Christmas Down Under

Buttongrass Fields


Hell's Gate


Fish Farms


Strahan Rainbow


Mt Zeehan
  
It’s Boxing Day today, the day after Christmas and Australia's major shopping day of the year.  You know, those post Christmas sales are a big thing.  But before I tell you about our Christmas, let me fill you in about our last week.
 
On Monday we drove out to Strahan, on the west coast of Tasmania, also known as the wild west coast.  Strahan is the only remaining town on the coast, on the Harbor of the Gordon River.  It is surviving on its tourism and the fishing industry both at the moment doing quite well, even with tourism being down because of the high Australian dollar.
 
Have I said  before that despite Tasmania’s relative small size, it is not terribly easy to get from point A to point B.  We left Hobart and drove north, through New Norfolk, then up through Hamilton which is in the highlands, then through the lakes region, back into Cradle Mountain Lake St Clair National Park, to Lake St Clair, which is at the bottom of the Overland Pass walk if you were to actually walk the overland pass.  But we were driving through the park, and the scenery is just amazing.  We are driving along, enjoying the wilds, and after another hour I see what looks like mining!  We pass out of the park, and its like entering a moonscape.  We are entering into Queenstown, a dying, if not already dead mining town, known for its copper and tin.  What a mess.  The road wove down through the old mine and was a narrow, steep, curvy, no edges, just cliff on one side, and nothing on the other.  Honestly, I couldn’t look up or down on this road, I just wanted to get it over with. It was horrible!  So was Queenstown.  We just filled up on petrol, and continued winding our way down into Strahan.
 
Strahan is a very cute tourist town, on the Macquarie Harbor, kept going because of the tourism of the famous Gordon River Cruise and the Wilderness Railway.  We didn’t do the railway, but we did lash out and do the Gordon River Cruise and it was excellent.  As our Christmas present, we did it first class and that was a treat in itself.  It was a six hour tour, out through Hells Gates, which is the entrance of the harbor.  Called Hells Gate not because the entrance to the harbor is such a challenge and dangerous (which it is), but because the convicts were entering hell coming to the penal settlement on Sarah Island.  Anyway, we then go back up the harbor, learning about the fish farms which was fascinating.  Because the Gordon River and six other rivers empty into the harbor, the harbor is actually full of fresh water, which sits above the walt water because of the density, so they can grow fresh water fish, in the harbor.  You can tell the water is fresh water because it is stained tan from the Button Grass that grows on the highlands.  Like I said, it is fascinating.  Then we did a little rainforest walk to learn about the particular eco system of the Gordon River, lunch of local fish and wines, the a tour of the penal settlement on Sarah Island.  It made Port Arthur look like a holiday camp.  What an excellent day. 
 
We leave the net day, taking the scenic tour up thru Zeehan, than Burnie, over to Devonport, then down to Launceston via Exeter, then Back to Hobart.  Steve reckons it was about 500 K, and it took us 8 hours.  Like I said, the roads….
 
So now we are up to Christmas.  We had a great day with new friends in Cygnet, dinner out in the garden.  It was requested that I make a pumpkin pie.  Very hard to do without sugar pumpkins or canned pumpkin, so I winged it, and made a butternut/sweet potato pie that had rave reviews.  Even from Steve, who doesn’t like pumpkin pie!  It was a great day, the weather held, even got a little warm, the food and company was great, what else can one ask for.
 
 

More Tasmanian Adventures

Cradle Mountain Peaks


Tasmanian Sheep


Cygnet Sailboats


Dove Lake in Sun


Dove Lake Boathouse

We were warned by everyone when we said we were going to Tasmania that it would be cold, we figured that was just because everywhere else is Australia would be in the 80’s plus, so anything else than that would be cold to them.  Well, they were right.  Tasmania has been cold, and we are grateful for the warm cloths that we brought with us.  We have been here for almost four weeks, can that be right?  And just about every day we have had rain showers, and maybe two days that have been above 65F.  Granted, that is warmer than what you all experiencing, but cold for us.
 
We are seeing some magnificent places.  Don’t ever think that because Tasmania is an island state, that it can be seen in a few days.  I wonder if we will see most of it by the time we leave on the 10th.
 
