Tasmania, Australia
My trip to Tasmania was a disaster in a lot of ways. First, my flight was 6AM on Saturday. My last day was Friday and I had a small gathering in my house that ended up being a night I drank way too much and made a huge fool out of myself. I don’t remember saying goodbye and I went out, got kicked out of a club, and came back at 3AM. Not at all in my right mind, I fell asleep without an alarm and woke up at 7AM. I rushed to finish packing and ran out to the airport, since some airlines will let you reschedule on the next flight as long as you are two hours within the departure time. Jetstar was not one of those airlines but they let me reschedule for $75 AUD. I realized on the plane that I had forgotten my hat, my warm jacket, and half my mind because I was trying to survive without puking my guts out.
Day 0–1 Hobart:
Anyway, I didn’t have a great morning. I meant to do so many things that included going to the Salamanca Market that only opens on Saturday mornings (which comes with a free city shuttle) and that obviously didn’t work out. I wanted to go on a downhill bike ride on Mount Wellington but any movement was killing me. So instead, I bought a one way bus ticket (no other public transportation) from the Hobart airport to the city center and checked into my hotel. I stayed there all night.
Next day, bright and early, I was ready to explore!
Though I missed the Salamanca Market, there is a farmer’s market that opens on Sundays on XYZ street. It’s a typical bougie hipster-y market with fresh produce, hand baked bread, vegan cheese, honey, and flowers.
I grabbed breakfast at XYZ bagel shop where they had vegan shmear and picked up a rental car from around the corner.
I hadn’t really planned anything concrete for Tasmania — just some big attractions and towns roughly penciled in for each day — so I decided to spend another day in Hobart to make up for the day I had lost because I am a mess.
Another popular and recommended destination is the Museum of Old And New Art (MONA, $30).You can get there by bus or a ferry for $22 AUD and explore a whole big world of whacky and intriguing installations.
They give you a nifty hand held device that explains the different artworks and creates hologram like effects on the screen. Bring headphones if you want to listen to the sounds better. I am pretty sure they have a penis as one of the buttons.
!One is a live human who used his body as a canvas, another is a felt soundproof confession room that amplifies to a horn outside, and another is a fat car. I don’t love art museums, but this one you can get lost in and not be bored! I spent 2 hours here all alone c:
On the way back I stopped at my favorite Australian store — Kmart — to buy a sweater ($12 AUD) and a hat ($10 AUD). Kmart in Australia is nothing like its counterpart in America — it’s like Target things + Walmart prices.. Kind of like Primark but better.
Then I indulged in another Aussie classic — the Bunnings sausage sizzle. Bunnings is like Home Depot or Lowe’s, and they sell super cheap sausages out in the front (served Aussie style — on a slice of white bread). Kind of like the Costco hot dogs — an excellent deal.
Still early in the day — I drove to Mount Wellington. I don’t know how to get here without a car either, but there is a bus service that runs up and down the mountain for hikers. A lot of trails start at Fern Tree and make the way up to the top to the Pinnacle Observation center. I did this the wrong way, because I didn’t do this research and drove all the way to the top!
The top has a lovely boardwalk around the parking lot for the views and connects to the South Wellington trail and the Zig Zag trails. I started going down the Zig Zag trail and realized the uphill is going to suck, and headed back early. I started going down the South Wellington trail and realized the view only gets worse from the top, and lost motivation and turned back early as well.
Tasmanian seafood and oysters are meant to be good, so I headed back to town to endulge.
The day before I visited Mure’s Lower Deck — it’s on a pier that is lined with food BOATS, which is adorable. I still ate at the regular on-ground restaurant because it had a lot of reviews, but I wasn’t super impressed.
Dinner the next day was at Fish Frenzy and I was satisfied! The oysters were big and fresh, the service was incredibly friendly, and the fries that came in a cone were bomb dot com, as they say.
I was planning to wrap up my day in Tasmania early to get ready for an early start the next day. At 6PM on the street in Hobart CBD, I got assaulted by a group of teenagers, where the conflict started with Coronavirus and race related verbal assault and escalated to physical assault. Thankfully, they ran away as a crowd formed, and a truly lovely group of humans approached me to ask if I was okay, waited with me until the police arrived, offered to walk me to my hotel, and gave statements for what they saw.
That night I spent an hour or two at the police station giving my statement and passed on the hospital since I wanted to go to my hotel room and cry. The Hobart police were warm, understanding, and so, so amazing — they arrested and charged all four people who directly had assaulted me verbally and/or physically. I was still shaken and afraid of walking around alone, but not enough to stop me from finishing the rest of my Tasmania trip.
Day 2 Tasmania -> Dolphin Sands:
The next morning I headed to the hospital to make sure I was okay to fly and I was!
I drove to Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary, which is on the way to Wineglass Bay — my next destination. There are a few wildlife sanctuaries in the area where you can see the Tasmanian Devil (the animal that served as the model for Looney Toons’s Taz) and the general consensus was that they are about all the same, so go to the one that is the most convenient.
