Goodbye Australia!

Sunday, November 7 and we leave Hobart, Tasmania and fly to Melbourne. We had to retrieve our luggage and then WAIT and WAIT for a little over 3 hours before we could check in with VAustralia for the international flight home. Then the last two hours went pretty fast because we stood in line to check in and then had to go through immigration and then customs before heading to the gate to catch the flight that left at 9:30 pm.

Our last Australian sunset

The flight was smooth and the flight attendants did everything possible to make us all comfortable. We had a nice dinner and then lights out in hopes of sleeping a bit before the airplane reached sunshine. Each seat had its own tv screen where we could pick from a variety of tv shows, movies, games, etc. So after giving up trying to sleep we each watched a couple of movies and some tv shows before landing in LAX about 4:30 pm on Sunday, November 7, the same day that we left Australia.

Australia currency does not have any paper bills under $5. We usually had a collection of $50, 20, 10, 5 bills and assorted coin. The coins are: $2 small gold coin; $1 bigger gold coin; 50 cents, 20 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents. Unlike US currency, there is no 25 cents and the 5 cent coin is smaller than the 10 cent coin. While in Australia, the AUD currency hit a 28 year high against the USD, exchanging just about even dollar for dollar. We were fortunate that we had paid for everything except for $$ needed for daily expenses (food, souveniers) when the exchange was lower (1 AUD = .90 USD) so that saved us some money. Things are expensive in Australia. I've mentioned before that a cup of coffee (and that is just ONE cup..no refills) was anywhere from $4-5.50 a cup. Most meals were $25-$35+ per person and everything ala carte. We often shared a main meal--that helped the money stretch and the waistline not stretch. LOL

Australian currency

By the time we reached the airport, we didn't have much Australian currency left. After a purchase of a (small) bag of chips and a bottle of water, we were down to this:

Now we're home and dealing with a little bit of jet lag and a mountain of laundry and mail.

6 weeks' worth of mail

The trip was awesome and we loved every minute of our cruise and our travels down under. We met some wonderful people, learned lots about travelling, and experienced cultures and countries totally new to us. It was a dream trip come true! Now, where should we go next???!!!

A hike and a snake

Our last full day in Hobart, Tasmania! Today is Saturday, November 6 and our first destination was to the Salamanca Market, just a couple blocks from our hotel. The market is held under the huge plane trees in front of the old whaling warehouses in Salamanca Place. The market has been held every Saturday for the last twenty years or so. It boasts a wide range of crafts, books, vegetables, and ethnic stalls as well as street theater and entertainment. We browsed the stalls and found a few souveniers of Tasmania that we couldn't live without!

Salamanca Market held every Saturday morning

We next walked along the wharf adjacent to the markets and inquired about the Sea Shepherds. We watch the show "Whale Wars" which is about the whale saving activist group, Sea Shepherds, who sail the Antartic Ocean to tharwt the efforts of Japanese whaling vessels. We knew they have stopped in Hobart on their journeys and inquired as to where they may have docked. We found out it was on the pier just down the street that they docked at last summer. It would have been fun if they had been in port while we were in Hobart!

Where the Sea Shepherds docked last summer

In the afternoon we headed up Mount Wellington, the tallest mountain around Hobart which provides fantastic overviews of the city, harbor, and ocean. It was just a 20-minute drive from our hotel to reach the top of the mountain. Just before the summit we stopped for a short hike that climbs about 50 yards uphill before leveling off and running along the contour of the mountain. We had some beautiful views, but the hike was difficult as it was mostly navigating stepping on and over rocks from landslides. Once we decided we had gone far enough, we turned to return the same way and within 5 feet we saw a black snake. It was about 2 feet long and it had to have been about 1 inch in diameter. Well, I screamed and jumped up and down while Terry claims he was telling me to run...like I could do that over the rocks--I had all I could do to stand up and walk. It was then declared that the snake was more afraid of us than we of him (ya, right) as he quickly slithered away under the rocks. From that point on, I was very aware of every little scampering I saw on the rocks as we hiked back to the car. All we saw were geckos, which was fine with me. Australia has 23 of the 27 venomous snakes in the world.....I'm hoping this one was not one of them!

Our hike along the side of Mount Wellington

View of Hobart from high above along the trail

We made it to the top of Mt Wellington and the Visitor Center

We continued the drive to the top of the mountain for some fantastic views. Once we were back into Hobart, we walked around St. David's Park by the harbor and watched the Salamanca Market vendors pack up their goods--selling was done for another week.  St. David's Park is situated on th site of the first cemetery for the colony of Hobart Town, and has many of the tombstones of the first settlers, as well as those of some settlers who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788. 

Relocated tombstones from early 1800's

In the evening we returned to an Italian restaurant, Da Angelo's, that we visited the first night in Hobart. We spent the whole dinner time reminiscing over the past 6 weeks of travel. Amazingly, we could remember what we did at each location.

