Tazzy - Wild weather, wildlife

Tasmania, or Tazzy as the Aussie would say, is a quick flight away from Melbourne and I took advantage to do a quick 3 day jaunt.

Tasman Arch

The island state is situated such that the weather is wild.  One moment its sunny and warm, the next minute it is 40mph winds and snowing.  It makes packing a nightmare (don't just think layer, think wear ALL the layers you brought or should have brought).  At the end of the day, however, the small portion I was able to visit was beautiful and entertaining- definitely worth a visit.

Hobart

Hobart is a quaint little town that you can easily walk around in a day.  A few highlights of the town include:

Saturday's Salamanca Market is a fun market to taste your way through.  Most items are local made and all are local owned so it is a great place to see true Tasmanian goods.  I wish I had a bigger stomach as I walked through!

I don't know how this guy was in short sleeves and I had my parka on?!

Salamanca Market - fresh food section

From there you can walk along the waterfront.  I was lucky enough to see the research ice breaker vessel "Aurora Australis."  Apparently people come from all over and try to plan to see this...I just happen chanced upon it!  I didn't think anything of it till I was showing the picture to a local and they were like, "I got to get down to the waterfront!"  There are some great fish and chip places to eat along the waterfront as well - something I miss in landlocked Utah.

The botanical gardens are beautiful, not only from the standpoint of flora but also the setting and views over the waterway.

View across the harbour

Mt. Wellington

I'd love to say that I had an amazing vista from on top of Mt. Wellington.  Well, you know that wild weather I was talking about?  Ya, it struck me.  When I got up to the top it was about zero visibility with 60mph blowing sleet.  EEECK!  I had planned to hike up and around for the day but instead spent about 30 minutes freezing before heading back down.  My fingers were literally going numb.  I guess I'll have to save that experience for another time.

Freezing at the Top - the largest tower in Australia is actually just behind me.

About half way down it did clear a little and I got a cool picture through the clouds.

Peeking Through the Clouds to Hobart

Of course, about 4 hours later it was sunny and nice.

View to Mt Wellington from the Botanical Gardens - timed that one wrong!

One fun item is that you can drink the water in Tasmania so I stopped and filled my water bottle from a small waterfall - that was refreshingly tasty and cold!  If you go you have to do this novelty thing (at least novelty for us North Americans)

That water's fresh!

Hint:  The Hobart Shuttle Company which leaves from the tourism office goes up twice a day for cheap.  

Port Arthur Area

This is definitely worth a day trip to check out all the cool things that are out in the Port Arthur world heritage area.

Seacliffs along the drive to Port Arthur

Port Arthur is one of the first areas that Britain sent its prisoners to back in the day.  While the story isn't the most pleasant (8 year old boys were sent to Tasmania for punishment to give you a flavor of the salty history) the site is well kept and worth a 3 hour visit.  Some on my tour took the 4 hour options and most finished rather early.  

Instead of doing the extra hour at Port Arthur I opted to go to a reserve to see some wildlife.  I love wildlife.  And let's be honest, who goes to Tasmania and doesn't want to see a Tasmanian Devil?  Hello!  I didn't realize that devils are like the "hyena" of Australia.  They eat anything dead and will eat up to a fourth of their body weight in one sitting.  Man, on Thanksgiving I wish I could do that (or maybe not?!).  Besides devils, I got to pet kangaroos and see a few other native species.  It was definitely a great add on.  

These are the size of a toy poodle

No roo boxing with this joey

This is NOT an owl?!  It's a Tawny Frogmouth (glad that's not my last name!)

Additionally, on this tour, you get to see Australia's oldest church and oldest bridge (Tazzy has lots of "oldest in Australia" things).  If you can, opt to take the walk from the bakery to the bridge as it is a short but much prettier view of the bridge along the river. 

 Oldest Bridge

Oldest Church

At the end of the day we talked the tour guide into swinging by a beach so we could watch the sunset across the sea.

Tasmania has lots of beautiful sights and history to make it on your list of destinations to visit.  If you want to see additional pictures please visit my photo album at TrekkingTrego Public Gallery. All pictures are available for purchase.