Tasmania Part 3

On our way to the east coast of Tasmania we made a pit stop at a cheese factory, chocolate factory, and a raspberry farm. The first photo is of the cheese aging room at the factory, mmmm cheeeeeese. Then there is a raspberry orchard and proof that KT does drive sometimes. We then reached the eastern city of St. Helens where we enjoyed the beautiful white beach, blue water, and rust colored rocks. From St. Helen we went south along the coast and stopped for a lunch of fresh oysters and a glass of wine with another great view. After lunch we drove a little further and went on a short one hour hike to the Wine Glass Bay lookout where KT decided to interact with the local rocks. There are two shots of the spectacular colors of the bay itself set against the trees and mountains. On the way back from the lookout KT decided to take a break and take in some sun. Our last day we came back to Hobbart and visited the convict Women's Factory which housed most of the women prisoners during the years of transportation. Our last stop on our tour was at the Cascade Brewery to see the beer making process, and of course free samples. Arguably the best part of the holiday. It was interesting to see the contrast between the original building and gardens, and the modern bottling plant with it's robotic arm doing keg lifts and the line of bottles being prepared for packaging. Overall it was another successful holiday in which we managed to stumble across tons of interesting sights, sometimes completely by accident. We ended up driving around 1600 kms or about 1000 miles in the week we were there.
The dark photo from the last entry was of a penguin that we saw. He wasn't the only one, but he was the only one we managed to take a photo of, although not a particularly good photo.

Tasmania Part 2

The send installment of Tasmania photos begins with a last photo of our nice farm stay tower room at night. Leaving the Hobbart area we went north west to Mt. Field National Park, famous for beautiful waterfalls. On the walk to the falls we ran into this cute wallaby and told everyone about. The people we told gave us a funny look, which we later learned was because wallabies are very common in Tasmania and it's like telling someone in CA that you just saw a squirrel. On the way out of the park we saw this echidna
walking and sniffing for food. Echidna's are very interesting animals that have a very good sense of smell. That evening we made it to Lake St. Clair. This lake is the start or end, of the most famous hike over Cradle Mountain, the most famous mountain in Tasmania. We went looking for the elusive platypus, but came out empty handed, KT did get to reflect a bit though. We did see a rather brazen possum at our camp site before taking a photo of the moon over the lake and mountains. In the morning when we got up it was very cold and there was a beautiful fog over the lake encouraging us to get on our way to a warmer climate for breaky. We stopped to take photos of more waterfalls, after which our camera died on us. We have some film that we need to finish before we can get the next days photos developed. The last two photos are from our new digital camera. Can anyone guess what the second to last photo is of? We will reveal the answer in the last part of the Tasmania photo series. The last photo for today is of the southern cross constellation just above the cloud, taken on the north coast of Tasmania, the Bass Straits. Until next time folks, keep it real.