Tasmania

Last week we had another week off so the three of us planned a trip across to Tasmania seeing as we knew so many people from there we thought we ought to finally see if it was as good as they all said it was.
Got into Launceston late on Monday after the girls had finished a night shift on Sunday night. Met Zac and Shevan that night as they were letting us crash on their sofa bed. We'd previously had Zac stay with us a year or so back and was good to meet Shave. Went to Breakfast with Shave on Tuesday and began the week long tradition of eating out for brekky. Can definitely get used to this, although maybe its a good job I've got my weights now to work off the calories!

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I just found this blog that I hadn't posted so the rest may be a bit sketchy!

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Weds we drove down to Hobart - got a Pug 307 (a more high class form of transport apparently!) - took about 4 hours to get down there as 1. it was raining, 2. I took a slight detour (planned I may add), 3. did I mention that it was raining?!?, 4. had lunch at a nice little cafe and 5. it was raining!!  Didn't see much of Hobart as the cloud base was so low, but what we did see seemed nice enough.  Decent restaurants and bars, nice shopping and a nice sea front.  Had fish & chips on the front which was really tasty - fish is the Hobart specialty.

Thurs left Hobart via Frecinet National Park where we visited Wineglass bay.  Made our way up the East coast after leaving there at around 3.30pm and after reaching St Mary's detoured back to Launceston via Fingal.  This then turned into quite an adventure - gravel roads at night - Wombats on the verge, Kangaroos hopping across the road in front of the car, wallabies on the road, all sorts!  It was fantastic and soon made Iz change her mind from it being a bad idea to one of the highlights of the trip!

Fri went to Cradle Mountain - another mammoth drive from 8am right up to 5pm when we dropped the car back at the rental place.  Cradle Mountain was good although all the 'tracks' were wooden board walks - even those purporting to go to the summit started off with a boardwalk that disappeared over a ridge.  I don't think they have quite the same idea of rambling/hiking as we do!

Sat got up lateish and went to a Tasmanian Devil park.  Did you know that their bite is 11 times as powerful as a pitbull??  And Iz was wondering if she should hand feed them a meaty stick!

Sunday we headed home in the afternoon after spending the day with Zac doing a few more wineries and the Jantz sparkling wine factory.  Got the plane and missed our train back from Sydney so had to wait with all the remaining party goers hanging around the only food stand still open at that time of night.  Grabbed a few cups of hot chocolate and then caught the train and finally arrived home at around 2.30 in the morning.  Em was a tad pissed off as this meant she had only 4 hours sleep before work.