Freycinet

This Natiobal Park had been on our hit list since we arrived. There was also Wineglass bay on the other side of the mountain that we were determined to go to. So Rob donned his best hiking thongs again, Dylan put on his best mis-match of clothes that he could find, and the rest of us put on out bathers to set off on a 45 minute climb up the mountain, to be followed by a 40 minute descent to the bay for a well earned swim. Sounds good in theory anyway. Magnificent views on the way up as you would expect as you climb up 400m above sea level along gruelling rabbit paths and mountain goat rock steps in our bathers and thongs with a bag full of towels and sunscreen with barely a litre of water between the 5 of us. I was slightly amused at some of the looks from other hikers in their $1500 outfits as they powered past us. 

We finally reached the summit and couldn't help but admire the view as we started contemplating having to get the kids down the hill for a swim, and then the hour + trek back to the car later. It was at that point we managed to convince the kids the only way to get to the beach was to drive and not let them comprehend that we had reneged on our plans and we're taking an easier option. Thankfully the trip back down was a little bit easier, as you would expect, as the sweat had stopped leaking out of my thongs which meant I didn't have to implement my downhill slalom skiing skills. When we got to the car again, we found a nice little bay called Honeymoon Beach. It looked a bit suspect at first with the sand looking more like the gravel at the bottom of a fish tank, but the water was crystal clear, warm(ish) and shallow enough in places for the kids to stand. We stayed there for a couple of hours before heading back to camp. 

We are leaving here a day early tomorrow, to go to a place called St Helens so we can visit the Bay of Fires without too much car travel. 

Beer O'Clock. 

To Bicheno

We are now on the homeward run and heading up the East Coast ready to meet the ferry next Sunday morning.
One of our must do's was to visit Freycinet National Park. In order to do this in our rapidly diminishing time frame, we had to go a couple of hours north of Pt Arthur to then come back down the coast a little to visit the National Park.
We had our mandatory playground / lunch stop at a town called Swansea, where the boys also took the opportunity to lay down after an hour and a half sitting in the car, then doubled back a bit to get some fresh berries from a berry farm that we roared past on the way into town.
As usual, I was a little wary about going down a very narrow bitumen road that soon turned into a dirt road / driveway, knowing that i had 16 foot of van on the back of the car and dreading the day i have to reverse 150m around corners due to having no turn-around bay at the end of the road. Luckily this place had a full circle driveway, making it very easy to get the van out. They also had some pretty yummy ice-cream that we gorged down whilst sitting outside on the chairs overlooking the acres of berry bushes.... with thousands of berries on them.... It was about this time that we discovered they didn't have any berries for sale... because it was a Sunday and they didn't have a picker working. I am yet to start up my own business, but I am starting to think there isn't a lot of brain cells living on this farm. Tourists are generally out exploring on the weekends... did they not think on the Saturday that it may just be wise to pick a few extra for the hungry masses that will roll up the following day wanting to taste and more importantly contribute to the farm's profit margin? Or maybe even freeze a few Kg if they don't keep fresh too well? At least they have ice-cream... like the other 20 shops in the main street of town.
We arrived mid afternoon at our new stable at Bicheno, where the only thing the kids were interested in doing was going for a swim. It was blowing a gale but they were going for a dive regardless, so Tracy took off to the shops to get some essentials for the next few days whilst I went down the beach with the rugrats and let them play in the surf. Despite the wind, they had a fantastic time and the water and surrounds just looked amazing.
An hour or so later, and we headed back across the road to settle in for the night and start pondering the last few days that are left of this trek of ours.

Port Arthur Ruins

Today was the whole reason for visiting Port Arthur - to check out the site of Australia's largest mass shooting.... and the convict ruins.
This place was ginormous. The ticket gives us 2 days entry, but I am sure we needed at least 3 to see everything there is to see, so in true fashion, we crammed it all in less than 6 hours. The kids were fantastically semi-interested in what the tour lady said for the first 50 minutes, and then managed to smile and nod at the appropriate times we pointed out some bits of the ruins.
Our ticket included a cruise around the bay and a stop at The Isle of The Dead, where there was apparently over 1400 convicts and officers buried. The lady that was giving us the tour of this tiny little island ( less than the size of half a footy oval), was trying her hardest to be slightly humourous and even managed to laugh at one of her own jokes once. I tried to smile and acknowledge her a couple of times but was just secretly wishing she would just stick to the facts, as that was actually very interesting.
We got back onto the boat and continued walking around the ruins, just being fascinated by the history we had heard abnout earlier in the day, and seeing what conditions the boys and men had to endure, simply for punishment of simple crimes such as stealing a couple of loaves of bread, or some silk scarves. (For those historians reading this, you may know that Port Arthur was a prison for repeat offenders, but it was for very simple crimes that today would barely get a policeman off his chair and put his packet of Twinkies down).


