We spent Thursday morning exploring Hobart, a nice, compact little town on the water with some cute areas. And then Erwin and I got our first ever haircut abroad! With mixed results I am sorry to say, but fortunately we don’t know anyone here and it will all grow back… :-). Tasmania is known for the large ‘wilderness areas’ it still contains, and so far, we had not seen any of that because they’re mostly on the western side of the island. From Hobart, you can drive to the edge of that area in about an hour and a half, and that’s what we did in the afternoon. We went to the Mount Field National Park, a ski area in winter, and walked some trails in the park. At the highest point we reached, only about 1000 meters or so, it was only 3 degrees! Hard to imagine that only 2 days ago, it was over 30…
For today (Friday), we had booked a cruise around Bruny Island with Bruny Island Charters. They take you out on large open ribs to watch the coastline and the local wildlife. Great fun, as the boats were originally designed for driving military special forces around and they are quite fast. And there was a big ocean swell… The coast was beautiful, we saw albatros and lots of seals, but unfortunately no dolphins, great white sharks, or whales (although all of these featured on the ‘wildlife checklist’ they gave us!). Again, sitting still for 3 hours in a speeding open boat, we were very, very cold, and grateful for the idiot looking long red raincoats we were given to put on in the beginning.
