Aussie Over

Hobart to Auckland, 'Bye Australia

Our trip from Hobart started out on time but landed late, as Sydney was experiencing some strong winds and only one runway was open for a time. Thus the congestion had us circling around for 20 minutes before being allowed to land.

Our time in the land of Oz has demonstrated som language anomolies. These are a few phrases and words we came across:

• restroom = toilet
• passing on the highway = overtaking
• cookie = biscuit
• ketchup = tomato sauce
• pizzas = thin crust with very few meat toppings
• bread = white most of the time (and they don't ask)
• beer = is pale, low alcohol content, an light on taste
• our 911 = 000
• sandwiches with tomato always, but no pickles
• speedo-check = odometer mileage check
• lift = elevator
• hole in the wall = ATM location
• yield in traffic = give way

Safe Travels - No Worries

Money... no pennies, 5, 10, 20, 50,1.00, 2.00 in coin. Purchases are rounded up or down when paying with cash.

Christmas season starts later, with only a few decorations around before December 1.

If you're coming to Australia, Tasmania and Cairns area are highly recommended to be on your agenda.

Our Aussie time is over so now onto New Zealand for a week.

Port Arthur

Port Arthur

Our last journey from Hobart was a drive to the Historic Port Arthur Penal Colony.  On the way,  a stop at an un co-operative blowhole, Eaglehawk, but the Tasman Arch  and Devils Kitchen were quite stunning.

Our tour guide gave us our marching orders including the what, when, and where we needed to be at the site. We were each given a different playing card which represented a convict. You could find out what happened to him by looking for your card on the displays. Rather an interesting display. This colony was only for male convicts, the women were housed in Hobart. A 9 year old was sent here for stealing 3 boxes of toy cars. The youngsters were housed on a small island away from the men. Back in the 1830's a small crime in the British isles could see you on a voyage to Australia. Their hard labor created the colony and  much of Australia's infrastructure, but the way that they were treated was inhuman. I don't think the Auzzie psychy is quite over this trauma.

We met a tour guide outside the Visitor's Centre who gave us a general talk about what we could find on the grounds and some history as well as the rain fell. A lot of the buildings are just standing shells.  A couple of bush fires and general embarrassment about the convicts treatment had meant the buildings were long abandoned before there were thoughts of preservation of the history. A cruise to take you out to the harbour around the Isle of the Dead, where over 1100 convicts and soldiers/guards lay buried, gave you a sense of what these people saw when arriving. Convicts were taught to read and write and to work at one of the more than 30 trades the community consumed. For most, that was a better life than they would have had back in the UK, but punishment was harsh, 30 lashes for smoking in the blacksmith shop for example.

Isle of the Dead

 Commandant's garden

Not a pretty piece of history.  The community even tried to erase the facts after the site closed down, by demolishing buildings and changing the name of the place. Now it is a world heritage site , preserved for all time.

 Port Arthur harbour view

Bruny Island

 Yellow Boat, with 3x300hp Merc Outboards

 Wind-driven waves crash on the ferry dock

Our next tour was the Bruny Island Adventure, for a cruise along the coast of Tasmania. We left at 8 am on our bus with some short views of historical boats and a few houses from the 1800. A ferry crossing, a two story open barge style, took about 20 minutes, to get us onto the island. The north part of Bruny Island is sheep farming, with most inhabitants, 650 population, spread throughout  the south portion. The two islands are joined by a narrow sand spit created for the car traffic. During the holiday season it grows to 9000. Lots of cottages, one petrol fuel station, and many cottage type industries, fudge shop(yummy), oyster haven, cheese shop to name just a few.

Arriving at our destination, we had “Tea” before departing on our 3 hour cruise which took us to Tasmania's most southern edge. Upon seeing our watercraft and the wind blowing this was not going to be a peaceful ride but a ................
BOUNCY TOPSY TURVEY SEASICK EXPERIENCE. YUK!!!!

Linda was somewhat apprehensive, as the boat was really rocking all over with the winds, but she climbed aboard making sure she had the less bouncy part of the boat, the back end..... just bearable was more like it. All boarded we left the dock to some bit quieter spot ( not by much) for handing out the red waterproof coats and the necessary ginger base sea sick pills to everyone. The pills actually worked really well.

White caps on the waves as out we sped, water splashing, bouncing along at about 20 knots looking at the  rock walls of coastal beauty. A coastline has it's own splendor but can be ruined by stupid people. A couple of days ago a couple of idiots decided to light a campfire in the National park, which is forbidden, with the fire danger at extremely high. They put the fire out, but decided to throw the ashes over the cliff......!!!???

 A fire broke out along the cliffs which had been battled for several days and basically was out until the winds arrived. As we had to go by this point we got some extra excitement, a closeup look at what was happening. We ventured further out to sea to get around the smoke that was blowing out over the water to get to our many stops. The water calmed a bit in the different inlets as we looked at Breathing Holes, Sea Caves of different shapes, rock formations, penguins and seals. We crossed the line where the Tasman sees meets the South Ocean. We never thought we get far enough south to reach this point.

 A faster trip back, and not as bouncy as the wind had changed directions, we hoped to spot some whales and dolphins but no luck. The migration happens in November, so we missed by a week or so. As we approached the fire it was now going back on itself. We have heard the culprits were caught but have not heard if or what punishment they'll endure.

No one was sick, at least not enough to throw up, and Linda relaxed and enjoyed the adventure after she got used to the swerving of the boat. Back to the visitors center, with our lunch served right away as we sat down......Pumpkin Soup, very popular in Australia and really tasty. Then our sandwich was presented ....

Frank thoroughly enjoyed the outing and got some pretty neat photos in between the water drenching. However he did loose something again. His ball capped got ripped off his head even from underneath the hood. So somewhere his blue Gold Coast cap is bouncing along on the waves of the Tasman Sea.

 Cave #1, lovely water colour

 There she blows!

 Cormorants breading time

 Seals rookery

So in the end ...........we'd do it again this TERRIFYING EXHILARATING ADVENTURE!!!!!!

 Smoking tower

 We left around 3 pm stopping at the Chocolate Fudge Shop and at the oyster shack. We were dropped off at the dock at about 5 pm. We then had the tortures to find supper. A lot of places were packed or not the style of dinner desired. We finally looked at a Greek restaurant and had a scrumptious meal to end a fantastic day we'll not forget too soon.

 The Southern Ocean

 Bruny Island with the yellow boats is the place to come in Tasmania..............

Hobart Tasmania Tour to the Huon Valley

An early morning start (5:40 am pickup) had us on our way flying to Hobart, Tasmania. Another smooth routine through airport security, and a shuttle bus close by to get us to our new digs. The drive from the airport revealed it was quite different from what we have been experiencing. A lot more like the interior of BC in both size and geography. Hobart gets about 600mm of precipitation annually, three times Kamloops.

 Hobart from our hotel room

Upon arrival at our hotel, Innkeepers Lenna of Hobart, we were warmly welcomed with our room ready for us at 10:45 am. A little unpacking, then down the street, it is hilly, almost like 1st Avenue, to find what is close by. A lunch at an Irish Pub, then we wandered over to the dockside and checked out a place we needed to be for a tour. After a rest out of the sun, as Hobart was having one of it's warmer days, we walked over to a Quilt Shop about 20 minutes away. We have collected Australian Indigenous Fabrics to  encourage Linda to eventually do a story quilt of this journey.

 Our first tour was to the Huon Valley, 2 hrs southwest of Hobart. Once into the countryside the lush rolling hills with deciduous trees instead of coniferous trees reminded us of the very familiar Alberta Foothills. A quick break to stretch our legs in the town of Cygnet had the delight to see a beautiful rose garden in full bloom. WOW it is the last day of November.....

One more stop was in a town called Geeveston where we stopped at a forestry exhibit. As we approached the tour guide talked about the  Feb 7th, 1967, Black Tuesday event. A ferocious bushfire destroyed 2/3 of Tasmania. 67 deaths and 1500 hundred homes lost. To this day the landscape still has haunting barren grey tall trees, referred to as the Ghost Tree, scattered throughout the area.

Onwards from here to the Tahune Airwalk located in the deep Aussie bush, a tree was down on the road, stopping our passage. Smaller vehicles were able to continue but not our Grayline Tour Bus. It was evident the tree was too big to move manually. fortunately a worker on the way to Tahune came by, went and got a chain saw, came back and cleared our way.

 Linda takes on the Airwalk

We had no idea what Tahune was about, but quite an adventure came our way as we hiked paths through forest. There are 3 walk arounds recommended. First we tracked our way to the Airwalks. A metal frame walkway suspended an average 30m over the forest with views of the Huon and Picton Rivers. This is listed as a 50 minute hike, about 600m of elevated pathway.  It ends up at a cantilever platform with a view of the confluence of the two rivers. Linda overcame her anxiety such entertainment usually generates, and enjoyed the view, while I suffered somewhat from the burning in my right thigh, but made it to the end before having to sit.

