Australia Aug/Sept 2014- part 3

On the third day we were in Tasmania we did the convict trail and went out to Port Arthur.  It was a relatively long drive but ended up being pretty amazing.  We saw some extraordinary sights on the way, as we stopped at "The Blowhole", "Tasman's arch", and also "The Devils Kitchen".  They are various formations and degradations that the ocean has created over time.

The boards I have a kind of photograph of give very limited if any explanation as to the natural occurrences, I suggest using google if you are interested any further.

 I will add a video* of the "action" soon, in another post.

 I will add a video* of the "action" soon, in another post.

*if it lets me.

Australia Aug/Sept 2014- part 2

Tasmania! 

We left for the airport super early in order to get there on time- which we did in plenty, and then learnt that the plane would be delayed by half an hour at the least.  This was due to fog over Launceston (the destination for this leg of the trip).  Once we finally made it into the air, after being called for over the intercom on a final boarding call... (lets just say there were a lot of "firsts" to this trip).  

We had a relatively non eventful flight, until we were above the top of Tasmania where we were yet again, put into a left hand hold and were left circling Tasmania (I think I counted five times at least!- it was for about an hour.)  With at one point during that time when the Pilot said that it was okay that we're just waiting for 600-1000m of visibility on the ground, and we had an hour and a half fuel left (reassuring until we had been the for an hour).  We had a plane that was coming in from Sydney at the same time ahead of us, which attempted landing once, and at last minute couldn't, then attempt again, and if that wasn't to be had, they were diverting to Hobart.  If that ended up happening (which it didn't) we would have followed a similar path I would think.

The plane from Sydney in front of us waiting for the fog to clear/lift.

Launceston Airport

We got off the plane, finally, and got a car (SUV type thing) to drive around in for the next four days and headed North-ish.  We had no itinerary and were just kinda figuring out what to do as we felt like. Not the way I'm use to doing things, but it worked.  

We ended up in Deloraine where we found an info centre and they suggested a few different place to us.  One being the Marakoopa caves where we had an hours guided tour, with the history and how it was formed.  And then we headed to Trowunna Wildlife Park- which was possibly my absolute favourite/highlight of the trip!  

Marakoopa Caves

At Trowunna, we got to hold a wombat, touch/pat a Tasmanian Devil, feed kangaroos, pet the said kangaroos and their joey's, and shake hands with them too.  We saw other animals but the Tassie Devils, kangaroo's and the wombat were the more interactive sorta ones.

Daniel with the wombat.

Me with the wombat.

Cute Tassie Devil!

Feeding a kangaroo- from the bag of pellets.

Joey.

Me with the kangaroo.

The following day we headed down to Hobart and had a look at the Salamanca Markets, and walked around the wharf and looked around a bit before walking up a MASSIVE hill that overlooked Hobart- pretty amazing sites, pity we didn't know that you could drive up there in the first place! The walk was pretty neat though- and we saw a wild wallaby on the way back down.

Hobart Wharf.

Top of the hill! Looking out over Hobart/ Tasmania.

Australia Aug/Sept 2014- part 1

This is going to be much easier for me to write, and for you to read if I break it up into parts.

On August 27th I headed off over the Tasman, from Auckland to Melbourne for a bit of a holiday (Uni mid-semester break) but mainly to go and visit my brother, Daniel.  Flying with Jetstar I was a little sceptical, but the flights were on time (apart from delayed due to fog coming into Melbourne) and were pretty good flights even if I was bored half the time due to no "backseat" entertainment.  They did offer around iPads at a cost, but I had my laptop to watch a movie on, but only got halfway through it due to motion sickness- hence being bored (even though its only a four hour flight too).

My plane through the boarding gate window.

The plane was due to land in Melbourne at 11pm local-time (1am NZ), we were originally half an hour ahead of schedule due to good tail winds and taking off bang on 9pm (they weren't having to hunt down passengers for once!)  When we would have been landing the pilot said over the intercom that the plane was being put into a left-hand hold getting to circle over the city due to fog on the ground.  Half an hour later we were cleared to land, and disembark.

Daniel met me at the airport and took me back to his fathers house where I guess you could call "base" for the trip as I only stayed there for three nights.  Daniel went to work the next morning and so I spent the day with Irene, she showed me around the local area a little, and went to see the new marina development, the beach, Werribee mansion and the mall.  We had lunch out and spent the afternoon back at the house, where I went for a walk to explore the area and finished watching the movie I didn't get to finish of the plane.

That night when Daniel was home from work we looked up places to go and things to do in Australia and ended up booking flights for 7am the next morning from Melbourne to Launcestion, Tasmania!