Hobart, Tasmania Trip (Day 4)

18th March 2016, Friday

Tarts for Breakfast

Woke up in the middle of the night and realised it was raining heavily. The raindrops were making a lot of noise by dripping onto the tanks below. In the end woke up at around 6 plus, but the rain hasn't stopped yet. We had planned supposed to go up Mount Wellington today but since it is rainy, we changed our plan to go Burney Island. But when we boarded the car, the rain started to rain more heavily. Then we had to change our plan again, so we were flipping the Hobart guide to see where we can go. Then we decided to go for a historic cruise ride around Hobart. And so, we alighted the car and headed down to the cruise office.

Cruise Office

Cruise Ship

The office was a small stall in front of the pier and we bought the cruise tickets with lunch included on board. The staff started to talk to us in Mandarin after listening to us speak. So i asked her where is the nearest post office around, she used her google map and showed us. Then the rain was still raining heavily and there was no shelter except a board on top of us. And so we went ahead to look for the post office. We walked for about 5 - 10 mins until we reached a historic building and it turned up to be the Post Office. But it was not opened yet and so, we went opposite the road to grab a nice hot coffee and chocolate. After we had our drinks, we walked back to the post office. We got some postcards and we sent them back to Singapore...heheee....

Inside the top deck 

Open deck

After spending some time in the post office, when we were about to leave, my friend's' shoes soles had came off (purposely wore old shoes, so can buy new shoes...heheee...). So we had to walk back to the apartment so that she can change to her other pair of shoes. As it was still raining, we just stayed in the apartment until it was time to go for our lunch cruise. We walked back to the cruise office and waited for the crew to prepare the cruise. The cruise was not very nice-looking but seems like it had a long history to it. The washroom was in the below deck, then the lunch will be served in the middle deck and we can have the viewing on the top deck. It was the first cruise of the day and after the preparation and off we go!

Mount Wellington 

Tasman Highway

The captain explained to us some of the buildings as we passed by and we could see Mount Wellington covered behind the clouds. If we had gone up there, think it will be very very white and cold. Then we cruised towards Tasman Highway. The captain told us that there was once a bulk carrier which crashed onto the bridge, which caused a section of the bridge to collapse.  This disaster happened in one foggy night in 1975. A total of 12 people had died in this tragic accident. The bridge was later repaired and now it is still standing strong. The captain also told us there was a residential area that the houses were selling @ millions of dollars.

Chicken Steak

After that, we had our lunch which was served in the middle deck. The food looked simple but we all agreed that it tasted very nice. Slowly, the rest of the passengers also came down for their meals. Even the crew also had their lunch together. It was still raining.... :( ....Then the cruise continued on its route and passed by a casino too before it made it way back to the pier. The whole journey took about 2 hours.

After the cruise, we were thinking where to go next as it was still raining. So we walked to the streets for shopping instead. We bought a few souvenirs and we just walked around the malls. There were a few shops having sales and the stuffs were quite cheap. There was a basic check-up machine in one of the shops, so we had a go with it...hohoho...The machine took our height and weight, then it took our blood pressure too.  Then later we sat down to eat our sandwiches which we had made in the morning. I then suggested going to the supermarket to buy food back to cook for our dinner tonight. We kept walking along the streets, had a cup of gelato (which was not very nice). After eating the ice cream, we went to woolworths supermarket to get the food.

Dinner!!

We bought a roasted whole chicken, instant soups and bacon. After buying all the food, we carried them back to the apartment. Along the way, we bought a lemon tart @ Daci & Daci Bakers as they don't allow takeaway for their creme burlee and a cup of Tasmaia ice cream. Then we started to prepare for our dinner, which was to take everything to throw in the oven...hahahaa....And dinner was served!!! It was soo filling...nice dinner..yum yum....and it was nice that i also don't have to wash the dishes...hehehe.....I went to watch tv while my friend went for shower. After watching, it was bedtime. Hopefully, tomorrow is not a raining day again.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Hobart Cruise
Tasman Highway

Mount Field National Park, Tasmania Trip (Day 3)

17th March 2016, Thursday

Blue blue sky

Woke up @ 6 am but ended up waiting until 8 am before my 2 friends woke up. I tried to make myself a hot chocolate and breakfast. One of my friends woke up first and we toasted the wrap and cooked the bacon we bought yesterday. By the time we are done, it was about 9 am. Today we headed out to Mount Fields National Park. It was about 1 hr or so ride, along the way, we saw a lot of dead animals beside the road and in the middle of the road. The sky blue blue and there were a lot of cows and sheep out in the yellow dry fields. We passed by a restaurant that had a sign board, saying $11 plus for half a dozen oysters for takeaway. We were thinking to buy them on the way back.

