Off to the Wonderful World of Auss: In Tasmanian Devil Territory

I just got back to Sydney after spending the past week in Tasmania, and I head off to New Zealand tonight. I'm currently in the Sydney international airport waiting to board my flight. It's weird that I'll be leaving Australia after an amazing semester here.

But what have I been up to this past week?

Last Sunday, my friends Annie, Melissa, Bekah and I flew from Sydney to Hobart, Tasmania. Tasmania is the southern island state of Australia. The state is really pretty and consists of a lot of farmland. We saw a lot of sheep, cows, and wallabies (but no Tasmania Devils). All of the driving through the state was very scenic, which made driving more interesting. The state is covered in national parks, so we spent a lot of our time wandering through them. We drove through a lot of cute towns too and spent some time exploring those throughout the day.

A note on Australian domestic flights: they are a lot more laid back than American flights. We checked in at a kiosk, never once had our IDs checked, and made it all the way to the gate without having our tickets looked at. They also don't have any liquid restrictions, which has been nice for traveling with toiletries.

Our first day in Tasmania, we explored Hobart, the main city of Tasmania. The city was tiny but really nice. Like many Australian cities, Hobart is centred around its harbour. That afternoon, we took a ferry to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). The museum was really cool with a lot of interesting pieces (and plenty of weird ones). There was also a free outdoor concert that day at MONA that we went to. The museum was huge! We were there for a long time and still were not able to see everything before it closed.

MONA pictures:

This was water falling in the shape of words that appear in the news

If you held on to the bars, it would record your heartbeat and the lightbulb would begin to pulse along with it. As each new person added their heartbeat, the previous ones would all shift down one lightbulb. It was really cool. The line of lightbulbs goes around the corner and fills up the whole room.

So many bubbles!

Views from the MONA ferry

On Monday, we climbed Mt. Wellington, which is a mountain right next to Hobart. From the top, you can see the entire city. The climb was really hard and took us almost 4 hours. At one point, we were climbing through a cloud layer. The views from the top were gorgeous and made the climb worth it! On our way down, we decided to follow the road. About a third of the way down, a bus of high school kids pulled over and offered us a ride. They drove us all the way back in to the city. It was really nice and saved us a lot of walking.

The next day, we got a campervan. We wanted to see more of the state than just Hobart, so we got a campervan to drive ourselves around. The one we ended up getting was huge and really nice. It was a lot bigger than we expected (especially in width) so it was a little awkward to drive. Because Annie and I were the only ones who were 21, we were the only two who could drive it. It was actually a lot easier adjusting to driving on the left than I thought it would be (probably because I've been living here so long). The hardest part was compensating for how wide the campervan was. I really liked having the campervan because since we did not need to book hostels, we could change our plans as often as we wanted and were not tied down to a schedule. It was a nice change being able to alter our plans as we went. For our first night, we stayed at Mt. Field National Park. That afternoon, we went on a two hour hike to see Lady Barron Falls and Russel Falls. The walk and the falls were really pretty.

Our campervan

Lady Barron Falls

Russel Falls

Old fashioned candy store

On Wednesday, we drove from Mt. Field National Park to Port Arthur. Port Arthur is a historic site that used to be a prison. It was really cool walking through the Port Arthur ruins. We saw the penitentiary and the 'separate' prison for solitary confinement. We also took a cruise around the harbour to see the island that was the boy's prison, where boys as young as 9 could be sent, and the Isles of the Dead, where everyone was buried. We also saw the Government's Gardens and the church which were both pretty. It was weird to think that Port Arthur used to be a prison because it looks almost like a park now.

The penitentiary

The government gardens

Thursday we drove to Tasman National Park and did a coastal walk. The lookouts along the walk looked over the Tasman Sea. Next we drove to Freycinet National Park. Here we did a three hour hike to see a lookout over Wineglass Bay and then to walk down to the Wineglass Bay beach. Wineglass Bay was really pretty. It's named because it is shaped like the top of a wineglass. We even saw whales swimming in the bay!

Coastal walk

Wallaby!

Cole's Bay

Wineglass Bay

Me, Annie, Bekah, and Melissa at Wineglass Bay

Wineglass Bay

On Friday we ate breakfast at a lighthouse in Freycinet National Park and walked around it with pretty views of Cape Tourville. We then finished our journey up the east coast of Tasmania with a stop at the Bay of Fire. It's called this because of the red rocks that surround the bay. The rocks were cool and the beach was pretty, but the water was icy cold. We then drove all the way back down the state to Hobart.

From the lighthouse

Bay of Fire

Saturday was our final day in Tasmania. We dropped off the campervan in the morning and then went to Hobart for the famous Salamanca Markets. These markets were huge and fun to walk around. We spent all morning exploring the stalls. That night, we flew back to Sydney. We spent our last night in the central railway station hostel, which had rooms that looked like they were in railway cars and were located next to the actual trains (it was both cool and weird).

Now, Melissa, Bekah, and I are heading over to New Zealand for the week. I'm officially leaving Australia, which is a weird feeling. I really enjoyed Sydney and my time in Australia so I'm sad to be leaving.

Random Pictures: