Wait, That's Not a Mermaid

Day 28:

After the previous day's very early morning and very late evening, Jill and I took the opportunity to get some much needed sleep.  In the backs of our minds was also the knowledge that on January 1st, not much was going to be open.

We ended up having a most excellent breakfast at a place called Pancakes on the Rocks (must go if you're in Sydney) and wandered around Darling Harbor for a bit. There is much to see in this area including the National Maritime Museum, a large shopping mall, eateries, and more (this area reminds me a lot of Baltimore's Inner Harbor).

I on the other hand was there for only one reason; the aquarium.  Those of you who know me, and especially us, know that I love aquariums and Jill hates going to aquariums with me.  I can get lost for hours in even the smallest of aquariums and Jill basically has to wait around for me to finish up.

Hands down, the Sydney Aquarium is one of the best I've ever seen.  It's got the expected assortment of shallow water pools, penguins, and small animal exhibits.  But, it also has great large exhibits.  There is a large multi-story shark tank, and two other large pool exhibits.

The first of these large exhibit tanks was filled with a pair of dugongs.  A dugong is a lot like a manatee in the US, with a couple of big differences.  First, the dugong is exclusively a saltwater creature.  Second, it has a tail like a dolphin, rather than a frying pan.  As we first saw it, it looked just like a manatee, but that tail was really strange looking.  The final big difference was that the dugong appears to be much faster and much more active than the manatee.  I didn't realize how important this display was, but this pair constituted one-third of all dugongs in captivity.

The other large exhibit tank is what really made the aquarium for me.  It was a replica of the Great Barrier Reef.  The coral is real and alive, and the fish are amazing.  Everything from small little anemone fish all the way up to giant potato cod were swimming in the tank.  It was even better than the actual Great Barrier Reef that I'd seen only weeks before.

One Million People All Saying 'Ohhh-Ahhhh' Together

Day 27:
After a couple of days with normal wake up times (07.00 or so) we had a very rude awakening today. Latest night’s going away revelry led to a 04.00 wake up this morning to catch a 06.00 flight from Hobart to Sydney.

The morning didn’t start well as the airport shuttle showed up 30 minutes late and ended up dropping us off about 35 minutes before boarding. This is of course a problem when check-in closes 30 minutes before boarding. You’ve never seen a sight like 50 people all running across an airport and using the check-in kiosks like madmen trying to beat the 5 minute deadline. Luckily Jill and I can just about read each other’s minds and made it with time to spare.

Both Jill and I slept from takeoff to landing. We made it out of the airport smoothly, but ended up in Sydney and not able to check-in until 14.00. When you’ve got nothing to do, you go to the beach, right?

So just like our last day in Sydney we made our way up to Manly. Unlike the last time it was packed! The sun was shining, the sea was calm and it was a good day to be alive.

Jill took the time to to read in the shade of a tree (she’s gone through the first three Twilight books and we’re going to have to buy the fourth before we leave) and I spent the hours body surfing in the water. Compared to Tasmania, the water was great. It couldn’t have been more than maybe 23C or so, by it felt great in the sun. I just never bothered to get out the whole time we were there.

Eventually we checked into the hotel and freshened up. But at 16.00 we started the trek to the harbor to get spots for the fireworks. This is no joke after all. By 14.00 when we checked in, the local news was reporting that tens of thousands were already in place along the water ready for the evening’s festivities. Can you imagine getting to your spot 12 hours before the fireworks? You’d better bring some food and games.

At any rate, most of the seriously prime spots were full when we got there around 17.00 but we did find a place along Circular Quay. Four hours of waiting and at 21.00 the family fireworks went off. They weren’t anything special, but at least it cleared out the families.

After the families left, we were able to move up to slightly better spots closer to the Harbor Bridge and closer to the water. There was more waiting obviously, but when New Years came it was amazing! The fireworks were larger than anything I’ve ever been witness to (four barges, the bridge, and the surrounding skyscrapers were all involved) and they went on non-stop for like 17 minutes. We learned later on that there were nearly one and a half million people along the harbor front and that the event cost nearly A$40 million.  Needless to say this was one of those amazing sights that you must go see at some point. If you find yourself in the area, you cannot miss these fireworks.

The World's Most Scenic Prison

Day 26:
Our final day of touring on Tasmania started us where we’d left off the night before, Port Arthur. Instead of the ghost tour as we’d been on previously, this was a daylight trip around the site. The morning started with a guided tour around the site by a very knowledgeable guide and finished with free wandering around the site looking at the buildings and grounds. One of the things that I learned was that while Port Arthur was one of the worst prisons in the world (the goal was to grind rogues down until they were good using manual labor), it was difficult to actually be sent there.

