Today was a travel day from Ayer’s Rock to Hobart, Tasmania, with a short layover in Melbourne. Besides my second flight getting delayed, a boring day. I made it to my lodging in Hobart and called it a night, since I had to be up early to head to Port Arthur.

Day 1 (9)

After checking out, at 8:30am my shuttle picked me up and we headed for Port Arthur, with a few scenic stops for pictures along the way. We had about 4 hours there, which was plenty of time to grab lunch, spot 2 pademelons running around, take a harbor cruise, and explore the ruins of the prison and surrounding community there.

Once that finished, it was back to Hobart via the shuttle. We made several stops on the way home. The most interesting was Abel Tasman National Park, to see the Tasman Arch. This is along the coast of the sea, and is a sea cave that collapsed, creating an arch.

Next to it was a smaller sea cave known as Devil’s Kitchen. We also stopped on the way home in the small town of Richmond. Not the most interesting stop, but it did have the oldest bridge and oldest church in Tasmania. I got dropped back off at my hostel in Hobart, and got ready for my 7:30am pickup the next day.

Day 2 (10)

7:30am rolled around and I got picked up by my bus for the next few days, Jump Tours. It ended up being a group of just 5, plus the guide. While the day before was technically a part of the tour, this felt like the real start, as we immediately set out to do some hiking. Our first stop was Mount Field National Park, and a short hike to a nice waterfall of Russell Falls. On the way we spotted a pademelon, which is similar to a wombat.

As was to be the norm this trip, after the hike was a drive of an hour or more to our next stop. We passed over a scenic Meadow Lake just in time, because as soon as we got over it they had to shut down the road to allow a herd of cattle to wander across.

Around lunchtime, we made it to Lake St Clair and had lunch at the lodge. We then set out for an hour or so hike around the lake, including the loop of Platypus Walk. 0 platypus were spotted today though, but we got some nice views of the lake, even though it was raining a bit.

We headed up the road a bit, stopping to see some of the hydro power stations, to Donaghy’s Hill, and hiked up. From the top, we could see the Tasmanian Wilderness Area in all directions, including the Franklin River.

With all the activities done for the day, we headed to our lodge in the town of Tulluah, population 250. The company owns a house there known as the “Jump Holiday House”, or “Jump Shack”, which is just an old house across from the pub they are trying to convert to a backpackers hostel. Since we were such a small group, it wasn’t too cozy.

Day 3 (11)

Today was our longest hike, about 3 hours through the rainforest to Montezuma Falls, which is Tasmania’s tallest waterfall. A railroad used to run here 50 years ago, but they’ve now removed most of the ties, and the old path is now the hiking trail. Given it was a former railway, the path was never too steep.

As was the norm for our time in western Tasmania, it was raining. Our shoes got nice and drenched, but the tree cover gave us some shelter. In addition to the falls (~103m), there was a suspension bridge across the valley, and one of the old mines you could walk into.

After finishing and laying shoes out to dry, we went to the small fishing village of Strahan for our daily lunch and wander around break. I found a place that served scallop pie, so had one of those, since it’s a very Tasmanian food, or so I was told.

Another hour worth of driving in the rain later and we reached the Henty Dunes – which reach several kilometers and lead to the Southern Ocean. The rain picked up and pelted us, along with the sand, for a bit but then cleared up. We went to one dune that was shaped correctly for some good jumping pictures, so did that for a while.

Given that everyone was cold and tired at this point, we headed back to the Jump House a bit earlier today. Everyone headed to the pub for dinner, mainly since they had a fire so we could dry out our shoes.

Day 4 (12)

Today’s feature was Cradle Mountain National Park. We packed our stuff up from the Jump House and headed there first thing. At the entrance to the park was passed a Tasmanian Devil sanctuary, which we unfortunately did not stop at. As was expected, once we reached the park it was raining. We chose to hike the Dove Lake circuit trail, which looped around the lake and had some great views of Cradle Mountain. It rained on and off the whole time, and was rather cold and windy, but it was still an enjoyable hike. It took about 2 hours to make the whole loop.

Once we all dried off, we went and stopped in Sheffield (the town of murals) for lunch. The rest of the day was spent driving towards the town of Launcheston. We made several stops along the way including stops for honey tasting (over 50 different types, including some spicy ones) and for a salmon tasting as well.

