Port Arthur, Tasmania Trip (Day 5)

19th March 2016, Saturday

Rainbow

Clouds covering Mount Wellington

Toys cars for sale

Tulips bulbs

German Sausages

Woke up in the middle of the night as the heater was too warm, but luckily still able to sleep back. In the end, woke up @7 am. The sky still looked gloomy and a lot of thick clouds floating today. Saw a rainbow too in the morning. I had my hot chocolate as usual and then after preparation, we went down to the Salamanca Market which was just located at the start of Kelly's steps. There were a lot of stalls selling Australia local made products, mostly wooden stuffs like pens, spoons, bowls, etc. There were food stalls too, selling honey and honeycombs, sausages, salts, fruits. So we took our time to walk around and had our breakfast from the stalls. There were also some musicians who would just set up a mic and with their musicals instruments, they will start to perform for some donations from the public.

Berries Ice Cream

My friend went super excited when she saw a stall selling berries, an auntie who walked past us was even telling us my friend was so excited and she can even feel her excitment...hohoho...So we bought a berries ice cream to try...it was quite nice, just that i am not a fan to berries...hehehe....

We walked till almost 11am, then we had to leave for Port Arthur for our wildness journey cruise. So i went back to the apartment to put our goodies while my friends went to get our lunch. I heated up our remaining small lies while waiting for my friends to come back.

Then we were on the road again, it took us about an hour to reach the cruise office. The road was wavery and zig zag. We drove onto the Tasman Highway and onto the roads where big yellow fields were seen with sheeps and cows. We almost drove past the office as the GPS preset location was not reached. We had to make a small u-turn when i told my friend who was driving that we had passed the office. Upon arrival, i went down to the counter to report. It was raining and was cold. Later i learnt that my friend was experiencing motion sickness, so we asked her to eat the sandwich bought earlier as we watched the cruise video. It doesn't look like normal cruise, it was bumpy ride and looked like get super giddy type. We waited for some time before the guide came and gathered us around. 

He gave us an introduction and the route that we will be going, and then he told us the ride would take about 2 hours and there is no toilet on board the boat. As water may splash in to the boat, we had to take care of our own cameras too. After the briefing, we drove our car and followed the bus. It was a half an hour ride to the jetty. The wind was blowing real strong and we walked towards the boat. There was also a group of china people joining. The boat looked like a big speedboat with 4 engines running and the crew gave us some safety tips before we set off. They also gave those who were scared getting motion or sea sick a ginger pill and instructed us to inform them immediately if feeling unwell. My friend took a pill too. Then the crew passed us each the waterproof jumpsuit to wear.

After that, we were off for our adventure. The ride was super bumpy and fun, like riding roller coaster with the big waves beating the boat. We were brought to the edge of the cliffs along the sea coast and the guide would gave us some introduction on the stones and rocks which were formed naturally. There were also many small caves near the edges of the coast. There was even a waterfall, and there were some stones with colours. The guide also showed us sea eagles' nest. My friend just feel super sea sick after 15 minutes of the ride, so she was brought to the back of the boat where the bumping motion is not so much. Her husband followed awhile later to company her at the back of the boat. So i sat alone in the middle row. The wind was super strong, and the water also splashed onto my camera once. Luckily, my camera still works fine. Later, they brought us to near a shore, where the water was clear and green. It was also super quiet. Then we were brought to see the sea lions out in the sea. The sea lions were all having their afternoon nap but we can take photos quite close up. After the sea lions sighting, they drove the boat further out to the south pacific ocean to let us catch any sights of sea eagles and to experience the big waves. 

Fried Oysters

Fish & Chips

The boat was just bumping all the way back to the starting point. We reached the shore around 4pm. Then we walked to the blowhole and the pirate bay to view the ocean from a higher ground. It was really nice standing and watching the big waves splashing onto the rocks. After that, we headed to the oysters restaurant, Barilla Bay Oysters for dinner. It took us about an hour plus to reach there. We ordered the fried oysters, fish & chips and a whole proofer fish. The food were sooo yummy, it's no wonder the reviews for this restaurant was super good online. We had a super nice dinner but we were quite worried my friend would get motion sickness again when we hit the road back to the apartment. Anyway, we left and drove back to the apartment. I would just check on my friend on and off along the way though. Luckily, she don't feel uncomfortable. We saw a rabbit hopped at the side of the road but were not sure whether it is wild. 

Once we were back in the apartment, my friend just sat on the red rest chair. Funny thing, she still finds the boat ride was fun even being seasick..hohoho....we all took turns to shower and had apples for supper. My 2 friends ate their sandwich as they were hungry....lol...After that, it was sleeping time.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Salamanca Market
Tasmania Island Wildness Cruise

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