Posts Tagged: tasmania
Photos!
Good Morning Mount Roland
Dove Lake
Cataract Gorge
Grasshopper
Toora
Some more pictures that I took over the past few months that I didn’t feel were quite up to my flickr standards, as I’m trying to get a bit more picky about what I put up there (I’m nearing 1,000 photos, so it’s taken a while). In no particular order, from a few locations around Tasmania and Victoria (southern mostly). The Toora one is quite good but I took another one quite similar and it was a panorama so I put that one on flickr. These were mostly selected for flickr initially but after looking at them and working on them I decided that they probably weren’t quite up to scratch or were similar but not exactly the same as ones I chose to put on flickr.
Speaking of which, after the recent announcement that all users would be receiving one terabyte of space and the pro accounts would be discontinued or at least grandfathered with an ads-free account becoming the new paid account type, I was trying to decide whether to keep my pro account. Having looked at the updated flickr now using my account and other non-pro accounts and trying to work out what the difference is, the only difference I can see is the lack of stats (which I don’t find that important or interesting). At first I was wondering where the ads were, then I realised that I have adblock plus on, and so that “feature” (?) is irrelevant for me, so in all likelihood (with the only feature that I lose from my pro account being stats which I don’t pay much attention to) I will give up the pro account and just go with the free account. I was only paying $25 per year, and now it will be nothing, and there’s no way I would ever use up one terabyte of data.
In terms of the pictures, hope you enjoy, I’ve already pretty much given up on panoramio, so should be posting more pictures to here than before which is a good thing I think. Except that wordpress seems to choke on iphone photos (well, the portrait orientation ones any way), it is mostly more usable and nicer. Hey, no stolen pictures this post, they’re all mine. Yeah, it’s been a while, I really should try to post more, but will leave it at that for now, and see if I have anything in the works coming up.
Coloured Dove Lake
Rocks and Waves
Fluffy Cloud Hill
Saint Hubert’s Vineyard
Northern Tasmania
It’s a couple of weeks ago now, which is pretty slack of me, but over the Easter long weekend we took a short trip down to the north of Tasmania (around Cradle Mountain mostly) to wander around the nature areas around there.
Mount Roland, Tasmazia
Arboretum, Eugenana
Air Tran, Mersey Bluff, Devonport
Enchanted Ballroom Cradle Mountain
Cradle Cloud Mountain
Sheffield Moonrise
Originally, I planned to summit Cradle Mountain but decided not to as I didn’t want to leave Em to wander around aimlessly by herself. So basically, the trip itinerary read:
- Day One – Arrive in Launceston, drive to Sheffield (small town, accommodation), wander around town and maybe do a short walk or two.
- Day Two – Drive to Cradle Mountain National Park, do Crater Lake hike, and Dove Lake circuit.
- Day Three – Go to Tasmazia and wander around the mazes, and drive up to Devonport and spend half a day there.
- Day Four – Drive back to Launceston with some stops along the way and sight-see around Launceston before flight back to Melbourne.
Actually, I think we pretty much did do things according to plan, but unfortunately the weather didn’t co-operate with us, leaving us a bit damp and dreary. The weather for the most part was reasonable, sunny patches here and there, but the day we went to Cradle Mountain was pretty miserable. We did get to walk around Sheffield and see the murals around town, which are pretty nice, also did a short walk to the Alum Cliffs where there is a nice view, would have been better if there was anything other than cloud in the sky, also walked up to the top of Kimberley’s Lookout for a view of Mount Roland and Sheffield, fairly ok.
I didn’t think that there was going to be enough to do at Cradle Mountain for the whole day (the two projected walks are listed as 1-2 hour walks) so we went looking for a lookout over Lake Barrington in the morning, we didn’t find it and instead spent a couple of hours driving around in the wet before deciding to head to Cradle Mountain National Park. We got there a bit after noon, and decided to just do the Dove Lake circuit as the weather was not great and apparently the Crater Lake circuit is a bit hazardous in that situation (for average/lazy walkers). The Dove Lake circuit is a 6km walk (I think) around Dove Lake and pretty much going right underneath the summit of Cradle Mountain at the far end, half of it is board walked and the rest is gravel. It’s a pretty easy walk (but took us about two and a half hours, maybe I’m slow, probably with the photos) and includes some nice sections such as Glacier Rock, the boat shed, the Enchanted Ballroom, and some other nice lookout points. Despite the grey and wet weather we toughed it out and even caught a glimpse of the Cradle Mountain peak, it’s possible that the weather would have been clear in the morning but on the day that we went, I don’t think it was. My suggestion for Cradle Mountain National Park, go early, also, go in Summer. Despite that, we had a pretty good time getting all wet out there, and then settled in for a nice dinner at the Cradle Mountain Lodge, Highland Restaurant, it’s a pretty swanky restaurant, I ordered the salmon, while Em ordered the venison, a couple of starters, and a dessert (a very good cake with a mango blanket!). A very lovely dinner, most tasty, I would definitely recommend it, it’s probably better if you’re staying there as well, don’t have to worry about driving home in the dark. Hey, the Enchanted Walk around the Lodge is also a nice little stroll.
