Monday, May 9, 2016

Bicheno, Tasmania Trip (Day 7)

21st March 2016, Monday






Today is checkout day and we are heading to Bicheno. We woke up @ 6.30 am and prepared to go Daci & Daci Bakery for breakfast. We walked to the bakery and there were a few customers there inside.  The breads and tarts looked very nice to eat, we ordered a french toast, salmon burger, sandwich and creme burlee. The food were big portion and quite nice. After our breakfast, we headed back to the apartment for our luggage and prepared to hit the road to Bicheno. We loaded our luggage up to the car. Firstly, we headed to Kates berry farm, which was an hour ride away.



Pancakes with mixed berries
When we reached Kates berry farm, it was just a small shop and a cafe. We bought some fruit jams and special chocolate, like it was coasted with fruit jams. Then we ordered a pancake with mixed berries and we chose a table to sit with a super nice sea view in the distance. After relaxing, we continued to Bicheno. It was a small town with everything  in sight. We checked to the chalet house, Bicheno By the Bay and we booked for the night penguins tour for the same day too. Then we drove up to our cottage. It was a small place with 2 rooms and a common toilet. We can also see the sea just across the road. It was cosy to stay in.

Living room of our cottage



After we settled in, we went out to explore the town. We walked up to the whale lookout, which located on top of Governor's island. From there, we can see the ocean on one side and the whole of bicheno town on the other side. Then we walked down to the blowhole which was near the beach. The wind was blowing strong too, love the weather. We just stood there and enjoyed the sea wind and listened to the waves. After seeing the blowhole, we headed out to find food as we haven't eat lunch. We walked to the seafood eating place, but we decided to give it a miss for that moment. Instead, we went out in the town and went in a small cafe called Pork's place. We ordered a large seafood platter, a pizza and we finished everything. The staff was quite surprised we were able to finish everything on the plates. One thing bad in the cafe was that we had to chase houseflies away while eating...hohohoho....

Blowhole

Then we went to walk around in the small supermarket nearby and went back to the beach again while waiting for the penguin tour. After walking for some time, we went back to the cottage where we watched tv first to pass time. We left the house again @ 7.30 pm and walked to the penguin tour office. My friend bought a penguin hat to keep her warm while waiting for the bus to pick us up. Then the bus came and we boarded and the bus went on to pick up some more people from other hotels. Then the bus brought us to the beach where the guide was waiting for us. I saw some stars up in the sky but didn't manage to see southern lights.

Courtesy of Bicheno Penguins Tour
The tour guide gave us introduction on the blue penguins (which is the smallest species of the penguins) and photography was not allowed as the penguins were not used to the flash lights. The tour guide told us that the penguins have been around the beach for many years and they were originally on the island slightly further called diamond island. The tour guide also told us that we can even walk to the diamond island during very low tide. There were too many penguins living on the island until there was no space, so the penguins now swim up to the shore of bicheno. Currently, it is the season where the penguins are changing their feathers. So the penguins were all hiding inside their burrows for weeks, so the penguins count was very low. But luckily, we did managed to see one penguin very up close and it was very fluffy with the feathers. The tour guide showed us some wooden boxes which she told us that they were done by the students for the penguins to stay in. She opened one box and we could see all the dropped feathers inside but there was no penguins.

The tour guide also told us that once there was a penguin family that the parents penguins actually moved to the burrow next door just to get away from its own kids. It is natural that the parents penguins will leave their kids to survive on the own when the kids are old enough. And the female penguins will always have 2 eggs each time it gets pregnant where the male and female will take care of each egg. And the peak season to see the penguins will be around August, where there may be around 500 penguins around the shore.

After the tour, we headed back to the starting point where we boarded the bus to go back to the tour office. It was raining lightly, we walked back to the cottage, where we rested for the day.

Hotel Stayed:
Bicheno By the Bay

Places Visited:
Kates Berry Farm
Bicheno

Mount Wellington, Tasmania Trip (Day 6)

20th March 2016, Sunday


Mount Wellington Summit


Woke up @ 7.30 am today, had prepared breakfast while my friends washed up. Today we headed out to Mount Wellington. It was 35 minutes journey and we were quite worried that my friend will get dizzy during the road ride. We went the wrong way along the route, so it took us slightly longer to reach the mountain. But once we were on the top of the mountain, it was freezing cold and there were alot of clouds blocking the view. We can see the whole of Hobart from above, but it was still too white to see it clearly. We stayed up there for about an hour, as there was no roads for hiking and it was too cold for my friends.

Sorell's Farm
Fruits Season


So we traveled down to Sorell's farm to go plunk strawberries. Once we reached there, we were not allowed to bring our bags in and had to buy plastic containers to collect your fruits. We even got a small pail for corns picking (price based on the size of each plunked corn). When we walked in the farm, there were only strawberries to plunk. We tried to find apples and pears to plunk but most were eaten up by the birds. So we just focused to plunk the strawberries, which in the end, we got 3 big boxes of it. We also managed to plunk 2 corns. After that, we headed back to the shop where we got some fruit jams. Then we headed back to Barilla Bay Oysters (really love the food) restaurant for lunch.





This time, we ordered risotto seafood soup, slow-cooked pork belly and fried oysters with kilpatrick plus fries. We had a super heavy lunch, after which we were thinking where to go next. So we figured to head down to buy food in the supermarket for dinner after my friend bought a big abalone back. I left my friends to take charge what ingredients to get and i bought some tim tam biscuits too (less than $2 aud). Once done in the supermarket, we went to have our first petrol top up in the nearby petrol station. My friend was trying to figure out to open the gas tank door, which it turned out just by pressing the door manually. After pumping the petrol, we headed back to the apartment first to put our food.





After that, we went down to walk along the shops nearby our apartment. There were a lot of nice houses, my friend also played at the playground in Prince's park and i just sat on the bench to enjoy the quietness. Then we walked out to the shops, where i bought a small bag of coffee beans. The coffee beans really smelled nice, even though i am not a coffee lover. My friend finally got to buy her wooden rolling pin, which her husband let her to buy...lol. After shopping around, we headed back to the apartment to prepare our dinner. We wrapped every thing up and threw them into the oven to cook. We tried to turn on the stove to cook eggs but was not successful. So we tried to use boiled water to boil the eggs. But was not successful too, as it was not really fully cooked. Then my friend took the cracked egg, poured into a cup and tried to microwave it. Bad choice, it "exploded" inside...kekekee...




Then we just tried with boiled water again but this time we left it longer inside the water....hohoho...anyway had a nice dinner, the corn we plunked earlier was sweet too. After dinner, we watched TV (our usual programs - Cutthroat Kitchen) to relax since it was the last night in Hobart.

Hotel Stayed:
Sullivans Cove Apartments - Salamanca Battery Point

Places Visited:
Mount Wellington
Salamanca Battery Point


Sunday, May 8, 2016

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