Tasmania ❤

After living in Australia for more than six months I finally found the time to visit Tasmania which I wanted to do for a while now.
Tasmania is an isolated island state in Australia’s south. It was only a short flight from Melbourne.

People who already visited Tasmania recommended to rent a car and I’m glad that I listened to them because you can’t really visit the good spots with public transport.

On my first day I visited Mount Field National Park and it was breathtaking. I drove to the end of the park where they had a nice lake and I had the whole lake to myself, there were no people at all. I also did a quick hike through the woods and the Russel Falls. At the falls there were more people as they are quite famous but still not a lot.
Anyone going to Tasmania this park needs to be on your list and you should plan a whole day for it because it’s very big and has a lot of different hiking routes.

After the park I drove back to Hobart, the capital of Tasmania, to visit Mount Wellington. Absolutely marvelous view and you can drive all the way to the top so also recommended for non-hikers 😉
To finish the day I went to a beach close to my hostel to watch the sunset.



On day two I drove to Cape Hauy, not knowing that it would be a four hour hike to actually see it. I mean a four hour hike is normally fine for me, only that 90% of the hike were stairs! Some of you might know the feeling when you start to hike and stairs are coming up so you walk and think “this must be the last one so I can do it” only to find on top that more stairs are coming. And then you think “I already walked so far, now I wanna go to the end”. And so I walked on and my feet started hurting really bad because I didn’t warm up or stretch or anything. I was pretty exhausted 30min before the end and my feet were shaking. As the view was already incredible I thought “what other view can there be in 30min” so I asked some people that were already on the way back and they said honestly that the view here or there was the same, you’re only closer to the edge of the sea. Having in mind that my feet also need to carry me back I decided to enjoy the beautiful view I already had and after a break I went back. So this tour I can only recommend for stair-lovers, to all the others I honestly need to say I had more incredible views on other spots.



Afterwards I went to Tasmanias “Unzoo”, on their website I found the following description:

“A PLACE WHERE THE PUBLIC LEARNS ABOUT WILD ANIMALS, PLANTS AND ECOSYSTEMS THROUGH INTERACTION WITH AND IMMERSION IN NATURAL HABITATS”

And so I imagined that I could interact and get close with the animals but I was disappointed because that was not the case. They only had Tassie Devils (a famous native animal) and some kangoroos, birds and wallabys. You can handfeed the kangoroos but as I visited a lot of zoos here in Australia I know that you can do that in any zoo. In my opinion that’s not really worth $38 entrance but to be fair they refunded me the money when I told them that I was disappointed.

It was around lunchtime so I drove to Port Arthur which I imagined as a small town with some cafes and restaurants close to the sea but to be fair I didn’t really inform myself before I went there. Truth is that Port Arthur was a penal settlement in the 19th century and today it’s more like an open-air museum. But it was definitely worth a visit and is very interesting to see. There’s also a small boat tour included in the entrance fee.



On day three I had the longest drive ahead – four hours to the Bay of Fires. I found a huge beach with white sand and turquoise water and no people at all. So I stopped there and relaxed a bit before I continued to the other side where they offer boat tours to see the Bay of Fires from the sea. Unfortunately I was already too late for that, they only do the tours in the morning. But I’m still happy I went there because the view was stunning even though the red rocks themselves weren’t that amazing.



If you visit Bay of Fires you should definitely combine it with something so that the long drive isn’t for nothing unless you stay in Launceston because it is closer to the bay.
I went to see the Freycinet National Park. This park is less about the green nature of the island but more about beautiful beaches you can visit and relax.



On my way back home there were loads of vineyards but I didn’t visit any because I don’t like vine and we have quite a lot ourselves in Austria so it wasn’t really something I needed to see.
But I followed a street sign to an gallery where the Sales Assistant recommended me some “secret” spots. So I got to see “Spiky Beach” and “Spiky Bridge” and the Lisdillon Salt Works. They are all definitely worth a stop and it was on the way anyway.

Finally on my last day I visited the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and a small zoo called “Zoodoo”.
The gardens were very beautiful and the zoo was great because I could really get close with the animals. There were a lot of “open fences” so you could go in and pet the animals and you can even feed a lion with tongs.

Altogether I absolutely fell in love with Tasmania, it’s one of the most beautiful islands I have seen so far. It seemed like the locals are very careful to keep the incredible nature the way it is, I hope it will never change!