Tassie Birthday Trip
With our birthdays being close to each other's we have embedded a tradition to celebrate with a short trip that falls in between. This year is a bit more special with Ngaire's 60th milestone. We decided on a favourite destination being Tassie for a 5 day 'birthday escape' . But there is more planned on the 2022 travel agenda more fitting and significant to Ngaire for this special year. More about that later, but for now welcome back to Tassie.
Happy 60th !
Our original plan was to explore some of the West Coast but surprisingly the destinations we picked were all fully booked. This turned out to be to our advantage in that we decided to explore a couple of areas we had previously only day visited. Being much closer to Hobart airport allowed more time to explore. With the rental car organised we travelled the 0ne hour drive to Eaglehawk Neck for 2 days to explore the Tasman Peninsula.
Directly opposite our accommodation was a site of geological significance which attracts a high volume of tourist traffic.
The 'Tessellated Pavement' is a rock feature formed over tens of millions of years by the force of the ocean against the shoreline rock formation. It is unique not only in the result of the ocean's force but factors of rock type, shape and the tidal influence determined the final result.
We explored the Eaglehawk Neck area down to Port Arthur visiting a few of the many sites that offer a taste of this magical part of Tassie.
A Military detachment was stationed here for aprox. 20 years in large part to intercept escaping convicts from Port Arthur as the 'Neck' as the name suggests is a very narrow stretch and easy to control. This led to many of the convict escapes being made in stolen open boats which, in most cases, ended badly. The most famous escape was a group who stole a boat and ored part way up the west coast only to discover no suitable landing locations so headed back around to the east coast and made their way to southern NSW. 'Amazing'!
The highlight of our visit was a 3 hour wilderness boat trip from Port Arthur out to Tasman Island exploring the rugged coastline, caves and experiencing some of the wild life.
The old gantry to basket people up to the lighthouse on Tasman Island
From Eaglehawk Neck we headed north another one hour drive to historic Richmond, home to the iconic convict built Richmond bridge which will be 200 yrs old in 2023.
This historic village has many heritage listed old world shops, churches and homes and is very reminiscent of many such places in the UK. A must visit in Richmond is the model of old Hobart set in the 1820's and of course the local cemeteries which are always worth visiting.
We spent a day exploring the town and took a day trip to the Freycinet National Park, 170 Km's up the coast, to see Wine Glass Bay which on a previous trip in 2009 were prevented by bad weather from visiting.
Old Hobart Town
Historic Richmond Bridge 1823. The oldest stone span bridge in Australia.
Wine Glass Bay
Our flight home was friday afternoon so we decided to fill some time with a visit to Mona, Australa's largest privately owned museum located on the grounds of Morrilla Winery in the Hobart suburb of Berriedale. The gallery rooms are on 3 levels underground and present classic, contemporary and visual arts and sculptures of a very eclectic and essentric nature and some being best described as challenging.It has a large outdoor area with a cafe, resturant and wine tasting and live music. Worth a visit.
We had a great time and stay tuned for the next 60th year celebratory excursion.