We arrived in Launcheston just before dusk, and got checked into the Launcheston Backpacker’s. The whole group ate together (Dominos – very Tasmanian), and we met the 4 extra people who were joining our tour the next morning.

Day 5 (13)

Every Saturday in Launceston is a market, so we started our day out by wandering through that a bit, grabbing breakfast there, as well as seeing the monkeys that live in the Launceston City Park.  The morning was spent driving to the Bay of Fires. Along the way we made brief stops in Legerwood to see their memorial to soldiers carved into tree trunks, and a cheese tasting at Pyengana Dairy Company.  Bay of Fires was time for a picnic (consisted of various things I had assembled from the past days tasting – salmon and cheese on crackers, as well as some oysters we had picked up 10 minutes before). Even though it was a bit chilly, I went for a quick swim.

We then went to check out a second beach, which had a bunch of red rocks from all the lichen.  Around 5pm, we started to head to our final destination for the night of Bicheno. Since it was the last night of the tour, the group decided to make dinner together and have chicken pasta at the hostel.

Day 6 (14)

Everyone was up by 7am the next morning to catch sunrise. The view was slightly obstructed, but still worth getting up early for. After some quick breakfast, it was off for our first stop of the day, a hike to Whaler’s Lookout.  This was a 15 minute hike up the hill to some good overlooks of the bay. We were also able to spot some penguins out on one of the rocks. Next we headed to a blow hole a few minutes away, and there were enough waves to give us a good show.

Next up was Nature World, a cross between a zoo and wildlife sanctuary. They had free range kangaroos that could be fed, along with some pademelons and wallabys you could walk among and feed. In addition, they had a wombat and Tasmanian devil feeding we got to see.

Once we left, we hit the road again and got to Wineglass Bay, in Freycinet National Park, around noon. We did the 45 minute walk up to the Wineglass Bay lookout.

It would have been another 1.5 hours to head down from the lookout to the beach, so the group decided to head back to the car and go to a closer beach instead.  The chosen beach ended up being Honeymoon Bay, where we also stopped to have our lunch under some picnic table, since it was lightly raining. The rain let up, and we went to wander the beach a bit. The wind had picked up and it was quite overcast , so no one went for a swim, since it was a bit cooler than the day before.   On the way out of the park, we stopped and did one more short (15 minute) hike along some sea-side cliffs up and around the lighthouse at Cape Tourville.  At this point, our tour was basically over so we started the drive back to Hobart.

We made two stops along the way – one at Milton Vineyard for a wine tasting (the winner was a iced Riesling) and then at Kate’s Berry Farm to try some jams, and order some ice cream for an afternoon snack. We made one or two more stops for pictures, but we soon hit Hobart around dusk and got dropped off at our lodgings. We all met up again for one last dinner in the city at The Shamrock Hotel.

My flight from Sydney to Ayer’s Rock airport was at 10am, but after almost missing the flight due to the airport shuttle stopping at every hotel in the city, I was glad to make it. The flight was 3.5 hours, and I got some good views of the Outback, and of Uluru / Ayer’s Rock as I was landing.





I was picked up by bus at the airport, (there were a total of 16 people on my trip) and we went immediately to the cultural center, which gave us a brief history of the area. Next we headed towards The Rock, with some stops for photos on the way.  Once there, we did a few short strolls around parts of he base, which included some of the caves, and a permanent water hole. We also got some overviews of some of the ancient aboriginal traditions and practices, as they related to Uluru.  On our hikes, we were accompanied by a small army of flies, which followed us on every hike we did around Uluru and Tjuta. 

The tour advertised we could walk around the whole base, but that wasn’t actually the case, which was a bit disappointing. That said, considering it was about 95F with little to no shade, that might not have been a bad thing.  We were also given the option to “hike” to the top (it had chains, but looked on par with hiking Stone Mountain). Had I known we weren’t walking the whole base, I probably would have done it, but I did not.



After our walks, we headed to a scenic overlook and watched the sun set on Uluru, while sipping on some champagne (along with every other bus load full of people in the park). We returned to our “camp” for the night (read – patch of dirt which probably didn’t have snakes that would kill us), set up our “swags” (no tents tonight), and got ready for dinner. The camps thankfully had hot showers, toilets, and sinks. We were treated to quite spectacular views of the night sky, with perfect views of the Milky Way. 

