Okay, folks. I know I'm a several months behind with this post, but here it is. Better late than never, right? Sorry it's going to be so brief. I just wanted to post about what I did, the highlights and such. If anything it is a record of my trip for myself to read through in a couple years. Last I posted about Easter Holiday I left off with Saturday night, the only plans made at this point being that of hiring a car the next morning.
I was the only one of us eligible to legally hire the car, so I took care of all that, and got to be the first to drive! It was pretty nerve-rattling to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, but it's easy to get used to and I did fine. We ended up with a station wagon, much to Inga's dismay, and named the vehicle Black Betty. Throughout the driving there were some arguments about whose music CD to listen to, but we all agreed that Evil Scotsman was our trip anthem, haha. Along with lots of music were lots of driving games: Yellow!, Slug Bug, Jinx, and others we probably made up.
(Sunday, 23MAR08) We drove to Swansea and stayed at the best hostel I've ever seen (building and cleanliness-wise). The drive was very scenic - Tasmania is a gorgeous state. We stopped at Nine Mile Beach on the way to the hostel (lots of awesome shells!). That night we played Uno (so much fun!), I played my first drinking game ever (Kings), and we had a tickle fight and a totally exhilarating pillow fight (no, really).
We only slept for 4 hours that night because at 4a we set off on an hour-long drive to Wine Glass Bay to see it at sunrise. Of course it was overcast that day, but the photos are still magnificent if you ask me. Turns out sunrise in Tasmania is around 6.30, so we had plenty of time to hang out and bond with one another (this was actually my favorite part of the trip). I shared some Easter chocolate my mom had sent me, and we played thinking games like the kind Darin taught me (the kind where a tricky bit of a story is explained, and the guessers ask yes/no questions until they figure it out). It was freezing so we all huddled together on the little bench. After we saw the sunrise we drove back and slept for a few hours until we had to check out.
(Monday, 24MAR08) Next destination: Launceston. On the way we stopped by a beach where the water was crazy cold and the sand was infested with little jumping worm things. We packed up within 45 minutes. It was a nice drive, although it was quite difficult to sleep with Neil driving, hehe.
Later that day I was driving, Inga sitting shot gun to give me directions, the boys all fast asleep in the back. We come to a T in the road, and Inga's not sure which way to go. Rather than just sit there I turned left only to hear Inga says she thinks we need to go the other way. We turn around and I'm still a bit dazed, and my foot is lead. I see an on-coming cop flash his lights, and I automatically hit the brake a bit (but I'm still tooling along pretty swiftly). The cop turns off his lights, I'm relieved, and then horrified as the cop pulls a U-ie, pulling me over. I'm flipping out, the guys are confused as they wake up, and Inga's not sure what to do but tell the guys to snap their seat belts. I turn the music off and wait for the officer to approach. He leans over and asks for my license - surprised that I'm from Indiana, USA he asks if we're lost -nah, you think? He wrote me a warning for going 36 KMH over (I know - insane!!! Good thing I'm an out-of-towner!), and gave us solid directions to Launceston. Quite a nice fellow, that policeman.
We checked into the hostel above Irish Murphy's which was really old but really cool. I needed some time to wind down and catch up on sleep, so I grabbed Subway and stayed in for the night.
(Tuesday, 25MAR08) The next day I got up early to check my email, then we checked out of the hostel, had breakfast and browsed the pedestrian mall (a lot like the Queen Street Mall here in Brisbane). We left the city that afternoon and headed to see Cataract Gorge (very beautiful - great sights when in the ski lift), and the Tasmania Zoo (yes! We got to see Tassie Devils and all sorts of cool animals; the kangaroos were especially friendly here). Afterwards it was time to head to Queenstown where we stayed at The Lake Side Chalet.
(Wednesday, 26MAR08) Today marked the last full day of our stay in Tassie. Destination: Hobart. On the way we went to Lake St. Clair National Park - it was pouring rain and freezing (we weren't adequately dressed in our shorts and sandals, haha), so it was kind of miserable, but we made the best of it. We saw some beautiful nature, wildlife, and played a stick in the river game (Inga and I were the winners!). We looked and looked for platypus but they were no where to be seen. Afterwards we warmed up indoors with some hot chocolate. We were all pretty crushed to learn that the previous night we'd driven by Cradle Mountain (one of the big sights I really wanted to see), but we couldn't do much about it, so we got over it and drove on to Hobart.
We checked into a hostel that was a 15-minute walk from the city center, then went out for a nice dinner. There was some interesting conversation. Then we went out to a night club that was filled with 18-year-olds just granted the liberty of attending the legal scene (I found it annoying and didn't really enjoy it), but it was okay.
(Thursday, 27MAR08) Our flight was in the evening so we had some morning and afternoon time to kill. We checked out of our hostel, returned the car, paid the parking ticket we'd earned overnight, grabbed lunch and decided to do some souvenir shopping. My souvenir from Tasmania is a coffee mug with a Tassie Devil. I use it all the time for my chai tea. Mmmm! I also snagged a great deal on some SD memory cards for my point-and-shoot camera: 2 x 1 GB cards for $40! This day I learned that Rudy has been to Doune Castle - the one from Monty Python & the Search for the Holy Grail. After shopping we went to the Tasmanian Museum - learned about the Tasmanian Indegenious people and the icy Antarctic. We still had time so we decided to see The Other Boleyn Girl - I loved the movie. Scarlet was amazing, Natalie was infuriating, and I found the story to be really engaging.
We had some afternoon tea, taxied to the airport and flew home to Brisbane.
I just realized I never posted photos from Easter Holiday past Sunday, 23MAR08! I'm working on 'em.
-Amanda
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment