Last Day in Tasmania, Tasmania Trip (Day 12)

26th March 2016, Saturday

Raining again when we woke up. My friend helped to prepare breakfast for us, then we all packed our luggage and loaded them up to the car. Then we drove out to buy some breads as it was a long long way back to Hobart Airport (about 4 hours plus ride). Quite sad, it was the last day in Tasmania. We passed by a few smaller towns and many mountains and fields along the way. We also passed by many creeks and each of them has a name to it. We also saw a wild wormbat along the roadside when we passed by burney lake. After 2 hours plus, we stopped by a power station at nive river for toilet break. My friend's husband was "chasing" her to get off the car quickly as he wanted to go to the toilet urgently...kekkekee....After 5 mins break, we continued on the road again until we reached  Bascilla Bay Oysters for lunch.

Fish & Chips

Seafood Platter

This time, we ordered a big seafood platter and a fish & chips to share (our last Tasmania lunch)..hohoho....After the nice lunch, we drove to the petrol station near the airport to fill up the oil tank and headed to the rental car park near the airport. We reached the airport at around 1 plus, which was still early for our check-in. So we just find some seats to sit around the airport, the airport was very small too. I noticed that the luggage trolley requires to pay for it too. We were thinking whether to check-in through Qantas counters or Jetstar counters for our flights as we booked through Qantas website, however, the flight stated was Jetstar plane. By 2.30 pm, there was no flight number displayed for check-in whereas Jetstar counters were opened for check-in. However, there were a couple of passengers who went to Qantas counters and were successfully checked in. So we walked towards Qantas counter and checked with the staff where we should do the check-in. She told us to go over to check-in with Jetstar counters as it was a Jetstar plane.

So we went over to Jetstar counters and we decided to check-in separately as i will be stopping for another 3 days in Melbourne whereas my friends will be flying back to Singapore. My friends went ahead to check in first and my friends were asking them if Jetstar can help them to transfer their luggage to the flight to Singapore when they land in Melbourne for stopover as they only have a 50 minutes stopover grace period. (It's a bit troublesome to do a transfer in Melbourne as it requires passengers to check out, including passing the customs from the domestic terminal and cross over to the international terminal and check in again, including passing the customs). The staff took a look at their fight route and told them the 2nd flight was Qantas flight, therefore will require to check with Qantas staff whether it is possible. He came back and told my friend that he will need to direct them to his colleague on this. So while waiting, he did my check-in. I was able to get mine done quickly as mine was just flying to Melbourne.

Later, the other Jetstar staff told my friends that they cannot help them as the 2nd flight was under Qantas. Then we went over to Qantas counter to see whether the staff can help them. The staff also told them she cannot do anything and asked them to call their customer hotline instead. (Quite frustrating when they tell you to call their hotline instead of helping passengers to resolve the problem on ground). Oh well, so we tried to call Qantas hotline (Australia) but it was on hold for long long time. Meanwhile, my friend tried to call the customer hotline (Singapore) using her own phone. Luckily, someone picked up her call in Singapore and tried to help her out. However, the call was also put on hold for more than 15 minutes while she did the check. And the check-in counters for Jetstar were closing in another 20 minutes and I had to go in to the gate soon too. We gave up waiting for the Australia side to pick up our call.

Flight to Melbourne

In the end, I went ahead to proceed to the gate and they had to wait outside still as the customer service staff (SG) told them not to check in first. I managed to meet them again at the gate when it was boarding time. Then I was told that the customer service staff (SG) had helped them to book an accommodation in Melbourne for the night as the first flight out to Singapore will be the next day. And so we boarded the plane but were seated separately. I was seated with another young lady who was alone. There was a couple with a baby seated on the next row beside us and the baby screamed from volume level 1 to 8 to show his displease. The dad had to use his ipad to keep the baby entertained. Wondered why the flight back to Melbourne was not Qantas Link, at least we will have free snacks on plane... -_-?

