Jim & Barbara Burton Travel: January 2013

Tasmania,

On Saturday January 12, 2013 after a very early flight from Christchurch via Melbourne we arrived in Hobart, picked up our rental car and travelled to New Norfolk on the Derwent River. Rosie’s Inn was a lovely B&B, which looked fairly small from the outside but was huge inside. It was full of character as were our hosts Rosie & Colin. We had a very comfortable one night stay with a wonderful breakfast before moving further south to the Leisure Waterfront Inn which was much closer to Hobart and very convenient for access to everywhere we wanted to go.

Sunday we picked up a few groceries and took a drive into Hobart. It was very busy as there were two large cruise ships in Port, one of which being the Solstice which we will travel back to Honolulu on, in April. The one in the photo is the Diamond Princess, ours was tucked in behind it. Hobart is a very pleasant place with a bustling waterfront and interesting historic area called Battery Point.

Before we arrived in Tasmania the southeast part of the Island had been undergoing devastating forest fires, particularly around Dunally. Port Arthur, the very famous Australian Penal Colony is located in this area and only accessible by travelling through Dunally. On Monday they opened the road for the first time and we drove to Port Arthur through massive devastation, a heart wrenching experience. (see photos) The scenery along the coast however was beautiful and some places totally untouched. In Dunally most houses were burnt to the ground and yet a house in the middle of it all was standing as though nothing had happened around it.

Port Arthur was an amazing experience. Some of the prisoners were incarcerated there for such things as not turning up for work or stealing food to survive. It was a very gruesome place back then with no way to escape, chain gangs and hard labour for political and petty crimes treated equally as those for murder and rape. In order to operate Port Arthur it required many workers and a very English Village was built to accommodate those folks and their families. It was segregated from the prison enclave and for all intents and purposes life went on as if there was no penal colony there at all, unless a prisoner escaped and ended up in one of the cottages frightening a poor lady to death.

Tuesday we decided not to travel far and wide in the car but went just ten minutes or so from our accommodation to The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. These gardens were very serene and beautiful and in 1836 were visited by Charles Darwin. The trees were huge and the views to the Tasman Bridge were spectacular.

Wednesday we drove to Launceston and stopped on the way at the little town of Ross. Ross is a very Scottish little town and was the site of the first prison for women. It should be noted that the old buildings, roads, railways etc., in Tasmania were primarily constructed by convicts. Most certainly the cheapest form of labour. In Launceston we visited Cataract Gorge and although a completely natural place at the turn of the last century it was decided by the council at the time to make it into a park for all to enjoy. Hence, we have this mix of natural and manmade. The suspension bridge was built in 1940 and latterly the chairlift, that spans the gorge, which has the widest span of any chairlift in the world. We did not spend too much time in Launceston as we wanted to drive through the gorge to the east coast. This was quite a long and windy drive with spectacular vistas. The east coast is beautiful and pretty much devoid of people except for a little township now and then. We stopped in Bicheno at a fabulous seafood restaurant for dinner. The view and the food were superb. Unfortunately, we had to complete our drive back in the dark, which was quite disconcerting as all the “critters” come out at dusk. We had to avoid several Wallabies and other smaller marsupials but managed to navigate a safe trip back. Note to self – no more night-time driving.

Thursday morning “I HAD” to get my hair done., so afterwards in the afternoon we went back to the southerly end of the east coast to see what we had missed in the dark, stopping at a lovely little town called Richmond for dinner, yet again built by the convicts. We had a nice dinner in the Hotel Pub and a much earlier drive back in daylight.

Friday we drove into Hobart and then to the southwest to explore the Huon Trail. This was a very scenic drive through quaint little towns, windy roads with sheer drops into the sea and a very rugged unspoiled coastline. We drove to the furthest point south enjoying unparalled vistas. The inlets and rivers in places were like raging seas.

Saturday our plan was to drive to Hobart and pick up the catamaran to travel up the Derwent River to the famous new Art Gallery/Museum, MONA. We arrived into Hobart only to find that there was not a parking space to be had for love nor money. We had forgotten that on Saturdays they hold a huge market in Salamanca just up from the waterfront. It is a very famous market with all the streets occupied by market stalls. As we could not park we decided to forego the river trip and drive to MONA. They were also having a market and festival in the grounds. The Museum only opened two years ago and is a world acclaimed building architecturally, as it is all built into the rock and essentially all underground. It was built at the exorbitant cost of 80 million dollars, by the owner of the Moorilla estate and includes a very large vineyard. His name is David Walsh, a 50 year-old professional gambler and “art patron” with warped ideas in my opinion. His parking space says GOD and the one next to it says God’s Mistress. You can form your own conclusions. However, the art inside, in both our opinions was awful. It was very sixties, unbelievably depraved and very sadistic. Hence it does not warrant any photos on our blog. We didn’t stay as long as originally planned so had a void to fill for the rest of the afternoon. As we were already half way up the Derwent River we decided to do “The Rivers” as it is called and went as far as Mount Field National Park, which is a very quiet natural area. We would have liked to have spent more time there hiking but time was not on our side. On hindsight we should have dispensed with the MONA excursion and headed straight to Mount Field. It was very interesting on the way as vines were replaced by hops for the beer industry. We also noted some distilleries where they produce fine single malt whiskey. We ended our day back in New Norfolk at the Chinese Restaurant where we had dined the night of our stay at Rosie’s B&B. The food was very good and a reasonable price too.

Sunday was our final day, in what we had come to know fondly as Tassie, almost feeling like a local. Bonorong was our final expedition and what a wonderful experience. It is a wildlife rescue centre where they rescue wild animals, rehabilitate them and reintroduce them back into the wild whenever possible. Many of the animals are from road accidents, mostly where the mother is killed and the baby is still alive in the pouch. Some of these animals can never be sent back to the wild as they have no survival skills but many are. The Kangaroos and Wallabies have all been born there from rescued animals and cannot be released but they have a lovely life being fed “Roo Food” by the patrons. This endeavour is totally funded by private donations and entry fees. They are actively involved in a breeding programme to save theTasmanian Devils from extinction as 85% of them have been lost in the wild due to a fatal contagious nose tumour. Hopefully they will be able to be reintroduced when the disease is eliminated. They have an amazing array of other animals too and among our favourites were “Digger” the Wombat, a juvenile and “Bert” the Koala. Koalas are not indigenous to Tassie but he and some others were sent to Bonorong because their habitat was lost on the mainland and they would have starved to death. Bert will spend the rest of his life there along with two females in the enclosure next door but he seemed to be enjoying all the pampering he received. While we were talking to his handler we saw our first Huntsman spider in the wild. Quite large to say the least but it ran away before I could pick it up. Oh no! I mean photograph it. (Please don’t faint Pat & John) Digger on the other hand will be released when he can dig his own tunnels and dens. I could go on forever about Bonorong but the blog might blow up so I will end here. Monday we fly to Melbourne…………………………for the tennis Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!