We finally ambled out and headed back to base camp.You guessed it..... beer o'clock.

Port Arthur

We set off for our next stage of the great circumnavigation of Tassie, which was the Port Arthur Caravan Park. Turns out that about 3 houses, a small shop, the caravan park and the famous, or infamous maybe, ruins are all that is here.
We arrived before the Hardy's and had set up, had lunch and were about to sneak off, when they arrived. We said our hello's and goodbye's in the same sentence and set off to explore some of the famous landmarks we had heard and read about. The first stop was at the Blowhole, followed by Tasman Arch and Devil's Kitchen. The Blowhole was a bit of a let down with the gentle seas rolling in and barely wetting the rocks so we headed up to the Arch and Kitchen.
What an amazing formation cut out in the rocks by the relentless power of the ocean and battering winds over hundreds of years. The only disappointment was that it was a bit hard to see into the bottom of the towering cliffs due to the fences that were quite clearly built to stop tourists seeing it properly..... and slipping down 200 metres of sheer rock face and killing themselves as they splatted on the rocks below. I think i got some good photos though, and despite the kids not showing a great amount of interest i am telling myself that they enjoyed seeing it. There were some amazing views across the ocean and neighbouring cliff faces too, that can never be accurately reflected in photos. Hopefully the kids will remember it for years to come.
Q little bit further up was the memorial statue of the Dog Fence. I can only hope that the statue of the dog wasn't life-size, as this thing was frightening to look at even though we knew it was made from steel. apparently these dogs were chained up in one big line across the small neck of land separating the island from the mainland, close enough to share a bowl of food, but not close enough to rip each others throats out.... which they absolutely look like they would have if they could. They also used to have these dogs on floating pontoons on the water to stop any would-be convicts from thinking a quick bath while escaping would be an easy option.
There was also an old original Commanders quarters that we looked through, all in very original condition except for the roof which was renewed to stop the weather destroying all the old history housed within. Turned out to be a very interesting afternoon, but the kids were getting ratty at this stage, so we headed off for an ice cream before returning to camp for beer o'clock.

Bruny Island

Rob and Nicole decided they were heading to the Skywalk and then down to the hot springs at Hastings today. We had recently done a skywalk and zip line on our last holiday so we opted out and chose to do our own exploring and chose to go to Bruny Island instead. We got to the ferry via the local marina and headed across the water. There has certainly been no injection of funds into this ferry anytime over the last 10 years and despite my scanning for some life jackets, there was none to be found and thankfully none were needed.

We got off 15 minutes later and set off exploring. Turned out to be a rather big disappointment actually. There was NOTHING. No petrol station, no shop, no playground.... Nothing. We did find a great set of steps leading up to a magnificent lookout right in the middle of North and South Bruny Islands, where the waves pounded the shore on one side, and was as flat as a lake on the other. We drove through a couple of little "towns" (consisting of about 4 houses) before finding a pristinely maintained shelter next to a single swing and had some lunch. It was here I discovered on the other side of the bushes was the most perfect beach with perfect sand and perfect water. We headed into the water and enjoyed the serenity for a good hour, before moving on to look at Adventure Bay. With a name like that, it had to be exciting. Or not. Just another beachside suburb (this time with about 50 houses), but still no petrol station or supermarket. We also found a cheese shop where the cheese was made right there in front of you - Bruny cheese - but I wasn't a fan of any of it so we moved on to the fudge factory. This was a bit of a let down too as it just seemed to be an over commercialised shop front, but apparently it was also made in the very next building. 

It was about now that we had seen enough open paddocks and winding roads, so headed back to risk our lives on the return ferry ride. 

Kids were tired by now, the arguing is more commonplace than breathing, so it was time for me to get back to camp and  settle in for beer o'clock. 