I moved to the back seat after the plane was on the air and i got the whole row to myself. But there was nothing to do except to sleep or watch the clouds. We landed in Melbourne airport @ 6.30 pm and we went through the customs and waited for our luggage. And I also missed the 6.30 city bus out to the city too. After everything settled, I bid bye bye to my friends and went to take the city bus to Southern Cross station. It took 20 to 25 minutest to the station and I bought dinner to eat in the hotel too. It was rainy heavily too, so i took a cab to the hotel. But the driver didn't know the hotel's location, so i gave him the address which he keyed into his GPS.

Double bed

Single Bed

When we passed the hotel on the opposite side, i told him that that's the hotel i was going to. However, he just said ya and he turned to the left side which he stopped to let me off. I told him it was not the hotel is located. He said this is where his GPS's end point is. I still told him we just passed the hotel on the other street. He still insisted it is the correct place... -_-"... Pek chey!
Anyway he still drove out to the street that we passed earlier and finally, he saw the hotel and said "ooo..it's here.." I paid him the fare ($10) and took my luggage to check-in the hotel. I was thrilled when the staff told me i got a free room upgrade. After settling all the check-in stuffs, i carried my luggage up to my room, which was on the 2nd level. So happy....my day finally ended!!! Seems like a long day today. My friends also checked in to their hotel safely and had a very nice dinner from the hotel room service. I only had Hungry Jack meal as my dinner...hohohoo....

Hotel Stayed:
Miami Hotel Melbourne

Strahan, Tasmania Trip (Day 11)

25th March 2016, Friday

Woke up @ 7.00 am and it was rainy again. My friend prepared breakfast for us and we all loaded our stuffs to the car after breakfast. We drove to the village office and did the check-out. Then we drove down to Strahan, another small town. It was a 2 hour long journey, we passed by Roseberry town and Zeehan town which were labelled as historic towns. It was very quiet too, maybe it was because of Good Friday. We reached the apartment early and we don't see any check-in office around too. So i got off the car and asked the cleaner in one of the apartments. She told me that we just see the name written in front of the parking lot to know which apartment is our and the key will be placed on the table.

Lunch

Engine 1

So we drove down to the town first, many shops were closed as it was Good Friday. Even the post office won't be open until next Tuesday. We went in to the booking centre to book for the wildness railway tour and we got some gifts too. We went in a bakery shop for lunch before we hit down to the starting station for our steam train. Once we arrived at the station, we could see the steam train engine and the carriages. There was a drinks & snacks carriage in the middle and the carriages in front were those with high tea included. We saw how the train engine changed the direction to get connected to the carriages too. Then the train started moving once it was ready.

The guide told us that he is not going to tell us to look out on our left or right for the sights we passed, instead he is telling us a story. So along the way, he used stories to tell us how the railway tracks were built by the people from the older times by pure hands and axes. There was a spot where the workers had slept and ate in that area and they did not have any warm clothes or shoes when it rained. It was still rainy too and the train cut through the rainforest and along King's River. The 2nd station we stopped was called Lower Landing Station. The guide went down and let us try the local honeys, which there was a small shop for selling the honeys. At the same time, the train engineers were filling the stream engine with water using a water tank at the station.

And we were off again. On the train, the guide told us that the train engine that we were on was a 120 years old and it was the very first engine. It was assembled with no instructions and it was still running well till this day. We arrived at the last station, Dobbil Barril station. The guide told us that there were 3 version on how the station got its name. And he left it to us to believe in which of the stories. At this station, the engineers manually turned the train engine in the opposite direction using the rotation table. Then the guide allowed us to go walk a short rainforest trail, and the rain started to pour again. On our way back, the guide continued the story, he told us that the west coast pioneers had built a bridge to get across King's river as there was always flooding. He told us that there were some workers who would tie themselves to the bridge during the construction . And if they were to fall off, they can swing themselves back up. The guide said they were called the swayers. The parts of the bridge were brought back from UK, each part weighed 110 tonnes.

Then the guide told us that there were actually 5 stream engines, however, only 3 were running now. The engines were just namely 1 to 5, engine 4, he told us it was the most problematic engine. It was always giving troubles to the engineers, so it was kept in the storage now. He also said engine 2 was currently exhibited in Hobart Museum. The maximum speed for the trains is at 30km/hr. He told us that the engine 3 was once used to help fight a very big fire in one of the mining caves. He said witnesses from that fateful day told that the engine was boiling red. But many people still died in that fire as there was not enough manpower to keep the fire under control. We were also very lucky that we can go for the railway, as the guide told us the railway was just opened again in 2002. It was closed 39 years ago and it ended with engine number 1 as the last train running on the tracks. Then the guide told us that the people from west coast fought to get their railway back online. And they made it. We reached back to the starting station and the story ended. We gave applause and thanked the guide before we alighted.