*sniff sniff*

Glow worn Grotto

We reached the national park @ around 12 pm, and we walked to the visitors information centre first. We asked for the park area map and then proceeded to start our walk trail. We had decided to go for the Lady Barron Falls circuit walk trail which will pass by 3 waterfalls and it will take about 2hr 30 mins. We walked through the forest with our own pace and there were wild animals around too (if you are lucky, you will see them). Then at a point, there was a sign that indicated that there were some glow worms appearing but they can be only be seen during the night and in the total darkness.

Russell Falls

Horseshoe Falls

Then we reached the first waterfall – Russell Falls, and we spent some time to enjoy the waterfall and taking photos. Then we continued walking along the trail until we reached the second waterfall – Horseshoe Falls. It wasn’t so big and nice, so we didn’t stay long and then we continued our trail into tree top walk. It was a short walk, there were many giant trees in the forest. There was a clinometer placed in a spot to let you try to measure how tall the tree was. It was pointed to the tallest tree and then you need to read the angle from the clinometer, which there was a table to indicate the measured angles. Then we walked down to the tree to find out the answer.

Clinometer 

Tree we measured

After that, we continued walking and there was a board indicating whether the fallen tree was Mount Field’s tallest tree. It was really long on the ground. Then we saw a board beside a bench, telling us to use all our senses to enjoy in the forest. So we did, we just stopped and tried to listen to the sounds around us and breathed the fresh air…hohohoho…..After that, we continued walking to the last waterfall, which was the Lady Barron Falls. The falls was also small (Russell Falls was much nicer and bigger). Then we continued to walk back to the visitor information centre, and the return trail was a 229 steps trail.

Endless steps!!

Lunch!!!

We had to climb the 229 steps up and it was so tiring. There was some paths which were a bit slippery with my running shoes and it was sliding downwards too. We finally reached back to the visitors information centre after the tiring climb. Then we took a rest in the national park café. We ordered a hot chocolate, seafood platter, sandwich and tomato soup. The food were nice and yummy and after eating, we were flipping the Hobart guide to see where we can go next. And we decided to head back to Hobart and go to a coins and stamps shop. It was an hour ride back, almost dozed off in the car.

Monoploy  Coins

We reached Hobart and tried to find a parking lot to park the car. It was kind of confusing on how the car park rates were calculated as we need to see on the parking times sign (some were on half an hour, 1 hour or 4 hours). And have to find the parking ticket machines near the parking lots. Anyhow, we managed to find a parking lot and parked there. Then we walked to the coins and stamps shop, it was a small shop inside a mall. I went in to take a look around, there were a lot of special coins and a lot of stamps too. I managed to find 4 first cover stamps and bought them (Cannot resist not to buy them…hehehe).

After that, we went to Woolworths supermarket to walk. We bought a lot of chips and instant soups, and of course, some more bacons. After shopping in the supermarket, we walked back to our car and we got a parking summon for parking without the parking ticket….hohohoho….$50 summon…-_-!

BBQ Area

Beef Steak

Salmon 

Chicken Breast

Black Forest Cake

Then we drove back to the apartment with all the stuffs, where we all took a short rest. After that, we went downstairs to have our dinner. There were 2 restaurants side by side and we were decided to go to which one. Then we decided to go to the restaurant on the left, called Ball & Chain Grill. It was very spacious and big inside and there was a free salad bar. And the bbq station was also near to the entrance which was open to the guests to see. We each ordered a set, I had chicken breast and my friends had beef and salmon. The food was nice, but the chicken breast was quite dry and I got tired chewing it…hahahaa…We also ordered a black forest cake as dessert.

After dinner, we went out to walk and had bought some pies back for tomorrow breakfast. After that, we just walked back to the apartment and rested for the day.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Mount Field National Park

Hobart, Tasmania Trip (Day 1 & 2)

16th March 2016, Wednesday

Woohoooo!!! Finally can fly again, after one year of no flying. Going to fly to Tasmania tonight. After work during the day, I went back home and waited for my dad to come back to drive me to the airport. I reached Terminal 1 and waited for my friends to arrive. I went to the money changer to change some Australia dollars. My friends arrived later, then we all checked in our luggage and went into the gate. When we were scanning our passport and thumbs through the gate, my friend had her right thumb with plaster and so she cannot scan. Then the staff told her to scan using her left thumb...hohoho.....

Cactus Garden

And so, I went for dinner on my own while my friends went for shopping. After a not nice chicken rice, I went walk walk first. I walked to Cactus Garden, there were a lot of different cactus planted there. After walking for some time, I made my way slowly to the gate. I waited at the gate while waiting for my friends to come to the gate (Busy shopping....kekeke). Finally the gate opened and we went in to board the plane. Our flight was on 10:25pm (15th March 2016) and it was Emirates A380 plane. When we first stepped in the plane, we saw the beautiful staircase to the upper floor. Then we went to our seats and i was sitting on the right row with 2 ang mos.