Port Arthur was a prison for secondary and violent offenders only. When a convict arrived in Australia, they were classified. The hardcore criminals such as murders and rapists were sent directly to Port Arthur or one of the other major jails. However, most criminals were simply assigned as a kind of indentured servant to colonists living there. They typically tended house or farmed but did not wear chains and were not guarded. I’d have to say that there are worst places and ways to spend your sentence. However, if the convict tried to escape from this light duty or committed another crime, then they would be sent to Port Arthur for hard labour.

After our morning at Port Arthur we headed back towards Hobart. Along the way we stopped at Eaglehawk Neck and saw a number of rock formations including Devil’s Kitchen, Tasmans Arch, and the Tessellated Pavement.

Upon arrival in Hobart, the tour finished and we all went our separate ways. The final activity was that evening though, and it was the Taste of Tasmania. The festival is a large semi-outdoor food and wine activity focusing on products from around Tasmania. It occurs a couple of days after Christmas and is made even better by the attendance of the boat crews from the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. A night of drunken camaraderie ensued before Jill and I retired to our hotel room; we had a seriously early morning the next day.

Hard Hiking

Day 25:
The second day of our Tasmania tour took us from Bicheno to Port Arthur outside of Hobart. The day itself started at a reasonable hour and we were soon on our way without any drama.

After a bit of driving we came to a park called Wineglass Bay. The bay was recently listed as one of the 10 best beaches in the world, and it certainly was nice. It is however, somewhat difficult to get to.

The tour bus arrived at a trailhead with a number of different trails leading off of it. The group split about evenly between the two most popular trails. The first was a trail that led up a large mountain that gave a superb overlook of the bay and the surrounding countryside. Jill and I opted for the second walk down to the bay itself.

The trailhead was located on the back side of a mountain pass from Wineglass Bay itself, near Great Oyster Bay. You hike up the hill side on a well maintained trail to the pass and stop at an amazing overlook where you get your first view of Wineglass Bay. From there, you trek down the other side of the pass on a steep and treacherous mountain path. The path consisted of stable stairs made out of the local granite, but it still made you wonder if you wanted to climb back up once you’d gotten down to the bay.

But we did eventually make it down and it was amazing. The sand was soft and clean, the water clear as air. I actually decided to take a dip (why else would you go to a beach?) and found that the water was about 10C! I tried to wait out the cold and let my body adjust, but after about 5 minutes my legs hurt so bad, that I just couldn’t take it any more. I did dip in and out for a while after this, but most of the day was just laying on the beach, working on our tans.

After about 90 minutes, it was time to hike back to the trailhead to meet the other group. Jill and I were relatively fast up, but it was very hard work. It’s been a long time since I’ve done a hike that went that steeply up a hill, and I’ve certainly never done it at the pace she and I ascended.

After meeting the group and having a pleasant lunch at Honeymoon Bay, we drove to Port Arthur directly. Port Arthur was one of the most notorious prisons in Australia and housed repeat and major offenders. With this kind of reputation and the deaths of thousands of prisoners while it was operating, Port Arthur has a very extensive ghost tour.

The ghost tour itself is good, if a little heavy on the paranormal. I’m a skeptic, so I was there mostly for the stories and the tour of the site at night. For that it was OK, but if you are a believer, than I’m sure it was very good.

Tasmanian Devils, Wombats, and Penguins, Oh My!

Day 24:
After reading the guide book about Tasmania, Jill and I decided not to drive ourselves around and instead opted for a guided tour. In many cases the roads aren’t paved still and the wildlife is very prevalent so it can be dangerous for tourists.

The morning started badly as the day was cold, rainy, and the driver of our tour couldn’t find our hotel. Eventually we sorted this and headed off in the bus.

The bus itself was a bit of a surprise of us. In fact, Jill nearly refused to get on board. I think we were both expecting a full-size coach and ended up with an 18 person mini-bus instead. We’d stumbled into something best described as a hostel on wheels. Everyone had backpacks, there were guitars and surfboards in the luggage, and the group had a very bohemian feel.

Our foray stop was a beach called Bay of Fires. The weather was improving at this point and we got a chance to climb all over the bright red rocks.