View from the living room

Dinner

Then we went back to the town to buy dinner and drove back to our apartment with super nice sea view. The apartment was really amazing, wide view on the sea and a open room concept on the upper deck. Then we all showered and got ready to have our dinner with the sea view in front of us. But there were too much thick clouds, can't see the sunset. Then we just watched tv and my friend tried to re-arranged their luggage as they were going back to Singapore the next day. It continued to rain heavily through the night again.


Hotel Stayed:
Wheelhouse Apartment

Places Visited:
Wildness Railway Tour

Cradle Mountain National Park, Tasmania Trip (Day 10)

24th March 2016, Thursday

Breakfast

Dove Lake

Woke up @ 6.30 pm today and we prepared breakfast and lunch too as we were going to explore the cradle mountain national park. The park does have many walking trails suitable for all, the hardest one will be the one which will take 2 to 3 days to go up to the summit. There was free shuttle bus service provided too, starting from the visitors information centre. We drove up to the fifth station, which the dove lake was located. Then we began to walk the 2 hours trail around the dove lake. Luckily the weather was sunny and it felt great too.

Buttergrass

Wild Wormbat

After we finished the walk, it was almost past noon. So we ate our lunch in the walkers registration house and rested for awhile. Then we drove down to the 4th station, Ronny Creek. There, we happened to see some wild wormbats and that scared my friend who doesn't want to continue to walk on the trail. So i went ahead on my own up to the resort house of a man, named Gustav Weindorfer who had the vision to make cradle mountain as a national park. I went in the chalet and exploded, inside was the history of this great man and his vision. There was also a small rainforest outside the chalet, which the family will go during their summer breaks.

There was also a memorial for Gustav Weindorfer outside the chalet, then i just sat down on the bench to enjoy the view down on the big field with butter grass. Then i started to make my way down the hill, when i saw my friend came up on his own. Then we made our way down together, until he pointed to mi there was a black snake some distance away from us. i walked quickly to avoid the snake, then we drove back to the visitors information centre for a rest. Not sure was it the weather, all of us started to have slight headache (thought i was the only one). After the break, i still wanted to go walk walk but my friend wanted to go back to the cottage to rest. So the husband dropped me at the 2nd station for the enchanted walking trail and drove his wife back to the cottage.

King Billy Tree

I made my way towards to the pencil pine fall walk trail, which there was a small waterfall and the pencil pine tree. After that, i walked towards the enchanted walk trail. I was caught by the sight of a small kangaroo when my friend's husband caught up with me, Then we just continued down the trail and we saw 2 wild wormbats, an adult and a young. I went off telling the couple with a small kid who were behind us to see the wormbats. The small boy was very excited when he saw them and then he scared them away...hohohoho.....After the walk, we went for another trail - King Billy Tracks. It was obvious nobody walked on this trail. It was a rainforest trail and there were a lot of dead trees and fallen trees lying around. And one thing bad about this trail was it was with a lot of steps.

Dinner

After walking the tiring trail, we drove back to the cottage and had our showers. We prepared our dinner and had a tasty dinner while watching the tv program.

Hotel Stayed:
Cradle Mountain Wildness Village

Places Visited:
Cradle Mountain National Park

Cradle Mountain, Tasmania Trip (Day 9)

23rd March 2016, Wednesday

Breakfast

Woke up on and off during the night but still woke up @ 7.00 am as we need to move out to Cradle Mountain today. So we packed our things and loaded them up to the car. Then we drove out to the bakery shop in town, which we bought some breads for breakfast. After that, we drove to Launceston, another town (almost 2 hours ride away). We travelled past many fields with sheep and cows, the roads were all wavy and up and down. We also passed by many smaller towns along the way.