 Last week we drove up to Cradle Mountain, listed  #5 on the World Heritage List, and after being there you can see why.  It is just amazing, such raw beauty!  The weather of Cradle Mountain is that one day out of ten will be fine.   Not great odds if you only plan to be there for a day, but because we had planned for two full days and two half days, we hoped that it would be good.  We “took the scenic route” twice on the way up to the Park.  Road signs here make the ones in NH look good.  Anyway, we arrive, check in, and take the shuttle bus from the Park entrance  down to Dove Lake.  The bus is really good, because the road is one lane, curvy and hilly.  It has lots of lay-by’s but you get a running commentary about the park and its uniqueness which makes it all the more interesting.  As we arrive at Dove Lake, we disembark figuring we would wander around until the next bus, but instead we hiked around the Lake, catching glimpses of Cradle Mountain, the waterfalls crashing down the mountain sides, the moss filled trees and forests.  Two hours later, we finish up in the drizzle and wind and sleet, and wait for the next bus to take us back to our warm room and a bottle of red.
 
The next day, we do a few ‘short walks’, only a K each, the Pencil Pine Forest, and the Enchanted Walk.  Totally different from each other, and both beautiful in their own way.  Then we set out on a two hour hike, in the drizzle, along the boardwalk, that takes you through the forest, heathland, scrubland, along a stream and back to the bus stop.    The next morning we awoke to blue sky and sunshine, and knowing how fleeting it can be, we checked out of our hotel, and headed back down to the park.  Amazing!  We were able to see the entire Cradle Mountain.  Yes, it was beautiful, but I think it is by far more dramatic with the clouds rolling in and out.   We were very lucky to see the Mountain.  In fact, one of the us drivers told us of a couple who had started out doing the Overland Pass, a 2-3 dayer, and turned around after five hours because they got tired of the snow they were hiking through.
 
Wednesday, we drove down to Cygnet, south of Hobart, to visit with Kate, the woman who helped us get this place for the six weeks we are here.  We had a lovely visit, met some great gardeners, and we will be spending Christmas with Kate, and I am to bring a pumpkin pie.  This will be interesting, because there aren’t any sugar pumpkins here in Australia, live or canned, so I am going to wing it and hope for the best.  I figure if I mix butternut squash and sweet potatoes, with the correct spices, we should be right.
 
Speaking of Christmas.  You wouldn’t know that is is a holiday happening in just a few days.  So far we have heard a total of 5 Christmas songs on the radio!  The Christmas trees for sale look like white pine tree tops cut from the forest, we have seen a few discrete decorations, and this weekend the frenzy of shopping, but honestly, there is none of the commercialization that there is back in the states.  It’s kind of refreshing in a way.
 
Tomorrow, we are off to Strahan, on the Gordon River, on the west coast of Tasmania.  We are signed up for the River Cruise that has very high marks.  Can’t tell you much, so I will report about it when we get back.  Then after Christmas, is Boxing Day, when we will celebrate Christmas with just the two of us, and phone our families at home in the cold and snow.  After that, the boats should be coming in the harbor from the Sydney to Hobart Race, and Hobart is hosting the Taste Festival, where the top producers of wine, beer, cheese, produce all get together to talk food.  I can hardly wait.  As you can see we are busy.
 
Merry Christmas to all of you, we will raise our glasses of Tasmanian bubbly in toast to family and friends, good health and good cheer.

Tasmanian Adventures

Southwest National Park Vista


Tasmanian Devils


Port Arthur Prison


Tessallated Pavement


Sleepy Bay, Freycinet NP

Time sure does fly when you travel. It seems only a week ago that we arrived on the apple isle, but in reality, it has been almost two weeks. Where do we begin?

Last Friday we drove up to the Freycinet Peninsula for a weekend of photo classes. Steve is determined to make a photographer out of me, but is having as much success as me turning him into a gardener, but the good thing is I am seeing some amazing places and meeting some really nice people because of this desire, so who am I to complain. We left Hobart in the fog and drizzle, driving north saying to ourselves,

‘we know there is a view out there somewhere”, but we were so socked in with fog, we had no idea what was out there. There wasn’t even any reason to stop and take pictures along the way because all you would see was rain, fog and yuck. But we do arrive up at Freycinet, and have a weekend booked at the lodge where the workshop was being held. Did we learn lots, yes, did we see lots, no. the weather wasn’t the best. That was good in some ways because we could focus more on the classes then. Monday morning we walked up to the lookout at Cape Tourville because it wasn’t raining. We didn’t bother with the longer walk to the Wineglass Bay lookout because it wouldn’t be much in the fog. The good thing is that we are only two hours away, so if the forecast looks good, we can always drive up as a day trip. This is especially easy because the days are so long.