The next stop for the day was a wildlife sanctuary that focused on Tassie Devils (the Aussies are prone to truncating words with -ie; tinnie, barbie, Aussie, etc). I personally didn’t have high hopes for the place, but it was quite enjoyable. We got to witness the feedings of a bunch of different animals while we were there.

The first animal (which is now my favorite marsupial) was the wombat. It’s basically a furry tank that has a bad attitude. They’re so strong and their hide is so tough that I you hit one, your car is likely to roll over from the impact. But they ate so cute! And the zoo-bred one they fed loved being picked up so we all got to scratch it. One thing that really surprised me was that it’s fur was far and away softer than the koala, wallaby, and kangaroo fur.

But the main event was the Devil. Even before the feeding had started, it had nearly taken the hand off one of the members of our group who had tried to get a close up picture. The Devil is an amazing animal. It has the third strongest bite pressure in the animal kingdom (the Great White Shark and the Salt Water Crocodile are the only ones ahead) and can devour a dead kangaroo in minutes. Also, it doesn’t spin in a circle as Looney Tunes would have you believe. Tragically, the wild populations are being decimated by Devil Facial Tumor Disease, the only communicable form of cancer on earth.

From the park, we traveled to our residence for the evening, Bicheno. Everyone had a couple of hours before dinner and Jill and decided to walk to Diamond Island.

This might not sound like that much of an experience, but what you don’t realize is that there is no way to get to the island and stay dry. There is a thin sandbar that connects the island to the mainland and it’s submerged under about a meter of water. Also the water is about 15C!

We waded over to the island (I looked like an idiot keeping the camera dry high over my head) and did a little exploring. There’s a penguin rookery on the island and we got some pictures of them.

After dinner though, we had an even better experience. Bicheno is justifiably famous for being a breeding ground for Fairy Penguins. We had an absolutely awesome night tour during which we saw penguins coming up from the ocean, saw them nesting, and even saw them mating a bit. Again a must-do if you’re in the area.

A Little Slice of England

Day 23:
Today was another travel day, but it was a bit different in that our flight was late in the day rather than early. This gave us an opportunity to explore some of Melbourne that we’d missed.

The first stop of the day was a Cook’s Cottage. This is the English cottage that Captain Cook lived in growing up. A Melbourne business man had purchased it and had it relocated to one of the many parks in the city. There wasn’t much to see, especially if you’ve done any history touring of the UK. Still it was fun to visit.

The second stop was a place called Queen Victoria Market. I would liken this to a flea-market in America, only of shop quality merchandise. It’s so vast that we only saw a fraction of it, but again it was a diverting couple of hours.

After that we had to catch our flight to Launceston, Tasmania. It turns out that this flight was a lot longer that you’d think it was. Tasmania is a big place we’d later find out.

Jill Update:
We were both pretty stressed out and tired today so things weren’t all fun in paradise. However, a good bit of retail therapy evened Jill out and I think things are good again.

Wickets and Wicked

Day 22:
Boxing Day in Melbourne is something akin to absolute madness. Melbourne is the shopping heart of Australia during the best if times, but Boxing Day sales at Gucci, Louis Vitton, Prada, and Swarovski were all 50% off, and made the city manic.

On top of all of this shopping hubbub, there was a major sporting event going on. Jill and I decided to abandon the shopping district and go to the Melbourne Cricket Ground and see a couple of hours of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and South Africa.

At the time the teams were one and two in the world and Australia had lost the first five-day test soundly in Perth the week before. This time the honor of the country was on the line; if the Aussies lost, they’d drop to number two in the world.

Jill and I got our tickets and after getting lost in the stadium for a while, joined 100,000 other fans in various states of drunkenness. Now Cricket is a slow game in the best of times, but Test Cricket sets a very high bar for boredom.

It’s been wall-to-wall Cricket here since the day we arrived. Not a night has gone by that we haven’t finished our evening watching some Twenty20 match, or daily highlights of the Test series. But this match was a battle of the best with a lot on the line. The South African bowling was great and the Australian batting, not so much. There was very little scoring but they kept serving beer so that was good. Jill did manage to fall asleep twice between wickets though.

After we finished with that we hustled back to the hotel for Jill’s part of the day. We were going to see Wicked.

Jill has never seen the musical before and was quite looking forward to it. We fortified ourselves with some pre-drinking and arrived at the theater. Our seats were close, but off on the left edge. It was actually a very similar sightline to when I saw it in Tampa so I still don’t know what happens on the left side of the stage.

Jill did seem to enjoy it though and it capped a fun day.