We went to Devonport looking for things to do but didn’t really find anything apart from the lighthouse at Mersey Bluff, which was quite nice, except for the fact that I probably got carried away taking jumping photos (it was a little chilly and windy). After that we were kind of desperately looking for something to do, and ended up going to an arboretum (tree zoo?) about 20 minutes south of Devonport. That was a bit boring as there seems to be a lot of work (or tree growing) still to do. We did spot a platypus in the lake diving around everywhere, didn’t get a good look of anything but its back though. Back toward Sheffield and on to Tasmazia, a big maze complex near Sheffield. This was actually quite fun, we had some issues navigating through a couple of the mazes but they’re not really that difficult to solve (given enough time :D). It’s also a very picturesque place, what with the big green hedges and imposing Mount Roland standing in the background. I would recommend against the restaurant/pancake parlour though, unless you’re really into sweet pancakes dishes.
Finally, my plan for Easter Monday was to head to Launceston and wander around, but we weren’t really able to find anything that seemed particularly interesting so we ended up stopping in Chudleigh, a very small town that has a honey farm. Went in and bought some honey along with a million tourists that just got off a bus before continuing on our way to Launceston. Quite desperately we decided to head to a “Swiss” village called Grindelwald north of Launceston (fortunately everything is really close in Tasmania), this was a bit of a dud, just a couple of cafes/bakeries, nothing to write home about that’s for sure. We then headed up to Brady’s Lookout (which would be good with some blue skies and perhaps a few of the tall trees out of the way) before heading to Cataract Gorge, which is only a couple of kilometres out of Launceston, with plenty of time on our hands we decided to do the Duck Reach walk to the power station. It’s about an hour each way (maybe less I can’t quite remember), there are some nice views along the way, but the water level seemed relatively low to me, I reckon it would be a lot more interesting if the water was really gushing, a pretty easy walk, although very undulating with some quite steep bits.
I’ve decided that I don’t want to go to Tasmania any more unless it’s Summer time, we’ve been at the start of Winter, and in the middle of Autumn now, and for me, it’s too cold, I definitely want to see more though, Freycinet NP and Wineglass Bay spring to mind and even another go at Cradle Mountain in good weather are still on my wish list. Some of the big lakes on the island could surely be nice, it can be a bit boring, but maybe we’re not looking in the right places.
Some HDR from Tasmania
Haven’t done much lately, been a bit unwell and tired and it’s been super wet and cold here so I’ve been particularly lazy. Any way, I have completed processing of my Tasmanian photos and had a couple extras that didn’t find there ways onto flickr, so I thought I’d post them here. Actually, I’ve been in the midst of planning our Japanese break, booking and planning, trying to work out what we can do, what we can fit in, it’s a bit of a headache cos we don’t have much time but there are so many places to see, we’ll just have to focus on a couple key areas and hope that we can pay another visit another time. So both of these photos are HDR shots where I got similar shots and put them on flickr because I thought they were a little more interesting, but then when I look at these it would be a waste not to post them somewhere, especially the one in Mount Field National Park. We’ll see if I have anything else to post in the next month or two of this dark Winter while waiting for the trip to Japan. So desperately waiting for this Winter to end, I’m sick (literally) and tired of the bloody cold, and now I’m too lazy to cycle in the cold :D.
Mount Field National Park
Hills near Westerway
Hobart for three days
We went to Hobart over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend last week, we had a rough itinerary planned, we arrived on a Saturday, so the plan was to hit the Salamanca Market in the morning, and then head up to Mount Field National Park in the afternoon to see some waterfalls. Day two was our only full day so we would spend it at Port Arthur Historical Site (about 95km from Hobart), and day three we would drive up to Mount Wellington to get a view of Hobart. We arrived a bit before 9am and got into our rented car and headed for Hobart city centre.
