rtw2

We then flew to Launceston, on the north of Tasmania, to start a week of touring the smallest Australian state. We had a day to ourselves in Launceston before joing a tour, so we spent the time in a local beauty spot Cataract Gorge, a short walk from the town, before enjoying the luxury of the Roman Baths- a wonderful experience. The evening was rounded off with a memorable pizza- the waitress asked us how hot we wanted it on a scale of 1 to 10- hmmm, we like our food quite spicy so we asked for a 7- well, all I can say is the 8 would have been flammable- we could barely eat it- but we did.....and dessert cooled us down nicely.

The next day we joined our tour with Under Down Under, a Tasmanian company which runs bus tours around the island. Ours was a 5 day tour, and we had a very cosmopolitan bus- Aussies, Germans, Japanese, Canadians, Singapore, Korea, Irish, and us Brits. Our guide was Adam, a Tasmanian lad, and he was great- it's easy to like a place when your host shows you round with a genuine pride for his home patch. He also delighted in telling us about Tassie's infamous insularity and inbreeding- it's all apparently true!

In our five days with Adam, we saw rainforests, beautiful sandy beaches, rugged coastlines, snowy mountains, lakes, valleys- as well as beer-drinking pigs, fantastic ice-creams, sunshine, rain, pretty towns, really ugly towns (Queenstown), delicious pies, and a wildlife sanctuary with Tasmanian devils, wombats, koalas, kangaroos and quolls.

We also visited Port Arthur prison, the site of a particularly brutal penal colony run by the British in the mid 1800s. It is said to be very haunted, and ghostly occurances are still reported on a regular basis. So we set off on a night Ghost Walk through the grounds and buildings of the prison, including the very eerie dissection room. We saw no spirits that night, but it was a very spooky place nonetheless.

The second part of our trip was a 2 day trip to the Tasmanian north west, for which we had a different guide. Jonelle, also a Tasmanian, was just the sort of person you want as a guide- loves the area she's showing, but realises that showing you the best food places is what people really remember best. We paid a lingering visit to a cheese factory, where we sampled some fantastic flavours, and after a number of ice-cream stops we reached the end of the world- the westernmost point in Tasmania, where if you look west you won't see land for around 12000 miles- that South America. It's also the point which is known for having the cleanest air in the world.

We spent the afternoon on the Arthur river, a wilderness not logged or ruined by human hand in any way. Then back to Stanley and the Nut, and our overnight hostel, via a pub, where we took on the locals at pool and beat them, walking off with free beers- great!
Our trip back included a visit to a big tree, fish and chips at the seaside, and a cave tour.

Tassie devils- these strange little things have the strongest jawbone of any animal, and can eat through bones and even metal- it said that they could eat their way through a dead human body and clothes (including metal belt buckle) in 3 days- but they do look cute!

Singapore-Melbourne                  Tasmania                    Sydney-Ayers Rock-Kings Canyon
(big cities and great coasts)     (devils, koalas and roos)       (operas, bridges and big rocks)

Alice Springs-Cairns                 New Zealand North Island      NZ South Is. Kaikoura-Queenstown
(reptiles and fishy stuff)           (big balls and gas masks)          (dolphins 'n' ice)

Routeburn Track-Milford Sound         Honolulu-Hawaii Volcanoes NP      Maui-San Francisco
(mountains, waterfalls and 4 wheels) (Volcanoes and Active Lava Flow)   (beaches, bridges and prisons)