Tuesday we drove down to Port Arthur, which is south down the Tasman Peninsula. Port Arthur was a penal settlement from 1830 to 1877. It certainly wasn’t an easy place, being a penal settlement as well as being exposed to all the horrible weather, some of which we experienced on our day there. Despite that, the site is beautiful with the harbor and mountains surrounding it. After the colony was disbanded a lot of the building were dismantled and sold off, while most of the remaining wooden building perished in subsequent bush fires. The remaining buildings are being rebuilt, and there is such raw beauty about them. Lucky for us, we were there the day before Oprah’s guests arrived. Also on the day we stopped and saw the Tessellated Pavement which looks like the convicts had time on their hands and decided to pave the beach with cobbles, when in reality, the stone has been worn away by the salt and ocean to form the pattern of cobbles. We also saw the Blowhole and Tasmans Arch, more natural rock formations. Even though the weather wasn’t the best, the beauty is simply breathtaking.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park, which is a quarantined breeding center for the little devils. We were there for their evening feed, and they are rather cute, but man do they get snarley when it feeding time. Learning about the devils and supporting the research and breeding cause was well worth the stop.

On the advice of a local, we drove up yesterday to Lake Pedder. This lake sits at the top of the Southwest NP, and was enlarged by the damming of the Gordon River. It is said this lake now holds 27 times the volume of Sydney Harbor, and is the largest freshwater lake in AU. There was a huge controversy about damming the River and even now there is talk about dismantling the dam. Time will tell. Anyway, the drive up to the top of the lake is just breathtaking. The mountains are amazing, some being right in your face as you drive up the road. Even more amazing is that the entire time we were on the road, we maybe say five vehicles all up! We practically had the place to ourselves, a bit scary though because if something happened, like the car breaking down or something there is no-one, and no cell service so it would have been a waiting game. It is hard to imagine that Cradle Mountain can beat this as far as beauty goes, but we will find out this weekend because that is where we are headed next.

We have seen some drop down dramatic scenery in the first two weeks and that is even with not the best weather. Hope Steve's pictures do justice to what we are seeing. Enjoy.

Welcome to Tasmania

Hobart Harbour Buildings


View of Hobart from "our" house


Mt Wellington from the house deck


Lady Nelson leaving Hobart


Mt Wellington Observatory

We left our beautiful B&B on the Mornington Peninsula and headed into Melbourne to take the ferry to Tasmania for six weeks. It took far less time to get to the pier than we thought it would, so we ended up hanging around the area, walking in the drizzle and just waiting. Around five the loading process begins, and it is a process. First you go through security and drop of your gas tanks, propane tanks and they look under the bonnet. You drive a bit further and wait again for it seems another hour. Then you get your boarding pass and cabin key, and wait for another hour. Then you board, park and go upstairs. We finally set sail, or under steam at 7:30. By 10:00 we were finally out of the harbor, by 12:00 am we were supposed to be passing the return ferry, and by 6:30 Sunday morning we had landed in Devonport Tasmania. It wasn’t a bad ride. There was the initial rocking to get used to after we left the harbor, but I have to admit, I slept quite well.

After leaving the ferry, we had to go through quarantine, just as strict as entering Australia, Tasmania is still pest free for many agricultural crops, so there is strict enforcement upon arrival. Finally, and I mean finally, we get to pick up our gas tank and off we go, heading south towards Hobart where we will be house sitting for a fellow gardener and garden writer for our stay. First, we stop in Elizabethtown for coffee and breakfast, then continue on south to Campbeltown for another coffee. We then took a detour to Oatlands that was one of the towns that we might have stayed in for three weeks. The town has a historic wind driven grain mill that way back when ground all the local grains for bread. After many years of restoration, today was the grand hoopla, so as much as we wanted to stay, we put it on our to-do list and continued south.

We finally arrive in S. Hobart and found our house and got all the scoop for our six weeks stay. It will be excellent. I have a garden to play in, an excellent kitchen to cook in, and from the deck off the kitchen looking to the right you get a view of the harbor in Hobart, and to the left, Mt Wellington looms out of the clouds.

So far the weather has been fine, although that is going to change in the next day or two. We have walked into the city along a park path that follows the ‘rivulet’, a beautiful walk with historical notes alongside, visited the old town along the waterfront, tasted whiskey at the local Lark distillery, driven up to the top of Mt Wellington for the views, stunning, and just in time before the clouds rocked in.

Oh it is so nice to have a base. We have unpacked Em, who took a deep sigh as the load was lifted off of her, and we are just going to enjoy the moment, no rushing about, hah, but no unpacking and repacking the car for the next month! Yeah. Enjoy Steve’s photos of the surrounds. Allie