The last two days have been clear blue skies and wonderful temperatures in the 70's and we now must soon face the long airplane ride home and the approaching winter weather in Colorado.

Derwent Valley and Mount Field National Park

Today was a bonus day....about a month before we left on the cruise, the airline for our return trip to LAX made a change in the departure time by moving it up about 9 hours earlier. Since we would be travelling from Hobart to Sidney to catch that flight that same day, it would be impossible to make the connection. So....we added one more day to the trip--what the heck--we're retired! Today was the added excursion to our itinerary, a day in the Derwent Valley to the north of Hobart and the Mt. Field National Park.

We left Hobart and followed the Derwent River north, through pretty historic townships built on the banks of the river. We passed through the most beautiful green rolling hills, which were farms for sheep and cattle. The flowering trees and shrubs are in full bloom.

This photo in no way does justice to the bright green hills.

The Derwent River, which flows all the way to Hobart and to the sea.

Our destination was the Mount Field National Park, which is one Tasmania's oldest and most loved national parks. We parked at the Vistor Center and went in to find out that there was a daily park usage fee of $28. We hesitated ever so slightly as all we knew of the park was that there was a waterfall after a 10 minute walk. Sure glad we decided to take in the park as it was SPECTACULAR! We took a 2-hour hike that passed by 3 beautiful waterfalls, tall tall swamp gum trees, which are the world's tallest flowering trees, and on the forest floor, huge ferns. The day was beautiful; the skies were clear and the sun shone down through the trees onto the ferns and moss. It was a great hike.

First waterfall--Russell Falls

Large ferns covered the forest floor

Terry alongside a very tall swamp gum tree

Inside the base of a fallen tree

Waterfall #2-Horseshoe Falls

Waterfall #3--Lady Barron Falls

Kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils

Thursday, November 4 and we checked out of wonderful accomodations at the Cascade Colonial and headed back towards Hobart stopping at the Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park. It was fun to see the Tasmanian Devil and Kangaroos at feeding time--we even got to hand feed the kangaroos. We just could not go to Australia and Tasmania and not see kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils. It was an interesting place and we spent over 2 hours there.

Tasmanian Devil saying "hello" to us!

Waiting for her lunch.

Kangaroo and her joey

We were invited to feed the kangaroos

Next we travelled back toward the Hobart area by going through Richmond, a quaint village that was the first area granted to free settlers from England for farming, and at its center they established a township reminiscent of their homeland. Richmond now includes some of Australia's oldest colonial architecture. Most of the buildings were constructed by convicts, including the sandstone bridge built in 1823 and Roman Catholic Church built in 1825. It is in the heart of the Coal Valley Wine Country, with many vineyards and wineries.

Richmond Bridge

The Catholic church

One of the many vineyards

We arrived at our hotel in the Historic Battery Point. The building in which it is housed was the Duke of York Hotel back in the early colonial days of the 1800's, and the owners have done it up with modern amenities, but have kept a feel for the dimensions of the original building to make a most comfortable, centrally located accommodation. We have the entire 2nd floor of the building, which includes, 2 bedrooms, a bath, full kitchen, and dining/living room. WOW!

Our hotel--we had the entire second floor of the building

The living room of our hotel floor

View from our hotel window

A walk around the immediate area which is adjacent to the wharf and a dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant and we are set for a relaxing night!

Every house has the front yard filled with flowering bushes, mostly roses.

A coastal cruise and a convict site

Wednesday, November 3 and today's weather looked promising as the rain stopped and it was clearing. After breakfast in our cottage we headed out for a day of siteseeing. In the morning we had a coastal cruise scheduled. We stopped at a few beautiful spots prior to boarding the boat for the cruise. We travelled 70 km up the coastline from Port Arthur to Eaglehawk Neck. The boat ride was WILD. We have never experienced so much bouncing around. We thought the seas were pretty rough as the boat bounced up and down and we literally flew out of our seats. It was fun, but wild. The seas were rough--we learned later they were only 1.5 meters, or 4-5 ft waves, but they were sure big to us.

A preview of the shoreline we would soon cruise along.

On the boat ready to head up the coastline.  They offered us ginger tablets prior to boarding.  That should have been a hint of what was to come with rough seas.



Seals



Sea cave and we rode right up into it.

To find whales, you follow the birds as they feast on what the whale stirs up.

As we cruised along, we saw a whale, seals, and a variety of birds. The coastline was rugged with cliffs that soared out of the ocean. At times the boat was just a few feet from the cliffs as the captain was showing us hidden caves and arches.

Next we headed to the Port Arthur Historic Convict Site. The penal station was established in 1830 as a timber-getting camp, using convict labor to produce sawn logs for government projects. From 1833 it was used as a punishment station for repeat offenders from all the Australian colonies. We toured the site with a guide and learned that Port Arthur was much more than a prison, it was a complete community--home to military personnel and free settlers. And the community of military and free men and their families lived their lives very differently than the convict population. There were beautiful gardens and homes.

