Nico and I spent about seven days in Tasmania
with our friends Brad and Sue. Tasmania is just gorgeous! The
entire island is very lush and colorful. It's also very
diverse geographically, from rolling farmland to pristine beaches
and water to sharp snow-capped mountains.
In the culinary category, we visited a few cheese
factories, the Cascade brewery, a raspberry farm & restaurant, a few
wineries for tasting, a fudge factory, several excellent
restaurants, as well as enjoyed the great cooking and homebrew beer
of Sue's parents.
The first two days we stayed with Sue's
parents on their farm near Wynard on the north coast. Brad and
Sue, being native Tasmanians, knew the best places to visit.
The first day we visited Stanley and the huge rock called The Nut as
well as spotted some wild platypus. The second day we went
hiking in the
Cradle Mountain National Park and saw wild wallabies, pademelons,
echidnas, and native hens.
We spent the next several days driving east along
the north coast to the
Narawntapu National Park then south along the east coast to
Freycinet National Park, west along the south coast to
Port Arthur and
the
Tasman National Park, and finally to Hobart.
Narawntapu was virtually overrun with wildlife,
including kangaroos, several wombats, and numerous pademelons.
Freycinet is quite beautiful. It covers a
mountainous peninsula in the Tasman Sea, with rocky cliffs diving
into the sea and a couple of beautiful sandy beaches such as the one
of Wineglass Bay.
Port Arthur was established in 1839 and was one
of the first English penal colonies. On the way down we
stopped at several beautiful seaside rock formations and cliffs
including the Tasman Blowhole, the Tasman Arch, Devil's Kitchen and
the Tesselated Pavement.
Hobart was quite fun. Some of the
highlights included a tour (and tasting) at the
Cascade Brewery -
Australia's oldest, an awesome dinner at the
Astor Grill,
hoisting a few at the
New Sydney Hotel, and a nice lunch at
Bar Celona in the
Salamanca area.
Picture gallery here!
Last modified:
05/11/2012
