After 5 trips to New Zealand, although loving it, we wanted a change. Something like New Zealand, but not New Zealand. Where they speak English and we can pronounce (almost) the place names. Where there are beautiful coastal and mountain landscapes, not crowded, wineries, maybe some chocolate and cheese.

Hmmm, Tasmania! And as long as we’re traveling all that way, let’s include Great Ocean Road on the southern coast of mainland Australia. The Grampians looked pretty darn spectacular too with its jagged peaks, lookouts, and wildlife.

And so our trip planning started. We finalized with 10 nights in Tasmania, 5 nights Great Ocean Road, and 3 nights in the Grampians. We rented a car both on Tasmania and the mainland and rented cottages, apartments, or cabins for our stay.

Tuesday, March 6 — Thursday, March 8

Our flight to Hobart, Tasmania, required a connection in Sydney. It was a very short connection, made more difficult with the International and Domestic terminals located on opposite sides of the freeway. And further hampered by a 35-minute late arrival on our international flight. Long story short, we missed our connection but were put on a later flight. Jetstar was our carrier for the domestic leg and although they handled the missed connection with grace and ease, we did get charged to check in carryon luggage that was over the weight limit. All worked out, although missed out on some wine and cheese tasting and we pretty much arrived at our cottage about dinnertime.

Hobart: Hobart is Tasmania’s largest city. It’s located on the Derwent River on the western shore. Our cottage for 3 nights was on the eastern shore and a few kilometers upstream. Views were of the river and the suburbs across the river. There was lots of open space and flocks of parrots and cockatoos would circle about. For activities located on the other side of the river, it wasn’t the best location. But we much preferred it to a city apartment. It was very well equipped and had breakfast fixings for us, all making for a very good start to a vacation. Because the cottage faced west, we had some beautiful sunsets followed by the twinkling lights from the suburbs across the river.

Friday, March 9

We started the morning bright and early, still on California time, and drove the hour to Mt Field National Park. I enjoyed the views of the wetlands we passed as we drove further up the river. The downside was this was our first encounter with the amount of roadkill on Tassie’s roads. The most I’ve ever seen. Now I understand why the Destination Experts on Trip Advisor warn of the hazards of driving between dusk and dawn. There were even signs posted advising of reduced speed limits during nighttime.

We got to the Ranger Station about half an hour before its 9am opening. We couldn’t just head off, as we needed a park pass to display on our windshield. Anticipating multiple parks to be visited, we opted for a “Holiday Vehicle Pass” which would be good for all the parks for time well beyond the length of our stay. But it was a much better deal than purchasing day passes each time. Once we had our pass we decided to do the waterfall loop that passed by 3 waterfalls in the park, and do a detour on the “Tall Trees” walk.

It was a beautiful walk and not too strenuous. The Tall Trees Walk had signboards explaining lots of details you would otherwise miss. There were very few people on the walkways. A couple of times we were startled by a Wallaby dashing across the track right in front of us. Then they would stop and stare at us as if wondering why we were in their forest. I think if they had opposable thumbs and a camera they would have taken photos.

On the way back to Hobart, we stopped at Stefano Lubiana Wines for some tasting. The views, tasting experience, and wines were good. Fred and I are primarily red wine drinkers. Tasmania is known for its cold climate wines – basically white wines and pinot noirs. The pinot noirs from Tasmania are much drier and less fruity than what we’re used to. Yet somehow, we managed. It’s also interesting that almost every winery has a sparkling wine on offer.

Our last stop was to Mount Wellington. The mountain overlooks Hobart and the river valley. It was a very steep road to the top and it was a clear day – until the last half kilometer when the fog rolled in. We still had exceptional views of the upper valley and the boardwalks and lookouts are very well done.

I had read about an easy walk to Sphinx Rock Lookout, so we attempted that. (I will refrain from mentioning the child gate that almost thwarted us, making us look rather foolish to the locals). After all the spectacular scenery we had seen all day, this was a bit underwhelming. You can’t win them all and not every viewpoint is breathtaking.

Saturday, March 10

Our plan today was to take a peek at Salamanca Market, to see what all the fuss was about, kayak the harbour (notice my Aussie spelling), and do an abbreviated tour of the Huon Valley.

Salamanca Market is a Saturday morning market along the waterfront of Hobart. It is in every “Top xxx of things to do in Hobart” list. Now where I will visit a flea market or garage sale, it’s the furthest thing from Fred’s interests. But he was game and it killed some time before our 10am meeting time for the kayak tour. After fumbling around trying to find parking, an ATM (In hindsight, I’m not sure why we didn’t locate an ATM in Sydney when we had a few extra hours there – blame jetlag!), and getting change for our Aussie dollars for the parking, we finally actually went TO the market. We both really enjoyed the market. Fred even bought a hand-carved wooden long-handled Sassafras shoehorn. The market is full of local artisan’s handiwork and not junk. The produce aisle was awesome! After about an hour, it started to get very crowded, but we sure enjoyed the hour we had there.

It was less than a 10-minute drive to Sandy Bay where we met with Tori, our guide for kayaking. We were supposed to wait for another participant, who never showed up, so we ended up having a private tour. It was a fun paddle, Tori pointing out and sharing interesting facts about the waterfront, sealife, and whatnot. We had a nice Fish-n-Chips lunch while floating on the kayaks. Then when Tori took our lunch trays back to the vendor and suggested we check out the starfish below the waterline further by the shoreline… okay, a lot of editing here…. We were floating about 8 feet (2.5 meters) below a walkway and I guess a woman was asked to pose for a picture and she was in a dress and Fred now knows what color her underwear is….

Tourists can be oblivious sometimes.

So a really nice kayak trip and we decided to head further southwest to a chocolate shop I read about. Unfortunately, it wasn’t open, although we were there when the website stated it would be. Our next stop was at Hartzview winery in the hills, the views were fantastic and they had some historical fruit-picker’s cottages/sheds open to browse.

Then to Grandvewe Cheese, which was a really well-done cheese-tasting experience, although we skipped the gin tasting at the end. Then we tried to hunt down another chocolate shop the lady at the winery mentioned – but they were closed. So ended up back at Salamanca market area as the venders were all packing up and finally found a chocolate shop that was open! It took a little hunting down, as the window-front didn’t indicate it was a chocolate shop whatsoever.

We got our chocolate and the afternoon temperatures got really warm. We headed back to our west-facing cottage and were ready for a nap. I considered putting the truffles into the refrigerator, but didn’t, thinking that it would turn the chocolate white.  After dinner, the beautiful truffles we purchased ended up big puddles inside their brown paper cups, but they were still tasty.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh at yourself.

The Adventure Continues>>>