cute to see!

For lunch, our tour guide took us to honeymoon bay. I ate lunch with two girls named Cherry and Avis. They are both from Hong Kong and they study in Australia. Unfortunately this time it started to rain, but that did not stop us from taking amazing pictures! The three of us quickly walked on the beach, took a couple pictures and headed back to the tour bus to finish the tour. This bay could be my favorite thus far, just look at all of the colors and rocks at this bay!

At the end of the tour, our guide took us to an ice-cream shop in Swansea. I ordered a blueberry and lavender ice cream, and boy it was delicious and REFRESHING! (Shout out to my mom! Remember the blueberry ice-cream in Maine? haha). Cherry, Avis and I took many instagram-able pictures of our ice-cream and the landscape before enjoying and reflecting on a fun day!

Mount Wellington and Around

Today was a little more relaxing. My tour to Mount Wellington started at 9am, so I had time to sleep in and had more time to get ready. This was a quick tour, only lasting 2 hours long with only 30 minutes at the summit. Had I known there were buses that could take me up to the summit instead of a tour, I would have done that (same price but different experience). Nevertheless I had a wonderful time at the summit, taking pictures of Hobart from above. The temperature dropped to 32 degrees (it was about 65 degrees in the city of Hobart); I was glad I brought both my hoodie and North Face jacket though I didn't have any gloves and my hands almost froze! It was also an overcast day, but I think the clouds enhanced the beauty of the view from the summit.

 

I asked a girl on my tour to take my picture with the scenery in the background. Her name is Matilda and she is traveling all over Australia from France! When the tour was over, we planned to meet up in the afternoon to hang out in the Hobart Botanical Gardens and the Tasmanian Museum. We wanted to go to the famous MONA museum, but it was closed since it was a public holiday. Anyways, Matilda was very sweet and interesting to talk to. She told me everything I should know when traveling to France, so hopefully I'll go to Europe sometime and take her advice.

I took more pictures of the cute little city of Hobart. I could spend hours at this pier and not get bored!

 



I also made plans to meet up with Cherry and Avis for dinner! I took them to their first bar (they're my age but never actually went to a bar to eat dinner); they were excited and I was honored! We talked for 2 hours, eating burgers and having a fun time! They were so sweet and so interesting to talk to! I am so glad I met them on the Freycinet tour!


I am just so glad and fortunate I was able to explore Tasmania. I absolutely loved my time here, and like I said I wish I stayed a bit longer. I was a bit sad to leave, I didn't want my stay in Tasmania to be over, but this gives me the excuse to come back and explore more of this amazing little island. I was really glad I made so many new friends on this journey too, and I hope to keep in contact with them!


Just like hiking, I have to keep moving forward. The next morning, I hopped on a plane going to Melbourne, which I'll write about in my next blog post! Stay tuned and thank you for reading this [very] long article!