Van Diemen’s Land

We left an overheated Perth and arrived in a much cooler Hobart after a very uncomfortable flight, delayed of course, thank you Jetstar. The minivan was waiting for us. I do say minivan as opposed to the camping-car advertised on the website. The Youtube video showed a brand spanking new vehicle, with room enough for a football team and the comfort of a hotel room.

Instead we picked up a rusty old minivan, with hardly any legroom and an engine that blew up after 5 km. The explanation from the rental agency is I had under-worked the engine, it was designed to be rev’ed up. My arse ! I’ve never heard of an engine that stalls in third gear at 4000rpm. Great start to the holidays.

Not to worry, after a painful transaction in downtown hobart, we were issued with a modern Mercedes, much to the video’s standards.

And so we headed south, to the southern tip of the island, for a quick bushwalk. The weather was…well it was Tasmanian weather. Four seasons in one day. Make sure you have your bathers, a raincoat, an umbrella, and some sunscreen. You never know.

For the next few days we drove around the South and West coast of the state, across the lush forests and beautiful hills of the South-West corner. We reached Queenstown and wondered if we had landed on the moon. The last time I was here was November 1995, and to be honest, not much has changed.

Cradle Mountain was calling us but the weather was too rough to even see it, so we waited 24h for the forecast to clear, and spent the night in the campsite. I think that was our coldest night for a long long time. Even winter in Western Australia does not get that cold. And this is summer !
The skies were clear the next day so we hiked the first bit, to the Cradle plateau. What a sight !

Our next stop was to be the tiny village of Cressy, some 30k South of Launceston. But on the freeway, as we were cruising at the legal speed of 110kmh, BANG the rear tyre exploded. Have you ever tried to keep a 2.5ton vehicle with only three wheels straight ? Well it ain’t easy ! Luckily we managed to pull over without hitting any cars or tipping over. Today is Christmas Eve and there’s no way in hell we will find a tyre shop or anything open for that matter.
We made it to Cressy and spent the evening with our friends from New Caledonia, David (Quebec) and ‎Laïna (Tahiti) are on a working holiday visa and fruit picking their way into Australia, while Jean-Baptiste and Armelle (FR) are only visiting the island for two weeks. We hadn’t seen each other since 2012 so it’s always great to randomly catch up with friends on another part of the world.

Time to get to Launceston. This is where it all began. August 1995, I was a scrawny teen, barely out of high school, I spoke three words of English, and I fell in love with Tasmania. Twenty years ! I’ve only been back a couple of times but I felt like I never left. I showed Claire the places where I lived, the mall I used to hang out with Luke and Fabian, and told (some of) the less admissible things we used to do. Luke’s dad invited us to stay for the night, while Suzanne (I still call her Mum) was in Bali for the season.

The second week can pretty much be summed up as: beer, wine, cheese.

Along the Tamar river are the best wineries in the State, which, of course meant this statement needed to be verified.  To me, Tassie is also the only place you can find great beer and great cheese.  I guess the mainland is just to warm.  There are about a dozen of breweries around the island, the biggest are of course Cascade in Hobart and Boag’s in Launceston (you’ll never guess where my nickname comes from…), but the micro-breweries are definitely worth a taste, or two.  Our favourite I think was the Moo Brew, but the Iron House is not far behind.

The East Coast is also famous for its mild climate and the stunning Wineglass Bay in Freycinet.

Our “coup de coeur” was Bruny Island, by far.  Especially the cheese ! Oh my ! So much so we order a box of it every month and get it shipped over to Perth.

Just before going back to Hobart, we spent New Years Eve at Port Arthur.  Port Arthur is the infamous gaol built in the 1830ies, for the British convicts.  Thousands of hard-ass convicts were shipped from the UK and most of them died here in grim circumstances.  Most of buildings are now in ruins, some have been completely destroyed, but a few have been completely restored to their original state.

Our last WE in Hobart was spent with Marcella, my “sister” from 96, her hubby Phil and the two boys.  Coincidence, this was also the “Taste of Tasmania”, a foodfest that displays the best that Tassie has to offer: wine, beer, cheese, oysters.

I need to go to the gym !