Our guide explaining how the convicts were separated and isolated from others as punishment.

Port Arthur Convict Site

Following the tour of the site, we had a couple hours before our dinner reservation and ghost tour that evening. So, we drove back toward our hotel as Terry had noticed a junkyard and thought that would be the perfect place to buy a couple Tasmania vehicle license plates for our son-in-law, who collects plates. So off to the junkyard we went. Terry came out with a couple plates for Ryan! Yeah!!

Success at finding license plates

As darkness fell on Port Arthur, we met up with our Ghost Tour. In a group of about 20 people, our guide led us through several of the buildings on the site and told us stories of strange events going back to the convict days. She did a good job in making us feel creepy as we walked through the rooms. Didn't see anything out of the ordinary, but it was fun. As we walked to our car we marvelled at the stars in the

Terry was chosen to carry one of the lanterns during the ghost tour.

sky. The sky was clear and the stars were like glitter up there. We couldn't pick out the "Southern Cross" but we saw a gazillon stars and they were awesome.

On the drive home, we narrowly missed hitting two wallabies on the road. That was the scariest part of the evening!

We arrive in Tasmania

On Tuesday, November 2 we headed to the airport, but while waiting for our driver in the hotel lobby, we watched people leaving for the Melbourne Cup. Today is a holiday in Melbourne in honor of the last day of the Melbourne Cup horse races. Much like the Kentucky Derby, people dress up for this event in fancy dresses and hats for the women and dress suits for the men. Our driver told us that tickets for the Cup go for about $2000 this day. Ouch!

Our flight to Hobart Tasmania was uneventful and short...only 1 hour and 15 minutes. We were out of the Hobart terminal with our rental car within the half hour after landing. We headed out of town traffic and toward the Tasmanian Pennisula, which was good as Terry is now driving on the left side of the road in a car that has the steering wheel on the right side. We made it through the first roundabout with no problem. I kept whispering, "bear left, bear left" and Terry did a great job.

Highway sign to watch for kangaroos and wallabies

We stopped for lunch in a small town called Sorrel and ate at the Wok & Roll Asian Cafe. Our waitress was the spitten image of our niece, Missy, but with an Asian twist. Both Terry and I remarked on the similarities. By the time we finished lunch, it was raining! The rain followed us all the way to our destination in Koonya, just a few miles north of Port Arthur at the tip of the pennisula. Tomorrow's forecast is better so hopefully the rain is moving out.

We are staying at the Cascades, a delightfully renovated Colonial Historic Accommodation. We are staying in an individual stone cottage from the early 1800's. It is part of the old Penal Probation Station. The cottage is an authentically restored and renovated convict building with colonial decor and period furnishings. Our cottage was once the 'workhouse'. This is in a beautiful location right on the water's edge of a bay. It's very unique and a fun and different place to stay, but no internet available so this posting will have to wait.

Our hotel room.  We have the entire building to ourselves.

View from the ocean of our hotel

Our living room.  Also had a kitchen, dining room, foyer, bedroom and 2 bathrooms.

 Tonight our host took us up on the hills above the property for a nighttime expedition to see wildlife. Instead of walking we drove in a truck through the fields as the grass was long and wet from the recent rain. We saw possums, wallabies, and wombats. Pictures were hard to get in the dark, though.

Koalas and Penquins

Our last full day in Melbourne was a busy one. In the morning we took off for a self-guided walk around the downtown area, stopping by the Parliament building and then the beautiful Fitzroy Gardens, which is a park within the downtown area, much like NYC's Central Park but not as large. The trees and flowers were amazing.  We walked back to our hotel along the riverfront.

After a pub lunch we were picked up to be driven to Phillip Island about 2 hours outside of Melbourne. Our first stop was at a winery for some local wine tasting. Then we went to the Koala Conservatory and walked among the eucalypts, which is a 'gum tree' (kookaburra sits in the old gum tree....remember that song?--and we have seen and heard the kookaburras). We saw several koalas up in the trees. The conservatory has elevated platforms to walk on through the trees to get you up off the ground for better viewing of the koalas. We also saw wallabies, which are like small kangaroos.

Koala

After dinner at a local restaurant we headed to the coastline of the island for the "Penquin Parade". Every evening at sunset hundreds of little penquins (fairy penquins) come ashore and waddle across the sand to their burrows in the hillside. This was the most amazing experience. The penquins were fun to watch as they swam in from the ocean, organized themselves into small groups of 5-12, and then waddled across the beach and up the hill...they really do form somewhat of a line and it looks like they are marching in. We were in a group of 10 with a guide that brought us to some terrific viewing spots. No photos were allowed to be taken as the flashes would scare the penquins so all I have is the photo taken inside the visitor center.

Now we are packing our bags and will soon head to the airport for a flight to Hobart, Tasmania, which is the last destination for this most wonderful trip downunder. This might be the last posting for awhile as I would not be surprised that the hotels we will be staying will not have internet access. If that's the case, I'll catch up when I can.