Tassie – Day 8: Good Bye Tassie, till next time!

Well, this is it, our last day (or should we say, last morning) in Tassie. Our flight back to Melbourne is at 10.10am, so we have to head to the Airport from the Hotel around 8.30am. We knew Salamanca Market is on today (every Saturday), so we decided to quickly check it out before we head to the Airport.

The Salamanca Market was set up in Salamanca Place, there are lots of stalls set up, selling souvenirs, clothings, food, brick-a-brack, plants/flowers, etc. The market actually opens from 8.30, but when we arrived there it’s 8am and there were already quite a lot of stalls up and running, only a few stalls were still being set up. It’s certainly worth a visit. We got 4 t-shirts for souvenirs for $31. We took a few snaps of the market. Unfortunately, we couldn’t walk all the way to the end of the market as we have to head back to our car to go to the airport.

After that we went to the airport. Our flight was delayed for about 1 hour due to “engineering” reasons. We finally flew out of Hobart around 11 past, and arrived in Melbourne at 12.30-ish.

This is it… It’s been a great journey in Tassie. We would love to go back to Tasmania again and visit the East Coast and Bruny Island and other parts of Tasmania we haven’t had chance to visit. Next time we will probably catch Spirit of Tasmania and bring our own car.

Tassie – Day 7: Port Arthur – Hobart

In the morning, we had our breakfast in front of the room overlooking the beach. It was quite chilly in the morning too.

After breakfast, we checked out and then went to Remarkable Cave. Remarkable Cave is basically similar to Blowhole and Tasman Arch, except that you can actually go down into it on the boarded platform. We counted there are 115 steps going down into the cave.

Tassie – Day 6: Hobart – Port Arthur

Today we head to Port Arthur via Richmond, and we did a quick stop at the town’s centrepiece, the Richmond Bridge. This bridge is the oldest road bridge in Australia, built in 1823.

Tassie – Day 5: Hobart & Around

Today we started the day with the tour at the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Claremont. It’s about 20 mins drive from the city. It was the last day the factory opened before the 2 weeks Easter break. The tour was about 1.5 hours and we visited the actual working factory. Unfortunately we can’t take any photos inside the factory. We got a few chocolate samples and at the end of the tour we can buy the chocolate at discounted prices at the factory. The price is up to 50% off the retail price. We had hot chocolates in the Cadbury cafe before we left the factory. Yummy .

Tassie – Day 4: Strahan – Hobart

We will be spending over 5 hours on the road today. It takes around 5 hours from Strahan to Hobart and we were planning to make a couple stops and detour on the way to Hobart. We had a good buffet breakfast at Strahan Village and started to make our way around 10am. First stop we did was at Queenstown, which used to be a mining town and we can see what mining did to the area. We went up to the Spion Kopf lookout. It was quite a climb up to the top lookout area, but we think it’s worth it.

Tassie – Day 3: Cradle Mountain – Strahan

In the morning we had a good buffet breakfast in the lodge – toast, sausage, tomato, baked beans, scramble eggs and lots of fruits. We sat down in the restaurant next to an old couple from Western Australia and we had a good talk about Tasmania. We had to check out before 10am and they did not stop talking… We finally managed to end the conversation and quickly sneaked out to the reception to check out.

We decided to do 2 more short walks before we said goodbye to Cradle Mountain. We did the Enchanted Walk (20 mins return) and Pencil Pine Falls & Rainforest Walk (20 mins return). We only knew just then that a big animal, most likely a bear lives in Cradle Mountain as we discovered its footstep prints on the road.

Tassie – Day 2: Launceston – Cradle Mountain

We checked out around 9.30am and started heading to Cradle Mountain today. On the way there, we visited Ashgrove Farm Chesse in a town called Elizabeth Town. We sampled more than 20 different cheeses made there (these became our brunch then ). We loved the Rubicon Red, smoked Lancashire and they also have wasabi infused cheese as well. We also visited a honey farm in the town of Chudleigh. You won’t miss the shop as it has a line of bees running from the roof to the wall. In this honey shop, there are dozens of free samples, including the chocolate honey, honey ice cream, fruits and flowers infused honey, peppercorn honey, red chilli honey to name a few.

Tassie – Day 1: Launceston

After 45 mins flight from Melbourne, we arrived in Launceston around 11.30am. We headed straight to the car rental Europcar which we already booked the car at. We booked for an Audi A3, but we ended up with a Subary Liberty because the car we wanted has not been returned by the previous people. Such a big car for only 2 people

Where to go now…? We both thought of the same thing: LUNCH … We planned to go through the Tamar Valley Wine Route in the afternoon, so we decided to have lunch on the way there. We passed by Beaconsfield – this town becomes famous because of the mine collapse last year where 3 miners were trapped inside. We decided to have lunch at Tamar Cove in Beauty Point. We spoilt ourselves with the seafood platter and also their signature dish of scallop and camembert pie. Yummy

Devils in Tassie

Most people think a few days is enough to explore the Australia’s island state of Tasmania or we called it ‘Tassie’. The reality is there are abundant things to see and to do in this little island. It is famous for its wilderness, natural beauty of their rainforests, sea cliffs, beaches, wineries and also its iconic Tasmanian Devils. Tassie’s compact size makes it travel-friendly holiday destination with many of its winding roads. Apart of its unspoilt beauty, Tasmania has one more thing that we are passionate about: GOOD FOOD.

We were in Tassie for 8 days, and yet we have only experienced some part of the island. We flew from Melbourne to Launceston and strolled our way through the West Coast of Tasmania to Cradle Mountain and Strahan. Then we crossed to Hobart and Port Arthur before we headed back to Melbourne from Hobart.

We packed a few long sleeves tops and jackets in our suitcases as it is autumn and we expected the weather would be cold there. It turned out we had a couple of nice and warm days there. The jackets were still useful when we were in Port Arthur and Hobart, it was quite chilly in the morning and up in Mt Wellington it was around 8 degrees cold.

We also came across a lot of roadkills on the Tasmanian roads, mostly they were little wallabies and kangaroos. The animals are normally out from dusk to dawn, so be careful when driving at night. The roads are generally quite, we only encountered a few other cars on the roads. Hobart’s roads are much busier and we had some traffic jams there. The major attraction spots are generally quite busy and just enough to create a good relaxing atmosphere.

For food lovers, we also put down some of the restaurants we visited and shared some of their signature dishes.

Japan – Day 17: Narita Airport

Last day in Japan, and practically the end of our holiday

We have to take the taxi to Tokyo station because we have this big box full of food and drinks and souvenirs, and it’s going to be a pain to drag this from the hotel to the station. Still, arriving at the station, it is still quite a walk to get to the platform where the Narita Express train is. So there we are, I’m carrying this big box, and my wife drags our 2 suitcases.