There were no shades on the upper windows in our cottage at Seaview so the sunshine woke us up fairly early. Dave braved the shower first. By the sound of it, the bathroom floor was unbearably cold and thus I was in no hurry to leave the warm bed. Finally I gathered up enough strength and found out that yes, this floor was like walking on the frozen tundra! Even with all the hot steam from a shower, the floor remained cold. Just amazing. I got ready, made some coffee, and by 9am we were ready to walk along outside our cottage to see the view that we had missed last night. It was breathtaking. Really, words can not describe. Straight ahead were mountains covered in trees that were greenish blue in color…then a bit to the right there was nothing but beach. The beaches stretched on for as far as we could see and shone silver in the morning sun. it was cold but I was sipping my coffee and the sun seemed to warm us both up a bit. I took a panorama landscape photo of the entire view and we also took some jumping photos and shots of the two of us with the timer. Julia had told us last night that she couldn’t wait to get home after being in Sydney and Melbourne over the past two weeks. I know what she means. Although I could never really live in an area this remote, it surely is beautiful and there is something to be said for having no tv and spending nights in front of a warm fire, and watching the sunrise over the Tasman Sea.
Around 10am we had loaded everything into the car and then stopped by Julia’s house to pay her. She talked a bit more about how glad she was to be back and about how great it was that there were no people around for miles. Both Dave and I thought this was a really odd thing for an innkeeper to say. She actually told us not to tell anyone about Seaview Farms. lol. But, whatever she says, I would recommend it. So there 😛
I drove back into the town along the dirt road and back into town to get some fuel before heading south. The petrol station was also a mechanic shop and the guys stared at me like I was some sort of alien when I walked in…I remembered that I was wearing giant gold hoop hearings, long beaded necklaces, and big sunglasses. I must have looked ridiculous in the country town and Dave proclaimed my earrings a ‘bold choice’ for St. Mary’s, Tasmania. Oh well, lol, have to look ok for pictures. Maybe a bit obnoxious though. Ah well, back to Bicheno! The goal was to stop here, get some chicken strips like last night, and grab a water sample. Unfortunately the chicken place was closed so we went into the visitor’s center next door. The woman was older, probably a volunteer, and gave us SO SO much information about Bicheno. We were up to our ears in information, leaflets, and maps. Really, we just needed some chicken, hehe, so by the time we are done with listening (which was actually rather funny and the woman was very cute), the chicken place was open. We got 5 more chili chicken strips and ate them as we drove to get a water sample and then onwards to Freycinet National Park.
Within the Freycinet National Park is Wineglass Bay, which, if you are researching Tasmania, is sure to come up over and over again. It is half moon shaped with white sand, blue ocean, and mountains in the background. Just breath taking. The drive there wasn’t too bad and before we knew if we were at a visitors center similar to the one at Cradle Mountain. We debated not buying a new sticker for this national park because our Cradle Mountain one was still on the windshield, but it had the date and location clearly printed on it so we had to pay the additional $22 for admission. The ranger lady first recommended that we take a walk down to the water directly from the center, which should take about 15 minutes return. It was great…really, pictures describe so so much better. We did this little walk in about 7 minutes so we figured that the hike up to see Wineglass bay, which should take 1hr 15min, should take maybe 45 minutes return? It was a hike up about 600 steps and it was suggested that we take some water with us and some food. Well, we had no food, so we filled up our water bottles and drove to the start of the trail. It was ok at the start, not too tiring, but it quickly became so with all the steps and the rough terrain. People coming down the mountain would tell us that we wouldn’t be wearing our coats for long and they were sure right. About halfway up the mountain we ditched our coats behind a rock and continued for the rest of the way. It was pretty tough, but seeing Wineglass Bay at the top was totally worth it! We took some amazing photos and made use of the timer for a great one of the two of us. The breeze at the top was amazing too and cooled us right down. Without that breeze it would have been a lot worse. Totally worth it -the pics look like something that they’d sell in a gift shop. We hustled down the mountain, got our jackets, and made it back to the car in about 1 hour round trip. Not bad. We were so so hungry so we stopped in Cole’s Bay only to find that everything was closed…at lunch time. Perfect. A women in the convenience store told us to try the other side of town, which for some reason was a 5 minute drive away (and let me tell you that even if one put both sides of the ‘town’ together, it still wouldn’t equal a full town). After much deliberation (mostly as to how a pub can get away charging $25+ for lunch per person), we settled on a bakery and got hamburgers. I got mine as it was described so it came out with this giant slab of fat on it…I think it was bacon. Yes. It also had two bottoms..lol, those crazy tasmanians. We went into the store, made fun of a lot of the food, and finally settled on these oreo bars and starbursts. I know I know, we are SO healthy. Off to Hobart!!
Dave took the wheel and we began the final leg of our Tasmanian road trip. The drive was right on the coast and I think it was one of my favourite parts of the road trip because it was so beautiful. It was all water and mountains seemingly coming right out of the water. The colors were indescribable and not even a camera could capture even a small part of what we were seeing. We came upon Spiky Bridge, which was a little bridge to basically nowhere and whose sides had spiky rocks sticking out for no real reason (we read the plaque and all!). We stopped at a random beach so Dave could take a water sample and I got some awesome shells. I even found a little one that fit right in the water sample jar. All of these beaches are deserted. I guess it’s fall, but it’s a real testament to how few people there really are! A beach like this in the Northeast would draw thousands even on a cool day like today. We started seeing more cars as we got closer and closer to Hobart but I wouldn’t call it traffic or anything crazy like that. The roads all the way into the city revealed stunning landscapes of ocean and mountains. With our limited maps of Hobart (only the Lonely Planet really), we managed to find the hotel with ease. We did have to turn around because of the 1 way streets, and even going down to the next road to cross over took us completely out of the city. It is SO SO small. we found the hotel without any problems and I ran inside to check in and find out where we could leave the car. Our flight tomorrow is very early so we will be returning the car to the airport Hertz. The hostel situation in Hobart had been quite grim so we had spent the extra $15 to stay in a real hotel which was more than worth it. Everything looked brand new. We got ready for dinner and left in search of Tasmanian crabs only to find that they were out of season 🙁 Oh well. we tried the Ball & Chain, recommended by Gabriel but it didn’t work out and I don’t really like steak which seemed to be the theme. Even though there weren’t crabs, we hit up Mures, a seafood restaurant. We chose the upstairs, all ready to splurge on a real meal, only to find the menu pretty disappointing. Really, nothing really looked amazing. Downstairs was a more casual restaurant so we went there instead. Dave got the lobster and I got thai green curry with scallops and shrimp. We were SO hungry that we also got rolls and split and entree of fried shrimp too. Mine was very good, I think Dave wanted something just a bit better, but at least we were full. By this time it was 9pm and we were on the hunt for dessert. We went back to Salamanca road to try to find something but Dave didn’t want anything on any of the menu’s so we ended up just going to Irish Murphy’s (very redundant) for a drink. Oh! Before going there we stopped in a store to ask where we could get ice cream and the man looked at his watch and proclaimed “9:15?!?! You can’t get anything this late!! Theres a supermarket a few towns over though.” LOL. So that is a good example of how things are in Hobart. After I had a drink and Dave had 2, we went back to the hotel to pack and set the alarm for 4:50am!!
