Our Last Week in Tasmania

So what else did we get up in Tassie? After leaving the Tasman Peninsula we made our way up North to Freycinet National Park; this park is mainly known for its excellent beaches, amongst them Wineglass Bay, aparently one of the top ten beaches in the world. This beach is only accessible via a 2hour walk up a mountain and then back down to the beach. Most people (precisely 250,000 per year!) only make the way up the mountain overlooking Wineglass Bay. Unfortunately we got woken up by thunder and lightning that day so a hike up a mountain in a tunderstorm wasn't very appealing to us. After re-shuffling our plans and checking the weather forecast for other parts of the island, we decided to drive on to Launceston (175km away).

In Launceston we visited the Cataract Gorge, a beautiful gorge and river only 20min walk from the city center. Afterwards we did a tour at Boag's Brewery including a beer and cheese tasting at the end. People in Hobart and the south of Tassie love their Cascades whereas 'Launcestonians' prefer Boags - after tasting both and visiting both brewerys we're taking Boag's side. Funnily enough, Boags was the first beer Stefan bought when arriving in Australia, so it was probably meant to be :)

Cataract Gorge in Launceston

The next day we made our way to the Bay of Fires on Tassie's North East Coast. The drive there was beautiful, on a winding road through an enchanted rain forest, very, very picturesque. The weather at Bay of Fires (which is actually not a single bay but a series of beautiful beaches with very white sand and orange boulders) was so so. The photos below look a lot better than it actually was...

Bay of Fires

Orange boulders at Bay of Fires

A bit of rain and quite some wind kept us from staying there longer so we drove on to Freycinet again where the weather looked a lot better than the day before. We didn't wanna risk waking up to rain again so we made the hike to the Wineglass Bay lookout straight away - and were finally rewarded with a beautiful view of the bay.

Wineglass Bay

The last few days in Tassie were spent around Devonport and the Tamar Valley, tasting some fantastic seafood, visiting lighthouses, brewerys, ciderys, berry farms, etc. Everything very delicious...

Cruising the Tamar Valley

The last night we spent at Narawntapu National Park, not far from Devonport and the ferry terminal. While cooking dinner we already were surrounded by lots of kangaroos and wallabies and finally we also got company by a wombat eating his way through a bit of grass not far from us. We then went on a walk to the beach where we again spotted a wombat. So very cute!

Wombat :)

Sunset at
Narwntapo National Park

We're now back in Perth to welcome Erwin and Uli who will spend the next two weeks with us and who will help us finish all our food and drink supplies. We'll then try to sell as much stuff as possible including our car, will rent out the house and will fly back to Melbourne, where Wookie then van is waiting for us.