Tasmania - day 3

9 December 2019

Xena woke up, ready to feed the animals again! Was it the 4th time we were going to feed them? 5th? (If only she agreed to be fed the number of times she wanted to feed the animals.)

But this morning was different. We were going to feed the animals for the last time as we were leaving our beautiful farmstay that morning to head to Port Arthur.

And while we were packing our luggage and loading it into the car, Xena was busy writing...


... a thank you note to our kind hostess!

We picked up the bag of the remaining carrots and headed towards the horses first.


Xena had named this horse Pepper. Its companion (see behind) was Mint. Same name format as Lolly and Pop. Pepper was friendlier (and closer to where we stood) so he ended up with the lion's share of the carrots. Mint was hungrier and came bounding whenever he saw us, but he looked kinda aggressive so we would just toss the carrots with all our might to wherever he stood so he couldn't have a reason to come too close to us.


Baby farmer feeds and bids goodbye to Pepper. Pepper didn't look too happy at the thought of his source of food and entertainment leaving the premises.


Then we grabbed some bird food...


... fed the geese and bade them goodbye too. They honked their goodbyes in unison.

On the way to Port Arthur, we made several stops. The first one was Viv's colleague's parents' place, two of the warmest and most hospitable people we had ever met. It was hard to believe that we were total strangers to them.


We were also given a rather royal treatment of homemade almond fruit cake and the freshest and sweetest strawberries one can imagine. They also gave us lots of tips on what to see and do around Tasmania.


Xena quickly became friends with their cat, who had decided to spend the day in the comfort of the bed. The cat only turned its head once to express disapproval when Xena rubbed it the wrong way — quite literally so — but once she corrected herself, the cat went back to its placid state.

Next, we headed for a quick walkabout in Nutgrove beach, which was nearby according to GPS.



When we got out of our car to go to the beach, we saw this really cool automated garbage collection system.


The beach was totally deserted.


We saw some very pretty flowers at the beach.


It as fascinating to see flowers of varying shades on the same bush.


We stopped for a leisurely waterside lunch at Old Wharf Restaurant. Though it's famous mainly for seafood, we were able to find decent vegetarian food for Viv. Though we remembered to take the camera from the car, we forgot to take photos of the food! Sheesh.

After lunch, Viv wanted to pop by the Greg Chappell cricket centre to buy a new bat. Xena and I stayed in the car. After approximately 3947032874 hours, it hit us that we had sent a cricket fan into a cricket black hole. So we got out, locked the car and went in search of him.


The man with his newly acquired assets — a bat and gloves


We drove off towards the historic village of Richmond, home to many of "Australia's oldest" landmarks — the oldest bridge, the oldest church, the oldest gaol and many more. Many of the old buildings have been restored and turned into cafes, restaurants and galleries.


Richmond bridge, Richmond's most photographed landmark, was built by convicts in the 1820a and is the oldest bridge in Australia that is still in use.


The grassy banks of the Coal River offer a gorgeous picnic spot, full of birds of all kinds.


We hung out for a while, and Xena had fun running down the grassy hills.


We saw many many mallard ducks at close quarters.


We walked up the road from the bridge to St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church. Built in 1836, it's Australia's oldest still-functioning Roman Catholic Church.


Close-up of the church


We spotted this curious-looking tree that looked full-grown, yet quite short. Xena tip-toed to reach its leaves.

We also passed by the Richmond gaol, the oldest gaol in Australia. It is a tourist attraction now, but we decided not to go in.


We made a pit stop at 'Sweets and Treats', a very popular traditional candy shop in Richmond. We got ourselves some ice-cream.


The inside of the shop looked like it was straight out of an old fairy tale.


And this reminded me of the trolley lady in Hogwarts Express! We bought some strawberry yoghurt and chocolate frogs.

The weather was nice and we walked around the place, finding curious little things...


...such as this metal kangaroo that Xena found extremely intriguing.

Once we had our fill of the sights, sounds and tastes of Richmond, we headed off towards the famous Tessellated Pavement at Pirates Bay in EagleHawk Neck.


It was a short walk from the carpark down to the pavement.

So a tessellated pavement basically refers to a flat rock that has been divided into regular shapes, resembling tiles of a mosaic floor. Tessellated pavements are extremely rare and there are only a few of them in the world.


Viv and Xena posing on the Tessellated Pavement


It was fascinating to think that the "tiles" had been naturally formed due to erosion over millions of years. There are two types of formations — "pans" and "loaves". The ones here are the flat "pans"...


...while, these raised ones, are called "loaves" due to their resemblance to bread.

We had an early dinner at the nearby Lufra restaurant.