Mount Field National Park
I’m not sure if it was because it was a public holiday weekend, but there was no traffic heading into Hobart, and none really to speak of in town either. We hit the market but didn’t buy anything, it was quite good but souvenirs in Australia are just as tacky as they are anywhere around the world, maybe the local gourmet foods and condiments might have been good to buy, but we decided against it. After that we headed up to Mount Field National Park, mainly to see Russell Falls, but I guess also to see what else was in the national park. About two-thirds of the way there (65km drive) we noticed this most beautiful of hills, it was green with deciduous trees lining half of it, the sun was shining and clouds were hovering, the scenery was fantastic, too bad we couldn’t find anywhere to stop and take a picture. At the park we found a nice 2.5 hour walk around that would take in three waterfalls, Russell Falls, Horseshoe Falls, and Lady Barron Falls, as well as some comfortable walking through lush forest.
Mount Field National Park
Russell Falls seemed a bit dry, whereas Horseshoe Falls and Lady Barron Falls looked really good to me. After that we headed back to Hobart for dinner, we went to Blue Eyes where we both had fish, which was yummy.
Russell Falls, Mount Field National Park
- Lady Barron Falls, Mount Field National Park
Day two consisted of the 95km drive to Port Arthur, taking in the Tessellated Pavement, Tasman Arch, the Devil’s Kitchen, and the Blowhole, three naturally occurring geological formations of similar descriptions, basically they all were caves that eroded away and now ocean water smashes through into a small enclosed area. They were a little underwhelming to be honest, but perhaps it was low tide, one of them (I think it was Tasman Arch) had a really nice lookout next to it where you could see the pretty coastline with high cliffs. I thought the Tessellated Pavement was quite nice, the weather was quite dreary all day with periods of drizzle and some very short bursts of sunshine.
dtra at the Tessellated Pavement
- Coastline at the Tessellated Pavement
- Port Arthur Historical Site
Port Arthur is obviously a significant historical site but if you know me, you probably know I found it a little boring, nothing especially photogenic there. Again, we went back to Hobart for dinner, this time at the Customs House Hotel, which just seemed like a standard pub in terms of the seafood.
Our final day in which we were to drive up to (the peak of) Mount Wellington, and also have some fresh oysters for lunch at Barilla Oyster Farm, and fit in whatever else we could be bothered doing. First we went to the oyster farm for lunch where we shared a 30 oyster platter which was yummy (except there were too many cooked cheesy oysters and not enough uncooked pear ones). After that we went back to Hobart to pick up a couple things before heading up to Mount Wellington. it was a bit of an overcast day and driving up I don’t think either of us held out much hope for a nice clear view at the top. By about midway the mist started creeping in and by the time we were pretty much at the top it was clear (not!) that the cloud cover was well and truly in and we would not be seeing anything. Visibility was about ten metres and the temperature was about three degrees, we didn’t hang around for long and headed back down and looked for any other lookout points of note, not really finding anything in the grey afternoon. After that we headed back to Barilla Oyster Farm to get some fresh oysters to take back to Melbourne. And that ends our three day trip to Hobart, we fit in quite a bit, saw the main things to see in (and around) Hobart, although we didn’t really wander around the CBD at all (not that there seemed to be much to see from what we saw driving through there), and didn’t stay out at night, neither of us can drink much so not much point by ourselves. I didn’t take any photos of it, but I did notice that there is a lot of road kill on the Tasmanian highways, not just small possums either, I reckon there were just as many wallabies and bigger animals on the side of the road too.
A rainbow at Rosny Park Lookout
Good thing for me we didn’t hit any, the excess on the car was a whopping $3K. Overall happy with what we did, but we had hoped for a bit better weather (out of pure luck I guess) but it was not to be, it was the start of Winter I guess, amazing scenery down there, similar to New Zealand I would think, on a smaller scale, but would be amazing in any other season although you’d have to deal with a lot more people like me (tourists) then. I was actually surprised, I’d heard a lot about the two-headed Tasmanians expecting to see them around every corner, but in the end I only saw a couple, I guess they’re not as numerous as the sayings say they are.