The entertainment from Emirates plane was cool and there were about 500 movies and dramas for all ages. There were also games to play with. Wifi was also available once we were up on the air. It was about 7 hours to reach Melbourne Airport. We had our meals on the plane and after that, it was night time. I started watching those movies that I didn't watch before, total watched 4 movies throughout the whole flight.

We reached Melbourne Airport at 8.30 am and we had to go out to the luggage belt to pick up our luggage. We had to make our way to the other terminal, which was T4 for domestic flights. It was quite troublesome cos we had to take out our luggage and drop them back again in the other flight. And for the custom to go in Australia, we don't have to go through the counters for stamp chop. Instead, we just went to their e-service machines to get an entry tickets. Then we can use our passport on their scan machines (something like ours) and the entry ticket. Then a photo on us will be taken (instead of our thumb prints) at the custom gates. And we were cleared to enter.

After the customs, we walked to the luggage belt to collect our luggage. There was a super long queue at the exit as the security were collecting entry tickets and the entry forms. So there was a quite a wait there. After we managed to get out of the door, there were a lot of people standing around the exit door and there were also a lot of people in the Optus shop. As we had about an hour for the next flight, we tried to get the data card from Optus shop. It was very long wait as the staffs were helping the customers to change the sim cards and explaining to the customers. We got the data card which was 8gb, valid for 28 days for AUD$40 to share the data.

After the long wait for data card, we tried to figure the way to Terminal 4 for our next flight. We went to drop our luggage using their self drop off machines. It was quite easy and fast. But the counter staff in Singapore had tied my luggage to my friend's boarding pass and one of my friend's luggage tied to my boarding pass. It was weird though, but anyway we were going to the same destination. This was something we had to take note for the returning flights...lolz

Hobart Terminal 4 Airport

Connecting Flight to Tasmania

Super Nice Tart!!

We just went in to the gate as we thought the gate will be far away. But it was quite near and there was nothing much to do. So we just sat down and sleep before boarding. By 11.45pm, we started boarding the next plane. It was a Qantas Link plane and it was like Jetstar..small plane. I was sitting on a 2 seats row, where the airline staff sat with me throughout the journey. The flight was delayed due to the floor crews were still trying to arrange the luggage into the plane.After a 15 mins wait, the plane took off. We had a nice cool pie on the plane as our snack. There was no entertainment on the plane, so it was quite boring during the flight. We reached Hobart Airport @ around 1 plus in the afternoon. It was a small airport with only one luggage belt and we collected our luggage. And then, we walked out of the airport and headed to the car rental office, which was Bargain.

We signed the driving agreement for the car and then we went out to collect the car, which was a car brand called Holden. The car park was big and the car was parked a bit far away from the airport. And we checked the car conditions and loaded our luggage into the car. Off we go!!!

Our rental car..Vroom Vroom!!

We followed the driving directions from the GPS and reached our apartment office. But there was no one in the reception and so, we gave the hotel a call. After all were done, we managed to collect our apartment keys. Then we drove a short distance down the city and arrived our apartment. The parking lot was not even straight road. We took our luggage and brought down to the apartment. It was very big, with a full kitchen, a common big toilet connecting both my room and my friends's room. And we got a weird view outside, which was showing rocks and a black hole from my room. Lol...The apartment had washing machine, a dryer and there was also a big oven. There was a big cupboard with the plates and bowls and tea bags and hot chocolate powders. There were 3 big trees in front of our living room's window blocking our view too.

Super nice rest chair

Living Room Area

Raw Natural Oysters @ Tasmania Mures

Fish & Chips @ Tasmania Mures

Then we rested awhile in the big nice room, and then we walked out to the tourism information office as it was going to close soon. We booked our wildness cruise, bought the national parks pass (which can be used in almost all the national parks in Tasmania except Cradle Mountain - Need to buy separate pass) and asked the petrol station's location. Then we walked to Waterfront for some fish and chips. We bought fish and chips and raw natural oysters @ Fish Frenzy and had them on the outside tables, where the sea gulls flew down and wanting to eat our food. Hohoho......Later we walked to another eating place for raw oysters and fish and chips again @ Tasmania Mures to try out as the previous one wasn't taste so good. In this restaurant, they do sell for dine-in and for takeaways. The seafood all looked sooo fresh!!! But the oysters were quite fresh. There were some small food stalls nearby the water too, selling fish & chips and other seafood. Then we enjoyed our slow walk back to the apartment and went to the small supermarket near our stay place. Our apartment was located on top of Kelly's Stairs, which was considered one of the attractions for that area.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Waterfront
Kelly's Stairs