The food was not fantastic, but I really liked this drink.

We drove off towards our accommodation at Port Arthur.


View from our room

It was still early for bed, so all of us snuggled under the blanket and watched 'We bought a zoo' on TV before calling it a day. We had walked A LOT, so it wasn't too long before we were all fast asleep.

Watch this space for Tasmania day 4!

Tasmania - day 2

8 Dec 2019

It was so refreshing not to have to wake up at my usual 5:30 am and worry about breakfast and recess box and snack box and what not. I had had a great night's sleep and woke up to no alarm.

It was a gloriously sunny day (something you’ll never hear me say in Singapore — the Singapore sun and the word 'glorious' do not go together.) and Xena couldn't wait to go outside and feed the animals. There was one problem though - the guard horse and pony that were still keeping watch over the pink containers. Xena had named the pony Lolly and the guard horse Pop, so together they could be Lollipop.


"Go on, get the bird food," I told Xena, pretending to be really brave.


Even the ducks and geese waddled past us, shaking their heads in disapproval at our cowardice. 

Finally, somehow we managed to get our hands on the food. I distracted the two horses by walking over to the other side, while Xena quickly grabbed the food and ran for her life.



And then we posed with the horses and the food like we had achieved something so great. (Of course we had!)


After Xena had had enough bird-feeding time, we hopped into the car and set off for the day.


It was a beautiful route with gorgeous scenery everywhere.

There are quite a few places in Tasmania where one can see native animals, but I'd picked Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary after much research. It also promised to be a place where, in addition to Aussie animals (who wants to see lions and tigers in Australia??), we'd be able to see the iconic Tasmanian devils from up close. Bonorong also does a lot of rescue work for roadkill orphans.

The name 'Bonorong' comes from an Aboriginal word that means 'native companion'. In fact, their website very respectfully states:

"We acknowledge that this Sanctuary is on land originally owned by the Mumirimina people. The Mumirimina people were dispossessed of their land and did not survive the early colonial period of Tasmania. We pay respects to their memory and we acknowledge the Palawa people, today’s Tasmanian Aboriginal community, as the traditional owners of the land."


We were just in time for the 11:30 am tour. The ticket price includes the tour and a bag of kangaroo food (more on that later).

There were quite a few people who had gathered in the tour area so we were split into two groups and and led into opposite directions by our respective guides.

And the first animal we saw was...


...a Tasmanian devil

Contrary to their name, these animals aren't all that scary-looking after all. They are rather small in size (though they are the largest carnivorous marsupial in the world) and their name comes from the way they can screech. Our guide played a recording of the sound the devil makes and trust me, if you heard that sound especially at night, you'd be running for your life. Sadly, these animals are endangered, mainly due to a transmissible cancer called devil facial tumour disease. The government of Tasmania is trying to build up an isolated group of healthy devils to counter the situation.


The devil was trying to hide and our tour guide lured it out with some some kangaroo meat.

Next up was the adorably lazy-looking koala. There were two small open enclosures with trees that had snoozing koalas. The guide encouraged us to gently touch the fur of the koalas.


Xena queued up along with other children to take a photo with the koala. She couldn't believe that the animal sleeps up to 20 hours a day!

We were also introduced to wombats - very cute bear-like (but herbivorous, phew!) marsupials. Wombats are curious little creatures that has cube-shaped poop! I'd read about it but it was verified only after we travelled to Tasmania. More on that in later posts.


Check out this 11-kg wombat nestled like a human baby in our guide's arms.


Scary-looking black snake -- all I could think of was "NAGINI!"


And here's a blue-tongued lizard, also known as Tassie's biggest lizard!


Did you know that echidnas are the most widespread mammal in Tasmania? This is Randall, who was attacked by a dog and had to have his right front leg amputated. Unable to survive in the wild, he lives permanently at Bonorong.


Xena poses with Randall.

And then we came to the part that Xena had been waiting for -- feeding the kangaroos.


A large section of Bonorong has free-roaming forest kangaroos.


They are very friendly and approachable. In fact, if you don't approach them, they might approach you (but in a very non-aggressive way).

You can go around offering them the kangaroo food that you get with your ticket.

The favourite part of Xena's vacation - kangy-feeding! She went around feeding dozens of them, totally unafraid. 

Snoozing kangy poses with Viv and Xena. 

We were starving by now so decided to stop for a lunch break before continuing our journey in Bonorong. They have a tiny cafe called Bonorong Food Hut that serves only plant-based food.


They have a small seating area just outside....


...and a food scrap bin!