Snug

This morning we packed up in a semi hurry and headed off to our next destination - Snug. We have heard a lot of reports this is a nice place, and so we were looking forward to it.
It was only an hour and a half drive away, so we actually got there before 12 and had to check that it was ok to come in (check-in is normally 2pm or later). All was good and we got a couple of nice big sites with our own en-suite that turned out to also be an en-suite for anyone else in our immediate area......
For the first time in our holiday, this meant that we didn't feel like it was a school day and have to pack all the lunches for our day of exploring... (When I say we, I guess I really mean Tracy and Nicole).
I had read that there was a local waterfall walk nearby so I announced that I was going regardless of what anyone else wanted to do (yes.... very unlike me I know), and started getting things moving. Everyone else was super keen and donned their best walking clothes and we bundled into our cars. The drive was only 16Km and the walking trail was approximately 45 minutes return. The walk itself was really nice, as always, but once again the very dry recent Tasmanian weather meant that it was simply a walk to an almost dry wall of rock. Again, we stood and imagined what it could look like if there had been any water flowing, whilst the kids clambered over every conceivable rock to get to the highest and most slippery place for a photo opportunity, seemingly completely oblivious to our tame requests for them to get down, stop, come back, and any other versions of attempting to stop them falling into the stagnant pool of black water at the bottom of the cliff.
Rob had chosen to wear his best hiking thongs on the walk.... again.... and this time it was just too much. There was a blowout. No left thong for Rob anymore, so it was barefoot back up the hill for him. And somehow he made it without any scratches or other injuries.
Not sure what was going on, but by the time we got to the top, i had enough sweat pouring off me to rival the flow from the so called waterfall we just visited. I had a quick lok around only to see that no-one else appeared to have even started sweating, so I immediately started calculating the extra weight of the SLR camera, the GoPro and the car keys in my pocket to announce that I had a significant Power-To-Weight ratio disadvantage and that was the reason.... (and quietly started thinking that I needed to work on my fitness levels at some stage this year).

The trip home included a slight diversion into a town called Margate, where there was an old train and several carriages that head been converted into shops, one of them being a Lolly Shop. the kids needed some more sugar to help them through their afternoon, so we all got a bag of something and let them have a bit of a climb on the train before heading back to camp for a quiet afternoon.

Mona - and I still wonder why

I had been told by many people that "we had to go to Mona - the famous Museum of Old and New Art", and Rob was going with or without us, so the scene was set.
We got there reasonably early and despite the lack of signage, we found our way to the top level, which was actually normal ground level. Turns out this place is almost entirely underground, and after seeing some of the stuff in there, i can suggest that this is to make it easier to fill in with dirt and concrete at a later date.
I always knew I wasn't the Arty Farty type, and after visiting MONA, I am now certain that I am not.
We were advised that there were certain sections with adult content, and so I was fairly wary about keeping the kids close so I could screen their viewing as we moved along the dark corridors.
I was so vigilant in my screening, that I didn't actually notice the 76 "Maps of Tasmania" pinned to the wall at a height just above the boys eye level and just below mine. It was only as Dylan asked me what they were that I actually looked at them and realised the varying depictions of a woman's most private anatomy was staring at all of us to admire if we so chose to. I chose not to and threw a modest description to Dylan's question as "Art". What I wasn't impressed at though, was the written description of this piece.... it was literally named as ..... No, I am not even going to reference it. Despite my many bogan traits, I still hate the C word, whether it be written, spoken or heard and i felt there could have been a hundred better ways to describe this row of genitalia pinned to the wall for everyone to admire and discuss all the differences. Apparently that must be a natural thing for Arty people to do.
Moving on..... I learnt that you can get a plastic bag and fill it with soil and put a plant in it, then hang it from a railing and call it art. Or you can loop some rope and hang it from an over sized hook. Or put a bag of coal in the middle of the floor which is just inviting all the kids to touch, only to be told off by security to not touch. Like I said, I don't think I am arty.

We finally made a bolt for the exit door before Tracy had a seizure over the darkness of the Art world and found a playground for the kids. Then we took off to find Seven Mile Beach, which we had seen from our climb up Mt Wellington the other day. It was horribly windy, however there was no way the kids were going to let us near a beach without letting them get in it.... so we did. Being the super responsible parent I am, i changed into my bathers and stood in knee deep water yelling at the 6 kids every 5 seconds to remind them that they were too far out, or too far down the beach. I finally decided it was too hard so I figured I was in Tasmania and they are used to seeing seals and whales in shallow waters, so i took my shirt off and jumped in with the kids. The water is actually amazingly warm and was only let down by the cool wind, but the 20-30 minutes spent in the water was really fun.... Until Tyler's body surfing involved a right hand punch fair square on my nose and sent me reeling backwards, floating in shore like a dead walrus about to get beached and photographed by hundreds of bemused tourists. That was it for me... and everyone else, so we dried off and headed back to camp....
Yep, beer o'clock.