Our flight to Hobart on Friday was again ridiculously early (7:00am). We got up at 4:00, left the apartment at 5:00, and were at the airport at 5:30. The check in process here is almost fully automated. They use a computer terminal to check in like other airports, but the terminal prints both your boarding passes and luggage tags. You simply attach the luggage tags to your suitcases following the instructions provided and place them on a conveyor belt. The bags are weighed and scanned on the conveyor belt, and sent on their way. This whole process takes about 5-10 minutes, and no airline employees are involved.
After picking up our rental car at the airport in Hobart, we arrived early at our hotel. Because our room was not ready, they put us in a room that was ready, a deluxe suite with 180 degree views of the bay. Needless to say Misa found no reason to leave the room for the rest of the day except for a short trip out for lunch.
Katka took a nap after lunch while Misa and I read and rested. Katka and I explored the waterfront and then found a fun Irish pub for supper. We brought Misa back some food from the grocery store.
On Saturday we drove to Port Arthur, a UN World Heritage site and location of one of the first and largest convict settlements and penitentiaries for repeat offenders. After America declared independence, England needed a new place to send its convicts, and Australia was the new location. As a comparison, 80,000 convicts were sent to America through the years, and 165,000 to Australia. The convicts that didn't manage to walk a straight line after getting released from prison, or the trouble-makers from the other prisons in Australia were sent to Port Arthur. Now it is a beautiful and tranquil place, but at the time the conditions were brutal. The maximum punishment (besides hanging) for breaking the rules was 200 lashes. The entry fee included a guided tour and cruise around the bay. We learned a lot about life in Australia at that time, and the history of convict settlements in Australia.
After Port Arthur we headed for our next destination, Swansea. We arrived just after sunset, and at the reception the woman asked me if we had our evening tea yet. I replied no, thinking that maybe Misa and Katka would like some tea before going to bed. The lady then informed me that we should hurry then, because the restaurant would be closing soon. By evening tea she meant supper, asking me if we had eaten yet. Despite the Australians speaking the same language as I do, we often misunderstand each other. One of my favorite greetings they use is, "How're you going?" It is sort of a mix of our "How are you doing?" and "How's it going?"
After checking in we went to the room, then I went out to the car to get the rest of our things. But when I got back to the room Misa and Katka were not there, they had walked out the back of our room down to the bay. All the time in Tasmania it was almost impossible to forget we were on an island, as most of the time we were close to water.
Our next day trip was to Freycinet (pronounced fry-sin-ay) National Park, and a three hour hike to Wineglass Bay, one of the world's top ten beaches. I think it deserves it, based on the beauty of the beach with the hills behind, the remoteness, and the beautiful color of the water. That and the wallabies hopping around, which by itself puts it into Misa's top 10. The hike was almost too much, we had to cross over a good portion of a mountain both ways, and it was really steep. But it was a good workout, and we all made it, and the extra effort made the day more special.
The drive to Launceston took about two hours driving plus a stop for supper at Subway. Our hotel was right in downtown Launceston, a city of about 250,000 people. The city sits right at the conflux of three rivers, and has monkeys. Well, not in the wild, but in the main city park is a large monkey enclosure with 10 or more macaques monkeys from their sister city, Ikeda, Japan. On Monday we walked to the park to see the monkeys, then down to the largest of the three rivers for a river cruise to Cataract Gorge. Cataract Gorge runs right down into the city, and there is a great walking trail along the gorge to a beautiful park at the end. After the river cruise we drove up to the park and rode a chairlift across the lake to the hill on the other side. The chairlift has the largest single span in the world (308 meters, or over 1,000 feet between towers) over the lake, and was part of the Olympic torch relay in 2000. The park itself is amazing, with a large lake that has the gorge on one end and a river with small falls on the other coming down the canyon. Kids were jumping off of a rock about 15 feet above the water into the lake. The park also has an Olympic-size pool, lots of green grass and gardens, a suspension bridge high above the river, peacocks, and wallabies. After a snack, a short walk, and some relaxing time in the park we headed for Strahan.
The drive from Launceston to Strahan was about 5 hours, including a stop at Dove Lake in the Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. On the way there someone asked me where we were headed, and I responded "Strahan," pronounced stray-han. They thought about it a minute and said, "oh, you mean Strahan," but they pronounced it "strawn." The Australian dialect has two distinguishing characteristics that I have identified so far. One is that they randomly drop letters from place names. For example, in Cairns they drop the "r" and call it "cans." Brisbane loses the "e" and becomes "briz bun." Strahan lost "ah" and became "strawn." The other habit is to drop all but the first syllable in a word and add a "y" or "i" at the end. Breakfast is brekky, university is uni, a rash guard is a rashy, etc.
On Tuesday, after a look around Strahan, we drove through Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park to Lake St. Clair. We stopped there for lunch and a stroll around part of the lake. Misa saw a neat old branch out in the water, so she found some driftwood and built a jetty out into the lake to get it. Then she found a boulder with a crack in it and put the branch in the crack like a flagpole. I guess she claimed part of Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park for America.
We finished the day back in Hobart, exhausted but happy. Misa and I walked into town for supper and homeschool, and Katka caught up on email and writing back at the hotel.
Overall I think Tasmania was surprising. I did not expect it to be so nice, I almost never hear anyone talk about it, except the Tasmanian Devil from Bugs Bunny. Every city and park exceeded my expectations except perhaps Cradle Mountain-Lake St. Clair National Park. By the time we got there I was expecting it to be beautiful. Probably the most surprising thing is how dry it is. I know summer is just ending, but I expected it to be really green, whereas it is more like Colorado or the area around Sacramento in California. The other surprise was the cities. Hobart is a regular metropolis, and I could see myself living in Launceston. The small towns and villages are very cute, and the people are probably about as nice as anywhere I have been, equal to New Zealanders I'd say, if not nicer.