DAY 2

We were woken up at 5am to go see sunrise. We drove to a lookout where we could see Uluru with the sun rising next to it, and could also see the light on Kata Tjuta (a group of 30 smaller rocky outcroppings). While there were a few people there, thankfully it wasn’t as crowded as sunset the previous night. Once the sun was up, we headed for some specific rocks in Kata Tjuta, and a walk through some of the valleys called The Valley of the Winds. 

For some reason rather than doing the whole hike around one of these small rocks, we did an out and back hike. The hike was probably about 3km in length, all rocky, with a few scrambles. We had some good views of the rock faces, some of the valleys, and saw patches of vegetation using the rocks to survive out here in the desert.

It was starting to get pretty warm as we finished, which meant it was time to head back to the camp for an early lunch (even though it felt like 3pm, it was only 11). Several burritos later, the camp was packed up and we got on the bus to head to Kings Creek Station for our next campground.  The ride was about 3.5 hours, with a quick stop at a roadside gas station/shack, and random road stop for afternoon snacks.  



Our camp for the night was “luxury”, in that it actually had tents! (As well as hot showers and toilets again). Once we had our swags set up, it was time for dinner. Along with chicken skewers and sausage, we had kangaroo steaks prepared with two different types of mairinate, which were both quite delicious. After looking at the stars for a bit again, it was time for bed as we had an early start planned the next day.



Day 3





Today we were woken up at 4:15am, as we had to be on the bus by 5am. We were headed to Watarrka National Park, for a 6km Canyon Rim hike in Kings Canyon. 



We scrambled up about 500 stone steps, the first part of the hike, in the pitch black to get to a good lookout for sunrise.



Once we had seen the sunrise, we set out to hike around the rest of the rim. The most interesting part of the remainder of the hike (besides continued great views) was called “The Garden of Eden”. This was a permanent water hole tucked away in the Canyon with a lot of trees around it. Thankfully there was a decent amount of shade so we didn’t bake like we did the first day of hiking.



We finished the hike up around 10am, which meant it was time to hop on the bus and head back to have lunch and pack up camp. Along the way home, we spotted a dingo running around in the bush.  



For lunch, we had camel burgers (if you hadn’t of told me it was camel, I would have thought it was a regular burger).  Then it was on the bus for 5 hour ride back to Alice Springs, and the end of our tour. We had a brief pit stop, and the cafe had a baby kangaroo they were nursing back to health.

After a second night of sleeping on a plane, I was glad to finally arrive. I found a SIM card for my phone and hopped a shuttle to my hotel in Potts Point. Thankfully they had a room ready for me, even though it was only 10am. My goal for the day was to stay awake, so after a quick shower, I set out to wander the city, figuring I probably wouldn’t fall asleep if I was moving. I found my way through the botanical gardens and over to the opera house, down through Hyde Park.

Sydney has an “I’m free” tour, so at 2:30, I joined that and for the next 3 hours got a walking tour of the city. There were definitely some areas I wouldn’t have found on my own without the tour, so I definitely got my money’s worth! They offered a second tour at 6pm for “The Rocks” neighborhood, which I then did. After that tour, and a night stroll back home, I was quite ready for bed after 30,000 steps for the day.

Day 2 (2)

The only thing on the agenda for the day was the Bridge Climb. I grabbed breakfast and took another scenic detour through the gardens to get to the bridge. The tour took a little over 3 hours, but provided some interesting history, and some great views along the way. After the tour, I noticed a pub that sold a “coat of arms” pizza, with emu and kangaroo, so naturally I had to have it!  I then wandered my way back to my hotel, calling it a day.

Day 3 (3)

This day was supposed to start early with a 7am tour, however, I got started even earlier as I woke up at 4am to find a waterfall from the AC in the ceiling. The front desk made it sound like this was quite common. Finally, 7am rolled around and I grabbed my bus for my day trip to the Blue Mountains. Once there, we ended up hiking the “National Pass” trail, which went past several giant waterfalls, and down into the valley. While I wouldn’t recommend the bus company I went with, the trail itself was amazing, as was the weather – nice and sunny, but in the valley the breeze made it feel perfect. After the hike we grabbed lunch and went to see “The Three Sisters” – which I’m not sure what the fuss was about. Right as we finished that, it started raining which meant it was time to head back to Sydney. Upon getting home, I checked in with the reception, and they apparently had 2 different maintenance people fix the AC, and it was actually not that common at all. Either way, it was fixed for the rest of the time I was there.

