Ugh! Today sucked! We had to wake up at 4:30am to catch our 6:00am flight into Sydney, Australia. This three hour flight was spent catching up on my feild notebook and trying to sleep. When we finally arrived at the Sydney airport we had to pick up our luggage and transfer onto a one and a half hour flight to Melbourne. When we finally arrived in Melbourne we had to switch planes yet again to fly to Tasmania. With a two hour time change and three airports later we finally arrived in Hobart, the capital city, around 17:00. Feeling tired and extremly sick of both airplanes and airports, the evening was spent trying to catch up on some much needed rest. We also watched the Australian version of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire which was interesting. Hopefully tommorow will prove to be much better!
Today was indeed much better! :) The morning and afternoon was enjoyed by taking a guided tour of the Cadbury Chocolate Factory, where we got to see people and machines in action and sample much of the tasty chocolate fresh off the line. Mmm Mmm! The evening was spent having a lecture and walking around dowtown Hobart which is a cute, but very old looking port city.
Another good day. Today we went to Port Arthur, the first penal colony established in Tasmania. Spending time in the penal colony was interesting. I could hardly image being sentenced to life for stealing a loaf of bread. The afternoon was seen wandering around downtown Hobart and visiting a neat little area called Battery Park. Tommorow we leave Hobart and travel to Davenport, a smaller city in Tasmania. We stay there for two days and then we're off to the main island of Australia where we will be travelling all up the east coast. It should be a great time!
The day started off early and a long four hour bus ride from Hobart to Davenport saw us arrive in the small city of 18,000 at around 14:00. The afternoon was enjoyed on the beautiful beachfront, where a bunch of us earned university credit by playing Ultimate Frisbee on the sand. The evening was enjoyed at the hostel by eating, drinking and being merry.
Today we took a day trip to the historical site of Cradle Mountain National Park. The bus ride to and from the park was long and I certainly didn't think the park was anything to brag about. In my opinion Lake Louise is a far nicer area. We were given three hours to do some hiking and a bunch of us walked around the 7.7 km lake that surronds the area. It was an enjoyable day. The evening was spent catching up on my feild notebooks. Tommorow we leave Davenport and head back to Hobart where we will catch a flight out of Tasmania and into the mainland of Australia. Melbourne is our first destination. I'm looking forward to being in a big city again.