We had curried cauliflower, pumpkin soup, wedges and Kombucha, an organic ginger and lemon drink (Xena also got an ice lolly from the gift shop later).


Beware - birds in Tasmania are not afraid to join you for lunch.

After lunch, we walked around a bit more looking at the animals and birds.


This is the laughing kookaburra, the largest member of the kingfisher family. We didn't get to hear its laugh though.


A galah, also known as a rose-breasted cockatoo


The sulphur-crested cockatoo can live up to 100 years in captivity!

We were done seeing the animals and Viv suggested that we make our way to our next stop. However, Xena wanted to have another go at feeding the kangaroos. So we told her she could feed them for another 10 minutes, after which we would leave. She agreed.


The 10 minutes soon became 60, because seeing her so delightfully interacting with the kangaroos, I didn't have the heart to bring up the time.


Poor Viv was waiting for the "10 minutes later"...

...while I was going around capturing my future vet in action. 

We even saw a mama kangaroo with a joey poking its head out!

Look at joey trying to get to the food!

Bonorong also has an animal hospital with a viewing deck for visitors, but it was closed on the day we went. 

They keep a log of all the animals rescued and being treated. 

And they name all of these animals!

Finally, Xena was done feeding and saying her goodbyes to the kangaroos and we set off. Our next stop was Mount Wellington, located about 1,270 metres above sea level. As Hobart is located at its foothills, I had read that the temperature at Mount Wellington is about 10 degrees lower than that in Hobart. It was a particularly hot day in Hobart so we thought the weather on Mount Wellington would be pleasantly cool. How wrong we were. And right. And wrong too. You'll see. 

As soon as we got out of the car, the chill slapped us squarely across our faces. Our first taste of the tundra climate. It was still sunny though and we knew we would be hiking, so we marched on. Within minutes, Xena was shivering and we had to run back to the car to get her cardigan, jacket, woollen gloves, woollen cap and a scarf. I was wearing a thick full-sleeved dress so I was all right, but even Viv had to grab his jacket.  

And we set off on a short hike around Mount Wellington. 

It was a gorgeous day with beautiful views all around.

Not quite sure if she was hugging me out of love or for warmth 

On all the signs and tourist guidebooks, the mountain is referred to as 'kunanyi / Mount Wellington'. Curious googling later told me that the dual naming policy was announced in 2013 as the surviving descendants of the original indigenous Tasmanians preferred the original name 'kunanyi'. The name Mount Wellington was given by the British in honour of the Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley who defeated Napoleon in the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. 

As we walked around, we noticed that the plants at the top looked quite strange. They were short and stunted and looked kind of like naturally growing bonsais. I read later that due to the severe frosts, winds, snowfalls and a short growing season, plants struggle to grow tall in the upper parts of the mountain. These parts have more shrubs and lichens, while the lower parts have the tall, dense forests. 

Some of the plants had some pretty flowers though!

Daddy and baby enjoying the view

The structure that you see at the back is not a fancy tourist structure -- it's actually a transmission tower. The 130-metre tall tower was built at the summit to get the best coverage. 

It was quite a tiring path that went up and down, but Xena carried on without complaints. 

And then suddenly, the weather changed completely. It got very warm and all of the layers came off. I was really amazed at the contrast. 

Xena abandoned her cardigan and jacket and her gloves and her hat. She and Viv were walking around in T-shirts and pants like it was Singapore. 

We climbed all the way to the topmost point -- the pinnacle.

On top of the world!

Viv gives Xena a hand...

And up they go!

We couldn't quite make out what this structure was. 

Next, we made our way to the observation shelter. 

The shelter had 360-degree views and lots of information about the area.

Parting shot before we made our way back to the carpark. What a stunning place. 

I think we had chosen a good time to go to Mount Wellington. Many reviews recommend going there during sunrise or sunset and I have no doubt the views would be doubly stunning, but I don't think we'd be able to enjoy them. Because we'd be lying on the ground, frozen to the bone. 

We drove to Kingston, where we first popped by a Coles to buy breakfast supplies for the next morning. Xena also remembered to grab a bag of carrots for the horses!

Dinner was at a Thai restaurant in Kingston. 

It was still bright when we got back to our accommodation. Naturally, the first thing Xena wanted to do was feed the animals. 

We were still quite terrified at the idea of hand-feeding the horses, so let Viv do that. 

Xena was content with feedings the birds, who had gotten quite used to us by now and came running the moment they saw us with food. 

Back in our warm room, we played a card game called Sleeping Queens. Once our little Queen had slept off, Viv and I had a catch-up over wine and potato chips. We talked about what we always talk about when we travel. 

Life and travel. 

Click here for Tasmania - Day 3.