Day 4 (4)

Since I was still a bit tired from my flights, I took it easy today. I wandered around the Botanical Gardens a bit again, but the main thing was getting some of my plans for the rest of the trip sketched out, which I was able to do. That evening I got my bags all packed up again to head out to Ayer’s Rock for my early morning flight.

Upon arrival in Wellington, we immediately hopped on the ferry to head
to the South Island. The sun was starting to set as we left so we had
some great views of the coast of the North Island, however, that meant
it was dark by the time the South Island came into view. Once we hit
shore, we found our hostel and crashed.

The next morning we were booked on a 8am ferry to take us to Ship Cove
where we planned to do a day walk along the Queen Charlotte Trek. As
luck would have it, it was rainy and overcast that morning, but we
decided to still give it a go. It was a 1.5 hour boat ride to get to
the start. The dock we landed at had a history of Captain Cook, since
he apparently landed there several times. After reading the info and
taking a few pictures, we were off.

The first 45 minutes of the hike was uphill to get to a scenic
overlook, which Cressie was not too happy about. We finally made it,
and the rain had stopped and the clouds were liftimg so we had some
great views. After resting a minute we pressed on, as this was a point
to point walk and we had to be picked up at the far point at 3pm. It
was an interesting walk through lots of unique trees with some great
views of the inlets as we walked. We stopped at several points along
the track, including one where we got engaged. Soon after we realized
we were starting to run out of time so we picked up the pace. We made
it to he lodge with 10 minutes to spare. We got back to land as it was
getting dark, grabbed some dinner at the pub by the hostel, and called
it a day.

The next morning we got the early bus to head down the coast to
Kaikoura. Immediately upon arrival we wre picked up and headed out to
do a llama trek. This consisted of walking while dragging llamas on a
leash through a not too scenic area (compared to the coast that was 5
miles away), and we stopped to have a picnic lunch. Cressie really
enjoyed it though, and since I was expecting to not really enjoy it as
much as some of the other things on the trip, this activity went as
planned. This took up the rest of the day.

The next morning we were booked to go and swim with seals but it was
postponed due to weather. We instead decided to walk up the road to
where a seal colony was. Once we got there we saw 6 just laying on the
rocks. By this point the clouds had lifted and we saw snow capped
mountains surrounding us. We sat and watched the seals for a bit and
took some pictures. We were so close we could have touched them. We
then headed along a cliffside path to look for other seals. Eventually
we found a narrow trail that cut down the cliff to the beach where
there were literally hundreds of seals on the rocks. We made our way
down the trail and looked at these seals for a bit. There was none
else here which probably had something to do with it being 3k from the
car park where the other seals were as well as the steep cliff trail
you had to go down. We then walked back to town and caught the bus to
Christchurch. Next time we are in Kaikoura we are going to check out a
place where baby seals swim upstream to a waterfall and play there. It
is 20km out of the town though so we couldn’t get there without having
a car.

We only stayed in Christchurch long enough to grab a meal and sleep.
We got on the 7:45am bus headed for Dunedin, which we are on now. We
spend a dew days there and then head for Queenstown and the sounds.

I’ll be posting some more pictures whenver we find some wireless
internet that doesn’t charge by the MB. ]]> https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/16/seals-llamas-and-sounds/feed/ 0 https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/15/proposal-details/ https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/15/proposal-details/#respond Fri, 15 Oct 2010 08:30:42 +0000 http://chrislewis.org/2010/10/15/proposal-details/ In case anyone wants more details than “I asked, she said yes” (But really, do you need to get any more detailed than that? Just sayin…), Cressie has posted a more in-depth account you can read here: http://chrisandcress.com/post/1319042260/my-precious-the-details ]]> https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/15/proposal-details/feed/ 0 https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/14/cressie-has-the-one-ring/ https://chrislewis.org/2010/10/14/cressie-has-the-one-ring/#respond Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:52:59 +0000 http://chrislewis.org/2010/10/14/cressie-has-the-one-ring/ “Yay! so excited! he did such a good job! more details to come later
but here are a few pics. Woot!” – Cressie

Oh, and she said yes, in case you were womdering