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| Nick, Erin and Sarah at the scenic viewpoint near Mt. Anne (pre-sweat) |
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| Russell Falls, where we learned about 'drop bears' and Sarah almost took a swim |
| Erin's Tasmania Journals 12-19-02 This morning we woke up and had breakfast with the family before Steve took off for work. Sarah and Nick were reluctant to get up too early on their holiday, and I perfectly understood! I have felt the same way for the past 7 months of travel! We had planned to leave by 8:30am, but got a surprise phone call from the U.S., and were hooked up with my girlfriend Stefanie in CA. I hadn't spoken to her except in emails for 3 months, and she has been helping us plan our wedding in Fiji (as she and Tim will be joining us, as well as the parents and our friends Jim & Sue). So it was great to hear her voice and make some real-time decisions about where we will go and what dates. This conversation took place over the course of about an hour (also talking a bit to Glenn's mom), and we finally took off with Sarah and Nick at about 9:30am, feeling the satisfaction of having gotten some Fiji chores accomplished. Thanks to our friends & family, we will be getting married after all!!! (We seem to be too lazy to do it ourselves sometimes!) We drove out to Scott's Road, a dirt road taking us out to a viewpoint where we could see a huge lake and about 3 mountain ranges! It was spectacular when we finally arrived after almost 3 hours, but we enjoyed the ride as we looked up colloquial words in our Australia guide book and asked if these true Aussies knew what they meant! A couple of words which are supposedly Aussie classics didn't even ring a bell with our native experts! But we discovered a couple of jems, which I'll talk more about later. At the viewpoint, we stopped and ate lunch, while trying completely in vain to capture some of the views with our camera. No way - too beautiful and vast! After that we drove back along the road to the carpark for Mt. Anne, a pretty tough hike that Steve had highly recommended for us. The family has been out to this hike several times and done just the beginning part, as the summit climb would take most of the day. After a mere 1 hour climb you can get great views of the mountains & lake (if you can still breathe, which I came to be in doubt of pretty soon!). Sarah had brought her sketch book and outpaced us pretty quickly to go draw for a bit, while Nick the incredible athlete went further up than all of us. Glenn and I stopped to try and breathe normally for a while, and enjoyed the view while we discussed Fiji. Around 3, we headed back down the mountain and got in the car to head over to see Russell Falls, a lovely waterfall on the way back. It was a short hike along a forest trail to see it, and we stopped to chat with a lady ranger on the way. Sarah was pretty sure that until we opened our mouths and all had different accents, the ranger would have thought she and Nick were our kids!!! I guess that's possible, except that I would've been 10 when I had her (do I really look that old???). But then we went on to the falls, and Glenn proved that he too is too young to be her dad - he and Nick teamed up to try and toss her over the rail into the pool at the bottom of the falls. Bad boys!!! That started the girls vs. boys warfare!!! Then we talked with the park rangers a bit more - remember to ask us about the deadly Drop Bears! On the ride home, we played I Spy in the car, with Nick having clear mindreading powers, and discussed the concepts of Bogans and Mullets. A bogan is an uncouth, redneck-style country bumpkin person, of which there are plenty in some of the suburbs of Hobart ('Norchy Boooogans!'). For those who don't know what a mullet is, see the hairstyle faux pas of Billy Ray Cyrus and 80's era David Bowie! Short on top and long in back, this is the favored hairstyle of bogans and those trapped in previous eras. We had a blast! We arrived home shrieking with laughter, and ended up having a rousing game of Pictionary after dinner. The three teams were Girls (Erin & Sarah), Boys (Nick & Glenn), and parents (Liz & Steve). The artistry was terribly wrong in some cases (our renditions of 'cannonballs' would qualify as obscene material in most cultures, and other drawings would put an abstract master artist to shame!), and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely. The competition from the last spot for the win was fierce and took forever, but the Boys managed to do their mind-meld thing and snagged the win, after which we had to witness with disgust their typically macho display of bragging. What an excellent day! |