In an attempt to catch up on my blog posts I’m including my
adventures from this weekend and last weekend. This blogging thing is hard
work!
Bay of Fires/
Wineglass Bay
Our third weekend in Tasmania was a long weekend. There was
a public holiday, Eight Hour Day, on Monday, so the uni didn’t have classes. A
bunch of international students were interested in renting cars and camping
somewhere during the weekend. It started as a Facebook conversation and when
that got too confusing we all decided to meet in the dining center to discuss
plans. When that conversation got too confusing we all crossed our fingers and
hoped everyone was on the same page! We
planned to leave on Saturday morning and head to Bay of Fires and Wineglass
Bay.
On the Friday before we let for our big weekend adventure
Tanner and I decided to work on our bird watching homework for the Tasmanian
Fauna class we are in. For one part of the assignment we have to find a minimum
of 20 native bird species and write observations about them. We chose to take
the paths behind our college and walk up Mt. Nelson. It was beautiful day and
the walk was very peaceful! Tanner found some wallabies, which were adorable
like always. These were actually wallabies too… the ones around our college are
pademelons, which look like smaller wallabies. I decided to be adventurous and
walk up a little further up the path, while Tanner stayed back to look for more
birds. It took me to a spot that had a great view of the Tasman bridge/part of
Hobart, so I of course had to take a bunch of pictures. Then I decided I should head back down to
where I left Tanner, so he didn’t start to worry.
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| Mt. Nelson walk |
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| Our wallaby friend! |
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| A view of Hobart from Mt. Nelson |
We identified five bird species and saw three wallabies
before heading back down to our college, so it was a very successful morning.
The rest of the day we got ready for our first big Tassie roadtrip and later that night we went to a rafting club BBQ.
On Saturday morning we all meet by the accommodation
services building and waited for our drivers to come pick us up from the top of
the hill. In the end we had 5 cars and a total 23 people come on the trip! I
rode in a bright green car with Tanner, William (a friend from Sweden), and
Jack (another Cyclone and our brave driver). Once everyone was ready to go we started our journey towards the Bay
of Fires. The drive was only a little over 3 hours. Once we arrived we found
the free campground and started setting up our tents. Most of us had the same
15 dollar K-Mart brand tent, so our camp site looked very blue and very
impressive. We all decided we could be on a K-Mart camping advertisement! After the campsite was all set up we all headed
to the beach, which was beyond gorgeous. The water was this stunning turquoise,
blue color. I’ve never seen water so breathtakingly beautiful. The sand felt
different too. It wasn’t as fine as the sand I am use to, but it was also very
pretty.
That night when the moon rose it was an orange color and it
was stunning. We all stood on part of the Friendly Beaches watching the moon
and looking at stars again. Later Tanner and I were walking to the bathroom.
Tanner heard something and turned on his torch only to find that what he heard
was a wombat! Unfortunately, we didn’t have a camera with us, so we don’t have
pictures. It was adorable though! It was a perfect way to end a perfect weekend. |
| Our K-Mart tent village |
The Bay of Fires is known for it’s large rocks with orange coloring
on them, so Tanner and I walked down the beach towards these magnificent rocks.
Tanner decided he wanted to climb up the rocks so I could get a picture of him
and so he could get a better view. I wanted to know what it looked like up
there too, so once Tanner came down I decided to I needed to climb up too.
There was one slight problem though. Some
people know that climbing on big rocks really isn’t my thing. My fear of
hopping over and up large rocks challenges Alex’s fear of birds. I climbed up
the first rock with no issue, then looked at the gap I had to jump over and
couldn’t move. I’ll completely admit that the gap wasn’t that big, but
something about it just didn’t settle right with me. As I sat there trying to
overcome my fear for a while, I watched a 4 year old kid climb up and decided I was being a whimp. A couple was looking at me like I was crazy the
whole time and trying not to laugh at this grown girl petrified to step over to
the next rock. At least I gave them a good story! Since Alex was brave enough to hold a bird
while she was down under I decided I had to be brave too. Plus I had Tanner who
kept calling me a whimp and wouldn’t let me back out. I finally made it up and
once I was up there I was completely at ease. It was a fantastic view and I’m
not going to lie I was pretty proud of myself J
After that Tanner and I spent time climbing up and over a
bunch of rocks to see different views of the beach, all of which were amazing.
I am now much more confident in my large rock hopping abilities and actually
had a bunch of fun, so thank you Tanner and Alex! On our way back to the
campsite, Tanner found a lizard. As he said “Bobbi look a lizard!” his
flip-flop (or thong as they say here) broke and he took a tumble down some
rocks. As he was laying on the ground he asked me if I had seen the lizard…
well I was a little busy watching him fall to really care about getting a good
glimpse. (I did see him scurry though) Oh Tanner! His knees and feet were cut
up and bleeding. He had to walk the rest of the way back without shoes, but he
was a trooper. Once we made it back he used my first aid kit and got cleaned
up.
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| Bay of Fires |
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| Me on top of the rock I struggled with... |
That night our whole group sat around a campfire and talked
for a while. There were a lot of us and there were 11 nationalities
represented! We also went out to the beach to look at the full moon and stars.
It was a phenomenal sight and one I won’t be forgetting soon.