Bonorong is, as expected, sort of in the middle of nowhere. It’s not a crazy large park but it’s mostly an open area where a bunch of kangaroos roam around freely (waiting to be pet and fed for free) and the devils are in separated areas attached to a bungy cord for exercise and mental stimulation. There are also koalas, all sorts of birds, wombats, and more. The feeding times are supposed to be the highlight, but I was extremely tired so I skipped it and took a nap in my car to prepare for the next chunk of driving.
I hate going on the group bus tours because it ruins the experience in so many ways. It becomes more touristy to see just the photo ops, there’s a bunch of people I don’t want to be with, and I don’t get to work on my own schedule. But I do like looking at the itineraries to see if there is anything I would miss if I were to visit these places alone (hehehe). One place that was frequented by the Wineglass bay tours stopped was Kate’s berry farm. It’s a tiny old place that didn’t really look touristy at all, so I was surprised. They sell all sorts of jams! And related chocolates, ice creams, and scones.
Wineglass bay is in the Freycinet National park and there aren’t many places to stay around there. So I stopped early at Dolphin sands where I found an Airbnb that was really cool. It was a luxurious glamping tent/yurt situation where all the other amenities were extremely eco friendly and hacked together DIY style.
The toilet was composting and the handwashing water was gravity dispensed and held together with a binder clip. The kitchen was made out of corrugated metal scraps and had a tank of rainwater for cooking.
I was a little afraid though.. That since I was in the middle of nowhere sleeping in a tent built on sand, I might get murdered. So I didn’t sleep too well and I got up in the middle of the night in the freezing cold to go to the toilet. When I ducked from under the tent door and looked up I yelped. I thought something was above me, but it was just the sky. It looked like the stars were raining down — this is one of the clearest and brightest sky of stars I had seen in awhile. So I lamented not having a better camera and tripod combo and took photos for a chunk of the night.
Day 3 — Freycinet National Park:
Thanks to the cold I was up and about in the wee hours. I thanked the heavens for not having the night be a horror movie and hopped in my car. I expected to be in the water in Tasmania but apparently I didn’t estimate the weather properly — it was cold af. So I hopped in my car and drove the hour to Wineglass bay along the Dolphin Sands ocean and didn’t care to jump in.
There is a well known oyster bar — Mel’s Oyster Shack, but it didn’t open for many hours. Instead I stopped at the Pondering Frog Cafe which had lots of lovely reviews to grab breakfast. The food was okay, but the owner was such a sweet man! He sat with me while I ate and gave me his hot tips on what to do and where to stay.
There are a few stops along the way including wineries and viewpoints and restaurants besides the pondering frog! None of them were open when I drove past but this one did have its viewing deck open so I popped in to see.
I paid the fee for Freycinet National park and stopped at the lighthouse first, where the Pondering Frog guy said was the best view worth every cent I paid to get to Tasmania. That is a lot of cents, so I hurried on over but I did not think it was at all the best view… Maybe we just have really different ideas of beauty. Looking through my photos now, apparently I didn’t even think it worth taking a photo. I have a photo with the lighthouse though:
Moving on — I went to Wineglass bay — the crown jewel. From the parking lot, take a short 1 hour hike to get to the view point where there is a decent number of people.
The view is great! But it was pretty crowded, so I rushed down to climb down to the other side to get to the beach. The beach was majestic! And the waves were so cold and scary I only managed to get in to waist level three times before I completely gave up.
Honeymoon Bay was noted to be a good snorkeling spot, so despite the cold, I wanted to use my snorkel gear that I packed. So I braved the cold and jumped in and saw pretty much nothing in the water. I gtfo’ed pretty fast.
On the way out I stopped at the famous Freycinet oyster farm to grab them famous oysters, but the oysters here were quite small ): Not like the oysters I had at Melbourne that were from Tasmania and not like the oysters from Fish Frenzy.
The original plan was to drive up the coast to see the Bay of Fires — the coastal area where the rocks are painted orange with lichen — and see the baby penguins at night buuut a combination of my face hurting, coronavirus flight cancellations slowly restricting me, and the strain of driving for so many more hours made me turn to Launceston.
Launceston was a ghost town. I’m not sure if it is normally like this or if this is due to the fear of COVID-19, but many people prefer to visit Hobart instead of Launceston for the food and fun options. The benefit of Launceston is its proximity to Cradle Mountain, but it’s not a large island and not too much farther from Hobart.
One thing that is close to the city center and recommended for visiting is the Cataract Gorge. But this place isn’t exciting to visit at all. It’s just nice. Best suited for families who are looking for a nice picnic spot. Entrance is free but parking is not.
If you wanna see peacocks though, this is your place:
Day 4 — To Sydney:
I skipped the apparently *amazing* Cradle Mountain that is another crowning jewel of Tasmania. There is a famous one week backpacking trail that is difficult to get permits for that I would have really enjoyed!! Alas, I didn’t have any of my gear with me in Australia, and I was exhausted. I headed back to Sydney! I tried to get my original flight refunded in time but no cigar. I also had a trip planned to the outback in the Northern Territories that would have kept me in Darwin or Alice Springs for another week with nearly no signal, which meant I might have been stuck there for too long. So I left Tasmania and Australia with a see you later, hoping to use all my hairline vouchers when there is no longer a global pandemic.