Once we reached Launceston, we went to Coles supermarket to stock up water and food as we know there was very ulu up in cradle mountain and the restaurants were quite costly. We also went to pump some petrol for the car too (Don't want to run out of gas out in the nowhere...kekeke...). Then we continued another 150km up to the cradle mountain...long long way. We even played some music from our handphones so it won't get too bored and sleepy. There was even a sign to let the travellers know that they were leaving the last town along the way. We stopped by a small cafe named Round Hill Coffee, along the road. It was small, with only one group of customers inside. There was a big and fluffy cat sitting on the table outside too. We ordered a soup and chicken cutlet for lunch. After that, we continued on the road again.

Finally we reached Cradle Mountain Wildness Village. I went down to do the check-in, the staff informed us that there were only 3 eating places area the mountain and we will need to make reservation if we want to dine in the restaurants. And it was fully booked for the night too. Then she gave us the direction for us to drive to our cottage and the parking lot. We unloaded our stuffs once we reached the cottage. The cottage was not very nice from the outside but the inside was quite nicely decorated. But i do feel quite cold inside as the heater was not feeling strong enough. And there was no network totally and we can't use the wifi unless we pay for it and it was only at the reception area. not even in the cottage. Anyway we just rested for a while.

After that, we drove out to the visitors information centre to grab some information. We also booked the Devils@Cradle tour for our evening program. So we just stayed around there till 4.30 pm (really nothing much to do there). Then we drove up to the Devils@ Cradle office which was about 1 km away from the visitors information centre. As it was still early before the tour starts, the staff let us in to see the Tasmania Devils first on our own. My friend got scared as they resembles to rats, so she didn't want to go see. So i went alone down to see the devils and quolls (the devils' cousins) and wormbats. One of the devils was quite a bully inside its dome, keep bullying on the other devil, which was smaller in size. The wormbats were hidden at the back, we managed to catch them (as the tour didn't go to their area). They were very fluffy and big in size too.

The rest of the people started to come in slowly too, the tour guide gathered us in a briefing room @ 5.30 pm. In the room, she gave us introduction to the devils and Tasmanian tigers which were extinct. And because of this, the devils went up in the chain of the life cycle in Tasmania. However, the devils' population went down sharply due to a cancer disease which only targets on the devils and it was spreading fast. The tour guide told us that there wasn't any cure yet till now. Hence, the devils were on the endangered list now. She mentioned those kept in the protected area are currently free from the disease, however, they were also worried to let the devils out in the wild. She also showed us a 10 minutes video on the devils' behaviour and lifestyle. Apparently, the female devil can give birth up to 20 young but she could only feed 4 young. Due to this, many young can't survive, only the strongest can survive. Sometimes, the males do fight to see who is the strongest, however they don't fight to death. Once the winner emerges, they will stop and recognise the winner as the strongest. Every devil have their own unique white marking on their body too. So the staffs were using the different marking to recognise each devil. This marking will help the devils to camouflage in the bushes to hide away from their predators. After that, she explained more details on the devils, which later she told us she is going to feed the devils. So she went down to get some wormbats' torso for the devils. And she went in to the devils' open area and put down the torso.

We could see one of the devils (name: Chopper) approached and started to bite on the torso. However, when the other smaller devil tried to approach the torso, the other one made some loud noises to get him away from the torso. The guide told us that was the way the devils communicated, by making loud noises. And the devils' bite can be very fatal, its teeth were very sharp that it can break off the bones. But fortunately, the devils don't attack humans as far as she knows. And the devils can also open their mouth to at least 90 degrees angle, we could see it when the devils yawn.
Later, the guide brought us to see other 2 younger devils (age of 12 months) and later the compound where they put 2 males and 2 females for mating purpose. Normally, they will try to let the devils to mate naturally when the devils reach the suitable age.

Dinner

Then later she took us to the quolls' compound, where she also fed them with the raw meats. The quolls were smaller in size, weighed about 2 kg plus and they jump on trees. After the tour, we were free to go off or walk around to the see the devils. So we went back to the cottage, where we started to make our dinner. After preparing the dinner, we just watched the TV while having our dinner. Then we just rested for the day.

Hotel Stayed:
Cradle Mountain Wildness Village

Places Visited:
Devils@Cradle