The next morning we woke up early to find that it had rained
during the night. Our 15 dollar tents held up well though, which was a nice
surprise. We all got backed up and set
off for our next adventure, Wineglass Bay and Friendly Beaches. This time it
was a shorter drive. Once we got there we set up camp at Friendly Beaches and
then headed to Wineglass Bay. We hiked to the lookout to take pictures. Seeing
Wineglass Bay was one of the top things on my Tassie bucket list. It definitely
did not disappoint. I could write tons about how beautiful the bay looked, but
I’ll just include pictures instead. Then we hiked down to the Wineglass Bay
beach. It was just as pretty on the beach as it was on the lookout. The water
was an amazing turquoise blue again and the bay was surrounded by large hills.
I can understand why it is ranked in the top beaches in the world. The water
was freezing, but that didn’t stop a bunch of our group from going in the
water. I wasn’t going to because I didn’t bring a suit, but I couldn’t resist.
When will I ever be back on that beach again??? I just couldn’t miss the
opportunity and I’m glad I didn’t. We enjoyed the waves and swimming for a
while then we warmed back up by hiking back to our cars.
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Wineglass Bay lookout  |
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| Wineglass Bay beach |
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| Friendly Beaches |
During the Week
I haven’t talked much about classes… Tanner and I do go to them.
They are actually really interesting and I am enjoying my classes a lot. One of
these weeks when I’m all caught up on blogging and don’t have so much to write
I will talk about the school part of Tasmania! J
My one story of the week…
During the week we went on a field trip for plant ecology
and somehow I managed to get stung by an ant at the tea break. Yes, stung and
yes the tea break! Of course Australia would have crazy, venomous, stinging
ants to add to the list of animals that could kill you! I thankfully didn’t
have an anaphylactic reaction this time, just a little swelling, itching, and
burning on my leg. Apparently sting number two it the one to watch out for and
when most people show signs of being allergic, so I’m staying away from ants the
rest of my time here. Tea break is awesome by the way and the US should totally do
this on field trips! We get a choice between tea and instant coffee and so far
on both field trips someone has brought cookies or cake to share.
Bruny Island
This past weekend Tanner and I rented a car again and went
to Bruny Island with Hamish and Flos, two other people from our college. We
took a 20 min ferry ride over to the island. It was cool being on a ferry
sitting in a car (at least I thought so)!
Once we were on the island we drove to the famous Bruny Island Neck. We
climbed the stairs to the top and took pictures. It was an incredible view and
was even better than I had expected. Then we drove to get something to eat. We
ended up at the Penguin café, which was this adorable little place on the South
part of the island. If anyone is on ever on Bruny Island you have to find this
place and have their hamburger. The burger was completely unique and like no
burger I’ve had before (it was like crumbly), but it was probably my favorite
burger I’ve had here.
After lunch we went for a bushwalk in the rainforest.
Everything was so green and it beautiful like everything else in Tasmania. Our
only issue was that we had no idea where we were walking. The Bruny Island
brochure that we’d left in the car said that this particular path was a 45 min
return walk. There weren’t any signs on
the path either. We just kept following the path no really sure if the path would
loop around or if there was a point that we were suppose to turn around at.
Once we reached a certain point the path just kept getting narrower. We started
to become one with the plants that were growing over the path! After walking
for about 30/40 ish mins we decided that there was no way the path looped back
to the car, so we turned around. I’m pretty we were suppose to turn around at
the big bench that blocking the small path we took, so basically we spent the
second half of the walk following a path that wasn’t really a path anymore. The
whole walk was great though we saw some beautiful birds, got attacked by
leeches, and laughed a lot.
We went to the campsite we were planning on staying at and
started to set up. That came to a halt because then the rain they had been
calling for came…. and it came…
It took a while for it to stop and for us to be able to set
up. Around dusk we went back to the neck to find PENGUINS! Every night adult Little
Penguins (also refer to as Fairy Penguins sometimes) come back to the Bruny
Island Neck from a day of swimming and reunite with their chicks. As soon as we
got to the penguin lookout point some people pointed out dolphins. Great start
to the night! Then we started to see a species called the short-tailed
shearwaters fly in from a day at sea. These birds are gearing up for their
annual migration to the Artic Circle in April, so I was glad I got to see them
before they left. I’ll never forget how
the sky looked with all the birds flying back from the sea… there were so many
shearwaters. I eventually found my penguins too. I saw a total of four chicks
and 3 adults. They are little (as there name implies), very blue in color, and
adorable! We got to see one set of chicks reunite with there mommy before we
left. They just looked so excited probably because they were starving and they
knew she had food. We also got to see them eat… yum yum nothing like a
regurgitated meal! During this penguin observation I become close friends with
a shearwater. Apparently their landing/night vision skills aren’t quite as good
as their flying skills. We watched one run into a tree while landing… I guess
that should have been a warning because a couple minutes later I was just like
that tree. Shearwater to the chest! The bird was ok… wings and legs in tacked.
It just kinda walked away a little stunned, but otherwise it was fine. Don’t
want to hurt the little guy before his or her big migration!
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| Bruny Island Neck |
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| Bruny Island Neck |
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| The Bruny Island White Wallaby! |
That night it rained again and it got pretty chilly!
Probably the coldest it’s been since I’ve arrived down under. We all survived
though! We took the 8:25 am ferry back, so we could return the car on time.
That concluded weekend #3…. Another awesome adventure! The penguins were
definitely my weekend highlight…. Another bucket list item checked off!
As of a few days ago Tanner and I have officially been in
Tasmania for a month! Crazy! It feels like we just got here. I’m glad we still
have a few more months to explore the land down under J Miss you all and sorry this
was so long! I’ll try to stay on top of my writing so I don’t get so far behind
again.
Hope everyone had a great St. Patrick’s Day! Hope you are
enjoying your spring weather too!
Love Always,
Bobbi
Bobbi
Great post. Enjoy everything you post
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