Tuesday 16^th December

Today we drove up to the top of Mount Wellington as the weather was clear and we had some tremendous views of Hobart and the southern part of Tasmania.

Once back in Hobart we picked up Iain’s medication at the chemist (still a lot of money despite being a ‘discount chemist’!) and headed off towards Mount Field National Park and our next accommodation.

We have a self contained unit of bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and covered verandah with table and chairs and a couple of comfy chairs as well, set in a beautiful cottage type garden. Having settled in and had a cup of tea we drove to the Mount Field visitor’s centre and parked the car before doing a short half hour walk to Russell Falls. As we set of the skies darkened and by the time we were walking through the forest a storm was in full swing with thunder and lightening almost overhead and amplified by all the surrounding hills. It was very exciting (or terrifying, depending on your point of view!) and we had our waterproofs with us. The forest was full of the most amazingly tall swamp gums, some reaching to 75m. We thought the trees we saw yesterday were amazing but these were even more so! Russell Falls were lovely although it was hard to get photos in the rain.

We saw a Pademelon at very close quarters as he/she was busily cropping grass near the visitor’s centre in between the showers.

We then returned to the car and made a short drive up to another car park to do the ‘Tall Trees’ walk which we extended to go and view the Horseshoe Falls. The sun came out and the forest felt quite different! We saw a couple of wallabies right by the path and got some good photos and Iain went a bit further to view the Russell Falls again from the top.

We managed to get back just before the rain set in again and relaxed before dinner, which is being made by our hosts. I chose salmon and Iain fillet steak. As I was trying to plug in my camera to recharge I knocked over my glass of white wine and not only smashed the glass but managed to cut my big toe that bled profusely over the floor until I managed to apply pressure. I bandaged it up and it seemed okay. We had a lovely meal and felt very cosy under cover as the rain pelted down on the verandah!

Monday 15^th December

Another lovely sunny day and we drove down to Huon, along the Huon River and past the picturesque village of Franklin, and then to Geeveston where we swapped our voucher for tickets for the Tahune airwalk. This is a very long aerial walkway in the Tahune forest. From Geeveston it was a 29Km drive along a winding and potholed, but tarmaced, forest road to the visitor centre where the various walks start. We arrived at 12.30pm, just as one of the rangers was setting off on a free public tour over the aerial walkway with only a couple of people, so we joined them. He was very knowledgeable about all the trees. The forest has some Huon pine near the river but is mainly made up of Stringy Barks (a type of Eucalyptus) that tower up to 50m+ high. Their trunks are free of any lower branches and shoot straight up into the canopy. Some are several hundreds of years old but are not registered as ‘Giant Trees’ with protected status until they are over 85m tall – staggering! There was also a lot of myrtle beech which has two toned foliage as the new growth is light green or russet in colour against the older dark green leaves. He also showed us Leatherwoods that were used as ‘Bushman’s band aid’ because of their sticky exudate and disinfectant properties and the hole of a funnel web spider (very poisonous). The walkway was only built relatively recently to try and generate interest in the area and rejuvenate the local economy. It has been very successful and they got three times the number of visitors they were expecting in the first year. The aerial walkway also has a cantilevered section from which one can see the confluence of the Huon and Picton rivers.

Having done the aerial walk we decided to have our picnic lunch sat on a bench in the sunshine and then do a one hour circular walk through the forest that crosses the two rivers on long swing bridges.

We then did a short circular walk (Huon pine walk) which was lovely, part alongside the river and part on raised walkways.

Iain did all the driving today because my right eye was red and watering, although it had improved by the afternoon. We took a minor road to cut off a corner of the highway which was shorter by about 6Km but actually much slower. We didn’t mind though because it was more interesting and had some good views. Having reached Hobart we visited a bottle shop and Woolworths to get some dinner.

Sunday 14^th December

It was another lovely day, so after breakfast, we decided to drive to Port Arthur. On the way we stopped at a viewpoint and then, before going to Port Arthur itself we drove along the peninsula to a place called ‘The Remarkable Cave’ which was certainly worth the detour. This was a cave which had eroded to such an extent that the sea came through as it had two openings.

We then drove back to Port Arthur, which was an old penal settlement and still has the ruins of the old penitentiary and various other building dotted around, as well as some dating from when it was closed in 1877 and became the township of Caenarvon for a while. We enjoyed a short boat trip around the bay, looking at the Isle of the Dead, and the site of the first young offender’s prison in the British Empire, before eating our picnic lunch that I had made up and exploring the rest of the site.

On our way back we visited a Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park and went to a feeding and presentation on these strange animals. They have been nearly decimated by a virulent facial tumour that is transmitted through biting.

Once we got home we decided to drink the bottle of champagne, before I made seafood pasta for dinner.

Saturday 13^th December

We arrived in Hobart to brilliant sunshine, picked up our hire car and drove to our accommodation expecting to only be able to park the car. We were actually able to settle into our ‘Convict Cottage’ which is part of a National Trust heritage building and has a lovely secluded balcony as well as a living room, kitchen and bathroom (with a spa bath!) and an upstairs bedroom with aforesaid balcony. We were also treated to a bottle of champagne, chocolates and a fruit basket!!!

Because we arrived so early we were able to wander around the colourful Salamanca market (only open Saturdays) and the dockside, before having a lovely, if somewhat expensive, seafood lunch. Most places were take away or fast food but we managed to find a place where we could have a relaxed lunch with a bottle of white wine. We shared six oysters, done three different ways, as a starter, before having grilled locally caught fish and salad – delicious. We then wandered back and later drove out to find a supermarket. We had almost given up when we came across a Woolworths so we stocked up for the next couple of days.

Friday 12^th December

It was a bit drizzly today but we walked over to Cathedral Square. Everywhere you look there is evidence from the earthquake of 24/12/12 and the subsequent rebuilding of the centre of Christchurch. Especially moving was seeing the devastated cathedral itself.

We then went to the museum as the art gallery opposite where we are staying is still closed awaiting some remedial building work. It was quite an interesting museum but after having a cup of tea overlooking the botanic gardens, Iain continued to look around the museum and I walked back to the B & B.

We were picked up at 1pm by the shuttle and arrived at the airport to find that our ticket numbers were invalid when we tried to check in. After queueing for a while, they sorted out whatever the glitch was, and we proceeded to check in. We were quite relieved as we had visions of having to change flights, stay in the airport all night and other nightmare scenarios – imagination is a wonderful thing!

We arrived in Sydney and found our way to the hotel shuttle bus that deposited us at the Stamford Plaza. We had a nice room on the 7^th floor but didn’t fancy either of the two eateries attached to the hotel so we ended up getting room service which was actually no more expensive than eating in the restaurant and much more comfortable. Also we had a 6am pickup so an early night was called for!

Thursday 11^th December

The weather was even worse today and we drove through driving rain and cloud-covered mountains to Greymouth. Having dropped of the car and checked in our big bags without problem we went across the road to an original Speights Brewery and bar to have a bite of lunch. The train was delayed by thirty minutes but we managed to get a seat in the station and the rain gradually eased off.

We couldn’t see the high mountain peaks because of the weather but the scenery was lovely especially as we travelled along the top of the spectacular Waimakariri Gorge and the rain eased enough for me to go to the outside viewing carriage.

Our B & B is near the centre of Christchurch and, as we were 45 minutes late arriving, we went straight out to get dinner – Thai again this time.