Tag Archives: Tasmania

Second Time in Tasmania

14 Sunday Sep 2014

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Our first time in Tasmania was Easter 2012, I’ve summarized that trip in this post. Despite getting into an accident on the trip (you can read about it here), we still fell in love with Tasmania and knew that we’ll come back. Probably it’s because of the food, or the people (and the lack of), but mainly for me it’s because of its natural features. The mountains, all the possible trails, the coast and the animals. I’ve always said that I won’t mind moving to Hobart for a year. Yep, just a year. I’ve thought about it and it will be more difficult to get out of Australia if I live in Hobart. But a year will not be bad, and of course, frequent visits.

So last weekend, for our end of winter getaway, we flew to Hobart. We were I was initially thinking to go to Snowy Mountains, but I assessed that it will be more expensive and we’ll just be more tired because of the long land travel. Jetstar always have specials and we got our return flight for $150 per person, flying out Friday night and flying in Monday morning. We’ve visited most of the island from our last trip so we wanted to go to somewhere we haven’t been to, and Bruny Island was the number one candidate.

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Andrew planned our itinerary, can you imagine!? His plan was to fly in Friday night, Saturday morning visit Salamanca, afternoon drive to Bruny Island and stay the night there. Sunday afternoon drive back to Hobart and fly back to Sydnay Monday morning. I can’t believe he can pull off such schedule. Haha!

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Tasmania – Devils @ Cradle

16 Saturday Jun 2012

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Growing up, I was  familiar with this Tazmanian Devil.

Taz

Taz is part of the looney toons gang.

Sylvester, Yosmite, Bugs, Tweety, Daffy, Taz and Porky

Taz is also my friend, Monde’s, favorite cartoon character that he even included the word “taz” in his official signature. I’m not kidding. He’s signing documents now with his initials + “taz” + surname. Hi Monde! 🙂

Anyway, only after I moved to Australia that I learned about the real Tasmanian Devils and apparently, it’s where Taz’ character is based from. Tasmanian Devils are only found on the island of Tasmania so it’s must that you see one if you’re visiting Tassie.

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Tasmanina – Cradle Mountain

03 Sunday Jun 2012

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Cradle Mountain is the main reason why I wanted to visit Tasmania. It’s Overland Track was considered as one of the 10 best walks in the world by Lonely Planet (Source: Here). It’s a 65km of wilderness from Cradle Mountain National Park to Lake St. Clair National Park. It was suggested that the track should be done in 6 days and so that’s why I scheduled our trip to be 9 days long.

The famous Cradle

Little did I know that you should register and pay $180 (woah!) and there are only a limited number of walkers allowed to start the track per day. They explained that the fee and controlling the number of walkers allows them to preserve the national park. I had to asked Andrew first if it’s ok for him to pay $180 to be able to walk for 6 days (sounds ridculous, right?). He said he doesn’t mind, so I tried to book the walk. Because our trip falls on the Easter holiday, there were no more slots on any day that we can start the walk. I was so devastated! How can a mountain be fully booked?! I’m sure it can accommodate 2 more extra walkers. We’re even going to bring our own tent! I didn’t have any other choice but to be contented on just doing some walks in the park and hoping that on my next Tassie trip, I’ll be able to do the Overland Track.

Weather was on our side o the 2 days that we were in Cradle Mountain, and maybe because we already used up all our bad luck when we tipped our van (see story here). So for our 5th day, we waited until 10AM until we could get our new rented car. We couldn’t book another campervan, we just settled for a small Nissan Micra which turned out to be perfect when drove through the mountains.

2 hours drive from Launceston to Cradle Mountain

We got stuck behind this big and slow truck

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Tasmania – Staying at Launceston Holiday Park Legana

29 Tuesday May 2012

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We bought food supplies from Coles at Launceston then we drove to Legana (about 10 mins drive north) where we’re staying for the the 3rd night. It is a holiday park, they have cabins with amenities like a normal accommodation, but holiday parks are more common for caravans. The Launceston Holiday Park Legana charges $23-$30 for a powered site.

Our spot, the power plug is on the other side

You’re probably wondering why we still had to pay for accommodation when we had a van which has a mattress and fridge and stove. Well, the reason number one was the need of toilet and shower. Secondly, we could only make the most out of the van’s facilities if we had power. The “powered sites” mean that we can plug the main power of our van so can have AC power inside the van. We didn’t have power on our first 2 nights and we were just relying on the van’s battery. On our 3rd night, we were able to recharge Andrew’s laptop, turn all the lights on and use the heater!!!! We could even use the microwave (But we didn’t as we didn’t have any food to re-heat anyway)

Shared kitchen at the center of the park

 

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Tasmania – Campbell Town Red Bridge Cafe – Best Coffee!

27 Friday Apr 2012

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Campbell Town Bridge

On our 3rd day, we headed back to Launceston after breakfast at Freycinet (I think we just had peanut butter and jelly again). The Campbell Town Bridge was on my list of the things to see, so I was excited as we turn right to Midlands highway from Lake Leake highway . I thought we will be able to see the side of the bridge from the afar while inside the van, but we passed through the bridge didn’t see its structure.  I asked Andrew to pull over so I can see the bridge from the side.

Thankfully we stopped there, and good thing that I was really feeling cold that morning (no hot shower at Freycinet National Park!) because we just had the best coffee on our whole Tasmania trip!

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Tasmania – Freycinet National Park

26 Thursday Apr 2012

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Wineglass Bay from the lookout

“It’s overrated!”

This is what I heard from a group of tourists as we approached the Wineglass Bay lookout. This lookout is one of the top things to see in Freycinet National Park. Because of it’s popularity, you’ll see hundreds of the bay’s beautiful photos online. And I think this is the reason of the group’s “overrated” comment. The photos they saw on their screens left nothing new for their eyes to be amazed at when they stood right in front of the one of the best beaches in the world. That, or maybe they didn’t enjoy the almost one hour hike up to the lookout. Nonetheless, we still enjoyed a day and a night in the park as there’s more to Freycinet National Park than the lookout!

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9 days in Tasmania

18 Wednesday Apr 2012

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Where is Tasmania?

Tasmania is the only island which is also a state of Australia. It is in the south of the continent, an hour and 40 minutes flight from Sydney. It is often joked as not really part of Australia because of its isolation from the main land. I’ve heard about Tasmania even before I moved to Sydney (maybe because of Tasmanian Devils?), but I never really got the chance to know other details. I just always hear that it’s a beautiful island, and those people who have been there and knew that I love outdoors told me that I will have a great time there. They were right indeed. It was my best trip ever!

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