 One of the tree species that made the Tas industry

 Linda on the first Swinging Bridge

Made it over:-) 

From here we continued on to the Swinging Bridges, a 1 hour hike according to the map. Trudging through the forest we arrive at the first swinging bridge which crosses one of the rivers. Once over another short walk the next bridge gets us over another river. From that excitement we journeyed back to the Visitor centre which was another hike on it's own. We encountered along this trek a snake slithering back to the bush, black and about 3' long. We stayed clear which was very wise as we have found out it was a tiger snake, the 4th poisonous snake in Australia. We didn't have the energy to do the last walk to see the stand of the famous Huon Pine, as it was quite warm. Hobart hit 34 c. which is very rare for this area. One last stop to see a 400 year old, 90m high Gum Tree, then the long drive home. We would definitely recommend this adventure.

Sydney

Our travel to Sydney was smooth sailing, er... flying. Traffic was slow on the drop-off, and keeping up with the driver on the walk to where the bus awaited was all our legs could handle, but smooth none the less.

Purple Carpet Foyer

Big Organ

 On Sunday we walked over the to the Harbour and proceeded over to the Sydney Opera House. Yes, it is even more spectacular in person. We collected our tour tickets and ended up on the one hour journey through the different theatres and learned the highlights on how this facility became what it is today. There is a back stage tour which we were interested in, but unfortunately wasn't booked for us. Perhaps someday our two kids will get over here and do that one. The white sails are made of individual tiles of two colors, white and cream, with buff, matte, gloss finishes. With a special coating, the sails are self cleaned with the natural rains. This theatre design did not originally make the final selection process, as it lacked a lot of information and provided only basic sketching depicting the shape. However, they went back to the rejects as they were still looking for a spectacular building. Apparently they figured the creation would take 3 years and $7 million, but instead took 16 years and $102 million. The opera house is actually two separate structures, the outside shell and all the other spaces built independently inside of the shell. We saw the Drama, Opera, Studio and the stunning Concert Hall. The main foyer is decked out in luscious deep purple carpets and gold railings. The photos will show a better description. The back wall houses an organ of which you can see approximately 378 pipes with another 10,000 behind. The smallest pipe is the size of your finger and the largest 3 storys high and wide enough to have a human stand in. It took 2 years to tune it and there are about 10 people who have clearance to be up in that area. After our tour we bought tickets for the afternoon concert performance, as we wanted to hear how the sound was in this huge space. Not a disappointment.......

Noodle House

Our second day, the morning adventure was to find a place to eat. We ended up in the underground mall with the bustle of the people going to work from the City Rail Links. We noticed the work attire is black, grey or navy suit with a bit of colour. Most men had dress shirts on with ties. Very rigid.

For the morning we visited the local Museum and learned some history of the area. We ventured over to the Government House in hopes of seeing inside, but its only open to the public on Friday thru Sunday. We wandered back to the Circular Quay, where we had a lunch cruise booked for 12:30 pm around the Sydney Harbour. A buffet lunch was served with quite a few assorted dishes. The Sydney area is comprised of 7 bays and once again the waterway is part of the transportation system. This cruise lasted 2 hours.

 Day 3 was a booked tour to the Blue Mountains Area and yet another zoo. We were at our pickup spot at 6:45 am and didn't get back to Sydney till 7pm. A very long, hot day, but a comfortable tour bus with front row seats(as we were the first pickups), made the journey a pleasure compared to some of the other vehicles we have ridden in. The Blue Mountains get their name from the blue haze that surrounds them on hot days, purported to be caused by oils from the trees. More likely humidity, but they do look blue-ish. Linda surprised me by enjoying the tram at Scenic World down and up to the valley floor. Featherdale Wildlife Park was much more 60's style zoo, but lots of birds, including this peacock, so not a total waste of time.

Our last day we walked over to the Darling Harbour, where we watched The Last Reef on the IMAX screen in 3D with a bunch of local school kids and us few tourists. We felt like we were back in the underground sub that we were on at the Great Barrier Reef. Afterwards we strolled along the harbour and admired the reincarnation of the Endeavour bark that Captain Cook got stranded on a reef at Cape Tribulation. Time for lunch and finally had a good pizza.....


Tomorrow we venture off to Hobart, Tasmania for 5 days. Comments along the way from fellow travelers is it is quite different from where we have been so far, more lush and more laid back. Could use some of that last...