Tasmania-Part One

On Wednesday, April 29th we flew from Melbourne to Launceston, Tasmania. The kids were able to have a full day of school and we drove to the airport immediately after school was out for the day.

We arrived in Launceston at about 8pm and had a short drive to our hotel.

Launceston, Tasmania, April 30, 2015

On Thursday morning we stopped at a cafe to grab breakfast. I would have liked to take pictures, but haven't mastered the art of not appearing creepy for taking pictures inside a little cafe (with all the people sitting there and all). There were so many beautiful pastries and cakes at this shop. They all looked so yummy!

Barry had a meeting with faculty at the University of Tasmania-Burnie, so we had to drive there from Launceston (about an hour and half drive). The drive to Burnie was gorgeous. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, and we drove through a lot of countryside and could see mountains in the distance.

Beautiful countryside of northern Tasmania

We dropped Barry at the University. Here's Barry's description of his day: The University of Tasmania partners with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture to run a research center in Burnie focused on dairy and vegetable production. The great thing about what they do here is that they have excellent integration of agronomy and animal science research. I was able to tour the farm with three of their scientists and learn about their grazing system (managing over 100 paddock allotments on a 300-cow dairy) and their current research on cover crops for paddocks being "renovated" - a new ryegrass planting. I was also surprised to briefly see 2 platypuses in the farm pond, since we had been told from multiple sources that they primarily live in streams and that they are very challenging to find in the wild.  Really it was hard to focus with the beautiful scenery all around!-Barry

University of Tasmania dairy farm, Burnie, Tasmania

The kids and I made our way to the visitor's information centre. We got some maps and visitor information for our time in Tasmania and walked along the boardwalk on the beach. There was a nice playground that we stopped at for a bit, then we wandered onto the main street area to find some lunch. We had lunch at a place called Mecca's, then found a bookstore with a large children's section to hang out in for awhile. It was complete with a reading tent and store copies of books for kids to peruse. Seriously, why doesn't every bookstore have this?! It was great. We all sat on the floor and read a bunch of books.

View looking North, Burnie, Tasmania

Hannah, Lydia and Kiernan at the boardwalk in Burnie

View from waterfront playground in Burnie

Playground fun!

So proud of herself!

In order to travel light we didn't take the stroller with us to Tasmania. Once we had been at the bookstore for quite a while Lydia was starting to get pretty tired. We walked back to our car (quite a walk with a tired toddler) and headed to our holiday house. We stayed at a home on one of the hills in Burnie overlooking the water. It was beautifully decorated (lots of breakables!) and super clean. Lydia napped and the kids caught up on some U.S. schoolwork. Yes, even though they go to school here in Australia we are supplementing with the work we brought with us. We need to keep them on pace to start 3rd and 5th grade back in the U.S. Since the Australian school year begins in January, it's as if our children are repeating the first half of their school years, rather than the last half. They are still learning lots of different things, but we find that it's good to challenge them with the schoolwork we brought with us too.

Our cell phones/data hardly functioned in Tasmania, so it was interesting because we didn't have a way to communicate or look up maps to get around. It was fun-we relied on paper maps! HA! Barry got to the holiday house at about 5 and informed us that we were having dinner at the home of James, a faculty member from the University of Tasmania. James and Belinda have 4 kids (and their youngest is 2 year old Lydia!). Our kids had a good time playing with theirs. It was such a great evening!

The holiday home we stayed in had fresh ingredients in the refrigerator to make breakfast, so Friday we had bacon, egg, tomato and cheese toasties for breakfast and dropped Barry at the University again. He spent most of the morning presenting on his research and possible areas of collaboration for a larger group of scientific staff at the Burnie campus.

The kids and I took off for Wings Wildlife Park in Gunn Plains, Tasmania.

Hannah and Lydia

Watch out Kiernan!

Hannah's first time petting a koala

"Sulphur-crested cockatoo, go birdie go!"

Animal whisperer Kiernan and Doug the wombat

Hannah and the wombat

Lydia was a bit nervous

Tasmanian devil

Tasmanian devils can only be found in the wild in Tasmania. Unfortunately, the population is threatened now because of a very strange contagious cancer that causes facial tumors. It is transmitted because when Tasmanian devils meet they almost always end up in a biting match and cancer cells can "jump" from one animal to the next. Thankfully there are cancer-free populations in captivity being held for release if/when the wild population is wiped out by this cancer.

More Tasmanian devils

This cockatoo kept saying hello!

All of us with the wombat

The kids were looking at a different goat and this one jumped up and surprised them!

Wallaby

Hannah feeding kangaroos

The biggest kangaroo kept hanging around Kiernan (he was holding the food)

Lydia would only feed the young one-she didn't like the roos bigger than her

Young kangaroo

View near Wings Wildlife Park

As we drove back to Burnie I stopped to capture some of the scenery on my drive. Pictures don't even do justice for the views I saw while driving. Sometimes it seems as though I'm looking at a painting rather than real land! Tasmania is one of my favorites!

Lookout over valley near Gunn Plains, Tasmania

Another gorgeous view!

We got back to Burnie at 3 and picked Barry up at the house. Lydia was napping in the car, so we decided to drive out to try to see some different areas outside of Burnie. Our primary destination was a place called Table Cape, which is a huge bluff that juts out into the sea, dominating the coastline west of Burnie. The bluff here, like most of the high ground in Tasmania, is from an extinct volcano. In fact, when we reached the top of the volcano, you could very clearly tell where the cauldron was, although it is probably a 2-3 square mile area. There is a tulip farm there and a number of fields of potatoes were being harvested as we went through. The best part, though, was the view over the ocean from the bluff - unfortunately, it is one of those cases where photos just cannot do it justice.

View from Table Cape near Burnie, May 1, 2015

Look at that blue water - so awesome!

Looking towards Burnie from Table Cape

Another Table Cape view

Looks like a painting!

Destined for the local fish 'n chips shops

Interesting rocks on our drive

We had dinner at Mecca's (same place as lunch day before-it was good, so we went with it again). After dinner, we went down to the beach to try to see the little penguins. Tasmania has fairy penguins too, but unfortunately they weren't there. Apparently there is a 50% chance of seeing the penguins in April/May time frame on that beach.

Tasmania is very rocky and hilly so thankful for our rented SUV...we needed it to get around!

Kiernan kept a journal while we were in Tasmania. Here are his entries from day one and two in Tassie.

April 30, 2015: Today we are in Burnie, Tasmania. We went to a park, a restaurant, a book store and then a hotel and then relaxed.

May 1, 2015: Today, we went to a wildlife park. We fed fish and kangaroos. The fish kept jumping out of the water when we threw the food in. The kangaroos ate right out of our hands. We got to go in the kangaroo cage. I could feel their teeth. We got to scratch a wombat. It smelled funny. Did you know that wombats and koalas are distant relatives? When we were there, we heard a cockatoo say, "Hello." Another cockatoo named Bert danced. All we had to do was this. "Sulpher-crested cockatoo (wave hand above head)! Go birdie go" (shake fists)! (clap hands)

Sarah