Tasmania - It's a real place! (Part 1)

Tasmania is more than just the Tasmanian Devil, and let me tell you that the real Tasmanian Devil looks nothing like the one in the Bugs Bunny cartoon.  Tasmania, or Tassie as Australians refer to it, is an island state off the south east coast of Australia, a long ferry ride away from Melbourne or 2hr flight from Sydney.  We arrived on Christmas day in Launceston (pronounced - lawn-sess-ton) at the top of Tasmania and stayed two days before making our way to the capitol of Hobart, in the southern end, for the remaing 4 days of the trip.

Launceston is a fairly small town, and I wasn't prepared for how small the airport was.  As we descended towards a runway, all I could see were open fields of cows and sheep enjoying their Christmas lunch of local grasses.  They scattered out of the way as we lowered to the ground, and I really thought we might land in a paddock.  There was in fact a paved runway though, but the baggage claim was just a garage with a luggage cart that rolled up for us to find our bags.  Considering the holiday, I knew nothing would be open except our hotel.  However, the restaurant there was closed as well.  We arrived right about lunch time and were thinking that Christmas dinner would be snacks from 7-11, but we ran across a Thai restaurant that was serving.  There were maybe 4 other tables occupied and the classic Christmas carols playing... A little Perry Como and Andy Williams instantly make you feel right at home.  The food was really good too.

With a filled stomach, we decided to wander around the town a bit.  Our hotel was a short walk away from Cataract Gorge.  As I understand it, a cataract is a series of waterways flowing down.  Anyway, there is an easy pathway that winds along the South Esk River up to the First Basin, which is a large pooling of calm water.  It was quite nice actually.  There were peacocks roaming the grounds, and a chair lift gives you a ride to the other side of the river.  It seemed like the perfect place for a lazy, summer (Christmas) day swim.  Once on the other side, we took the more difficult walk back to town, and I must say that I am not in the shape to do it.  It's called the Zig Zag Track, and it just keeps going up!  The cool thing is that we saw a wallaby on the way.  I never get tired of seeing Aussie wildlife in a natural environment.  It's always a reminder that I really live here...

After our hike, we decided it was time to scout out where dinner was coming from, and crazily enough we found a decent steakhouse that is open 365 days a year.  They do allow a surcharge on holidays though.  We made a booking, and luckily so, because the place was packed.  There were either more travelers than I thought, or no one wanted to cook a Christmas dinner.  Christmas meals consist of a lot of seafood, especially since it's summer.  There were a number of news segments about the rush on the fish markets... Time for shrimp on the barbie, except they are actually prawns here.

The next day, we walked around town hoping something was open since it was Boxing Day.  People were certainly out, but only the major department stores were open.  And the two they have were completely flooded with crowds.  (I included a link for Boxing Day considering I'm still not quite sure what the holiday is for other than having the day after Christmas off of work.)  After breaky and wandering around the shopping area, we decided to take a river cruise up the Tamar River towards the Bass Strait.  It was a nice way to spend the afternoon, a couple hours on the water with afternoon tea and a guide covering the history of the area.  It's all about the tea really.  Brits and Aussies love their tea!

The next day, we took the Tassie Link bus from Launceston to Hobart.  I would have to say that 2 days in Launceston was enough.  It sounded like there were more touristy things to do in the outlying towns, but I saw what I wanted to see.  The bus ride was fairly uneventful.  The bus drove us down the main highway, not along the coast.  And the eastern shore, where we were, is much drier landscape.  Supposedly, the western shore is the more lush side of the island, much wetter climate.  (Link to PicasaWeb)