On The Road Again
When I last reported to you, we had just finished a lovely walk in Western
Tasmania. Feeling fresh and chipper, Ronit and I caught a bus to Hobart,
a lovely port town on the south end of the island, and the capital of
Tassie. We spent 2 days in Hobart, admiring the cleanliness and enjoying
city life after our wilderness time.
We then hired a car to drive up the east coast of Tasmania. This drive including Port Aurthur (an old prison settlement), Freycinet (pronounced Fray-sin-ay, this is a LOVELY national park with simple hikes along pristine beaches), St. Helens (a sleepy fishing village where we caught our dinner), Bay of Fires (gorgeous beaches), and the Pub in the Paddock. This last place was a hotel in the middle of a farming valley, the only local pub for miles. It attracts all the locals and was swamped during lunch, but come evening time, Ronit and I were the only ones there. This meant we had the run of the place, including access to the beer guzzling pig. All in all, we had the car for 5 days, and ended our trip back in Launceston to catch a flight to Sydney for New Years Eve.
Our New Years plans were rather hectic, due to
our two friends Danny & Justine flying in during the afternoon of
the 31st. Luckily, their flight was a ½-hour early, and we got
out to catch the 9:00pm fireworks show over the harbour with plenty
of time to drink wine and eat some cheese & crackers. After the
half-ass fireworks show, we booked over to the Warren View (our neighborhood
pub) and spent a few hours hanging with friends and watching the band
Spurs for Jesus in the smoke-filled & over heated bar. After the
band finished, we all tromped down to a friends house for the post party,
which included more beers and sitting around the fire in his back yard.
Unfortunately, no one was down for the sunrise hike, so we just settled
for watching the Ali G movie and promptly passing out.
On Jan 2, we started our road trip. With four grown people (Danny, Justine,
Ronit and me) our camping gear and backpacks, Matilda (our fai
thful
Mitsubishi Magna) was quite full, and having some difficulties with
steep hills. But she is a workhorse, and we arrived in Hunter Valley
with plenty of time to set up camp before dark. The next morning with
hired some bikes and spent the day pedaling around in 90-degree heat
to 6 different wineries. Our tongues and legs quite tired, we headed
back to the campsite for some Bar-B. The next day we hit 4 more wineries
on our way out of town, and pulled into Port Macquarie around 7:30pm.
Here we stayed with some friend's parents at their beach house. Gary
& Judith's generosity is not to be matched, and we spent two nights
BBQing, drinking wine & beers, playing cards and hot dice and sitting
on the beach. Wonderful fun, but too much sun.
Yesterday, we drove up to Byron Bay, a bustling surfing town at the
north end of New South Wales. We'll be here for 2 nights and tomorrow
we head up to Brisbane.
The road trip is going well. It is hot, and will continue to get hotter.
But we have just booked our car and boat for Fraser Island and the Whitsunday
Islands (respectively) for the coming week, so we have some amazing
stuff in store.
More Later
Craig