Under down-under

And so our Super 6 days Tour began...



23/3/08: Port Arthur, Taman Peninsula, Richmond and Mount Wellington



John, our tour guide for the next 6 days, picked us up from our hostel and we headed down to Port Arthur Historic Site. As we all know, Australia used to house convicts from the UK and some were sent to Tasmania to be servants of the wealthy people there. Port Arthur is a prison for servants who committed crimes or disobeyed their masters. It was chosen as a prison as the area was surronded by deep waters and steep cliffs which made it very difficult for the prisoners to abscond. After 2 huge bush fires, what is left of Port Arthur now are parts of the building structures filled with sad stories. The remains of Port Arthur stood majestically on the highlands with the clear blue sky and green endless range of mountains as the back drop. I have learnt alot about the history of Tasmania and their prison system after the visit to Port Arthur.

This is the church which the "higher authorities" of the prison attended. Wanted to take a good shot but there were so many people standing around and I had no time to wait for them to move away!
These are pictures I took of Taman Peninsula and the views of the Southern Ocean, on the way back from Port Arthur. The cliffs and arch formations were beautiful! I am always amazed with how the combination of weather elements and the vulnerability of the earth can create such beautiful formations!
On the way back to Hobart, we passed by Richmond, one of the first and oldest town in Tasmania. The oldest catholic church and bridge are found there. Many of these structures were built by convicts and what is so amazinng is that the structures are so strong, lasting and intricately designed. This shows how highly skilled they were and don't forgot they did not have the tools and equipments we have today! Unfortunately, these skills have lost their value to emphasis on techonology and efficiency in today's society.

Remember our failed trip up to Mount Wellington?? Fret not! Our super nice tour guide brought us up to Mount Wellington (was not on the itinerary!) because we reached Hobart early and had some time to drive up the mountain! So nice right?? Both Wanz and I were so happy to be up there to breathe the fresh air and admire the breathtaking view of Hobart. Luck was on our side as it was sunny when we were up there and had a great view of the city!

24/3/08: Ross and Freycinet National Park

We finally left Hobart on our second day of the tour! We headed to the east side of Tasmania and our first destination is the historic rustic town of Ross. It is a town similar to Richmond and it also has a bridge built by convict labourers. John stopped by to pick up lunch- he is always dropping us off at these small towns for morning tea then he will zoom off somewhere to get lunch and pick us up again. I am always looking foward to what he is going to get for lunch! Haha...

After spending the entire morning on the van, we finally reached Freycinet National Park and I was all-so-already to do some trekking because I was really getting restless! We did the Wineglass Bay Walk which John said was easy but we ended up walking for 5 hours! John is just so unpredictable and even 'siao' at times.. he can do the craziest things like climbing up high and steep rocks, jumping in the ocean for a swim...he seem to have more fun than us sometimes.. haha.

Here is a picture of the beautiful Wineglass Bay...

With Kim from Korea and Matchiko from Japan- super nice people from our tour! Both of them have been living in Australia fore quite some time on their own.. working then travelling and experiencing life outside their own countries.. how cool is that??

We walked down to the bay and had lunch on the rocks with the beautiful view of the bay in sight. Lunch was ham and egg sandwich with some sultanna puff pastry for dessert.. Good food and good view.. what more can you ask for?
Introducing Angelo- a retired pilot from Canada who has been travelling around Australia. He and John make a good combination as both of them do the craziest things together!! He loves bird so when he found this dead penguin, he wanted to put it in his bag and bring it home! He is one happy man who loves to cook and indulge in good food. He is always whipping up delicious gourmet food while we eat our intsant food at the hostels.. haha. He did offer to cook for us but we pai seh lah.. he even has wine with his italian food! We were quite sad when he left the tour because he felt that Cradle mountain will be too cold for him.. we did miss him the next few days of the tour :)
On top of the world!!! This picture is like those kind you find in brochures and advertisments for tours.. haha.. pretty models leh...

John, being the crazy guy he is, decided to bring us up to some lighthouse which is not on the itinerary. Because the road up was rather steep, he had to detach the trailer which contained all our luggages and left it at some carpark then drive up. It was worth the drive as the view up there was really good too!!

25/03/08: St Helens, Bay of Fires, St Columba Falls and Launceston

After the tiring but fulfilling trekking yesterday, we were rewarded with beautiful views of beaches today!! As we travelled up the east coast of Tasmania, we stopped by the Bay of Fires and many other beaches. It is called Bay of Fires because the Aborigines used to burn blubber to create heat at night as it gets really cold at night during winter.

Us with Angelo, Kim, Katherine and Dorothy (Hongkong girls who are studying at Monash University)

Here is our tour group fooling around once again! Angelo took Matchiko's bag and started making funny poses.. haha.. and John just finished his dip in the sea with his red hot undies.. WooHoo

This is the first of the many series of 'jump shots' that we took throughout the trip! We became really good high jumpers after that.. haha.

On our way to St Columba's Falls, we stopped by a cheese factory for some cheese tasting! When we got off the van, we were welcomed by a strong foul smell of cow dung!! There goes our appetite for cheese man...I fell in love with the vintage cheese (cheese which is left to ferment for more than a year, just like wine, the longer the cheese is fermented, the more tasty it becomes!) but did not buy any cos it was so ex! When I returned to Sydney, I went to Woolies to look for vintage cheese and bought some to eat with my water crackers! yum yum...

We headed down to St Columba Falls where we had a nice picnic with a wide variety of food! There was so much food that we could not finish and John threw all of them away as it was the company's policy not to keep the leftovers..heart pain ah.. so wasteful!!

Took a photo with Kim as it was her last day on the tour!

We reached Launceston quite early and had the time to visit the Cataract Gorge. I was amazed at how such a beautiful natural formation can be found within a city itself.

26/03/08: The Chocolate Factory and Cradle Mountains