Tasmania- Surprisingly like the UK

I waited for my friend Stacey in the airport in Melbourne only to find out that her plane was late and she had missed check-in by 2 minutes! I boarded my flight worried that I wouldn't be able to get the hire car at the other side as it was in Stacey's name and that she might not join me until the next day. However, at Hobart I got a text saying she had managed to get on another fight that evening as it was delayed as well and she would be with me at 10pm. So I waited in the airport until she arrived. We then picked up our hire car and went to our hostel. It was quite nice and very boutique. We shared with two other girls. One was really noisy in the morning getting up but the other girl Kaitlyn was really nice.

Our first day in Hobart and we wandered round the harbour:

Then we went into town to find breakfast. Eventually we found a cafe back where we started at the harbour. After we went to the museum and art gallery and saw an exhibition on Tasmanian devils.

We then explored Hobart a bit more and walked to the botanical gardens which were very nice.

We then walked back into town to pick up Stacey's travel money and explored the harbour a bit more before doing some food shopping and going back to our hostel for dinner. After which we walked round Salamander street which was mainly pubs and restaurants.

The next day we were woken by a Spanish girl who decided to switch her light on and wake everyone up at 6pm so that was us all awake😒. After getting ready we set off for our day trip to Port Arthur.

We came across some lookouts along the way and a lavender farm:

But the best thing was Port Arthur's Historical Site. This was the first sight that was used as a jail and it had lots of houses and a hospital and church etc that you could go in and see what it was like 200 years ago. A walking tour was also included along with a boat ride around the harbour. It was so windy and it felt like a Scottish summer! This was my favourite bit and is highly recommended.

We then drove up to Swansea for the night. Once we arrived everything shut at 8pm on a friday night so couldn't find anywhere decent for dinner. The manager of our hostel was so rude and when I asked for a hairdryer he replied the hand dryers can be turned up to be used as a hairdryer and he wasn't even joking! I didn't like Swansea!

However, we were there to go on our 5 hour hike round Freycinet National Park. After stopping off at Kate's berry farm and having a lovely scone and jam, we started to hike round the park. It was a tough walk but really enjoyable and we saw a wallaby.

We say the Wineglass bay lookout, which was breaktaking:

Then we walked to wineglass bay. This was like being in a tropical paradise as the water was so blue and the sand really white and we saw dolphins:

We then walked through bush to arrive at the hazzards. These were a bit more rugged but a lot quieter:

Lastly we walked through rugged cliffs back to the car park and saw a snake and lovely views of Tasmania coastline.

After our long day walking we thought we deserved fish'n'chips and so drove to our next spot, Bicheno and had a lovely fish supper. The hostel was nice too and had some nice views of Bicheno.

The next day we drove to the bay of fires. Although it was nice coastline it was just a bunch of rocks with red stuff on it. We weren't that impressed.

But the coast was nice and we stopped off at a nice cheese factory along the way. Even though our sat nav got us lost. The scenery in the north of Tasmania is very green and reminded us of the UK. We then made our way to Launceston for the night.

Our hotel was ok in Launceston, nothing special, but there were a lot of older people staying there. In Launceston we walked to the art gallery which had an interesting exhibition about the Aboriginal Tasmanians and how Tasmania came to be seperate from Australia 14 thousand years ago.

We then went on a nice walk to the gorge which was beautiful and reminded me of switzerland. We even saw a seal:

After we went on a tasting trail and had lunch in the christmas raspberry farm and I had a Raspberry latte.

Then it was on to the cheese factory and the chocolate factory where we stuffed our faces with free chocolates! Finally we made our way through the beautiful landscape to our wilderness lodge, which was the best part of our trip!

The wilderness lodge were a few cabins in the middle of nowhere with amazing scenery and loads of wildlife.

















We were easily the youngest there and the owner was surprised when we turned up wandering why we were here.-too see wildlife! He was a nice old man though and we also made friends with the elderly couple next door to us who has a daughter in Edinburgh.

The cabin was lovely and had a real log fire which we lit. We were taken out to a cave to see glow worms and cave spiders (which were massive). The glow worms were really pretty, especially reflecting of the water. After dark we sat and watched the various wildlife from our window. We saw loads of tasmanian wallabies:

Spotted Qualls:

and bush-tailed possums:

and a feral cat but sadly no Tasmanian Devils (we saw loads dead at the side of the road though).

The next day we set off for Cradle Mountain and went for a two our walk round Dove Lake. This was a beautiful walk although a little hilly:

Then we went back to the lodge for our platypus tour. We did manage to see platypus but it was quite dark.

Then it was back to spotting wildlife in the evening. Again no devils.

On our final day we said goodbye to our wee log cabin in the woods and drove back to Hobart (we couldn't resist another trip to the chocolate factory) and on to our next adventure-New Zealand!

I really liked Tasmania, especially our log cabin! It reminded me a lot like the highlands of Scotland and everyone was really friendly and helpful. If your in Australia I would recommend a side trip to Tassie!